Triangle Loop – Week 16 (Ottawa/Gatineau to Montreal)

Aug 10th to Aug 16th, 2025

Day 105 – Sunday, August 10th, 2025 – In: Gatineau (Hull), QC

Sunday was another hot day in the 90s. In the morning, I continued working on the damage from the lock. I sanded the fiberglass epoxy I had put on, then did some touch-up painting. It will still need to be professionally repaired and a new stainless steel rubrail installed, but it will hold us for the rest of the trip. Unless you look really close, you wouldn’t even notice it. After cleaning up, I worked on the blog while Brenda wrote postcards and her journal. In the afternoon, I pulled out the drone and flew over the locks and around the Ottawa waterfront, taking pictures. You will see them below. We pretty much just hung out on the boat for the day to stay cool

For dinner, we went back to the Byward Market area to the Heart & Crown pub for dinner.

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Day 106 – Monday, August 11th, 2025 – To: Montabello, QC
Chateau Montebello Marina

Today is the first travel day in almost a month with no locks or bridges to deal with! After spending the weekend in the Ottawa area, we headed east on the Ottawa River toward Montreal. Today’s stop is at the Chateau Montebello, a luxury hotel resort built in the 1930s.

About Chateau Montebello

The Château Montebello is located about 40 miles south of Ottawa on the Quebec Shore of the Ottawa River. It is an excellent example of rustic elegance combined with rich history, and was one of our favorite stops on our first Loop trip in 2019. This remarkable log structure, often boasted as the largest log cabin in the world, has an intriguing past and great architectural beauty.

The origins of this grand hotel date back to 1930, a time when the Seigniory Club, a private fishing and hunting lodge, envisioned a retreat of epic proportions. Nestled along the Ottawa River, the 210-room Château Montebello was constructed in an astonishing four-month span, a testament to the prowess of builder Victor Nymark and his team. Utilizing thousands of red cedar logs, the construction involved remarkable precision and planning, especially considering the absence of modern-day technology. A spur was added from the main rail line to bring logs to the site, keeping over 3,500 workers supplied with logs during construction.

Originally a secluded enclave for the elite, the Seigniory Club hosted notable guests, including political leaders and celebrities. It wasn’t until 1970 that the Canadian Pacific Hotels chain acquired the property, transforming it into the accessible oasis it is today. Though now open to all, the Château maintains its exclusive charm, blending the coziness of a log cabin with the grandeur fitting of its storied past.

Guests visiting the Château Montebello are treated to sprawling landscapes, historic Canadiana decor, and that warm, inviting sense of cabin bliss. The hotel features a marina, an outdoor pool, an indoor pool accessed through a tunnel from the hotel, a golf course, tennis courts, stables, a helipad, and miles of hiking and biking trails. In the winter, there is cross-country skiing, tobogganing, horse-drawn sleigh rides, snowshoeing, and ice fishing.

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We only had 40 miles to go, and this was our first real open water since entering the Rideau, where we could exercise and blow out the engines. Michael, our mechanic, has been harassing me recommending to get some load on the engines so that he can rebuild them again to keep them running in good order. Once we were clear of the no-wake zone around the marina and bridge, we opened up the throttles and cruised along at 23 knots for most of the way.

The river was almost flat calm, and the only time we had to slow down was for the occasional marina and the ferries that cross the river, taking cars and passengers across. Some of the ferries are free-floating and work in twos or threes, criss-crossing from side to side. Others are cable ferries that pull themselves along on cables that rest on the riverbed until they cross, then the cables pull tight and are near the surface as the ferry crosses. It’s dangerous to cross in front of the ferry or within 100 yards behind, as you could snag the cable.

Just before 1:00, we arrived at Montebello. Our slip was an easy docking on a face dock, and we settled in quickly. On our last trip, we only spent one day at Montebello. This time we had scheduled two days, and I arranged to surprise Brenda by booking a room and dinner at the Hotel. We haven’t slept off the boat since we had it repaired in Hampton, so this would be a real treat! We packed a suitcase, checked in at the marina, and then walked up the hill to the hotel to check into our room.

We stopped at the pool bar for a drink and a snack, then walked around the hotel taking it all in. For dinner, we went to the main dining room and had an excellent dinner.

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Day 107 – Tuesday, August 12th, 2025 – In: Montabello, QC

Tuesday morning we both enjoyed “Hollywood Showers”. On the boat, we limit our water use. In the hotel, with no worry about water usage, we enjoyed a long, hot shower. We then went back to the dining room for the hotel’s celebrated breakfast buffet. It was everything we’d heard about it and more!

After breakfast, we checked out and brought our bags back to the boat, then walked up to the Manoir-Papineau, a manor house built by one of Canada’s founders and an original land grant owner. The Manor is right next door to the hotel. Parks Canada manages the Manor, and it is open for tours, but as with many sites, it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Still, we were able to walk around and peek in the windows.

We then took the trail from the manor to the town of Montebello, passing the manor’s funeral chapel. Original land grant holders in Canada were guaranteed that family burial plots on their land would be preserved for perpetuity. Parks Canada maintains the chapel and its crypt as part of the park.

The town of Montebello is relatively small, with a few hotels and Bed & Breakfasts, a surprising number of restaurants, a microbrewery, a grocery store, a custom butcher shop, and a few shops and boutiques. There are also a Chocolate Factory and a Cheese Factory in town. Aside from the Chateau and its marina, there is also a large campground and marina just off of downtown that the shops serve.

The highlight of downtown is the Notre-Dame de Bonsecours Chaple, known as the “Sailors Church” with its expansive attached rectory. The Montebello Presbytery (rectory) was built in 1938 by Monseigneur Chamberland, who was the priest who oversaw the region around Montebello. It was large and said to have been lavishly furnished in the day. Unfortunately, as Montebello lost prominence, the rectory was left in disrepair, and the church sold it in 2013 to raise money for repairs to the church. It has now been restored and is a first-class hotel and restaurant, the Manoir Chamberland.

We walked the length of the main street, stopping into shops and picking up some cheese and a few souvenirs. The day was getting hot, so we went back through the nicely shaded and cool trail to the boat to cool down.

In the afternoon, I put our mast back up. We won’t have bridge height issues until we get back to the Champlain Canal in a few weeks, and having the radar available could come in handy on the St. Lawrence River.

At the Chateau, in addition to the main dining room and the pool cafe, they do a BBQ dinner. It’s an all-you-can-eat extravaganza! When we saw the menu, we thought you could choose from each course, but no! They bring you some of everything for each course! If you want more, ask. Even the desert was a selection of 5 delicacies.

After dinner, we retired to the boat for the night. While the hotel room was excellent, we are used to our boat bed.

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Day 108 – Wednesday, August 13th, 2025 – To: Dorval, QC
Royal St Lawrence Yacht Club

Our next big stop is Montreal, about 100 miles away. On the way, we have four locks, two are on the Ottawa River, and two are the big commercial locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Seaway locks have to be pre-booked 24 hours in advance and only pass pleasure craft once per day. The first lock we have on the Seaway doesn’t pass pleasure craft until 4:00 in the afternoon. We decided to break up our trip so that we didn’t have to rush or, if there were delays, miss our lock appointment. We booked into the Royal Sainte Lawrence Yacht Club (RSLYC), which is just 10 miles from our first Seaway lock.

The RSLYC is a private club that is the largest sailing club in the Montreal area. It’s a true Yacht Club with its own private clubhouse and restaurant, pool, tennis courts, and a full-service facility with a travel lift. When members are not using their slips, you can “apply” for short-term dockage. We know a few boaters who have stayed there and were very impressed, so we decided to give it a try.

We left Montabello just after 8:00 and headed out into the mirror-calm Ottawa River. We passed the town of Montebello, which features a marina and campground, and then continued east. The ride was great. There was very little traffic, and the river was nice and wide. Once clear of Montebello, we ran at full throttle (26 mph) for about 20 minutes, then backed down to 20 mph for the next hour, slowing only for the occasional fisherman, marina, and ferry crossing.

Just before 10, we arrived at the Carillon Lock and Canal. The Carillon Lock, Canal, and Dam is a major Hydro power-generating station. The Lock is the deepest in Canada at 65 feet. Until 1959, when the hydroelectric dam was built, there was a series of 7 locks taking you past the rapids at the site. Now, there is just the one mega lock. The “Canal” is now just a short channel after the lock, but it used to be two miles long, encompassing 11 locks.

When we arrived, they told us to tie up to the wall away from the lock as they were using their “Crawler” to clear logs and debris from in front of the doors. They told us to expect at least a 90-minute wait. We had passed a sailboat as we were approaching the Lock, so we left enough room for them behind us, and tied off on the very dirty wall. The wall is the home of the local seagull flock, and is covered in poop and feathers!

Parks Canada, which operates the lock, uses a “Crawler” to clear logs in front of the lock. The Crawler is an amphibious tank-like boat. It features treads with paddles that turn to propel itself, allowing it to climb up onto the bank and run on the ground with its tracks. On the front of the Crawler is a hydraulically operated basket scoop that they use to pick up stuff from the water. It’s quite a cool device. However, it’s pretty slow in the water and can only lift one large log at a time, so it takes a while to go to the lock, pick up a load, return to the boat launch, drop it off, dump, and repeat the process.

While we were waiting, a rain squall came through with 35 mph winds. We were glad to be tied up to the wall, which protected us from the 3 to 4-foot waves coming across the lake above the dam. The poor small sailboat behind us was taking a bit of a beating, and they suspended the debris removal and put the Crawler up on land until it passed. We had a cruiser arrive at the height of the storm, and a pontoon boat and a larger sailboat just as it was subsiding. They had had a very rough ride to the lock. We’re glad that we got there early!

The squall only lasted about 30 minutes, and once it started calming down, they brought the Crawler back out to finish the job. The lock staff informed us that they would fill the lock and lock us through in about 30 minutes.

Just before noon, the crawler went back up on land, and the doors opened to let us enter the lock. This lock is unique. Because of the significant 65-foot drop, instead of having you hold onto ropes or use cables, they have a floating dock inside the lock. You pull in and tie off to the dock. Easy! After getting all 6 boats in and settled, the lock staff went to the lock house for their lunch break while we dropped the 65 feet over about 35 minutes.

When we were down, the huge door at the lower end of the lock started to lift. Because of the sailboat with us, it had to go all the way up! While the door was rising, the lock staff climbed down the staircase at the back of the lock to untie our lines, and we were out!

The next lock was the Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue Lock, 25 miles downstream. Once we got past the other boats, we made pretty good time in the open water to the Lock. As we approached, there was a boat just coming out of the lock, so we were able to go right in. The lock was staffed by two “mature” women (since most of the locks are staffed by 18-25 year olds). They were fascinated by our boat name and our flag, and we chatted the whole time we were in the lock.

Before the large dams were built on the St. Lawrence River, there was a raised wall canal that started at this Lock. When the dams were built, the water level was raised and flooded the area downstream of the lock, creating a large, but relatively shallow lake. As you exit the lock, you transit through part of the old canal. It’s essential to stay in the channel and watch the markers, as there are still old concrete walls from the canal just below the surface for about a mile.

From there, we entered the St. Lawrence River, which is about 4 miles wide in this section and known as Lake Saint Louis. Our marina was just 8 miles ahead on open water, and we made short work of it. We arrived at the RSLYC just after 3:00. We are glad that we didn’t plan on trying to make the 4:00 locking at the St Catherine Lock today, or we would have missed it due to the delay at the Carillon Lock. We had planned to get fuel and a pumpout upon arrival, but the Yacht Club’s fuel dock closes at 3:00, and we missed them. We headed straight to our slip.

We pulled into our slip bow first and tied off. Most of the other boats in that row were bow in, so we followed along with the crowd. When we made our reservation, the dockmaster had asked us if we had a long power cord. We said, “Yes, 75 feet”, and he said, “That’s good.” We found out why! The shore power hookups are up on a raised bank, about 25 feet from the water. The boats with slips have long extension cords to get power to the boat (most boats have hookups at the back of the boat). Even with our long cord and an extension, we couldn’t reach the connector. So, we untied the boat, pulled out of the slip, spun around, and backed in. Now we were able to reach.

After settling in, we walked up to the office to check in. The staff was terrific and super friendly. They had a package with our access pass and club information all ready. They gave us a tour of the club and its facilities. They suggested making reservations if we wanted to dine at the club restaurant, so we made those while we were there. They advised us that “gentlemen are not allowed to wear shorts or sandals in the club restaurant, and must wear collared shirts.” Oh, my! Long pants? Shoes? Collared shirts? I was going to have to dig deep in my closet to find those! Fortunately, blue jeans were allowed, so I was able to put together an appropriate outfit.

After a quick snack at the poolside cafe, we went back to the boat to cool off. The boat next to us, “La Mer Veille IV,” was a resident of the club and a Gold Looper that we met in 2023 at the Olmstead Lock. We chatted with them for a bit, then got dressed and ready for dinner.

Dinner was very good, and our waitress was very friendly and conversational. When we arrived at 5:30, the restaurant was almost empty, and we wondered why they recommended reservations, but as we dined, it filled up pretty quickly as people got home from work or back in from a day of sailing.

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Day 109 – Thursday, August 14th, 2025 – To: Montreal, QC
Montreal Yacht Club

Today we had the two large locks on the St. Lawrence River to do: the Saint Catherines and the Saint Lambert. As we mentioned, they only allow one lock through per day for pleasure craft in each direction, and you have to reserve and pay ($50 per lock) in advance. Our lock times were 4:00 for the Saint Catherines and 6:00 for the Saint Lambert. As we were only 10 miles away, that meant that we didn’t have to leave for the lock until 1:30. The canal that the locks are on loops around Montreal and the Montreal Rapids and has a strict 10 kph (6.2 mph) speed limit.

Since we had time in the morning, we took an Uber to the local Walmart to get some supplies. We’ve visited a couple of Walmarts in Canada, and they are significantly smaller than the mega stores in the US. This one was small but unique in that it was two floors. You put your shopping cart into a cart lift that runs alongside the escalator to move between floors. Pretty cool! We got some water, soda, and a few odds and ends, then went back to the boat. After putting our stuff away, I walked up to the office to check out. At 12:30, we untied and went to the fuel dock to fill up and pump out. It took us about an hour to fill one set of tanks and empty the other, and we pulled out of the Yacht Club around 1:30, headed toward the lock.

As we looked across the river, we saw a stream of boats heading up into the canal. We pulled in behind them and moved slowly up the canal. The boat in front of us was a sailboat with a tall mast, and they had to wait for a highway lift bridge to open, so we passed them. When we reached the St. Catherine lock, it was about 3:30. We pulled off into an anchorage area and shut down the engines to wait. There was a slight current and a bit of wind that kept pulling us into an area of thick weeds. So we had to start the engines and move back to open water from time to time.

At 4:00 on the nose, the lock gates swung open and the green light went on. By now, 13 boats were waiting to lock through. We all filed into the lock, and the lock staff pointed to where we were to go—larger boats on the inside holding onto ropes, with smaller boats rafting up to them. There was a 55-foot Carver in front of us, so they were on the wall, with us rafting up to them, and a smaller boat rafting to us. Three wide! These locks are huge, 766 feet long and 80 feet wide, so there was plenty of room for everybody.

The doors closed, and we had a pleasant conversation with our boat neighbors as we dropped 30 feet. When the lock doors opened, it was a slow single-file procession toward the St. Lambert Lock 8 miles ahead. We had just over an hour to get there, so there was no need to rush. About halfway there, we met a large cargo ship that was headed upbound. We had seen it on AIS, however, only one of the other boats in our group had AIS, so as we rounded a corner and the ship became visible, we saw the boat ahead of us scrambling to get over to the side of the canal!

We got to the St Lambert lock at 5:45, so we just had 15 minutes to wait. There are lift bridges on either side of the lock. The one on the upstream side, as we entered the lock, was a passenger train and a bicycle bridge. The other, on the upstream, exit side of the lock, is a dual-track railroad bridge. Like clockwork, at 6:00, the railroad bridge at the entrance to the lock lifted, the doors opened, and we got the green light to enter. We all got settled much quicker the second time, as everyone knew their places. The railroad bridge closed, and we all waited for the horn to signal that the water was going down. We waited 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, then on the railroad bridge in front of the lock exit, a freight train started crossing. We counted three locomotives, oh no, this was going to be a long one! We watched for about 10 minutes, and then an APU (a locomotive in the middle of the train) went past. Okay, it was going a bit longer, and the train was slowing down. Just then, another train going in the opposite direction started crossing the bridge. Finally, after almost an hour in the lock, the horn went off, the bridges lifted, we dropped 15 feet, and were out and on our way.

It’s 4.5 miles from the lock to our marina. The first 2.5 miles are in the canal, so the speed limit still applies. As you exit the canal and rejoin the St. Lawrence River, you are at the foot of the Montreal Rapids. The current in the rapids runs around 6 knots, and it produces waves 1-2 feet high. The dam in Montreal is the last dam on the St. Lawrence, so it becomes tidal here. When the tide is coming in, the waves can get to 3-4 feet at times.

As you round the corner and start going upstream to the marinas, it’s quite the ride! Aside from the current and waves, there are water taxis, other boaters, and even cruise ships to deal with! To overcome the current, we were running at 1800 RPM, which usually gives us a speed of 10 mph, but we were only doing 5 mph, fighting the current. The river is on a bit of a curve here, so you have to be careful as you approach the marina, which is on the far shore, because the current is pushing you toward a large wall that borders the river. There is a break wall about 500 feet before the marina entrance, which is a sharp S-turn. Once you pass the breakwall, you have to throttle down quickly so that you can make the S-turn into the marina. It’s pretty exciting!

We entered the marina with no issues, just sweaty palms, and were docked by 7:30, our latest time of the trip. By the time we got settled and checked in, it was 8:00, and the sun was setting. We had planned to eat on the boat; however, after the ride into the marina, we wanted to get off the boat for a bit, so we walked into Old Town, just above the marina, and went to a Brew-Pub for dinner.

It was dark by the time we finished, and we got a good view of the City Lights and the old Clock Tower that marks the entrance to the Port of Montreal, just beside the marina.

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Day 110 – Friday, August 15th, 2025 – In: Montreal, QC

We have scheduled three days in Montreal. We prefer not to travel on weekends, and since the St. Lawrence River gets very busy, we will stay here. We’ve visited Montreal by boat twice before, spending several days there, which allowed us to see most of the tourist sites and museums. On this trip, we decided to do something different and take the water taxi to Saint Helen’s Island, which is just across the river from the Old Port section of Montreal. The Island was the site of EXPO 67, the World’s Exposition held in, you guessed it! 1967! Most of the island has been turned into a park with many walking paths. The only real remnant of the Expo is the Large steel dome now known as the Biodome, a museum of the environment. Also on the island is a large concert venue, a swimming and diving center, a historic fort, and at the north end, a Six-Flags amusement park and a marina.

Two bridges give access to the island, and there is a water taxi service. We decided to take the water taxi. We bought tickets for 12:00 and walked to the Old Port Marina, just up the riverbank from our marina. Old Port Marina is where we stayed on our last two visits. While we were waiting for the taxi, we were looking around and noticed a tall building with a construction crane on it. There were people moving around on the top of the crane. Being a Friday, we didn’t think too much of it until someone fell off the end! I just caught it out of the corner of my eye, and when I looked back, all I saw was the crane wire hanging. Then, the person bounced back up over the building between us. They were bungee jumping!

We watched as the next person crept out on the arm of the crane to the platform on the end. You could see them stand there for a Looooog time, then plummet off the tower. Not for us!

Our water taxi arrived, and we boarded for the short trip across the river. The area where the marina is has calm waters protected by an island from the main stream of the river. When the water taxis and tour boats leave, they go as close to the point at the end of the island, then gun the engines and head upstream. The strong current carries them backward as they make their way to the opposite bank and the dock at the island. Even with very powerful engines, they struggle to make it across. Our friends on Lie Lo have a boat that only does 4.5 knots. They made it to Montreal, but I can’t imagine how long it took them to go up the rapids to the marina!

When we got to the island, we walked across to the Biosphere. It’s a large steel ball made up of triangles, 4,160 triangular faces in its outer grid. 12,980 in the inner grid! (We took their word for it and skipped counting)

The environmental display inside was very dated. There was a walk-through display of the “Lifecycle of a drop of water.” You picked up your “drop”, a ping pong ball at the start, and placed it in various holders that triggered a recording or video. After that was the future of energy display… “Someday we will have solar-powered homes, and large towers in the ground with propellers that make electricity from the wind.” Very 1970s. The best part of the museum was the 5th-floor open observation deck with great views of the area from inside the cage!

After the Biosphere, we walked next door to the rose garden, which was a bust. It hasn’t been maintained in years and was all overgrown. There was, however, a Geocache there, conveniently located next to an active beehive! We were not deterred, and Brenda found it in a shrub. Find #537!

We took one of the walking paths through the trees toward the old fort. This was also in the midst of renovation. The only other attraction on the island was the Six Flags Amusement park, but that didn’t hold much interest. We noticed that if we hurried, we could make the 1:30 water taxi back to the Old Port, and hurried to make it. They were waiting for someone to buy a ticket, so we managed to get on even though we were a few minutes late.

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We took the taxi back to Old Port Marina, then walked up the hill into the tourist area where there are lots of shops and restaurants. We were thirsty from our walking around on the island, so we stopped at one of my favorite breweries in Canada, The 3 Brasseurs Saint-Paul, and had something to drink and a snack.

After that, we just wandered the side streets, visiting various shops and art galleries. After wandering around for a couple of hours, we stopped at a bakery located in the basement of the old Bon-Secours Market. It wasn’t much to look at from the outside, but they had a great selection of HUGE croissants. We bought several to stock up for the rest of the week. When we got back outside, it was almost 5:00, so we decided to go for an early dinner. There is a restaurant, Jardin Nelson, that we found on our first trip and fell in love with. They specalize in savory crepes, but have a variety of dishes. What is most unique is that while it appears to be inside a building, the building has no roof, and is a large courtyard. Instead of the roof, they have giant umbrellas that cover an open space with the old facade of a building enclosing it. The entire courtyard is decorated with flowers, and live Jazz music is always being played from a small balcony overlooking the courtyard. We had an excellent dinner. Brenda had the seafood mac and cheese, and I had a pulled pork and mushroom crepe. For dessert, we shared a maple walnut ice cream crepe. Delicious!

We waddled back to the boat, put our baked goods away, and decided to walk off dinner with a stroll around the marina and waterfront. In the park between the marina and the river, they are holding a Street Food Festival. We’ve been hearing the live music they have nightly, thumping across the marina. We walked past to see what was going on. The line to get in stretched for several hundred yards! We didn’t need more food, so we just continued to the walkway along the waterfront. We watched several boats either battling their way up the river or being swept downstream in the current. We looped round the end of the peninsula and around the clock tower, then back along the edge of our marina and the Montreal Beach. Montreal is along the river, but the nearest beach (according to Google Maps) is in Portland, Maine, 215 miles away. So, they made their own!

We finished our circuit and went back to the boat for the night.

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Day 111 – Saturday, August 16th, 2025 – In: Montreal, QC

Today’s adventure was visiting the Montreal Botanical Garden, or “Jardin Botanique.” We had tickets for 10:00 so at 9:00 we walked up to the main street to catch an Uber for the ride across town. The garden is situated next to the site of the 1976 Summer Olympics, where the Olympic tower dominates the skyline. Like many older sites in Montreal, the Olympic Village and Stadium have become somewhat run down over the years, and are currently undergoing renovation. The massive Olympic Village Housing complex next to the stadium is being re-renovated into more modern apartments.

Our Uber driver dropped us off in a parking lot that we thought was the main entrance. It was actually the entrance for the gardens Insectarium. The main entrance was on the other side of the gardens, a 20-minute walk around. We started down a path that we thought would lead us to it, and came across a back entrance! Excellent.

We got our tickets scanned and hand-stamped and walked in to explore the gardens. The Jardin Botanique is sectioned into distinct areas. Some are for specific types of plants, such as shade plants, flowering plants, shrubs, or the arboritum. Others are garden styles by country, China, Japan, and the First Nations. They also have themed gardens such as a water garden, rose garden, monastery garden, flowering brook, and alpine garden. In all, the gardens cover 185 acres.

We wandered through the gardens trying to visit each of the many footpaths that criss-cross the facility. The paths were a mix of pavement and well-manicured gravel, with a few, such as those going through the Mongolian Garden in the China section, being rocky footpaths. In the Japanese garden, there was an excellent collection of 60 to 90-year-old bonsai plants. Bethanny (our daughter) is a bonsai enthusiast, so we always try to send her pictures of some of the plants we find.

We were amazed at the number of flowers in bloom, considering it’s the end of August, and it has been so unseasonably hot here this year. Around every corner, there was another enjoyable and unique plant. We spent three hours walking around, and at 1:00, we headed to the cafe for a drink and lunch.

There wasn’t much choice at the cafe, so we settled on egg salad sandwiches with potato salad. We were more thirsty than anything! Again, the options were a bit limited but unique. Brenda ended up with a Maple Water. This is the sap from the maple tree in its raw form. Usually, it is boiled down to make maple syrup. They filter it and package it in milk containers. There is just a hint of maple to it, and Brenda compared it to unsweetened tea. It was very refreshing! They also had some botanical sparkling water, and I spied the “Mild Spruce”. In my younger years, when I was hiking, I would occasionally make pine needle tea, which I enjoyed, so I thought I’d give it a try. Well, I hope they don’t make a “Strong Spruce”; this stuff was like drinking turpentine, or grabbing a pine tree branch and stuffing your mouth full of pine needles and chewing them. Very strong! We’ve bought some of the Maple Water to bring home, the Mile Spruce Sparkling Water, we will leave to the Canadians!

After lunch, we went to the greenhouse complex and toured 9 of the 10 exhibition greenhouses (one was closed). They are also set up based on theme. There was an Arid Regions Greenhouse, the Ferns Greenhouse, the Tropical Rainforest, the Main Exhibition Greenhouse, the Hospitality Greenhouse, and the Hacienda with Mexican-themed displays. They also had the Orchids & Aroids Greenhouse, Tropical Food Plants, and Begonias & Gesneriads greenhouse. We were almost planted out, but we couldn’t miss what they call the Color Trail through a collection of gardens featuring huge hibiscus blossoms and other flowers in full bloom. Just beautiful.

The brochure said to allow at least two hours to explore the gardens. We ended up spending four hours, but we still didn’t see it all. We had planned to visit the Olympic park, but we were beat, so we called an Uber and headed back to the boat.

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You can view a gallery of all the photos we took at the gardens by visiting our SmugMug Gallery here.

At 6:00, we had recovered enough to go find some dinner. We decided to go back to Les 3 Brasseurs, a microbrewery in the Old Port area. This is one of my favorite spots in Montreal. They have an excellent selection of beer brewed on-site, and some very good food.

After dinner, we walked around and checked out a few more shops. Brenda found a unique perfume bottle for her collection. I kept offering to go back to a store where we saw a full-length arctic fox coat, but she didn’t think she would get much chance to wear it once we got back to Florida.

We headed back to the boat and were checking to see if any more Loopers had come in during the day when Brenda noticed that a large Norwegian Cruise Ship had come into the port for the day. The cruise ship terminal is at the other end of Old Port, so we didn’t notice it, but it explained the crowds downtown. At 8:00, we heard a loud ship’s horn and checked our AIS system. The ship was backing out of the dock for its overnight trip to Quebec City. It had to come right past our marina, so we walked to the end of the dock to watch it go by. We almost missed it as it was moving fast in the strong current. We took a couple of pictures of the night skyline and called it an evening.

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Recap of the week

We traveled 136 miles this week, bringing our total to 1,992 miles so far. We have finished with locks for a few weeks until we start our return trip down the Champlain Canal to Burlington, Vermont, and New York City. WOO HOO! No more lock pictures for a while! (Well, maybe one, but that is a special one you will hear about next week.) We had our first night off the boat for a while in the world’s largest log hotel, and spent some time in Montreal.

Next week, we head down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City, the northernmost point of our trip.