Wednesday, July 4 & Thursday, July 5

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY AMERICA!!!

*Please note . . . as we are now in Canada, I cannot access the data on our phone (which is where all our pictures are).  Therefore, today you are getting the blog without pictures.  Friday night we will be back in the good ol' USA, so look for the picture walk to go with our two days as follows.

We left early this morning to tackle crossing Lake Ontario.  The weather channel indicated winds to be a reasonable speed of 10 mph, and the dockmaster at Oswego Marina said we'd have no problem running the WHOLE south end of the lake (we were thinking of going to Rochester, NY, but it turns out that would only get us a third of the way, and would only take a few hours).  Getting out on the lake at a bright and early 7:30 a.m., we thought we'd have calmer seas until the day got going.  BOY, WERE WE WRONG!!!  We had 3 to 4 footers for our first hour of our journey!  Poor Sally had to crawl up the stairs as she got out of bed.  She was trying hard to get those "sea legs" on :)  Dave put the boat up on plane and that seemed to help, but still things were a little crazy on board!!!  After that first hour, things calmed a little, so that we could walk around a little easier :)  Enjoyed a nice 140 mile cruise.  We ran the boat on plane for 5 of the 9 hours . . . the Cummins (engines) were as happy as can be :) 

Arrived in St. Catharine, Ontario, Canada.  Two friendly Canadians from the marina gave us a hand docking and telling us a little bit about the area.  Including that Niagra Falls was only 15 minutes away . . . hmmm, 4th of July in Canada might not be so bad afterall :)  After we called customs (which for those of you who know our passport story, not only did they not need to SEE our passports, they didn't even ASK for the numbers . . . UGGH!!!), the guys walked around the marina to talk with the Welland Canal (which is what we needed to do the next day).  They found out some interesting and frustrating information.  It turns out that a pleasure boater had been waiting to go through the canal since 11 a.m. (it was now 5 p.m.)!  The canal is a very busy place with many freighters going through, so when the canal masters want to take a pleasure boater they will, but not until THEY are ready.  We decided that we would get up bright and early, and that maybe that might help us out.  The whole Welland Canal can take anywhere from 10-12 hours to get through.

However, for tonight, we needed to celebrate our nation's birthday.  So we got a cab to bring us to Niagra Falls (Canadian side).  If you haven't been there, you might be surprised to know, like we were, that it reminded us of a small Las Vegas with some VERY impressive falls.  We ended up getting some great photos and finishing the evening having dinner at "The Keg" in the Embassy Suites (our cabby driver recommended it and I would HIGHLY recommend it, too)!  We were right next to a huge window overlooking the largest part of the falls, and as we were finishing up dinner we watched a SPECTACULAR display of fireworks.  Since we were looking across the falls to the U.S., we could see fireworks going off everywhere . . .soooo cool!!!  Wow, who knew celebrating the 4th of July in Canada could be so awesome :)

Thursday, we woke bright and early and tied up at the canal wall by 7:30 to wait our turn to go through the Welland Canal.  Dave went to the phone booth where you need to call the canal masters to tell them that you're there.  They were very nice to talk with and thought we would be entering the canal by 1:30 at the latest.  From what we understood, that amount of wait is common, so we waited.  After a few hours, Dan decided to step off the boat.  As he was doing so, the phone in the booth started ringing.  Soooo, Dan decided to answer and low and behold it was for us!!!  (We'd still be sitting there if it weren't for Dan :)!!!  Turns out the Coast Guard was going to go through the canal and we could go through with them!  So we were off and in the canal 15 minutes later.  The canal consists of 8 locks.  The first 7 are approximately 1 mile apart, with locks 4, 5, and 6 flight locks (literally one lock opens to another ... incredible engineering!).  So, we began our journey at 10:30 (but actually it began at 7:30 when we first started waiting)  and ended at an impressive 4:30 p.m. (I wonder if that's a record?)  At the end of the canal is Port Colborne, Ontario, and that is our home for the night.  Until tomorrow . . . with pictures :)