Day 34

We left Perth and are now at Westport Harbor, Ont. Funny I used to live in Westport, MA. The trip was smooth and as usual just plain gorgeous. Much of it was across three interconnected lakes. In many ways it was like crossing Great Pond at home, with many islands , only bigger. We went through. Three locks. Westportnisnsimplynwonderful. It has 4 streets that go around a block , any shops and cute stores and a great restaurant called the Cove.
We hope to finish the Rideau Canal system today or tomorrow at the latest. This canal was constructedminthen1830s for defensive purposes and was to protect Canada from the invading Americans. There had been great fears after the war of 1812 that USA would invade them again and actually around 1845 a bunch of Irishmen called the Finians did invade Canada, from USA , in protest of thE British treatment of those still living in Ireland.
     Anyway, since there was no official invasion the canal. (up yo that time the largest engineering project in the world) was used for commerce and any small towns grew rapidly as supporting the commerce between Ottawa and Kingston and on to Montreal. 15 years later along came the cool choo and that led to the towns shrinking and the canal falling into disrepair. Someone, very smart, realized the present potential for the canals to bring tourist $ and thus they were repaired probably starting about 40 years ago. The towns now are doing fairly well and the canals are very, very busy  all summer long. The experience is just wonderful  and is much like canaling in Europe We will be pushing off now with hopes of making it to Kingston or Maybe Jones Falls where we will meet Ashley and maybe Dave and Maryanne as well.