Wow , what a day. We went through the Welland Canal today. It was truly an exciting experience.
This canal connects Lake Eerie to Lake Ontario and it raises or drops (which we did) 325 feet in a series of locks traversing 23 miles. It took us only 6 hours to go through, which is fairly quick. Commercial shipping traffic has the right of way. We only had to wait once for a large freighter to pass us by.
Tom and I were anxious for days about going through these locks. We had a captain, Roger, take us through and he made it really easy for us. His knowledge and experience were priceless. He explained the history of the canal and my duties. In the far distance is Lake Ontario.
The kids watched us go down lock after lock.
This canal is the manmade alternative to going down Niagra Falls. I'll take that any day. We decided to save the visit to Niagra Falls (only 6 miles away) for the return trip to Michigan. Look at this drop.
It is amazing that these locks are all gravity fed!! They were built in 1910 and it took 25 years to complete.
Roger took us all the way to St. Catharine, ON. We spent the night at this oasis of a town. It has a nice beach, playground and of course: ice cream!!!
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