Ottawa Locks 1-8
So much for not going on about the grey, rotten, miserable, rainy, crappy days before the snow finally packs and hardens and makes icy, miserable walking while the cold north wind shivers right through your bones.
OK, got that out of my system for now. High of 17.6 today – a record – with rain washing away the first snow. Went looking downtown for colorful umbrellas and found 98% of them were black. Black on grey did not an interesting picture make. Amazing that more than half of the folks wandering around had no rain gear whatsoever. Guess they were tuned in to the other weather channel.
These locks (officially the Ottawa Locks 1-8) are the first to lift boat traffic from the Ottawa River to the Rideau canal system which ends (or starts) in the St. Lawrence River at Kingston Mills. These are the largest single set of locks on the entire Rideau system. The ducks seem to be having a great time floating about in the bottom of this lock, drained for winter. The cheery window light coming from the Chateau Laurier are in juxtaposition to the monochromatic canal walls.
The Alexandra (Interprovincial) Bridge in the background is 1 of 5 that allows auto traffic to cross the Ottawa River to Gatineau.
