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Published: September 15th 2017
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Agawa Canyon Railway
I didn't take this picture, but I thought it showed the best of the train ride up to the Agawa Canyon. Even though I wrote about the Agawa Canyon Scenic Railroad in the last blog, I came across this picture that really shows the beauty of the train and the scenery it travels through. So I thought I would include it in this blog.
After leaving Sault Ste. Marie (SSM), we headed east toward Ottawa. Enroute, we stayed one night in North Bay, located about 250 miles east of SSM, before heading on to Ottawa. During the drive between SSM and North Bay, we passed a Huron Central train pulling a long string of steel coil cars west toward SSM. There is a large steel mill in SSM (Essar Steel), so I'm sure the cars were heading there. North Bay also happens to be the headquarters for the Ontario Northland Railroad. Saw a few of their locomotives in the yard, but nothing moving.
We spent 2 1/2 days in Ottawa. What a wonderful city. Reminds me a lot of Portland. We arrived mid-afternoon, so we had a late lunch at a brew pub called Clocktower, which apparently is a small chain since we encountered others in both Ottawa and Montreal. Good beer and food. On day 2 we found a
Along the banks of the Ottawa River
We drove along the shores of the Ottawa River for most of the trip between Ottawa and Montreal. This is a good representation of the beauty of the river. number of antique stores that were pretty interesting, even found a couple of model train stores that were passable. Found another brew pub for lunch that day, Mill Street Brewing. Located in an old mill building right on the banks of the Ottawa River, it was a very nice spot. Also had great food and beer (are we seeing a pattern yet?). On our way home from lunch, we drove past an open-air produce market and stopped to pick up some local fruit for later snacking. Found some really good local strawberries (although not as good as Oregon berries!) as well as some local Honeycrisp Apples. The market was full of vibrant colors and smells from all of the fruits and vegetables displayed among the stands.
On day 3 we took a cruise on the Ottawa River. We had to walk along the Rideau Canal locks at the point where the canal connects to the river in order to get to the boat dock. The cruise was very nice, gave us a great view of the city from the river. As we were buying the tickets for the river cruise, we met a couple from Wales that were a
Huron Central Train
As we were driving from Sault Ste. Marie to North Bay, we passed a Huron Central train decked out in the livery we've all come to know and love - the black and orange of the Genesee and Wyoming. Again, I didn't take this picture, but it represents the essence of the train we saw along the highway. little older than us that were buying tickets for the canal cruise. They were in week 2 of their own great road adventure. They had been in Canada for two weeks, starting out in Toronto, and like us were also going to be heading to Quebec from Ottawa, then continue south and west into the States. They hoped to make it as far west as Yellowstone. Lo and behold, once we got on the boat, they walked on about 10 minutes later as they weren't able to get tickets for the canal trip.
When we got back on solid ground, we headed over to an area called ByWard Market, a large area of historic Ottawa of about 10 blocks square that houses a variety of restaurants, shops and open air markets. Found yet another great local brewpub, Lowertown Brewery, for lunch. After lunch we drove across to Gatineau, the city in Quebec located directly across the river from Ottawa, to visit a local casino. Sheryl actually made money, so I made her pay for our afternoon snack.
When we left Ottawa, we took a back road route to Montreal that took us right along the south shore of
The Mill Street Brewery
On our first day in Ottawa, we toured around all of the antique stores we could find, (even found a model train store or 2), and still had time for a late lunch at the Mill Street Brewery, located in an old mill on the banks of the Ottawa River. Good food, great beer, and pretty nice scenery. the Ottawa River. We got a few chances to see the river as we traveled, and stopped in one small town to take a short break at the local park located right on the banks of the river. What a bucolic place. Too bad it gets - 30 degrees in the winter and 12 feet of snow. Otherwise, it might make a good place to live.
We made it to Montreal (actually Laval, which is where we stayed) in time for lunch. We found a nice restaurant along the highway that looked very nice and was, but it turned out to be our first baptism to Quebec French culture. We walked into the restaurant and all of the signage inside was in French. The hostess greeted us in French and spoke little English, so she got another one of the staff members to help us get settled. She at least had passing English. The menus were mostly in French, with enough English key words that we were able to sort things out. Ended up having a great meal, but started to wonder just exactly we were getting ourselves into. Even when we were in France, many of the signs
had English. Quebec apparently doesn't do bi-lingual, especially in there stores and restaurants (and only barely in their street signage!).
But when we got to our hotel, things were much better. Plenty of English to go around, so we got settled in right away. We spent the rest of the day doing laundry (now that's exciting, huh?) then settled in for some TV. We at least found
some channels in English. On Day 2 we took a Gray Line double decker open top bus tour around town that was really quite enjoyable, even though when they stopped for passengers we inevitably parked right in the sun. Still, we toured all over downtown Montreal, got to see the Olympic Stadium, and really appreciated what a charming city Montreal can be. Lots of old and new mixed together, great weather (at least for now until winter arrives) and very pleasant and helpful people. Posted lots of pics from the trip. The one down side to the day was the traffic. What a nightmare, especially on the late afternoon trip back to the hotel. Way too many cars, way to few left turn lights, and way too many really bad drivers. I
Mill Street Brewery
The view of the old dam feeding the water from the river to the mill as seen from the bottom level of the Mill Street Brewery facility. think I've found a new "place where people drive the worst", beating out Florida.
On Day 3 we took a little breather. We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, then found a hobby shop that actually had a decent selection of N-scale stuff. Even found some old Hubert's cars, but, alas, no TBOX cars. Only coal porters. We decided to catch a movie, so headed back toward the hotel area to find a theater. On the way we found a neat little local park right among some verrrrry nice waterfront houses (probably easily in the 7 figure neighborhood), so took a short break to enjoy the sunshine and the view of the river to catch up on some reading. The movie we chose was Wind River, a very good flick that is well done. I think any of you would enjoy it.
Tomorrow we're off to Quebec City. We've decided to cut our stay there from 4 days to 3 to give us more time to enjoy the Maritimes and less time to deal with French. More to come.
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