Back to the canal

Back to the canal We have been on the canal with the Matthews for a week now. Every day we travel to a new town and explore. The towns along the canal have really cleaned up their waterfronts. Every town sports new or near new facilities, clean and shiny docks, even a few canal side restaurants have installed docks. The land has been very beautiful and varied. Near Niagara, the canal winds through orchards and farmlands. At times the canal is on a hillside with land level on one side and hillside below on the other. Later the canal wound through lowland swamp. The Montezuma wildlife reserve showed us dozens of osprey, kingfishers, well over a hundred herons, and many other kinds of birds. A pair of osprey put on a great display of fishing techniques and aerobatics. It was very fortunate to have Carolyn aboard as she was able to sew hatch screen covers just in time to save us all from getting eaten alive. The Locks continue to be interesting, the kids are getting very good at their deckhand duties and Janine is becoming more comfortable driving the boat in confined spaces. The weather has dealt us a bit of everything, cool hazy weather, and a few days of high heat and humidity with huge, but short, thunderstorms.