Leaving Holley at a reasonable hour did not make the 9 hour trip back to Tonawanda any quicker.\u00a0 The trek back through, what we consider the most boring stretch of the Erie Canal, was still full of surprises.\u00a0 We definitely saw more boat traffic along the route going in both directions.\u00a0 We had heard that the canal had both opened and then closed a portion of the canal on the eastern half.\u00a0 Maybe that is what created folks deciding to push on.<\/p>\n
We did have the opportunity to watch the geese, a lonely doe, a few ducks, and a few osprey along the way.\u00a0 It was our first time locking up at Lockport, NY.\u00a0 We didn’t realize that the locks were as large as they are.\u00a0 Being a set of flight locks the two locks did seem a bit cavernous after the much smaller locks that we have had.\u00a0 We did lock down them but they didn’t seem as large.\u00a0 It’s all perspective, I suppose.<\/p>\n
It was a hot, hot day too.\u00a0 Not able to swim in the canal makes it all seem even hotter.\u00a0 Surrounded by water and no way in.\u00a0 Not fun.\u00a0 The waterway is so silty and polluted at this portion not a sole goes in.\u00a0 As we made our way closer to our end stop of Tonawanda the water did open up to the more clear green, blue colour of the Niagara River.\u00a0 A welcome sight.<\/p>\n
Upon arriving in Tonawanda, after the dinner hour, the harbour was full with Canal Fest going on.\u00a0 The first day.\u00a0 Not a spot available anywhere.\u00a0 We saw a couple boats from our home club of the Greater Niagara Boat Club on the wall and were going to ask to raft but “John” said he was leaving and could have his space.\u00a0 We didn’t even know that this was a space.\u00a0 Actually it isn’t, but at Canal Fest it is a free for all and anything goes scenario.\u00a0 You have got to see this place for the next week to believe it.\u00a0 Bands every night, a carnival, streets shut down, vendors, games, food, literally everywhere.\u00a0 It starts at 10:00 am and goes till 11:00 pm every single night this week.\u00a0 It is truly amazing to see all the boats, lights and sounds.\u00a0 So if you are looking for things to do this week, trip on over to the Tonawanda Gateway Harbour.\u00a0 Don’t forget your bathing suit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leaving Holley at a reasonable hour did not make the 9 hour trip back to Tonawanda any quicker.\u00a0 The trek back through, what we consider the most boring stretch of the Erie Canal, was still full of surprises.\u00a0 We definitely saw more boat traffic along the route going in both directions.\u00a0 We had heard that […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,23,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21","category-finger_lakes","category-sumex","category-21-id","category-23-id","category-17-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1335"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1339,"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions\/1339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lapointes.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}