July 15 – Kenny Hotel
44°32′41″ N 76°14′9″ W

Today is Catherine’s birthday! Happy Birthday, my dear.

We started the day tied up on the lower lock wall at Poonamalie. We were just a few miles from Smiths Falls so we decided to only have coffee on board & then head towards the next lock & tie up there because our docking spot was just a few steps away from the Roosteraunt We could have a nice breakfast there. Plus, our cars were parked nearby.

Valerie & David had a little surprise waiting for Catherine when she got up.

Breakfast at the Roosteraunt was great & the place was full by the time we left to go back to the boat.

Today was also the day that Valerie & David had to return home to London. We had quite a few adventures & saw a lot of interesting places in the short time they were with us. We look forward to them booking another cruise with “Mis-Adventure” cruise lines next season!

Since today was Catherine’s birthday I told her that she could do anything she wanted for the first part of the day. There was a quilt show on at the community arena so we decided to head over there & check it out. We expected to find about 10-15 quilts on display made by 4-5 ladies….. not so!

As soon as we saw the first quilt on display we realized that these people were super serious about their work.

There must have been about 200 quilts on display & the people & the exhibition filled the arena.

There were quilts with patterns of all kinds

I liked the one the photo below in particular.

We spent several hours at the quilt show & then headed back to the boat to pack some belongings for our overnight stay at Kenny Hotel at Jones Falls. We were both looking forward to a nice shower or bath & to sleeping in a “real” bed.

It took us about 7 hours to travel by boat from Smiths Falls to Jones Falls. Today we covered the same distance in about 30 minutes in our car.

Hotel Kenny was built in 1877’s & has lots of character.

We especially love the main lounge area & the enclosed front porch.

Both spaces seem to invite you to sit down & relax for a few hours.

We ordered a couple of glasses of chilled white wine & each took a comfy spot to enjoy the space.

Catherine found a recent newspaper & worked on the Sudoko. I read an interesting photo history book about the Rideau Canal.

After an hour we found the pace was a bit too slow (even for us) so we engaged each other in couple of games of Scrabble until it was time for dinner. For some reason I found myself wondering if venison was on the menu tonight.

We had a great dinner (salmon & steak) followed by a “surprise” piece of birthday cake with candles presented to Catherine by 3 singing staff members from the dining room.

All in all we had a great day. Tomorrow we return to the boat & resume our journey to Ottawa.

Cheers!