World's longest skating rink

It's days like today when I try and appreciate my current job benefits. Not only do I get paid a fair wage for what I do, but also have the luxury of having days of "work" spent doing what I would like and still get paid for it. For those not in the aviation industry today I was "on call" which is considered one of my working days that goes towards my schedule, where I am available to be at the airport in 90 minutes and airborne in 120 minutes after I get called out to fly. This basically translates into: if I can make the airport in 1 hour and 30 minutes to go flying then I can basically do whatever I like (besides libations :)

So after 20 years I skated on the Rideau Canal along with the literally thousands of other people taking part in the lovely warm weather and festivities associated with Winterlude. The Rideau Canal was opened in 1832 as a secure waterway connecting Kingston to Montreal via Ottawa to stay clear of cannon fodder from the Americans if things started to go 1812 style. Well they never needed to actually use it for its original purpose but damn it makes a great skating rink. Something along these lines is also the Diefenbunker which is located just west of Ottawa. What was once a nuclear bomb shelter for the Prime Minister and his groupies is now decommissioned and available for tours. Now not to be paranoid but as in these two cases the government likes to have a Plan B to fall back on if things go south, I wonder where the new bunker is located and according to this Blog the USSR has not "actually" collapsed.

Not sure how many people are using the Canal but as you can see there are lots. This is looking at only about half a kilometer's worth and there is another 7.3 KM which has just as many. Here we are at 3.2 KM from the beginning of the Canal which is close to Parliament Hill. A group of Owl's are called a Parliament, is that because like politicians they can turn their head 180 degrees just like their policy ?

Standing to get a picture here is still not as bad as trying to do the same thing on a sidewalk in Times Square in NYC even with the amount of people out today.

The hot chocolate and beaver tail stands...beaver tails are some sorta deep fried dough I believe. Seemed to pretty popular place, then again in Ontario there are 4 Tim Horton's on every corner so it isn't a surprise.

Looks like a long mass of people standing in line from a distance. This part of the Canal is quite wide. It seems to narrow in places and I can't even imagine how those army engineers created it back in 1820-30's. Then again the Pyramids, Stonehenge are just a few bigger wonders then a ditch in Canada. On the road again soon, Phoenix is on the list of places to see this week, would be nice to see some of the Western US.