Dear Honorary Loopers,
In our transit of the Welland Canal, we left one Great Lake and entered another. The transition felt momentous, partly because these “Sweetwater Seas” are great in more than just name. On Lake Ontario, we had grown closer to new and old friends, laughed and learned at live theater performances, and caught glimpses of lives utterly unknown to us. The great time we had on that Great Lake in 2024 on our first Loop and in 2025 on the Champlain Cruise were augmented by more great time this year.
Lake Erie is the fourth Great Lake we’ve visited on Affection. Only Lake Superior will still be unknown to us by the end of this boating season. I feel like a birdwatcher, with a “life list” of birds I’ve seen. I’m excited to add Lake Erie to my life list, together with all the amazing places along the coast that we will visit.
We suspected that the richness of our Lake Ontario experiences would find echoes on Lake Erie. We had no past experiences to support that suspicion, however. Neither Jeff nor I has ever been to any city along the coast of that lake, not even by land. We have no personal eyewitness experience with Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland or Toledo, all places we will visit.
That means there’s no familiarity, no predictability to reassure and comfort us. The list of unknowns is so long: good restaurants, regional theater productions, churches and museums and historic houses to tour… actually, I realize that’s a list of things I’m looking forward to experiencing in this new phase. And I don’t expect the journey to be arduous – no more locks, narrow canals, or tight schedules.
So I’m not anxious. But I am anticipatorily tired, contemplating the Great Lake of my ignorance. I’ve learned that constantly changing plans is exhausting, and carrying too much information relevant to the future distracts my attention from present demands. So I leave the research for later.
Once we arrive, I know I’ll kick into planning mode, and I have faith there will be plenty to do and see. I’ve learned that I also need the downtime before the next destination, the trough before the next wave crest. It reminds me of the early months of motherhood, when my timeline was governed by Baby Time, not World Time. Just as I learned to sleep when William slept, and arrange my schedule around his needs, I’ve adapted to Boat Time, in which we need to pay attention to our boat and our bodies and arrange our schedules around their needs.
First and foremost, we needed time to recover from the Welland Canal. We stayed in Port Colborne from Saturday 8/28 to Monday 8/31. I spent Saturday on long Zoom meetings for my UU Fellowship (a board training and Board retreat), which was both tiring and oddly refreshing: a change really is better than a rest!
Before my Zoom sessions started, I took a walk to awaken my body and clear my mind. The marina is connected to a beautiful lakeside park by a long pedestrian bridge. It was a lovely place to watch the coots and herons and prepare to shift into “land life” mode.
For dinner, once my meetings finished, Jeff and I ate at the marina restaurant, “Whiskey and Walleye.” Under the power of suggestion, I ordered both, and we relaxed on the second-floor restaurant deck listening to live music and watching the sun set over the new-to-us Lake.
After dinner we took the long walk back to our slip (Affection was, as usual, docked at the very end of the longest dock furthest from the shore and the restrooms), and accepted the invitation of a neighboring boater to come onboard and hang out. We shared Yosemite III’s aft deck with John, his wife, two friends, and John’s incredibly exuberant and friendly black Labrador. It was great to be the object of a dog’s affection – we both got a face-washing and paw hugs. We also shared the last of our Welland Canal peach pie (still good) and John’s wife’s homemade peach crumble (even better). Swapping Welland Canal stories with these local boaters felt therapeutic, and eased the lingering effects of the exhausting day of travel.
Sunday 8/30 was a rainy day, but by then we were ready for some fun. I did a quick Google search, before attending church by Zoom, and found a matinee production at a local performing arts center in scooter range. “Liars at a Funeral” is a comedy of errors about a dysfunctional family coping with family reunions at the matriarch’s funeral. Five people played nine parts, so as you can imagine there was a lot of split-second timing, people exiting stage left and then coming back, stage right, in a different wig and costume. Hilarious, and a surprisingly happy ending (for a funeral).
On the way back we discovered a small historical park. Though the buildings had already closed for the day, the docent postponed his departure and helpfully explained the history of the log cabin, carriage house, lighthouse model and mansion–turned-tea house.
We peered through windows at carriages, looms, and parlor furniture, gawked at the huge anchor on the grounds, and watched a grey squirrel poised on the branch of a walnut tree nibbling on a walnut in the classic “munching on a nut” pose.
After eating at a pizza place that let us bring our scooters inside to escape the rain, we returned to the boat and did some spiderweb eradication – it’s remarkable how quickly spiders create an obstacle course across our aft deck. Walking into an invisible spiderweb is really unpleasant, and we’ve tried everything from sprays to brooms to gloves. Today’s discovery: our handheld vacuum cleaner works well. Eureka! (No pun intended but isn’t that a vacuum manufacturer?)
Monday, 8/31, our last day in Port Colborne (and also in Canada), was appropriately rainy, facilitating sedentary work and our biweekly laundry project. Our teal folding cart came in handy on the long walk to shore, and the jigsaw puzzle in the marina lobby provided a relaxing way to pass the time between loads. I had brought a puzzle onboard, but we haven’t had enough downtime to set it up – so this was a lovely and unexpected gift. I also heard a boater complain about arriving from the Welland Canal at 1:30 am that morning – it puts our 11pm arrival into perspective.
After a final dinner at Whiskey and Walleye (sans live music – typical of Mondays), we finally spent some time discussing the impending circuit along the southern coast of Lake Erie, from Buffalo to Toledo. The next log entry will cover our re-entry into the United States in this new phase of our 2026 Great Lakes cruise.
Love,
Judy
Teaching peace thru play,
mapping a prepared and peaceful life.
Writer, Curriculum Developer and
Founder, The Culture Company
2362 SE 14 Street
Pompano Beach, FL 33062
P-954/444-0446
F-844/961-3428