The Rideau Canal - a world heritage site that opened in 1832 and has been operating ever since - runs through the village of Merrickville, where there are a number of canal locks.
Most of these are operated by hand - often by students as a summer job.
Why do we like to visit the Merrickville Canal Fest?
We enjoy the music - this year we heard these Celtic musicians. With this year's rain, they needed a plastic canopy to keep off the showers.
It's always fun watching boats go up and down the locks.
There is a sense of history about the place: There are canal museums and historic enactments.
Here is an old-style blacksmith (who works for Parks Canada) and an old-fashioned soldier.
They have races on the canal - these canoes were starting when we were there. One year we took a bird-watching ride on the canal, but we didn't see that this year.
Whenever I visit this peaceful, beautiful place - with it's gracious one-and-two-century-old buildings, I am reminded that it wasn't that long ago since people depended on rivers (and canals) for transportation - because high speed highways and motor vehicles simply did not exist.
But life is a constant change: Whenever we come, we remember the Merrickville bakery where we used to buy barley bread. It has closed down. And the Hershey Chocolate Factory not far away in Smiths Falls - which we used to visit, coming home with bags of chocolate we didn't need! It just closed down last winter - and a bottled water plant will be installed in its place, a sign of the changing times!
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