We went through the first lock opening this morning at Smiths Falls and then through 5 locks to get to Merrickville by noon. Here we stopped here for the day after just 14.3 miles. We stopped in Merrickville because the guide books said to. They were right. It's a very quaint little town that reminds us of Lexington, except the buildings downtown were built of limestone in the early to mid 1800’s. There are a lot of nice shops, an interesting marina, and some nice restaurants.  

We chose the Gad,s Hill Place for dinner. It has a Charles Dickens theme. Our dinners were copious and very tasty. One nice touch is the menu that is attached inside a copy of a Dickens novel. I went with the meat loaf off the comfort menu in chapter 4 and Camille had salmon salad with homemade raspberry dressing - chapter 3.

The marina I mentioned had a chandlery inside an old limestone building and rundown boat sheds with some vintage wooden boats. There were some classics docked as well. We found an old guy working on his boat who gave us a tour of the marina pointing out the various classics.

On the way to the marina we had to pass the ruins of an old mill, where the river rapids flow. The doors to one of the buildings were open and inviting. Inside was a museum of all the old crafts of the day, very interestingly displayed.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to turn wet, but we hope to get through a few locks to get better positioned to make the run to Ottawa. It’s supposed to get cold for the next couple days as well, so we want to make it to docks that have electricity. We’ll decide in the morning to go or stay depending on how hard it’s raining.