After a restful sleep, I was awake by 0545 and was planning to quickly get breakfast before departing for Potsdam. However, Eileen texted at around that time, requesting that I give her some time to take her dog out for a tiring walk. Of course I agreed and this gave me more time for breakfast in the hotel lobby. I took full advantage of this and didn't leave the Quality Inn (and Plattsburgh) until 0820. To reach Potsdam, I first drove west on NY-3 until I reached the Military Turnpike. From there, I headed north to Ellenburg. The Turnpike later changed to NY-24 and I used that road to reach US-11 just before Malone. After passing through town, I used local streets to reach NY-11B. As I made my way towards NY-72, the drive was punctuated by slow cars, road construction and Amish buggies. One nice thing was that I was able to avoid traffic through Potsdam itself and I arrived at Eileen's at almost exactly 1000 (when she'd asked me to get there). She was getting ready and, with making breakfast, finding skates and setting up Mika for the long day at home, we didn't depart for Ottawa until almost 1130. Eileen asked that I drive (we used her car) and we took US-11 to Canton. Switching to NY-812, we made our way to the Ogdensburg crossing of the St. Lawrence River (paid toll in Johnstown, ON at 1215). The weather stayed good during our drive and we passed the time with a nice talk. Once in Canada, we took ON-416 to reach the outskirts of Ottawa and ON-417 (along with Bronson Avenue) to get close to the southern end of the Rideau Canal. Eileen had set the destination in Google Maps for Dows Lake, a place she'd never gotten to skate before (despite numerous trips to the Canal since living in Potsdam). It was about 1330 by that point and Eileen then suggested we eat before skating. From the campus of Carleton University, we drove to a restaurant nearby called the Paper Tiger (noodles). It took a bit for me to parallel park Eileen's car in the smallest spot I've ever had to use but then we only had to walk a short distance. Once at our table, we enjoyed three dishes (recommended by the staff): creamy fried brussel sprouts, Chicken Karaage and Vietnamese Garlic Noodles. We washed down our food with some local beer (Tooth and Nail for me) and cocktail (Lychee Lemonade for Eileen). While seated, we had some more good conversation and also located a place nearby (Capital Skates) where we could rent skates for me (Eileen had brought her own). Just before we departed, we struck up a conversation with a nice Canadian family at the table next to us. The father had a "MAGA-looking" hat that said something like "Canada is Not for Sale" and we all ended up talking about how much Canadians and Americans get along below the government level. After we'd finished our meal (1440), Eileen drove us to Lansdowne Park. Once parked in their garage, we had to walk through a maze of buildings to reach the Rideau Canal. Fortunately, we easily found Capital Skates (5th Avenue location) by 1510 and I made an online reservation while we were standing in line. At 1515, I was skated up and we headed in a southwest direction on the frozen surface of the wide canal. During the skate, both Emma and Heidi called Eileen and we all talked on FaceTime. The weather was great and there were lots of people having a good time together on the ice. We'd made our way about 1.1 KM from the skate rental place before Eileen said we needed to head home as soon as possible. Skating back again, my lower legs hurt a good bit (I actually got cut by something in my skate!). Even though our time was short, I enjoyed myself on our 3.2K(ish) wintry excursion. After returning the skates, it took a while for us to reach the car (lots of walking, hard to locate again in the garage, etc.). Eileen's stress level rose exponentially, with each passing moment, because she had agreed to watch her friends' dog (that had to be retrieved) AND hoped to walk that dog (and her own) before dark. It seemed that she thought I'd been driving like a Granny or something because she got in the driver seat and, after we made it out of the parking garage (1610) was a speed demon on the way home. I was actually a bit nervous... We used a reverse course from our morning drive and she made good time to the border. Fortunately, we didn't have any delay at the crossing and reached Potsdam by 1750. After stopping for some gas, we drove to get her friends' dog and then went to Eileen's house to get Mika (1800). Continuing the whirlwind pace, we fed the dogs and then drove back to Lehman Park for a walk in the dark. We made our way around the normal circuit with limited light but the going became very difficult because the snow was VERY deep - fortunately, I'd changed into my snow boots for the walk. Since I knew we'd take a long time to reach the car, I suggested Eileen call in an order for dinner at Mama Lucia's. She agreed, despite talking all day about cooking a meal together, and this freed up some time for us to continue enjoying the company of the dogs. After the snowy slog, we picked up the dinner at 1910. Back at Eileen's house, we enjoyed a nice dinner (lemon chicken, penne pasta with veggies, bread) together. The meal was improved by two bottles of wine I'd brought. As usually happens when we are together, we talked a good bit and resolved all the logistical frustrations of the day we'd just completed. Afterwards, we sat by her woodstove, which was very warm, and continued our conversation. I was surprised that Eileen was still awake because she'd told me she had an overnight EMT call before I arrived but we both made it almost to 2230 before she said she felt ready to go to sleep. Before I retired for the evening, I did a little reading - I eventually settled down to sleep (2315). Fun day on the Rideau Canal!
