[Rideau canal skateway] Family skating on the largest ice rink in the world

Finally!!!

Rideau canal opened the full length of 7.8 km :)

The cleared length of Rideau Canal Skateway is 7.8 kilometres (4.8 mi) 

and has the equivalent surface area of 90 Olympic ice hockey rinks!

The skateway pass through central Ottawa.

I find it is pretty amazing, isn't it? :)

I'm very fond of Ottawa. I love this "ville".

It's not metropolitan, or even close.

I am a proud citizen, I would say.

It has a fair population of 900,000, but you can still feel something small town-ish atmosphere.

It's the national capital too :)

The Rideau canal was opened in 1832  and  connects the city of Ottawa, on the Ottawa River to Kingston, Ontario, on Lake Ontario. In 2007 it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Winter started really late in Ottawa in this winter. It actually didn't start until December.

And the temperature was extremely capricious. It was -20 degrees C. one day and 0 degree C. on the following day. And of course it didn't help the water in the canal  to get frozen.

A part of the Skateway have been open since early January,

but it fully opened only last weekend, which we had longed for more than a couple of months.

NCC, or Nataional Capital Commission has always managed, no matter what, to open the skateway by the Winterlude (winter festival of Ottawa)

We were so excited that we went skating on the Canal for two days in a row. :)

It's even more enjoyable this year since Pablo is skating pretty well. He was kind of walking on the ice, instead of gliding. 

He is a great little glider this year! Woot woot~

And I can tell you that we were not the only ones who were excited. :)

On Saturday we started from Dow's lake and skated almost to the downtown.

But, Pablo got hungry, even after he ate a huge beavertails!!!

We had to leave, but only to come back on Sunday, in the morning.

On Sunday, we changed to our skates at Metcalfe and skated down towards the Parliament Hill and Peace Tower.

On Saturday, we lined up at the end of a very very long queue to buy beavertails.

Have you heard of beavertails?

That is the most famous fried dough in Canada, which you can find at an amusement park or any big out door event that attracts a big crowd.

Ottawa Winterlude is one of those big-crowd-attracting events.

It's fried dough with various toppings and sells at exaggerated price.

But it's very yummy. It's nice treats for kids, once in a while.

Be careful! It's very addictive.

And as Ottawa is the birth place of BeaverTails, you can buy beavertails at their permanent stand at Byward market.

Look at these queues.

You can see queues like this in front of every single Beavertails stand.

Remi had a beavertails with chocolate hazelnut topping, i.e. Nutella topping :)

Pablo had a fried dough @ Quebecoise, i.e. maple syrup with chocolate.

And of course, they loved it.

Drinking water after eating a huge beavertails.

Thirsty Remi.

Daddy & sons holding Hands-in-hands

It's super hard for Mr. D. since kids don't skate when they are holding Mr.D's hands.

They just stand and glide by their dad's pulling power.

When he skates by himself, he always power-skates.

He needs a new helmet though.

I love Remi's face in the helmet and mask(cage).

When he falls, Pablo wants to be held, like a baby.

We still baby him.

That must be a part of the reasons why he behaves like a baby time to time.

Otherwise, Pablso was a good skater for two hours.

Boys had another snack!! in two-hour-span.

These are little hungry monsters!

Look at how tall \I am :)

This photo was taken around 4:30 p.m.

I look almost like Mr. Daddy-long-legs here, don't I?

It was about to snow in the morning on Sunday.

 But, still it was clear enough to see Chateau Laurier hotel from far.

 And yay.

We skated down very close to the Parliament Hill.

 And this was the point where the Rideau Canal Skateway starts :)

If you love skating, Rideau Canal Skateway is the must to see and must to skate on!

Happy skating!

Rideau Canal Skateway