2 Days in Ottawa, IL

Hopefully, we will convince the Captain that two days in any location can be a bit boring and should be reserved for deep rest stops or specific shore tours.  While it was pleasant, I was very happy to get underway.

But, don’t get me wrong.  Ottawa, Illinois is a darling historic town and the marina was very gracious, new and had great facilities.  There even had a couple of courtesy cars which we used on both Thursday night and Friday.

This included a trip to Ottawa Friday night for a dinner at a Mexican restaurant and viewing the premier of The Martian with Matt Damon.

Ottawa has some unusual features for the Looper including a free dock downtown on the Fox River.  When Chuck and I went into town for a few grocery items, we looked up the free dock and found B-Line (the couple from Ontario with their C&C 35) and Bayou Gypsy from New Orleans.

The Louisiana group was already ashore, but we found Gary and asked if there was anything we could pick up from Krogers.  We made our shopping trip with the usual (aka unusual) shopping list and after dropping off the milk and Hawaiian bread to B-Line, we made our way back and spent a pleasant night watching another Hornblower DVD.

The Captain needed to do some laundry on Friday and I got the old Suburban from the folks at the marina and ferried him into town for banking, laundromat and my first cup of coffee of the day (at noon!).

Ottawa has a variety of historical attractions since it came into boom town status after 1848 when the Illinois and Michigan Canal came into being.  This 90 mile long canal, complete with a pull path for mule tows (nobody had motorized boats or barges) put them on the map and the town grew and prospered for many years as a result.

Today, the remnants of this canal which have been filled in and serve as a linear park complete with bike path and many historical markers.

Ottawa was also the site of the famous Lincoln Douglas debate in a downtown park.  When they eventually got around to making a commemorative to this event by commissioning a fountain and statues, they showed deference to their favorite son by making Lincoln’s status 11 feet tall and Douglas only 9 feet.

This is definitely a worthwhile stop for any tourist, but when I come back, I’ll stay on the wall downtown not in a new, but remote, marina/condo development.