The Rideau Canal – on record as the largest skating rink in the world – opened today for another season. The ice has to be 25-30cm thick along the entire 7.8km stretch in order for it to be considered safe enough to open. I skated the whole thing from Dow’s Lake to Parliament Hill and back again, plus the stretch up to Carleton University – a total of about 16km (my legs hurt already). Last year I skated almost every day in the winter and never fell down, but today I fell down twice! (There’s always a bright side – I found a dime on the ice when I was lying there the second time – someday soon I’ll tell you about the Dave X Change Challenge). The conditions were a bit rough in spots, but I expect they’ll be much better in a day or so.
I couldn’t take any pix on the Canal today because I forgot my camera at Gail’s house last night when I was there for her wonderful Ukrainian Christmas dinner party. Here’s a photograph I found on the net of the Canal in the winter (it’s a whole different creature in the summertime).
Wow! I would almost move to Ottawa
What a great skating rink. I used to skate a lot as a kid, but we haven’t had a real winter in ages so no skating here 
Enjoy it as much as you can.
Dakota, it’s one of the most wonderful and unique thing about Ottawa, in my humble opinion. The skating season is short, even though winter is long, but we generally get to skate throughout January and February. I can even skate to work if I go about a kilometre out of my way first!