A Canal, a River, and a Creek

On Wednesday, we drove to the Great Falls Tavern Visitors Center - one of many stops along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.  Our plan was to take a canal boat ride (the boats are pulled by mules!) but to our dismay, the water levels were too low that day so they were not doing the boat rides.

Instead, we hiked around, had a picnic, and spent time in the itty bitty museum learning about the canal.  I found it fascinating. 

The canal is a man-made "river" that was dug alongside the Potomac River with a whole system of feeder dams and locks.  The locks were created to control the water levels as the boats traveled up or downstream from Georgetown to Cumberland because of the many changes in elevation that occur along the route.  The canal was back-breaking labor for the many immigrants who dug it (literally dug it by hand).  When it was completed, it made some early settlers quite wealthy because it allowed them to trade large amounts of cargo (coal, flour, etc) throughout the state of Maryland. 

The Potomac River, which runs alongside the canal and feeds into it through dams

The C and O Canal and the Great Falls Tavern on the right

A canal boat which, sadly, we did not get to ride on

Our hike up a hill to an overlook

almost there

We made it!

View from the top looking down at the Potomac

Then on Thursday, we had another adventure in nature.  We joined the Thursday mom's group at a park in the Takoma Park/Sligo Creek neighborhood.  When we got there all the kids were playing on the play structures.  Mine did too...for about 10 minutes.  Then, my three Curious Georges found the creek that runs along the park and decided to go exploring.  What started off as, "Mom, can we throw rocks in the creek?" quickly became, "Mom, can we put our feet in the water?"  And then you know the rest of the story...