We made it successfully out of Lake Erie! It is a pretty nice lake although much warmer and more shallow than Lake Michigan or Huron. Tomorrow, we will be in Lake Ontario if all goes well with the Welland Canal. It can take up to 16 hours to get through so it will be a long day!
Port Colborne is a great place to visit by boat! The marina is quiet and clean (although in order to get to the office or leave the marina, the walk is .35 km – I measured it on my bike). The downtown, including a grocery store, is easily accessible – you can walk the four blocks (once you get out of the marina, that is) and there are many nice bike paths. The path I rode on follows the locks and is really interesting because you can watch the boats go through.
The cycling here is incredible – there are several trails (all paved) that go around the entire Niagara region – 140 km. You can do the entire loop from Port Colborne to Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, Niagara -on-the-Lake, St. Catharines, Thorold and Welland. The paths are well marked and have rest stops along the way. Lake Erie is linked with Lake Ontario via cycling trails. Looks interesting to explore!
Here are some pictures of Port Colborne – the first one is of the first lock that we have to go through.

The second one is of a ship going through – you can see the bridge in the background.

The third picture is of an old bridge that is now part of the cycling trail.

The last one is of the Robin Hood Flour grain tower that was used in the 1940s during the war. It could hold over 2 million pounds of wheat!

That’s it for today – I am going biking and Dennis has gone to check out the locks and possible pay the lock master in advance. It is $200 to lock through but well worth it – it beats going over the falls!