Suspension Bridge, Caves and Wasaga Beach

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Another beautiful area in this region is Collingwood bordered by the Blue Mountains in the south and the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron in the north. We have now been lucky enough to see three of the Great Lakes. We started with a walk through the forests on the slopes of the Blue Mountains and crossed 132m suspension bridge which is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in Ontario. The bridge was built solely to provide a view over the Georgian Bay and the forest. It sure achieves this objective!

Our 2 hour walk through the forest also included going into caves and over and under caverns. The rock overhangs, cliffs and gorges make the area very scenic. During the walk we stumbled upon a raccoon who we woke up from his midday nap. He sleepily eyed us for a long while before scuttling off into a rock crevice.

On the way back, we stopped to see Wasaga Beach on the shore of Lake Huron. This 14km beach is one of Canada’s best beaches although the concept of a beach associated with a lake and not the sea is still foreign to me.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

It’s got a lot colder than the lovely heat we have been enjoying and today is not much more than 14 degrees C! We started our day in a town called Midland and we visited a tourist attraction called Saint Marie of the Hurons. It is a replica village on the original site of a Jesuit mission built in the 1630’s when the first missionaries ventured west of Quebec bringing Christianity to the Indian people, especially the Wendat tribe. They established an outpost and village here. Saint Marie became a spiritual retreat for Christian Indians. It was eventually abandoned and burnt to the ground when unrest amongst the Indian tribes caused casualties amongst the Jesuits. It was interesting to compare life in the 1630’s with life in the 1830’s.

On our drive home we saw our first live deer. We have seen lots of road kill, but it was great to finally see a wild deer on the side of the road.

Monday 7 June 2010

Leaving Rockport and the Thousand Islands today, we headed back to Toronto and then 1 hour north to a town called Barrie. On our way through Kingston, we stopped to do a trolley bus tour of this historical town. We saw the Military College and the town hosts over 8000 military personnel. It also has Queens University and there air was abuzz with graduation fever.

We also saw the Cathedral, a 17th century fort, various residences of Canada’s first prime minister and other points of interest.

We arrived in Barrie and as usual we were over whelmed with the amount of activities available in the area – so much to do, so little time! This has become the motto of our trip.

Saturday 5 June 2010

After the toil of yesterday, today had to include more sedentary activities, so we set off on a cruise on the river to Boldt castle on Heart Island. Owned and built by a partner of the Waldrof – Astoria hotel in New York City, this castle from the early 1900’s is the result of a tragic love story.

George Boldt built this 127 roomed castle for his wife Louise and just before completion, she died suddenly. He stopped all construction and abandoned the island, never to return again. The State took it over in the 1960’s and have been working to restore, complete and furnish it ever since. It is beautiful and magnificent, complete with indoor swimming pool, small castle playroom for the children, Italian garden, swan pond and service tunnel for the servants and deliveries; it continues to be a work in progress.

The balustrades, concrete work and decorative steel all have hearts shapes designed into them and George Boldt had the island end point blasted so that the island too is heart shaped. This beautiful castle has a forlorn sadness about it that reflects the love story it tells.

Friday 4 June 2010

You know one of those days when nothing goes according to plan? We had one today!

We hired a water taxi to take us and our bikes across to Granadier Island for a cycle. We had researched that there were bike trails and amenities on the island. The skipper dropped us off on the Western Point of the island where we could start our 16km cycle of the island from. However, the site turned out to be nothing more than a forested picnic area surrounded by rocks and poison ivy! We had a 3 hour wait before he returned, so with nothing else to do, we carried our bikes over logs and fallen down trees, through the forest and around the poison ivy onto and came out of the forest on a golf course.

Not wanting to cycle of the golf course, despite it being deserted, we pushed our bikes the length of the golf course and eventually found the start of the “road / cycle path”. Unfortunately, this path is more suited to quad bikes and mountain bikes, so after half an hour of battling with gravel, loose sand a mud, we decided to return and repeated the whole process back to where the water taxi rendezvous point! We waited an hour in the hot sun for our taxi to return but at least we had the cold river to dangle our feet in and watch some fish.

Friday 4 June 2010 Continued

Still wanting a cycle, we had a brief stop at our hotel and then set off to cycle to the sky deck which is 130m high tower built on an island to look over the Thousand Island area. The first 3km of the cycle went well and then we had to cross a really high suspension bridge to get to the sky deck.

You are not allowed to cycle on this narrow bridge because of the large trucks and other traffic on it, so we had to push the bikes across this 1km of bridge. The pedestrian path was so narrow that you had to flip the bike up onto one wheel and push it in front of you, whilst walking behind it. This was up a steep slope and then down the other side as this bridge is high enough for an ocean going ship to pass underneath. To add to the challenge the bridge rumbled and vibrated each time a truck passed and the view straight down to the river below on the other side of the railing was intimidating. Our arms, necks and back muscles were complaining seriously by the time we completed this journey.

The sky deck view made the trip worthwhile though with beautiful views over the rivers and islands.

We definitely did more pushing and carrying of bikes today than cycling, but we spent a fun evening at the tavern near the hotel where a singer and entertainer Billy Bridger was performing. Despite being a bit “hick”, he was amusing with his different hats, props, costumes and ventriloquist dummies and his singing was not bad. We enjoyed his repertoire.

Billy Bridger and the small town Tavern

Thursday 3 June 2010 Continued

Views of Thousand Island and some of it's mansions.

Thursday 3 June 2010

See, it’s a rainy day here and I am taking advantage of the opportunity to catch up on my blog. If I don’t get it onto real time soon, I will have some very dissatisfied readers!


Back to Thursday 3 June... Rochester is located in the Finger Lakes district of New York State and so before we left, we wanted to experience at least one of five Finger Lakes. We had planned to take a lunch cruise on Lake Canandaigua (pronounced Cannon-day-ga) on a paddle boat. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the boat was closed for maintenance, so we took a walk along the shore.

No sooner had we started the walk than we came across an area off the shore cordoned off with buoys. Liam explained that this was a “swimming pool” or safe swimming area, complete with a beach and life guards. I found this concept foreign and amusing so I went inside the area for a closer look.

After chatting to some staff, I found out that beyond the square swimming areas is a line of buoys that measures out a mile. To do a training swim was free and so after testing the water which was about 20 degrees C, I managed to talk Liam into doing a long swim with me. We completed a mile swim in 40 minutes and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially since I have been trying to train in hotel pools that are 10m long or less and getting quite dizzy in the process!

After a hearty lunch overlooking the lake, we left the USA, driving, around the East side of Lake Ontario and back into Canada. Yes, they let me back in at the border and we drove up the St Lawrence River to Rockport in the Thousand Islands area. One shore of the river is USA and the other shore is Canada and the Islands in the middle belong to one of the countries. This area is breath- takingly beautiful and one of my favourite so far on the trip in terms of scenery. There are 1867 islands in this area in the river ranging from the size of a few rocks to 10 miles long.
It really is the playground of the rich and famous. Some of the houses on their own islands are the size of a hotel with smart racing boats, jet skis and floating trampolines parked at the private jetties.

We had found a cute Boat Inn on the shore of the river with a balcony overlooking the boats and the water – our first room with a view!

Wednesday 2 June 2010

We started today with the last historical site of the area, the Peter Whitmer farm in Fayette New York. This is the site where the first official church meeting took place and the church was officially registered and organized. Six people attended this meeting and today church membership is over 8 million and growing globally annually.

We then drove to Lock 29 on the Eerie Canal and did a 20km cycle along the canal trail. On the cycle, we came across a “Kamakaze” chipmunk that ran across the trail right under the wheel of my bike. I don’t know how I missed him and I nearly ended up going down the steep slope and into the canal! We have seen many of these cute animals and they often run out in front of the bikes, so we have to been on our guard. Of course they never stay still long enough to photograph.

We were able to watch a pleasure boat go through a lock with a 16 feet height difference. The lock fills so quickly that the boat visibly rises while you are watching it. Liam captured in on video. We finished the cycle with a picnic under the big trees in a beautiful park by a waterfall and then played some Frisbee. I need to practice my throwing skills. Sometimes it was anybody’s guess where the Frisbee was headed!

Tuesday 1 June 2010 Continued

The print shop was fascinating from the processes used, to the ink splashes still visible on the walls where the fonts were washed clean for re-use.

Tuesday 1 June Continued

The Smith family home was really small to house such a large family and we have been amazed at how small and short the beds of the period were. No room for stretching out or sleeping in comfort with straw mattresses being the only protection from the hard wooden frames. The house was built by the family as were all the dwellings we have seen.

1 June 2010 Smith Family Log Cabin

Tuesday 1 June 2010

We visited the church sites in Palmyra today including the Hill Cumorah where the gold plates were found and the Sacred Grove where Joseph Smith received his vision and the print shop where the first 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed. Again it was a very special experience to be here. The Sacred Grove is a grove of trees that is really beautiful and special and has a very peaceful feeling about it.

Monday 31 May 2010

With a quiet Sunday behind us, it was road trip time again today as we drove from Cleveland to Rochester – a journey of about 5 hours. We stopped at Presque Isle National Park on Lake Eerie near the town of Eerie and enjoyed a hot walk and a lovely picnic. The trees in the area were all raining down something similar to the head of a dandelion that lay so thick on the ground it looked like snow!

Unfortunately our hotel in Rochester was a real dive and we went from luxury to squalor. I guess this is to be expected on a trip like this. The other Days Inn hotels have been fine, but this one left a lot to be desired. But, the bathroom and beds were clean and the air conditioning and fridge worked, so we have the bare necessities intact.

Saturday 29 May 2010

Today brought our first golf game in North America. We played 18 holes in the summer heat of Cleveland. They were very surprised that we did not hire a golf cart as no one in the USA walks around the course! I am still very much a beginner, but I “aced” a couple of holes. I still find 18 holes of golf and the 10km walk that goes with it very tiring physically especially as this course was anything but flat. We have been over training a bit since we arrived in Canada so I am still suffering with tense and stressed neck and back muscles.

Friday 28 May 2010

It turned out to be a busy day in Kirtland for us as we explored the historic sites of the church here. It was interesting to compare our visit to Black Creek Pioneer Village with the homes and stores that we saw in Kirtland. The time period is the same – 1830’s to 1850’s, but whereas Black Creek portrays affluent to middle class life of the period, today’s sites were examples of working class and families that struggled financially.
Being able to visit these sites which hold such prolific significance in the history of the church was a very special experience for me and Liam enjoyed it as well. I wished that all my friends who are members of the church would have the opportunity to visit here. It really made a history all so real! We visited the Whitney Store and home where Joseph and Emma Smith lived for a while as well as the School of the Prophets.
A water driven saw mill, ashery and Inn complete the village and we then went to see the Kirtland Temple now owned by a break away from the Mormon church called the Community of Christ. We also visited a cemetery where many early church leaders are buried.
These were an industrius people and it was fascinating to see how hard they worked for the things we take for granted like soap, clothes, food, materials and furniture.

Thursday 27 May 2010 – Road Trip

Travelling was the order of the day and we managed to fit in 2 countries and 4 states today. Leaving Welland, Ontario Canada, we passed through New York State, Pennsylvania and into Ohio, USA. Our destination was Cleveland Ohio as a base to visit some historic church sites. Driving through the small American towns, it was obvious to see that preparations for Memorial Day were well underway. Nearly every home, business and farm was flying the American flag and many tree lined avenues were lined with flags as well.
The end of a long journey was rewarded with a stay at a Hilton hotel which we found on a special offer online. We have been staying in budget hotels, so this was a real treat.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

The spectacle of the ship through the locks wet our appetites for more, so today we cycled part of the 140km of bike trails through the area along the locks. We saw locks 3 to 7 and although there were no ships passing through today, it was still interesting to see. A 2 hour cycle ended with a picnic under the trees followed by a visit to the Welland Canal Museum. The first canal was built in 1830 and was a visionary concept for the time period. The current canal and lock system was constructed in 1932 which in itself was an amazing feat and has been automated and computerized over the years

Tuesday 25 May 2010 – Exploring our Roots!

The city of St Catherine’s is in this area and Liam was born there, so it was fitting that today was family reunion day. Liam’s mom Yoka from Ireland joined her sister Rita from Holland and flew over to stay with her 3rd sister Jenny in Canada for a few weeks. We spent the day getting to know all the aunties and enjoying the sun on the patio whilst the squirrels scurried around in the garden.
The day held a lovely surprise when we went to Port Colburne for a drive and a walk along the Welland Canal. Soon enough an ocean size cargo ship came crawling down the canal and we watched it pass under the raised bridge and navigate one of the huge locks. It was a really tight fit and was an amazing feat of engineering. These locks and the canal enable a huge ship to sail from Lake Eerie down to Ladk Ontario with a vertical height difference of almost 90m. A series of locks enable the ships to make this journey.

Monday 24 May 2010 – Back to the Fun.

On the move today, was our first hotel change and move from one area to another area, leaving Toronto and setting off for Welland near Niagara Falls on the south side of Lake Ontario. We are specifically avoiding peeking at the Niagara Falls until my daughter Christine joins us.
Dundas, Hamilton was our first stop to break up the journey. We left the beaten track to explore Spenser Gorge, a lovely area of forests and waterfalls. A 5km hike through the woodlands led us to a lovely scenic lookout at Dundas Peak with a gorgeous view of the gorge and valley below. The gorge is graced by 2 beautiful waterfalls, Tew Falls which is 52m high and Webster Falls. The waterfalls are fed by a stream which runs through a beautiful park where families were having picnics or barbeques and wading in the stream. We soon joined in this activity as a welcome relief from the sweltering heat of the day.