Thursday, August 27, 2009

Warren Dunes State Park






Our original intent was to spend our last 2 nites at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, but after looking at the map we decided to stop a bit short and instead stay at Warren Dunes State Park just short of Benton Harbor. We spent a little time in Goderich and the border crossing took almost an hour so we didn't get to the park until dinner time.

Our last full vacation day was another great beach day - crystal clear skies, not too hot, a good breeze and and uncrowded beach. We went down to the beach for breakfast and didn't head back to camp until 5PM. We had plenty of time for reading, swimming, walking the beach and playing with the dogs. A really nice way to end up a great vacation.

Goderich, our future home






We found our retirement home city - Goderich Ontario, population 8,000 but with more vitality than Iowa City. Goderich bills itself as Canada's prettiest town and we wouldn't argue. It has a town square that's an octagon, a bustling business district, live music several times a week, a gorgeous lake front, plenty of bike paths, easy access to Stratford, London and Toronto, in short it looks great to us.

Don't worry we won't be moving anytime soon; we are nothing if not deliberate. What we are saying is that once both of us are no longer working, we likely will have a home base other than Burlington and more than likely it will be in Canada. For several years, we've thought our likely retirement home would be Vancouver, but Goderich looks much better and it would surely be quite a bit less costly.

We arrived in Goderich just before our 6PM dinner reservation at Bailey's. Bear in mind that this is a town of 8,000 and Bailey's is just one of several excellent restaurants. It was reasonably busy and all but us were locals. We liked that there was a mixture of ages. Our meals were great and the Jackson Triggs Gerwertztraminer was a real treat. We talked for a few minutes with a couple who welcomed us to the town and told us not to miss the lakefront. We had tickets for "Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad" in Blyth so we had to hustle to make it on time. Blyth is a town of 950; it boasts a professional theatre, a number of downtown businesses and a community campgound with 800 serviced campsites - Blyth hosts an annual thresher's festival. The play was fun and we decided to stay in the nearby campground; we were the only ones there so we had the pick of 800 sites!

Our practice is to have everything packed away each nite so we can easily move to a breakfast camp. We woke early Sunday and headed back to the Goderich lakefront. We were blown away. Goderich is the only deep water port on Ontario's west coast. There was an ocean going ship in port and another arrived shortly after we parked. The recreation portion of the lake front is about a mile long. A beautiful beach with a boardwalk and several shelter houses. We parked on the section where pets were allowed and let the guys out to play while cooked breakfast - blueberry pancakes. Melodee has been using the fresh blueberries we've been buying at the fruit stands and boy are they ever good.

We had picked up a hiking guide to Huron county. There are easily a week's worth of good hikes; we picked the Tiger Dunlop - Menestung trail and were not disappointed. The trail crosses the Maitland river on an old railroad bridge. Gorgeous lake and river views.

There is a another lakefront park on the top of the bluff overlooking the beach park. We made a lunch camp here and took in the lake view. We then had to decide what to do - take another hike or try out one of the bike trails. We had come to this are because my guide to camping in Ontario said that Falls Reserve park had the finest natural water park to be found anywhere so it made sense to at least see the Maitland River, besides we had a campground reservation there. The Maitland river runs over solid rock here that must have had some softer rock embedded in the harder rocks that remains. The result is that there are little rivulets of deeper fast running water. Lena had a few problems getting used to the fact that one step would put her into this fast moving water and she just wasn't sure what to do. We spent some time watching the young people play in the rapids then headed back to the Goderich lakefront to make dinner and watch the sunset.

We had a real treat. Shortly after we got to the lakefront, 2 square riggers appeared on the horizon. We think they were the boats modeled after Columbus' ships. Made for some very good pictures, but if they could have just waited about 45 minutes they would have been silhouetted against a pretty good sunset. As is we had to settle for the best sunset of the trip.

There is a great coffee shop on the square that is open until 11:30 on Sunday. We got there about 9PM and expected to find it empty. Once again we found a vibrant group of locals enjoying the best coffee shop we saw on the trip. We used the wifi to update the blog and headed back to Falls Reserve after a very full day.

The next morning we headed back to the lake shore for breakfast and then went to the visitor information center. Goderich is truly a town built for living.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

And the Winner Is ...





While traveling today we thought back over our trip and came up with our favorites in several categories. Numbers in parenthesis indicate the number of entries.

State or province (2) - Ontario. While the UP was beautiful, Ontario from stem to stern was spectacular

Campground (17) - Bay Furnace, Munising MI. Killer view and close to all attractions.

Best camping not in a campground (2) - Niagara-on-the-Lake. Camping right on a city street but backed up to a lovely city park. Clean restrooms, easy walks to great restaurants and theatre.

Best Theatre festival (2) - Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

Best Music Festival (1) - Summerfolk, Ownen Sound. Really would have liked to spend more time here, but even if you're gone for a long time, you still have to make choices.

Best music in a campground (1) - Neil Lafaive, Awenda PP. Not very often you get professional music at a campground program.

Best Day use area (many) - Killbear PP. A grassy area right by our camper, killer view, good swimming and really comfortable for the dogs.

Best Hike (about 10) - Chapel loop, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Wow, super trail surface, great lake views, rock formations and a great lunch spot on a Lake Superior beach.

Best Boat Ride (3) - Parry Sound, 30,000 Islands cruise. Great tours of homes and cottages.

Best Beach (many) - Awenda PP. Georgian Bay beach with 3 lagoon areas, great views and plenty of shade.

Best Great Lake (4) - Lake Huron. Warm water, beautiful bays.

Best Hiking for dogs (several) - Killbear PP day use area. It was here Sol came into his own again. He jumped out and took the lead on this hike to the lighthouse. Boy he was happy.

Hike with the most people - Bruce Peninsula NP trail to the grotto. Lotsof people, but uber cool. We had to descend thru a hole in the rocks to get into a cave that had an underwater opening to daylight on the other side..

Best meal out (4) - Charles Inn, Niagara-on-the-Lake

Best lunch (10) - We called this a tie. We stopped at 2 roadside cafes each about 70 km from the Soo, one NW and the other SE. At each we had poutine, but the real feature was the local color. Also warranting an honorable mention was the Mermaid's Secret in Tobermory. Jim had a really tasty whitefish on pita with a honey/raspberry glaze; fun server and good conversation with locals and internet access.

Best food item - Poutine, but the perogies at the roadside cafe NW of the Soo rates an honorable mention. All comfort food.

Best Wine (way too many) - Inniskillen Cabernet Franc Ice Wine (MW) Jackson Triggs Gewurztraminer (JW)

Best Small Town (several) - Goderich Ont

Born Yesterday

There are many things that I like about Canada, but I've come to the realization that mainly its that it's not the USA. It's been refreshing to spend the last 2 weeks away from the pounding noise of the US media. I haven't had to see that somehow its deemed ok to show up with guns at a town hall meeting with our president. I haven't had to hear my senator profess to believe that proscribed euthanasia is part of legislation that he's been intimately involved with. No, its been pleasant to listen to CBC new with coverage of world affairs interspersed with full length songs even if they are by the New Pornographers. Canada is so much more, how do I say it, civil. Canada allows more people to share in the American dream. The underclass of my neighborhood doesn't appear to exist in small town Canada. Now I realize that looking at Stratford and NOTL is not a fair sample, but we've driven thru lots of towns with populations of 5,000 to 30,000 on this trip and I've yet to find a Maple Hills.

Some time ago I came to regret my choice of location to spend my adult life. I managed to choose a town that not only is smaller today than it was at any point during the last 100 years, but also is dysfunctional. All I really want is a town designed for living. Just sweep up the sand and not have 3 years accumulation in the parking lot. We have a bare beach in our riverfront park and a sandy parking lot across from Melodee's office. Don't tell me about promoting tourism, let's work to make our town livable for us that live there.

It's with this background that I came to “Born yesterday” by Garson Kanin. He wrote this comedy/social commentary in 1945 just as World War II was ending. Kanin foresaw that the accumulation of political power in the wealthy would result what the dumb blond Billie Dawn's says “having them stealing from themselves”. The attitude of just don't care could only be overcome by strong individuals standing up to the power hungry. I can only hope that there are strong individuals willing to take on the elite. I'm just not sure that absolute freedom of speech and absolute freedom of firepower can coexist with my desire for a quiet life.

Happy Anniversary




Today (Sat) was our 34th wedding anniversary so Jim planned a special day. We woke up in Niagara-on-the-Lake so we were able to take the dogs on another wonderful walk down by the lake (Lake Ontario/Niagara River mouth). It was a gorgeous morning even tho Environment CN was predicting rain for later.
We left NOTL at 9:15 and turned west for the first time on this trip. We did hit rain before we reached Hamilton. The AAA map led me, the navigator astray, but we didn't stray too far. We arrive in Stratford a little before noon and enjoyed lunch at Bentleys, did our final shopping including a stop at a custom furniture store that had a dining set made out of oak recovered from the bottom of Georgian Bay – gorgeous! (and pricey).
Cyrano de Bergerac started at 2PM in the Festival theatre. We hoped it would be done by 4:30 since we had a dinner reservation in Goderich at 6:00 and then another play at 8PM in Blyth, our anniversary finale. I think Cyrano starts slow, but is a good story once it gets going. We found our it lasted until 5ish and decided to bug out at the 4PM intermission. Glad we did since that gave us the chance to stop at Fay's, an antique and junk shop, in Sebringville for a few minutes, check into our campsite at Falls Reserve Conservation Area, take care of the puppies and then on to Bailey's for dinner.
Bailey's was recommended by our unnamed friend at Music. We were not disappointed. Our meal was wonderful, cooked by a chef that had come from Stratford. We toasted our 34 years and our wish for 34 more with a Jackson-Triggs Gewurztraminer that we had tasted on our wine tour at NOTL. We thought about the Stan Rogers song where he says “... after 23 years you'd think I could find a way to let you know somehow that I want to see your smiling face 45 years from now”. 68 years just like our 34 and 34.
The play in Blyth was Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad, a fitting swan song to our trip to Canada. Tomorrow's our last day. We walked back to our campsite we lucked onto in Blyth and called it a day.

Monday, August 24, 2009

A Two Play Day





The Shaw Festival presents a 1 hour play each day at 11:30AM. This year they are featuring the one acts of Noel Coward; we saw Star Chamber over the noon hour. The weather was still unsettled; one of the park workers told us that he had spotted two funnel clouds. We spent the morning window shopping; Melodee stopped at the Bark and Fitz for dog stuff and we found a few gifts at some other stores.
We spent the afternoon revisiting yesterday's wineries to make our purchases. Our first stop was the Kurtz Farm Market, a veritable wonderland of foods and food items. We enjoyed a delightful lunch and managed to hold our purchases to essentials – $115. Now at least all these dollars are Canadian, but the weak US $ really works against us. The current exchange rate is .92, but we get tagged for about a 3% charge on ATM withdrawals or credit card purchases.
Next stop was Peller Estates. We had stopped at the Peller store in town this morning so we each got free tasting flight and found a new favortist – Ice Cuvee, a refreshing sparkler much like the prosecco we both like. So much for preplanning our purchases. We walked out with 7 bottles which earned us a free decanter and 2 nice little carriers. As Melodee often tells me, the more she shops the more she saves!
Next stop was Reif Estates to get two bottles for Cliff and Letha Reif. Once I told the clerk these were gifts, I got a really nice box and descriptive piece for each bottle.
We made the short drive to Inniskillen and cashed in our second free tasting voucher, another glass of liquid gold – Vidal icewine. We managed to hold our purchases here to a single bottle of Vidal and Cabernet Franc icewines. Oh, the tab came to $170. If you're lucky, you'll get a glass of these.
Final stop was Jackson-Triggs. Gewurztraminer and Rieslings here brought our bottle count to a little less than 2 cases; we've been told this is no problem at the border.
We got back to our camp on the street parking adjoining lovely Simcoe park at about 4:45 after a stop at the library to use the wireless internet. Niagara-on-the-Lake may be the most upscale town I've seen, but there are no internet cafes here. Many of the B&B's offer wireless and while I'm somewhat brazen while traveling, I draw the line at sitting on a B&B's rocking chair to use their internet. We had time to feed and walk the dogs before heading off to Zee's for dinner.
Last year our first stop in Niagara was the festival book store. I had scanned a Fodor's guide to the Niagara region to get an idea of where to have lunch. Since the population is something like 8,000, I expected a few entries with one or two given a Fodor's choice. Instead I found several pages of listings and too many top rated to count so we had simply picked the one closest which was Zee's, directly across the street from the Festival theatre and had one our best meals of 2008. It was an easy choice to go to Zees tonite as the play, Born Yesteday, is in the Festival theatre. Once again, Zees did not disappoint. Melodee had a poutine with Nova Scotia lobster for her appetizer. I had a terrific fish and chips with Lake Ontario whitefish. Service lagged a bit and we were a bit rushed getting to the theatre for the 8PM opening. I know I said I thought Phedre would be the best play of our trip, but Born Yesterday picks up that honor and warrants its own entry.



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Sunday, August 23, 2009

A Stormy Nite

We had seen the TV weather last nite and it warned that hot humid air was pouring north from the states and would set off some serious storms when it collided with the cool air coming down from the north. The combination of these two air masses and Lake Ontario would intensify the storm and sure enough we had a very stormy nite. Somehow we managed to go out for the evening without taking an umbrella so we had to hustle back to the camper to avoid getting soaked. Once again we are so glad to have the Lance camper as our base. Once back were dry and warm and able to sleep comfortably despite the rumblings outside. We missed the worst of the storm; tornados touched down in several places thruout the province.

Dinner at the Charles Inn




We've cooked out every dinner until last nite and will be eating out for the next three nites. Since we haven't been paying for camping, we are simply parked on the city street, we rationalized we could splurge tonite. We picked the Charles Inn which no less than the Toronto Star has proclaimed as one of the finest restaurants in Ontario. I've likely said it before, but I really like being in a small town where camping, restaurants and theatre are all withing easy walking distance and that's easily possible in Niagara.
Everything about the meal was top drawer. Service, presentation, wine list and food were all outstanding. We had allowed 2 hours and were glad we had. It was a great experience and worth every penny of the $210 tab!

Friday, August 21, 2009

All Dressed up & Somewhere to Go


Those who've camped with us or looked at many of our pics know we don't change clothes every day when we're out in the Boonies, especially since we started taking the dogs along. What's the point? We aren't going anywhere usually and showers aren't readily available.

That cleanliness level needed to change now that we are in polite society and attending plays every day. This is a picture of me cleaned up and wearing the outfit Jim picked out and bought for me.

Wine Tour on bicycles





We haven't been to Napa or Sonoma so I can't compare the Niagara wine country to their California counterparts, but I can say that you can take a really pleasant wine tour here and do it all while riding along the Niagara Parkway on your bike. Winston Churchill said the Niagara Parkway was the finest Sunday drive in the world and like most scenic roads its better on a bike. The entire 50 km between Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-Lake is a park. The bike trail winds along the bluff above the Niagara river. There are frequent views out to New York. We decided to visit about 3 of the wineries along the way to the Queenston Heights Restaurant and then work our way back thru the vineyards and see a couple more wineries before getting back to Simcoe Park.

We started off with a stop at Peller Estates. It has a terrific wine bar. Like many of the Niagara wineries, they offer spectacular ice wines at stratospheric prices. We did find some some very nice stocking stuffers. We did what you're supposed to do, made notes on the varieties we tasted with the idea of putting together a purchase list. Tomorrow we'll make the drive in the truck and do the buying.

Our second stop was Reif Estates. I called my friend Cliff and asked what he and Letha would like. This reminded us of the need to pick up something besides the rieslings, gewurztraminers and sauvignon blancs we prefer and include some varieties for friends and family.

Our last pre-lunch stop was Inniskillen Estates. Architecture was a high point here as the barn is thought to be designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright had a number of commissions in nearby Buffalo and he traveled and worked in the adjoining Niagara area.

We had stopped at Queenston Heights when we last were here with the girls. It is the site of a signficant battle in the war of 1812. Actually all of the Niagara region was important in the war of 1812. We had a good lunch with a killer view – New York as far as we could see.

Today was the hottest day of our trip with temps getting into the 30's. Made for a hot ride back. We became a bit concerned that the dogs might be getting hot in the camper even though we are parked in the shade with several windows open and the fan running so we cut the ride a bit short and only stopped at Jackson-Triggs on the way back. Got back to find the dogs fairly comfortable and us more so once we had a glass of iced tea and took a cooling shower using the outdoor shower on the camper. We are eating out tonite so we were able to spend some pleasant time with the dogs before heading off to the Charles Inn for dinner and tonite's play, “Albertine in Five Times”.

Music, A Canadian music store



We are now well into the theater portion of our trip. We spent the nite in the parking lot next to the Avon River in Stratford, so the dog walk was along the beautiful riverside park. We pushed on a little too far; Sol pooped out, so I had to go back and get the truck to pick up Melodee and the dogs.

After a quick breakfast we drove to Sebringville, a small village only 5 km west of Stratford. We had stopped at Music when we came here with the girls about 10 years ago. This is a store that sells home theatre equipment and Canadian CDs. We spent an interesting hour and a half talking to the proprietor and a few other customers, perusing the shelves, using the wireless internet and just generally having a really good time. The proprietor wanted to know about our trip, helped us with a dinner reservation for Saturday nite in Goderich, discussed the plays at Stratford, turned us on to some great music and filled in a few blanks about Ian Tyson, Gordon Lightfoot and the Bare Naked Ladies. When we finally squared up, the tab was $227, but we got some really good music including Ian, Corb Lund, Leonard Cohen, Arrogant Worms, The Wailing Jennys, The Band, James Keelaghan and Hawksley Workman. I could have added any number of others – Serena Ryder, Cuff the Duke, Lee Harvey Osmand and on and on.

Next stop was lunch back in Stratford. Melodee needed a poutine fix so we headed for Boomer's which is reputed to have the best poutine in Ontario. Poutine is brown gravy over french fries with cheese curds added and melting as you eat. Add in a hamburger and coke and you've got a real meal.

We wanted to complete our shopping at Bradshaws before heading on to Niagara-on-the-Lake. I think we actually managed to get out for about $100; again there was no shortage of wants but we tried to limit ourselves to items that could remotely be considered needs.

Disney World Two or Stratford Ontario



We had to beat feet to get from the top of the Bruce peninsula to Stratford in time for lunch and our 2PM play. Stratford may be the most livable town I've seen. Population 32,000 with world class theatre, restaurants and shopping. What more can an Iowa boy from the back of beyond hope for. If you you don't like Stratford, you may want to take a good look at your standards; they are either wrong or set way too high.

We pulled into one of the festival's parking lots along the Avon river. It has swans that hissed at Lena and about 2 miles of beautifully landscaped picnic places. We simply parked and set up for the night. This allowed us to spend some time with the dogs before walking to the theatre and seeing Phedre. We are seeing 8 plays over the next 5 days, but my bet is that we've already seen the best. It was only 2 hours long so we were able to walk to Bradshaws, a kitchen and entertaining store, I guess. I spent most of the time looking over the vast selection of wine glasses. They carry 5 different lines ranging from very good to Reidel. Melodee at least made it back to the kitchen equipment section, but we really needed more time to explore this wonderland. We picked up some plastic wine glasses to replace those in the camper; we were down to 2 and the base on one was cracked.

Stratford is home to the North American Culinary Institute and hosts a lot of upscale tourists each day. No wonder it can support a concentration of fine restaurants that likely can only be matched by New York City. We picked one and headed off for dinner before seeing our second play, “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde. Wildly funny with stunning sets, it was a great end to our first day in Stratford.

Wishin' Won't Make it So


We were listening to our new Ian Tyson cd today as we drove from Stratford to Niagara-on-the-Lake. As we drove past beautiful Ontario farmsteads and thru the vibrant towns (no matter how small they seemed) I wished for days gone by in the US – days when many people still lived on the land they worked and the nearby towns still had a grocery store, butcher shop, shoe repair, small dept store and a bakery. But as Ian's song (Fifty Years Ago) said – wishin' won't make it so.

Timeless


We saw the matinee of Phedre today at the Stratford, Ontario and tonite we saw “The Importance of Being Earnest”. We are in Stratford for the Shakespeare Festival but aren't seeing anything by the bard this time. As mentioned earlier in this blog, we've been reading the writings of Stephen Leacock.

What's amazing to me is the timeless quality of all these plays and writings. The most recent, Leacock, wrote his most famous book in 1910 - 100 years ago! And yet, they all can still make me laugh or think about my humanity as if they were written today.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Weather Report





Ontario has had a really bad summer for weather. I knew before coming that it had been raining a lot, but the locals tell us that until about 10 days ago, it was rain daily with only brief cloudy periods in between the showers. Sunshine has been a rarity. Luckily for us the pattern changed. We had rain and clouds at Pancake Bay, but as we left the weather began to improve and it has been beautiful for these last 8 days. Yesterday was clear and sunny, but as we cooked dinner it clouded over and about 9:00 we heard rumblings of thunder and soon it was a downpour. We were dry and comfortable as we played gin before turning in for the night. It rained off and on through out the nite and it was cloudy when we got up this morning. Our rainy day plan included walking around the lake (about 5 km), going to the visitor center and shopping in Tobermory. The morning weather steadily improved as we hiked. We stopped at the Singing Sands day use area on the way to the visitor center. This is a wide sandy beach on a large bay of Lake Huron. Wide doesn't do it justice. The sand beach is flat and about 200 yards to the water. You can walk out several hundred yards into the water and it still only comes up to your knees. By the time we left Singing Sands it was sunny so we scratched the visitor center and headed straight into Tobermory for some lunch. I had smoked whitefish on pita bread with a really nice glaze. Really a good tasting lunch. I did a little business using the wifi connection and we updated the blog before taking off for shopping. Tobermory has some fine outdoor stores. We headed for the Blue Heron and departed from it with $500 of shorts, blouses, swim trucks and sandals. The original plan was to go back to Cypress Lake and spend some beach time there, but Singing Sands was impressive so we headed back to it. A young girl asked if she could take Lena swimming; Melodee agreed and Lena got a good workout. When the girl brought Lena back she asked about Sol. Melodee told her Sol was old and didn't run anymore, but the girl persisted and soon she and Sol were off. I'll be darned if Sol didn't get excited and run for a short distance until he fell in a hole. I think its been over a year since he's run; it sure was good to see it again. I went for another swim in Lake Huron. Just getting to deep enough water takes a long time; I must have walked out 300 yards to get where I could actually take a couple strokes.

About 5PM we headed back to camp, did our weight lifting, had a pushup contest (42-21), fed the dogs and took them for their walk. This is a good place for walking. A short walk up the camp road brings us to the trail along the lake shore and back to our campsite. Melodee asked if I didn't want to get in one last swim. She and the dogs sat on the shore as I walked out into the lake and swam a few strokes. Such a nice way to end the day.

We walked the short way back to camp, had a glass of wine and cooked supper. I know we've done this every day, but its a really nice rut to be in!

Monday, August 17, 2009

A Swimmingly good Sunday






We really crammed a lot into a single day today, but still had time for relaxation. We moved early from the Lion's Head campground across the isthmus to a very pretty public beach on Lake Huron and made a breakfast camp there. I should have taken my opportunity for a swim there as that would have allowed me to swim in Lake Huron, Georgian Bay and an interior lake on the same day. Never mind, breakfast was good and we got on the road for the short drive north to Tobermory, a pretty little harbor town on the top of the Bruce peninsula. We had stopped quickly at the National Park visitor center and found out about the grotto hike and the boat tour around Flowerpot Island. As luck would have it we got to Tobermory just in time to catch the 10:40 boat ride around Flowerpot Island. Every one of the other passengers got off to hike the island, but our plans included hiking later in the National Park so we got just what we wanted – a very scenic boat ride.

We like going to a good restaurant for lunch. They typically serve the same menu for both lunch and dinner, but the prices are less at lunch. We tried to do that in Tobermory, but the restaurant we had selected was only open for dinner. No problem, we headed out to our campsite in Bruce Peninsula National Park and had sandwiches with the smoked turkey and basil meat we had bought 2 days ago. The dogs needed some time with us so we spent the hottest part of the afternoon sitting in the campsite with them. Melodee read her Western Horseman and I knitted. About 3:00 we headed off on the hike to the grotto. I have never seen so many people on a hike. It was a steady stream coming towards us and since this is Canada, it was truly a mixed bag. Before we had gone 100 m, we passed 4 women in burqas. We have hiked for 34 years in US parks and have never seen a women in a burqa. Its a mixed bag in all ways. You have blacks with asians, natives with whites, hetero couples, same sex couples, a variety of languages. We are really in the boonies and yet the only comparable place in the states would be New York City. Very refreshing and one more reason I love Canada.

Our hike's destination was Indian Head cove and its grotto. Once we got close, we could tell we would be sharing the experience with a lot of other folks and indeed there were about 200 people swimming and sunning at the stunning location. The predominant feature of the Bruce is the Niagara Escarpment and nowhere is it more evident that at the cove. The rock cliffs rise up 60m from Georgian Bay and fringe the aquamarine water. It looks like the pictures I've seen of the Greek Isles. The water is crystal clear to 50'. I had to swim here. Waters on the Georgian Bay side are colder than the Lake Huron side. Now bear in mind this is a fairly artificial division, Georgian Bay is the east side of the Bruce peninsula and Lake Huron the west, but having dipped my toes in both I can conclusively say Lake Huron is far warmer. I took the plunge and once in found that the sun warmed me so much that I spent almost 15 minutes in the water just playing around. I got out thoroughly refreshed, dried off and we climbed up to the entrance to the grotto. As you most likely know, a grotto is an underwater cave. The entrance to this grotto is thru a 2' hole in the rock . Scary stuff, but then it opens up and its just a scramble down to the water level. The grotto has an underwater opening in the rock to the sea and light comes thru, something we had never seen before. Several people tried to dive down and swim thru the opening with no luck. We just stood on the sidelines. The climb back up and thru the small opening was easier than coming down.

We decided to make a loop hike out of it and followed the Lake Mara trail or at least tried to. It turned quickly into a boulder field along the lake. We persisted and eventually got onto a more normal trail surface.

Got back to our camp and found the dogs happy and cool. We had our wine and cheese before feeding the dogs. We made the 1 minute walk to Lake Cypress. Did I mention this is a really great campground. This interior lake is warm with a sandy beach. I still had my swim trunks on so I picked Lena up and walked out quite a long way, but still the water was only up to my knees. I put Lena in for her first swim and she became the next Michael Phelps dog-paddling into the shore. We repeated this a few times and I realized Lena really didn't like swimming all that much. Sol never ventured closer than needed to get a good drink. We took a walk along the lake shore and headed back to camp. We put Lena in her pen, but that turned out to be a mistake since she was still wet and soon was muddy. Luckily there is a water faucet just across the road so with some shampoo and persistence, Lena is a clean happy dog and we are just about ready to cook dinner. Tonite its teriyaki chicken, fresh green beans and teriyaki noodles. We are passing on desert altho we did find time to stop at yet another fruit stand and are fully provisioned for tomorrow. May every day be as good as this.

A Two Beach Day



We woke this morning in Sauble Falls PP. Not the best campsite; it's really tough to figure out what to reserve based on the internet descriptions and I missed the 5 month advance booking date by a few days and lots of the best sites were already booked. I drove on to Sauble Falls beach with Melodee and the dogs still in bed and we set up a breakfast camp. This beach has been voted the number 1 beach in Ontario and one of the top 10 in Canada. Its really deep and looks to be about 5 miles long. Fine white sand and shallow warm water make it a great place to spend some time. We had decided to move north on the Bruce peninsula to Lion's Head, a small village on the Georgian Bay side, with a fine swimming beach, a picturesque marina and a municipal campground. We got here a little after noon and snagged one of the 2 remaining sites, one right on the water with a great view of the harbor and the 200' limestone bluffs that form one edge of the harbor entrance. We just lazed away the afternoon reading and beaching before cooking a really good supper of salmon, cole slaw, sweet corn and a pasta salad. Desert was my caramelized peaches and blueberries over vanilla ice cream. We are eating like royalty on this trip!

Tomorrow we plan to drive across the peninsula to the Lake Huron side, really very close less than 10 minutes. There is an isolated beach in a little used provincial park that is supposed to be very nice. Looks like another nice breakfast camp spot. Later we'll move north to the Bruce Head Peninsula National Park. Lots of good hiking and swimming there.

Beeches to Beaches



Many of the forests we've been in this trip have been mature beech/sugar maple forests. These trees form such a dense canopy that other tree species have a difficult time getting started under them. Hiking thru these stands is beautiful in my view.

Killbear PP had that type of forest but also was the start of the beach phase of our vacation. From Killbear we moved on to Awenda PP where there were fabulous trails thru the beech/maple trees including one that Lena and I took to the beach. After a couple of nights at Awenda we moved on to Sauble Falls PP. The beach there was voted best in Ontario and one of the 10 best in Canada. IT was beautiful – wide, flat, good sand and shallow water for a long way out.

I'm sure you all expected us to see sugar maples in Canada since the leaf is on the flag but I doubt you thought we;d be extolling the virtues of Canadian beaches! You should give 'em a try.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Another day, another beach



We seem to have fallen into a pattern; we get up early one day and sleep in the next. Today we finally got up at 8:38. About 2 hours earlier Melodee got up and went out with Lena so she could do her business. Lena never went back to sleep, but she was quiet. I made a fruit smoothie with peaches and blueberries and we actually got on the road within an hour including feeding the dogs, walking them and do the dump station shuffle. First stop was a fruit stand picking up fresh corn and blueberries. Before we paid the proprietor mentioned she had periogies made by the local Ukranian women. Sold. As we were putting away our goods, she came out to the camper to show us a fancy garlic vinagarette dress that doubles as a bread dip. Sold. We still needed to stop at the local supermarket in Penatang. Had 4 items on our list, left with a dozen items, all essential.

Today is a driving day. I estimated the total drive at 2:15. It only took us 5 hours so we are pretty much on schedule. The mandatory stop was Wasaga Beach PP. This is the longest freshwater beach in the world, 30 km. We spent a leisurely 2 hours sunning, swimming (me only), walking the beach, reading, and working the soduku in the Toronto Star, but all good things must end so we got back in the truck and drove on to Owen Sound, site of the Summerfest Music Festival. We talked to the gate people to get a feel for the festival and it feels real good. Came back to the camper to feed the puppies and we'll settle in for a few hours of folk music. Life is good.