Orillia

If you learn nothing else from this blog tune in to the Vinyl Cafe. We listen to it on Sat at 7PM, just after PHC. We get it on Iowa Public Radio, the WOI feed. This is a CBC show. The host, Stuart McLain, tours small town Canada and presents a weekly show of his writings and Canadian music, think Hawksley Workman, Serena Ryder, etc. Anyway sometime during the long dark Iowa winter he did a show from Orillia and turned me onto Stephen Leacock. He was a Canadian writer/humorist around the turn of the century whose signature book is "Sunshine Sketches of a Small Town", set in Orillia. I knew we had to make a pilgrimage. As is the case with so many of my travel ideas, the place turns out to be all that I imagined. We are sitting on the patio of the Brewery Bay cafe. I'm enjoying some poutine with curry gravy and a good beer, Melodee has sweet potato fries and a strawberry daiquiri. Again, life is good, we;re off to the Leacock museum.