Road Trip To Orillia

This morning we decided to go on another road trip.  This one brings us to a street fair in Downtown Orillia, which is just north of the town of Barrie.  Getting here took a really long time because the highway was jammed packed with people and their boats going up to the cottage.

The town of Orillia is a really nice place to visit.  It had a great little shopping area, with some nice stores to pop in and out of.  The street festival was fun with the usual street vendors,
bouncy  castle, food and crafts.  It was easy to walk around as many of the streets were closed to traffic.

Above is a photo of their library.  It was a really nice place to sit and enjoy the air conditioning as it was extremely hot out yesterday.

Neal and I love the water, so we walked down to Couchiching Beach.  They had so many large and small boats tied up in the harbour there.  We even discovered that you can take boat tours, lunch and dinner cruises there.  Sadly, we had just missed the last cruise of the afternoon.

As we walked along we saw lots of street art.  It looks like they must have had a contest and people made carvings and sculptures and the city put them on display.  They have some talented artists here.


We didn't go, but just a few streets away from the downtown is a casino.  We've been before and if you're into that kind of thing you might want to check it out. 

One last thing to note:  If you are finding your way using Google maps, be forewarned, it's not all that accurate and you may find yourself lost.  We did.  The Google map of the area is terrible.

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

 For today's adventure we went to the Royal Ontario Museum or as it is better known as the ROM.  The museum experience starts right as you get off the subway train with sculptures and hieroglyphs.  This is one of my favourite subway stations.

 Here is a photo of the old and new museum.  It looks like the new section called the crystal has crashed landed into the old building.

 Our first stop was to the dinosaur exhibit.  This has been my first stop ever since my very first visit to the ROM as a child.  I really think that dinosaurs bring out the kid in all of us.

 Our next stop was to the bat cave.  Neal was holding my hand through here because even though I know that there are no live bats here the cave freaks me out.  You can hear bat sounds and see fake bats hanging in the ceiling.

 They also have museum workers talking about various animals and answering questions.  Here this woman is talking about owls and birds in general.

 I liked the moose.  I actually saw one on a trip to Newfoundland.  This one was much larger than the one I saw though.

 Here is a mummy in a sarcophagus.  They were explaining that if a mummy is wrapped properly and sealed in a good quality casket, it will preserve what's inside.

 Ya T Rex talk to the hand.  I don't want to hear you grumbling!!!

St. Jacobs Farmer's Market & The Elora Gorge

This morning we visited the town of St. Jacob's.  They have a wonderful farmer's market with lots of fruits and vegetables locally grown on the many farms in the area.  There are Mennonite folks here from the local community with different stalls selling crafts, meat, cheese, maple syrup and stuff from their farms.  Once you are done with the farmer's market you can go inside of the building and see the outlet stores.  They often have a lot of good deals.

Once you have explored the outlets and farmer's market, you can drive a short distance into the town of St. Jacob's as they have more to see there.
 

About 25 minutes away from the Town of St. Jacob's you can drive to the Town of Elora.  Welcome to the Elora Gorge.  Usually this is much higher and there are even some rapids on the water, but after a summer of no significant rain this is all you get. 

 Neal and I exploring the town of Elora, Ontario.

Here's a moose Mountie that I found at the truck stop.  I thought he was kinda cute.

Niagara-On-The-Lake And The Outlet Mall

Sorry there are no pictures for this day as we've been here many times before.  The outlet mall wasn't all that crowded as it was a weekday.  We just wandered around but didn't buy anything.  They have many high end designer stores.  The best store at the mall was Bass Pro.

Then we went into Niagara-On-The-Lake to walk around the main street.  They have lots of little souvenir shops to browse through, clothing stores, jewellery and of course ice cream shops.  Faced with the big decision of which one I wanted.....sadly I chose my old standby....vanilla.  They also have a ton of pubs and restaurants as well.  Our main stop and the reason to visit was a visit to the lake.  Down by the lake there is a park with nice picnic benches where you can sit and relax.  We ended up meeting a nice couple from the UK and we chatted with them for some time.  It was a really nice way to spend the day.

Sadly on our way home the traffic was HORRIBLE.  It took over 3 hours to get home.  The 401 is the worst highway to drive on.  If being stuck in traffic wasn't bad enough, a rock flew off a truck in front of us and hit our windscreen.  Thankfully it didn't do any damage, but it was really scary.  It came right at my face. 

Oakville, Ontario

We continue our staycation in the town of Oakville, Ontario.  Where there's a harbour you will find us.  We walked around the main street to see some of the little shops and listen to some music in the square.  They even had some folks dancing to the music.  Then we walked down to the water and it was really peaceful and tranquil. 

Collingwood & Blue Mountains Trip

 Once again Neal and I set off for another summer adventure.  This time we visited Collingwood and Blue Mountains, Midland and Penetanguishene.

Our main focus on this trip was to go paddling.  We did a great outing with Free Spirit Tours down the Beaver River in these kayaks.  Our guide was really nice and very informative.  He told us all about the wildlife and fauna of the area as well as make sure we were safe. 

 Neal and I are back in the lake here at Blue Mountains Beach.  This is a private beach that guests of the Blue Mountains resort can come to or if you are staying off resort you can pay to come here.  I rented a kayak but there are also other watercraft to rent as well.

 Neal is very calm and relaxed, enjoying his time out on the water. 

 One evening we decided to play golf at Blue Mountains.  We played in the evening because it was extremely hot during the day.  It was still in the 90's at 8:00 p.m.  This was one of the hardest courses we've played and because it was so hot, our game really suffered.  We just wanted to be done with the game.

 We did a day trip to Midland, Ontario and visted Saint-Marie Among The Hurons.  I've taken a photo of the sign so anyone who is interested can read about this historical place.  It was a great place to take your kids and also adults who enjoy learning about history.

 Here Neal was guarding the fort.  Up there you could get a great view of the entire area.

 These two were showing us how to portage a canoe.  They had a lot of hands on demonstrations.

 This young lady was teaching us how the Wendad Indians started fire.  It's not a easy as it looked.

 Then we drove a little bit further to Penetanguishene, Ontario to visit Discovery Harbour.  It was another very interesting place to learn about the history of the area.

 We were on two sailing ships too see what life might have been like back then.  It sure wasn't as comfy as any of the cruise ships we've been on.  It was all very cramped onboard the ship.

 On our way back to Collingwood, we stopped at Sunset Point Beach to stretch our legs and see what this beach was like.  Because there has been a lack of rain the water is very shallow and really rocky.  It was beautiful though.

 Just before we headed home, we took one last stroll around Blue Mountain Village.  This is a great place to stay with a family.  They have a lot of programs for kids and a lot of sports for adults to try.  We love it here!  I would really recommend a visit if you are ever in the area.

Being A Tourist In Our Own City

 Today we decided to be tourists in our own city.  We got a TTC day pass which allowed two adults to get on and off of the transit all day as many times as we wanted to.  Our first stop was to the Union Station Outdoor Market for lunch.  They had a lot of little booths set up with all different kinds of food to buy.  I had the mushroom tacos.  They were good.  Neal had a hotdog and fries.

 Then we took a very long ride to a new place called Corktown Commons.  This park was set up for the Pan Am Games and then turned over to the city as a beautiful park.

We found some of these cool works of art along the way.  This one is all different kinds of light standards.

 Here's a water feature that had dancing water and kids and pets were having a great time.

 We finally made it to the Corktown Common.  It seemed that nobody has heard of this place and kept sending us in the wrong direction.

Below is the history of why it's called Corktown Common.

 Here I am just hanging around acting like a little kid at heart.

 Neal and I then hopped back on the TTC to City Hall to find the Toronto sign.  Here it is folks the Toronto sign.  It lights up at night too.  In the winter the water is frozen over and people can ice skate here too.

They had an arts and crafts show and sale here as well.  Our last stop was to the Eaton's Centre for some dinner.  They have the best food court there.  If you can't find something you want to eat there, then you're not all that hungry.

Well, that was today's adventure!  Stay tuned in the coming week for more.