Sunday, September 10, 2006

Vacation in Canada

Well, I left the guys at the Russel Fair to do the demo. I hope it turned out okay. Lots of cool stuff at that fair...blacksmiths, well drillers, cannon makers, all in what Brenda calls "testosterone alley". I was a little more taken with the antique cars. Hard to imagine a '79 Camaro as being an antique!

The ride west took me through the town of Wilno. Famous as being the first settlement in Canada of immigrants from Poland, and for the best polish sausage in the Ottawa Valley. Next week, I'll download a pic of a statue of its most famous resident...a fellow who had test flown the Avro Arrow. Janusz Zurakowksi is the fellow's name, and he has a Wikipedia entry that I cannot access on this public access computer, but his story is a stunning one!

Brenda did not see any moose on her ride through the Algonquin Park. Well, she did find one..a little the worse for wear however, and again, next week, I shall post some pictures!

Today, We went to see if Mr. Hoffmann was still turning pigs into sausages in the little town of Staynor. Apparently he is....but only on Tuesdays to Saturdays. Then lunch of wonderful Carribian Cooking at Angela's. I had the curried goat. It was better than it sounds. Brenda had a jerked chicken sandwich, all washed down with ginger beer. We drove around trying to find a dive shop, and discovered that even though we are on the worlds longest freshwater beach, nobody scuba dives around here. Well, tomorrow, I'll drop up to Tobermory (2 hour drive) and see what they have there. I hear the diving in Tobermory is the best in the world. We'll see.

So after tooling around all day looking at stuff, I figured, why not check out the famous "scenic caves". They really are scenic! They have great views of Georgian Bay! I don't think Jennifer considers a cave without a ceiling as a cave at all, and in fact, they are simply crevasses in the limestone created by huge blocks of limestome which are slowly falling off the Niagara Escarpment. Well, they closed early, so we walked over to the gondolas which were doing gangbuster work ferrying BMX mountain bikers up to the top of the hill! 35 bucks gives you all day up and down the slopes! This is something they have only been doing for a couple of years now, and it allows this facililty to be used even in the summertime. It is especially cool since all the downhill bike trails are through the woods, thereby not damaging the actual ski hills at all!

Right now, Brenda is up in the hotel room, frying up some pork chops. I wish I knew what it was about RCI Resorts....they sure don't like to give you a room with a view! In fact, I always get a room with a view of the construction!

Sorry, no pictures. Next week!

I just realized how many places could be googled from this report! Tobermory, Niagara Escarpment, Moose, and Scenic Caves of Collingwood! Have fun!

3 comments:

. said...

Ginger beer is good, but Spruce Beer is better! :D

I'll have to come by again and say Hi soon! :D

And I kid you not, my verification word is "iqbushyo" rofl :D

Jennifer said...

Too bad about the caves closing early. I don't consider it a real cave if it has lights and tour guides. ;) You can fry pork chops in a hotel room?! I've never heard of a hotel allowing such a thing.

Frustrated Writer said...

sounds like you had a great time. you have definitely piqued my interest.