It was difficult finding time for Holidays with the odd hours that both Joanne and I were working this summer. But eventually, we freed up a four-day stretch for both of us and decided to just take a series of Sunday drives around Ontario. We left Niagara Falls at 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning and returned, late evening on the following Wednesday. Our drive took us up to the Bruce Peninsula, around the bottom of Georgian Bay, over underneath Algonquin Park to near Ottawa, then back through the middle of Southern Ontario, down through the Halton Hills, and home. Sure was a nice four Sunday drives.
Holidays 2008
July 13, 14, 15, 16
Day One, Sunday
The Travel Day
Loading up in Niagara Falls, 9 a.m. Sunday morning
First stop (a block away), Tim Horton's drive-thru for 'needed' supplies
The plan for the first day was to do the long 3 to 4-hour drive up Highway 6 to the bottom of the Bruce Peninsula first, and get it out of the way. So off we went, car loaded with all the food we needed, camera, Psychedelic Sunday on the radio and 3 large Timmies coffees each.
The roads got smaller as we motored along, heading north. When we reached Wiarton, at the foot of the Bruce Peninsula, we turned left and headed to the shore of Lake Huron. We circled the Bruce Peninsula -- up the Lake side and down the Georgian Bay side.
Along the Lake Huron shore of the Bruce Peninsula from just north of Oliphant, Ontario to Stokes Bay, where we crossed the peninsula to drive down the other side. Our little Purple Saturn took a lunch break on the rocks near Howdenvale, half way up the peninsula.
... then off again.
In contrast to the rocky, somewhat barren Lake Huron side of the peninsula, the leeward Georgian Bay side is much more lush, with a number of rolling hills and sandy beaches, rather than rocky.
Before leaving the Bruce Peninsula, there was one final stop by the shore of Georgian Bay in Wiarton, to visit the memorial to Wiarton Willie, Canada's February 2nd groundhog for so many years.
Everyone has their own personal way to honour the memory of Willie. With some, it is laid back. Others are more reserved.
Hope Bay, Ontario
The road to the Cape Croker Native Reserve. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get out of the car that day as we were swarmed with deer flies as soon as we stopped -- the ones that take chunks of flesh when they bite. Naturally we saw very few people and no wildlife while we were there.
The 'tourist' at Lion's Head beach
It was starting to get late in the day. All that remained for today was to make our way around the bottom of Georgian Bay to the motel room that we had booked in Midland.
Women's Institute Monument, Kemble, Ontario
A very odd monument -- a concrete table, dishes and an open book cast in bronze, attached solidly to the table, in the open on the edge of a small hill.
The road into Midland (left) and a quick check-in at the motel before we headed out to see the town in the last bits of daylight.
Down by the waterfront
Some excellent painted murals covering the grain silos in the harbour
The sun setting over Severn Sound
Time to sleep. It had been a long day.
