Arrived at Toronto to be met by Roger who drove us back to their home town of Barrie, around 1.5 hours north of the city. We went through university with Roger, and shortly thereafter met Ingrid after they had met on their respective OE's. We were all in the UK for some of the same time too (so long ago!!!). We have regularly seen them in NZ, and once at Aileen's place in Connecticut, but this was our well overdue first visit to "their patch"!
Ingrid arrived home shortly after and we went for a quick tour of Barrie which adjoins Simcoe lake... our walk cut short by a thunderstorm but certainly a lovely city. Great to see a small slice of what they have been involved in within the community.
A special day
R and I took us up to 6 Mile Lake, where their family (Ingrid is an Ontario native) spends a lot of summer time at their lakeside cabin. The cabin was rented out during our stay but kindly we were well and truly pampered! The guys had arranged for a separate boat mooring for their boat so we would still have a chance to sample "their lake"
We took the Pontoon boat out for the day following an arts and craft cottage market trail which coincidentally fell on the day of our visit, a great way to explore the very scenic lake and gain an insight into the great Canadian tradition of summer cottage life. Just cruised around the lake from stop to stop. A reasonable sized lake, surrounded by trees and 800+ cottages, although you would never guess there was that many there. A hot, calm day made for a very pleasant relaxing time... even leading to Noel having a swim, believe it or not!
Stopping for drinks with some cottage neighbours involved an invitation to look through their 1950's cottage, very neat, original-ish property, which is a traditional lake cottage.
An evening meal with Sharon and Allan, some friends of Ingrid and Roger, at their lakeside house, and also Kristen (Roger and Ingrid's daughter) and boyfriend Matt, made for a fun early part of the evening.
There was a fireworks display on the lake in the evening, which was very lucky for us as it had been postponed 2 weeks earlier. We all, 8 of us, boated out on the pontoon boat to watch, along with lots of other "cottagers" boating to the spot from many of the lakeside cottages. Estimated to be well over 100 boats, a spectacle in themselves as they all headed home with pilot lights on after the event. A very spectacular end to a great day and very special for anyone hypothetically having a birthday on that day for example :) :)
Really, a lake and not a sea??
Drove to Parry Sound on Georgian Bay which is part of Lake Heron, one of the Great Lakes. Truly mind blowing how big the lake is! We had a 3 hour boat tour around a miniscule portion of the lake, on a large tour boat and you could swear you are on the ocean as nothing on the horizon to see.
There are lots of cottages, cabins and lake houses around the edges of the sound and on the islands. The other aspect we just can't get our heads round is how the entire lake freezes for the winter, and access to the islands is by snow mobile... mind boggling. We struggle to envisage the freezing aspect, not helped by how hot the summer weather is whilst here. All the water bodies are the same, and when we visited with Roger and Ingrid's lake neighbours they had just completed repairs to their cottage dock following ice flows shifting it during last winter... a regular job for cottage owners apparently!
Drove past some more lake areas on way home, a stop for a wander and meal out at cute settlement of Port Carling in the Muskoka lakes area. Included watching the lock system in operation for pleasure craft to travel between adjoining lakes. Great meal at Turtle Jacks grill overlooking the lake.
Take a hike
A drive through farmland to Collingwood, seeing the local ski-field, used by Roger, on the way. Collingwood itself is near a ski area, hills rather than mountains tho!. Blue Mountain is a purpose built town, shops and condo complexes at the base with snow activities for the winter and hiking and mountain bike trails in the area for summer. Plus luge, rope courses, zip lines, confidence courses, animal petting etc... the whole place was pretty busy but an attractive looking destination. We walked a hill trail to get lovely views of the south end of Georgian Bay.
A short drive up the road to check out the Thornbury cider factory, then back to downtown Collingwood for a wander and coffee... a lovely town of wide streets and brick buildings.
Back home where a cider tasting session ensued followed by a lovely relaxed meal.
Fly away, fly away home...
Ingrid away to work at 6am so we had said our farewells last night. A bit of time for our strategic final packing and Roger delivered us back to Toronto airport.... homeward bound.... a brief stopover in a very smoky (bushfire affected) Vancouver and then on....
A fantastic 3 months
The whole trip has been outstanding, nothing too major to disrupt us (pickpockets included and we can laugh about that now).
Canada has been a wonderful way to finish off the trip, the record breaking heat in the Maritime provinces just made that appealing area even more so. Also wonderful hospitality at Aileen and Bob's before Canada, and then latterly Roger and Ingrid's, was much appreciated.
Until next time.... some good advice gleaned on our Canadian leg....
