21-22-23 June 2014 – The Summer Solstice

Toronto Ontario Gallery

So as all trips to far away lands start off, the camels are always late. In our case, it’s the National Rental Car agent, he’s lost and will be here late. No problems we has assumed that and our schedule accounted for it.

At 10:30 (from a planned 9AM start) we were sedately driving down RT 12 along the eastern part of the lake. It’s another of those wonderful blue sky days that Canada has been giving us on a regular basis. We’ve opted to take RT 12 to see the county, vs taking 400 and being reminded of I95 traffic at home.

Towards the bottom of the lake we see signs for Haugen’s Chicken & Rib BBQ in Oshawa, sounds good so we pull in to a packed parking lot. We go in and the place is pretty empty, which is weird since the lot is full. But we order some of their baked chicken and BBQ pork. Both are really delicious, I can see why they were on “You Gotta Eat Here” on Food Network Canada.

Going outside we checked the parking lot and it was RamblerRAMA 2014, open to anyone with an AMC vehicle, including all Hudson, Jeep, Nash, Rambler and Renault automobiles. Very cool since we had Ramblers as a kid, mom had a Pacer and I was the proud owner of a Renault Le Car at one point. So it was a nice trip down memory lane seeing the Rambler and Pacers. Sadly no Le Car’s but I’m not sure they were sold in Canada.

We soon got back in the car and were off to Toronto. First stop was the world famous Toronto Zoo. Of course being a nice Saturday in June, it was a zoo with all the people. And little kids. And about 10,000 strollers. With more little kids in the strollers. But not to be daunted by adversity we sallied forth into the zoo.

We did the Zoomobile tour around the outside of the zoo to get help on figuring out the map. I love maps where it says “Not to scale”. We were told that the Panda exhibit would be busy so we headed there after getting off the train. No lines, no crowds. They have a really nice “pre-Panda” display about the habitats, different kinds of pandas, what they eat (and of course what they poop). The intent of the display is to funnel you into the exhibit in an orderly fashion, but in our case there was no pandemonium getting to see the pandas. Both were up and eating and there was a zoo keeper talking about them.

We headed off to see the brand new baby polar bear. Expecting a tiny cute baby, we found an almost adult sized bear swimming around. I guess that 6 months ago it was a cute baby, but it had blown past the toddler stage and was now a teenager. But the frolicking was cute, so worth the walk.

They have all of the other zoo stuff, a pair of giraffes, rino’s, elephants, camels, etc. They also have a Great Barrier Reef exhibit with jellyfish and sea horses. Our last exhibit of the day was the primate house. Because of the heat most of them were back in their little rooms. In the main room was a huge climbing setup and off in the corner was something with a drop-cloth over it.

We were highly disappointed until the drop-cloth started to move. It slowly stood up and started to move over the platform. The cloth moved and it turned out to be an orangutang out for a stroll. He carefully maneuvered over the setup, never loosing grasp of his cloth. He made a few circuts around and then settled into the corner, pulling the cloth back up over his body.

We took the hint that it was time to go home. Just outside was another huge climbing system. Except that this one was loaded with people. They hooked you to an overhead safety system track. You could then climb stairs, walk across rope bridges, hop from one platform to another (20 feet in the air) in relative safety. We watched a six year old girl clamber around with as much grace as the orangutang had moments before.

A short Zoomobile ride and a longer walk to the parking lot later we were zooming down RT 401 into the heart of Toronto. Or more correctly the heart of North York, a Toronto suburb. Susan had picked a hotel that was on top of the Toronto subway system to make sightseeing easier. We checked in and showered away the zoo dust.

Outside the hotel was a little fair going on, while Susan lounged, I checked it out. It was an alternative energy exhibit sponsored by Ontario Hydro. There were displays about the new CFL bulbs, uses of solar, electric cars, electric bikes and even electric skateboards. The University of Toronto had their solar power car on display. It was pretty nice setup on how we could do a better job with our energy choices.

Every year for the last 14 I’ve made a huge effort to be out on the water to watch the sunset on the Summer Solstice. Only missed a few years because of rain. This year our plan was to watch it from the sky.

Just ahead of dusk we headed downtown to the CN tower, one of the tallest buildings in Toronto. We were whisked up to the 360 Restaurant. It rotates around the tower so you get a full panoramic view of Toronto. We got seated and Susan set up the GoPro to get a movie of our experience. Over her shoulder I could see the setting sun, and a really nice sunset.

We both had the prix fixe dinner, although Foster substituted his appetizer. He had a pea and pancetta tart to start and peppered sirloin strip for the main, Susan had a seafood chowder to start and beef cheeks with morels for her main. The amuse bouche and desserts were also quite good, but the best part is the revolving 360 degree view. The combination of really great food and the amazing view made it a perfect evening. At the end we had gone full circle and we could see the lights of Rochester (90 miles away) on the horizon. We both found it hard to believe it was just three weeks earlier we had been there.

Make sure you check out the time-lapse that Susan shot. It’s in the video section.

We got up the next morning and courtesy of Toronto Transit we were soon in Chinatown. All the shops. All the smells of food cooking. Colors and the noise of people hustling around. A real sensory overload.

We soon navigated to Rol San for Dim Sum. Normally I expect carts with little bamboo baskets of “you try you like” on them. We were given a menu of items. So we checked off our favorite items and some new ones to add to “we tried we liked” list. There were things we loved and things we didn’t agree on (Susan loved the taro cakes). We ordered a couple of dishes blindly, but did pretty well overall.  Ordered too much as usual, and once again no easy way or place to carry it.

After gorging ourselves we retraced our path to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). It had caught our eye since it was a very futuristic looking building.

We started off in the basement to look at model boats. It was a very extensive exhibit of boats covering the history of sailboats and steamships. Some of the models were from the late 1600′s they had been hand carved by prisoners of war that had been captured. They sold the models to earn money for better food. The details were amazing. Some models had been built by shipbuilders as sales tools. All the brasswork was gold plated to make the boat shine.

Up two flights was the Canadian wing of the Gallery. We got a good view of what life was like outside the cities in the 1800′s. Lots of great paintings of the times. Not sure how long I would have lasted back then.

Upstairs was the contemporary art galleries. We cruised through, some pieces we liked. Some we didn’t get at all. One of my favorites was a preserved blackboard from a teachers class. If I had only thought to save my blackboards from the years at teaching at Drexel I’d be a millionaire. (Or have a warehouse of unsold blackboards.)

After being fully cultured, we headed back towards the CN tower. We had seen signs for the Toronto Railway Museum at Union Station and the John Street Roundhouse and decided to check it out. On the way we past shops selling everything possible and lots of restaurants that we could check out later.

The museum is set in the roundhouse of Canadian National Railway. It turns out that the right hand bays contain a furniture store, the left hand bays contain the Steamwhistle Brewing company. That left the center bay for the Museum. It was small, lots of items like silver and lanterns. I was a little disappointed since we’ve been to the one in Strausburg.

But they do have a cool 1/10 size working steam engine that they give rides on. It is all hand built and runs by burning diesel fuel (clean air laws have a problem with burning coal). We watched the train and headed over to the Steamwhistle company for a beer sampling.

The last two tours of the day were full, but I was able to get pictures of the brewing tanks and the bottling line. Since it was a Saturday the lines were shut down, only the brewers were working. Refreshed we headed off to the subway to do some serious tasting.

A few stops and a short walk we entered Bar Volo, with 32 craft beers and ciders on tap. We spent the next two hours trying 11 of them along with dried meats and cheeses. Susan is not much of a beer drinker so it was a great chance for her to try different ones. I’ve been working on trying lots of different Canadian beers, so it was on my list!!

From Bar Volo we transited to the Queen and Beaver Public House for dinner. We both had the Sunday Roast Beef Dinner (rare roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding) and listened to sounds from the upstairs bar of the US not doing well against Portugal.

On the way home we came across a labyrinth set in paving stones. Susan set out to walk the full length, my ADD kicked in and I was soon at the center. Susan toughed it out to achieve enlightenment and upon reaching the center her enlightenment was the same path that took her in would take her out.

Moments later we were back on the sidewalk heading for the subway. We were soon back in our hotel, ready for bed and for day three of our Toronto adventures.

Susan has gotten up early on Sunday and found that the free breakfast buffet was very nice. So she rousted me out and we both had a great breakfast of poached eggs and a nice holindaise sauce, bacon, sausages, home fried potatoes, stewed tomatoes and toast and jam. Very nice and the coffee was very good. The original plan was to head to the Science Center but we had seen signs for the Royal Ontario Museum, hey had an exhibit if Chinese artifacts from the Forbidden City. We decided Chinese Mysteries were on deck and were soon winged away on the Subway almost at the front door.

They had set the exhibit up like you were coming in the first time. Lots of rooms of things to see before you even saw the emperor. But you were soon past an into the inter areas that only the emperor and the wives had access to. They also showed the shear manpower it took to run the place. It was a very impressive exhibt. They had taken the time to write understandable tags and descriptions for the items. They put them in a context that make sense to me the viewer.

We spent almost two hours walking around when I spied the Dinosaur → sign. If I cant get me some good tech science, dinosaurs will fill the bill.

The ROM had an excellent exhibit that we wandered around for an hour. Time was up, we needed to head back. One last transit ride, a quick stop in the food court for Thai noodles in a box and we were on the 401.

Soon we made the 400, recognized the driving pattern from I95 and I was in commute mode! We flew by lots of things (Wanted to go to Lego Land, but need a child under the age of 14, no just adults. ) So as we hurtled up the 400, zooming at high rates of speed with all the other commuters.

And with that the Toronto part of our trip was over, but we would soon be at Big Chute to do a pre-crossing visit

19 June 2014 (Pictures soon)

Today would be a easy, but sort of dull day. We have only a few locks to do and a scoot across Lake Simcoe to “The Narrows”.

After our nice overnight stay we got up to a sunny morning. Remember the comment about the really clear water a few posts back? Well Susan in her quest to make coffee in the morning while being super quiet had decided to use her propane stove (rather than the generator). In the process of moving the stove to the dock she dropped it and the pot into the water.

Lucky for her that the water was so clear that she was able to scoop everything up from the bottom! She made a creative set of chopsticks with the boat poles and was able to rescue everything. When I got up, we fired up the generator and she made coffee and breakfast for us.

With the wait for the lock to open at 10, I set up a deck chair and read a “dead tree book” from the used book store we had gone to in Fenelan Falls. Susan headed up the access road on her bike to check out the countryside.

When she came back I noticed there was a square yellow reflection in the water. Except it was weird, as I moved, it didn’t move, it was like it was painted on the water. Looking some more I relized that it was a towel on the bottom. Susan to the rescue, this time with her rod and a bare hook. A little short flip cast, hook, and reel in an 11lb towel! Success!

By now it was time for the lock to open. The lock team drove up and verified we were ready to go. They opened the lock and we were on our way.

They had gone to lock 41 to let the other boats out, but they had refilled the lock before they came to get us. So it was no waiting at the next three locks. In under an hour we were on Lake Simcoe headed North (well actually NNW, but that is a boater thing)

We had been warned that Lake Simcoe could be rough, but the lack of wind made it an easy ride. Once again the auto-helm was useful, I just set the course and off we went. I kept an eye out for snags and debris in the water, but it was an uneventful trip.

We got to Mariposa Landing Marina and I knew I was in slip A27. So we turned in and went down the fairway. It soon turned left into a dead end. At the far end was the looper boat Knot So Fast. So we idled and waited for a dock hand to show up. The Marina Manager Nancy waved at us from a slip, we backed up and got into the dock. I was a little surprised, since the Quo Vadimus is 15’11” and it looked like the dock wasn’t much over 17′.

After we got in, we decided to head to town. We were told it was a short distance, so we headed off. About an hour later, we arrived at the edge of the downtown district. Not really what I would have called a short distance but not bad.

Orillia is a neat little town, it’s about 30 square blocks of downtown. The norther end of town is the lake, it’s taken up by the town dock and a really nice park. There are tons of stores: bakery, 2 guitar stores, bookstores, lots of places to eat.

The opening picture is from the docks, the sailboats are sculptures along the dock wall.

We chose “Brewery Bay Food Company”, lots of beer on tap and a good selection of pub food. I went with wings, and was surprised that classic wings were breaded. Having lived in Buffalo, wings are not breaded unless you are eating at a KFC. Oh well.

After dinner we did a big circle of town to see the other stores and what was going on. The thing that caught our eye was a show called “Hank and Patsy’s Heavenly Hoedown” at the local theater. Susan called, they had tickets. She also tried for the fancy restaurant in town, with was looking like Friday date night.

Friday morning was a chance to catch up some. Susan posted pictures and movies while I did some general items to the boat. She also did research on transit and we found that their was a bus that stopped near the marina.

We got to town and Susan went off to get a pedicure and I went to the local used bookstore to see what they had. I also check out the dollar store (a much larger selection of items) and then collected Susan.

We were not able to make the fancy dinner and show work out so we went to Studebaker’s on the waterfront. Classic burger and beer joint. Bonus points since they brought us popcorn to start! I checked and the wings were not breaded so I had them. A good place to hang out and people watch.

“Hank and Patsy’s Heavenly Hoedown” was held in what was the local movie theater. The premise of the show is that Patsy Cline and Hank Williams were in Heaven and had agreed to do a show at Radio station HEVN. It was just like those old time shows with an MC and a house band. The actress that played Patsy (Samantha Windover) sounded just like her. Her renditions of “Crazy” and “Walking after Midnight” sounded like I remember. It was a very good show with lots of good duets. The house band was very good, they played an amazing version of “Ghostriders”.

After the show we walked down to the town dock. Saturday was to be “Christmas in June” and some of the boats were on display.

We got the bus back and headed home. Saturday starts our three day trip to Tornto!

18 June 2014

We spent some extra time in the morning at Rosedale after they got the wireless to work. Susan got some pictures up and I got a chance to write the Rosedale post.

We got off the dock at 11:30 AM on a pretty overcast day. Not the best for traveling, but the forecast was for things to improve as we went along the day. We were soon out in the lake passing Grand Island. It’s home to 41 families and 202 cows. The night before I had talked to a resident that was getting delivery of a new sofa and he gave me the full story.

About 12:30 we entered the Kirkfield Channel. It’s a long stretch of narrow canal. There is a sign at both ends asking boats over 40′ (that’s us) to announce that they are entering the channel. This allows big boats to pace themselves so we don’t need to pass each other. I’m sure I could pass another 45′, but the Kawartha Tour boat at 100′ is a different story.

It’s a little freaky to look into the water. It’s very clear and you can see the rocks at the bottom. At home when we see the bottom, we are most likely already aground. In this case the bottom is 10′ down. But we keep an eye out anyway.

There are also weeds. Up until now the weed growth has been light, but now that the water is warmer, the weeds have had a chance to take off. The weeds freak the depth finder out. If the clump is dense enough it will register as the bottom. So I watch the gauge go from 10.5′ to 1.2′ to 8.9′ to 1.3′. Lots of trust in the chart, the GPS and Susan’s eagle eyes at the bow.

We pull into the Kirkfield Lift Lock a little after 1PM. We will be going down, so rather than pulling up to a wall like Peterborough the water ends at the end of the pan. We can see the tops of trees just past the bow of the boat. The lift team guide us into place and we tie off. The door clangs shut behind us. “Please keep your hands inside the ride at all times” flashes through my mind as we rapidly drop the 60′ to the river below. In less than 5 minutes we are on our way down the second part of the channel.

At the end of the channel is a small lake (Channel Lake) that feeds us into Bolsover and another set of small channels. The next lake had an interesting round bridge that we had to go under. (It’s the title picture). I wasn’t sure how it would work since we are mostly square. We folded down the antenna’s and we just fit

We had planned to spend the night at the top of the Bolsover Lock (#37) but there was construction going on. We had a chat with the Lock Master, he called the other locks and they decided that Lock 39, Portage would be the best place to stay.

One of the problems we have on doing the “down locks” is Susan reaching the cables to be able to tie off. At this set of down locks the lock team have taken our lines and looped them around the cables and handed them back. This has made the process a lot simpler.

We quicky cleared Lock 37 at Bolsover and headed towards are next lock. Because this section was also dug, it’s long and straight. Sadly it’s over pretty flat ground, so you miss the stone on either side and get the feeling that you are moving down a Texas sized drainage ditch (sorry Canada). But it’s very pretty countryside.

We cleared the next lock at Talbot #38 a little after 3PM. Since we knew the next lock would be home for the night, we drifted down to the top of lock #39 Portage. We were surprised, the lock team showed up to make sure we got tied up for the night.

We broke out the bikes and biked down to Lock #40. Two Looper boats Grey Fox and Knot So Fast were at the bottom. I had talked to Grey Fox a few days ago. It’s a really nice catamaran that makes a great loop boat. We chatted with all of them, for a few minutes and then headed back on our bikes.

Susan displayed her cookout camping skills and made a great dinner. After dinner we had visitors from a mink family that Susan posted about. After the mink adventure, we both tried our hands at fishing. Lots of nibbles for me, Susan caught two small blue gills. She has been a regular Joan Wulff on this trip.

Since we were far away from towns, I got up in the middle of the night to check out the stars. I was thwarted by Mother Nature, the sky was still overcast. Oh well, we will be in the Georgian Bay soon, I can look then.

17 June 2014

Tuesday in Fenelon started off bright and wonderful.  We took our red wagon to the store and stocked up on water for the next two weeks.  I spoke to the Lock Master Trevor for a few moments (not sure who in Parks Canada does hiring, but they seem to do a great job on the Lock Masters.

We spent most of the time in the lake fishing, since we were only going 4 miles.

We spent the night at Rosedale, and it was a good choice since there was a huge storm that moved south of us.  A tornado took out part of town and power was off in places in Toronto.

Sadly we did not get wi-fi until the morning.  Susan uploaded the latest set of pictures to the gallery Locks 20-34. I finally had a chance to clean the million bug bodies off of the boat.  I also got the starboard side of the bow clean, there had been a stain since we left the ocean.  I’m hoping to get tied on the other side at some point to get it cleared off also.

Off on Wednesday to the second lift lock in the Trent system.

14 June 2014

The trip to Fenelon Falls was just 2.5 hours and most of that was spent on Sturgeon Lake. We left in calm weather, but by noon the winds were 15kts with gusts to 20kts. The lake had whitecaps on it, but very little wave action. We rounded the corner into the river that lead into the lock and we were shielded from the wind.

The lock entrance is long and high almost making it a double long lock. We quickly cleared the lock are were tied up on the town’s new wall (circa 2012) that is very nice.

Fenelon is a small lock town, about 10 square blocks in size. We ate lunch at a place along the lock wall, that will remain nameless, since the experience was a worse than the dive in Lakefield. I’d like to think it is just me, but the people had a discussion with the waitress, sent their nacho’s back, and when the main course came, the Mom ate two bites with more discussion with the waitress. So it looks like our string of “great dive pubs” has come to a screeching halt.

We walked over to a nearby marina to see if we could replace one of our leaking fenders. They were confused by “round”. We were saying “round meaning spherical” and they were thinking of “round as in tubular”. They didn’t have what we wanted, but we were able to get the next marina we will be stopping at to order it.

Dinner was a Susan special of the great steaks she had purchased in Lakefield with apargus, loaded potato skins and garlic bread. Very, very good.

I did a quick walk for ice over to the marked, Sobey’s. I’m impressed, it’s like a Whole Foods. We are not near any big populations, so it was a suprise to find it.

We awoke Sunday to a great day. We unloaded the bikes and rode for an hour on the “rails to trails” path that runs through Fenelon. We then did a quick walk around town, I found a TD cash machine (very important) and a small place that I found some more red / white spoon lures at. Maybe my lure karma is coming back.

The boat behind us had recommended the Chinese place on the main street, so we got take out for lunch. We found that Canadian Chineese food is sligtly different than we get. Our lo-mein has vegitables in it, and there are some also in the egg roll.

With all the exercise in the morning, we both managed to get naps in. While Susan was taking hers, I walked down to the Albin 34 that I had spied to see how much bigger it was than the Albin 27 that’s owned by a friend. It looks like most the added space ended up in the rear cabin making much nicer.

For dinner we headed over to the Orchid Thai Bistro where we had spring rolls that were really good and the Basil Beef, which had just the right level of spice needed.

For dessert we did Kawartha ice cream. It was very good, next to the craft beers, this has become my favorite Canadian food.

Monday was heavy rain in the morning. We decided to spend the day here as a break day. You may have noticed all the posts that appeared in one lump, I spent most of the morning writing.

The rain kept up unto 2PM and then the sun started to come out. So hopefully the rainy weather is past us.

We will be heading off to Rosedale in the morning!

—–

Heather was nice enough to do a map of the last few days worth of trips.

7-9 June 2014

[Updated with pictures!]

I don’t know if you’ve looked at a map of our first part of the journey in Canada. We’ve gone about 90 miles on the water, but it’s only 50 miles by car back to Trenton. Or just 27 miles to the shore of Lake Ontario. It’s been lots of twists and turns along the river. Saturday (7 June) would be another of those days.

We left Hastings on Saturday morning and headed West. It’s just a short run to the eastern end of Rice Lake. We poked along the canal segment because of all the fishermen out on the water. This is really the second good weekend they’ve had this summer, so they are out making the most of it. Susan got into the swing by trolling along Morrow Point and into the lake.

Once on the lake it was throttles down and we were doing 10 kts on a very flat surface. While I did slow for fishing boats we made very good time. We passed a cruiser we had shared a dock with in Campbellford, they are working their way to the Georgian Bay.

After an 15 mile run, we took a right into the Otonabee River. The river is very, very narrow, with houses built up right to the waters edge. We took it slow for the remainder of the trip.

Susan tried trolling again, I put one engine in neutral and the other in idle and we moved along at 2.5 knots. A little fast, but about the best I could manage. She moved from the stern to the bow, that way she could cast off the front and her “bug lure” could sit a moment before moving on the water. We both saw big fish jump, but she didn’t have any takers.

20 Miles on the river we were at our first and only lock of the day. It was full with three other 18′ boats and the Quo Vadimus. We were soon locked through and nestled into our spot at Peterborough Marina. This is the first marina that we’ve been to that have braided the excess lines vs just dumping them on the dock!

There was a special present waiting for me, my wonder, awesome, amazing sister sent my hat to me!!! I had left it at her house and had missed it greatly.

We headed uptown to a hardware store, beverages, supplies and maybe some food. We stopped into the Only Boater’s World in Canada . It was small but very well stocked. I really miss the ones in the US, they were much nicer and less expensive than West Marine.

On our errand tour I found three used bookstores! I was able to pick up the two “new” Ian Ranking Inspector Rebus books.

Dinner was at Riley’s Old town Pub where we had plans to eat something and then go next door and shoot pool. But by the time we were done, the sun from the day had set in and we were ready to head back to the boat.

I hung out some with our new marina neighbors, but soon I was ready for bed and called it another very nice Canadian day.

Sunday started off great, I did a load of laundry and Susan and I had a great breakfast at Jack’s Chicken. (3 eggs, sausage, homefries, toast, coffee for $6.99!)

We then met up with Loopers here in Peterborough. She gave us a bag of local information and a jar of home made preserves. We talked about where we were going to make sure we didn’t miss anything.

We then set out on a great bike adventure to Lock 21, the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world. Opened on July 9, 1904, it’s been in use ever since. It’s very cool, there are two “pans” that you drive your boat into. The weight of the upper pan, pushes the lower pan up in the air. They add extra water to the upper pan so it weighs ~150 tons more than the lower. Gravity is then your friend.

We got to go in the control station and see the control panel. Very simple and everything is controlled by relays, no software involved. The pistons are driven by water pressure. They have a backup system of compressed air in case they need to move the pan up or down slightly.

After touring the lock and the visitor center we biked into town and ate at Gerti’s downtown. Traffic in downtown was very light, so I was not risking my life by riding around. I had steamed mussels in a broth, they were fabulous!

On Monday we hit Jack’s for breakfast and then headed over to the Canadian National Canoe Museum. I never realized that there were so many lakes, rivers and streams in Canada. Their canoe was their major mode of transportation in the 1700′s and 1800′s. We got to see very early 2-3 person canoes to a 30 foot long one that was used to transport goods.

Dinner was another attempt at Fish and Chips. The place in Trenton hadn’t met the mark and Susan wanted to try it again. So it was back to Jacks for F&C and they were very good. Highly recommended! Yes, we know that Jack’s is a chain, but even so, it has produced high quality food for us.

We are off to ride the Lift Lock on Tuesday!