More on Parry Sound

15,16,17 July 2014

Tuesday was a rain day for us. We did get a chance to walk up the town to see what was there. First was a store with all sorts of Canadian outerwear. They had on-site embroidery, so I got a new hat. It’s one of those with the cloth flap in the back to protect my neck. I had Quo Vadimus stitched into the brim. It has a clip on it, so in theory it should be harder lose. But I think I’ll look like a dork (yea, so what else is new), so it will be boat only wear.

Next was the Farmer’s Market in the town square. It was small but we did get some great smoked meat and new butter tart vendor to try. With our new found love for real paper books we hit the library book sale and pick up some more pulp fiction.

The sky’s looked like they were about to open up so we went to “Don Cherry’s”, an eatery run by the famous Canadian Hockey broadcaster. While we ate great sandwiches, we were entertained by the sales guy in the next booth selling the latest in hot water heaters to a new cottage owner. “Don’t want to sell you something you don’t need but with teenage girls you will appreciate the extra 15 gallons of hot water in the tank”.

Once the sandwiches and the rain was gone we headed down the street. We purchased a shirt for me (I’ve been good, this was the third so far on the entire trip), yet more pulp fiction from a used bookstore, and two more butter tarts. We decided to head back and do interweb related things to take advantage of the Wifi.

Dinner was at “The Bistro by the Bay”. We were seated next to some Canadian boaters we had met, he suggested the mussels. We had the “Thai Curry” broth, it ended up being more of a luxurious soup. It was also a huge portion, we were starting to reconsider our choice of main courses. Susan’s filet came, it was cooked exactly like she likes it with mushrooms on top. Her veggie medley contained white beets, an unusual item but it’s one of her favorites. I had the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, stuffed with sautéed spinach and apricots, topped with a grainy mustard reduction. Super tender with just a touch of pink. We both had the garlic mashed potatoes, creamy with just a touch of garlic. It was one of the better meals we had this trip.

As we passed the Stockey Centre on the way to dinner we saw a crowd forming. I’d asked what was going on and was told it was “Bands by the Bay” and that it ran from 7 to sunset. Since it was not sunset yet we decided to go check it out. The trio Gin Lane was playing. The room was packed but there was room on the deck. Tun, the woman I had talked to was sitting out there. We sat next to Dan, the other Dan, Darla and Tun. We chatted, one of the band members was a family friend. We talked about the band, Parry Sound, a really good pig roast that Darla and Dan help host for 10 years (drat, the last one was this year) and our boat. They were really nice people, it’s like we had been friends for years. Tun is quite the character, but she did say her name was easy to remember, just spell it backwards.

It had cleared off when we got back to the boat and the sun was doing it’s last glow.

On Wednesday we decided to head to Sobey’s market and Canadian tire to return the bike bags. Due to trying to interweb things we got a late start, it put is at “The Bistro by the Bay” at lunch time. Since there were 5 flavors of the mussels we hadn’t gotten to, we decided to stop in.

We had the “White wine cream sauce” once again it was thick and full and flavorful. We had made the smart move of ordering extra toasted bread. We also got the roast beef sandwiches served on Yorkshire puddings. The mussels were as good as the night before and the Yorkshire puddings reminded us of the “Proper English Sunday Dinner” we had in Toronto.

After lunch we headed to Sobey’s. On the way we found great bike bags for Susan’s bike so it was worth what turned out to be a very long walk. We restocked on the essentials (food, cat litter) and caught a taxi ride home.

Unpacking our provisions and getting them stowed away took a long time. We did some more interwebs to get caught up on our postings.

We decided to try “Boston Pizza” that was only a five minute walk away. We sat on the deck and I had a really great small steak and fries. Susan’s half of a house salad was bigger than most house salads that I’ve seen. Afterward we walked and had ice cream, it was Bordon’s, we are out of the Kawartha Lakes area.

Thursday open up cloudy and windy. I walked into town to mail letters for Susan and drop off some of our used books at the library for them to resell.

Around 11PM, Terry a friend from the Bayliner’s Owner Group came over in a 20′ runabout. We got a guided tour of Parry Sound for the next two hours. We ate lunch outside of some of the prettiest places that we have seen on the trip.

Along the way he took us to the abandoned Depot Harbor a town that at one time had 30,000 people. It’s presently just the management offices for a lake trout fish farm that is out in the Harbor and along the side of the island.

I also got great behind the scenes on cottage infrastructure. How they get electric (hydro), propane, fresh water systems, removal of black water, etc. Lots of great stories on what has to be done to meet code. Putting in docks an cairns in the water. Lots of cool stuff.

With all the sun and fun we were pretty beat, so it was a small dinner and some more interwebs. We have decided that Parry Sound wins the best sunset picture award.

I’ve got the List of all the marinas on the bays and their services for next week. So I should be good.

At this point we are caught up on the blogs and pictures. We will be off in the morning to our next location.