We left Kenora driving east along the Great Lakes with Toronto in our sights. We drove for hours...and then we kept driving...and then we kept driving. And. Then. We. Kept. Driving - ONTARIO GOES ON FOREVER. We tried to pass the time spotting moose; however, we never did see one, thus the time passed slowly.
When we finally reached the Toronto area we spent our time catching up with the many old friends that live in this area. From Mississauga to Toronto to Waterloo we spent our days at the beach and nights on the town.
After a few tearful goodbyes we winded our way to Niagra in search of the ever popular falls. We soon discovered that wineries are in no shortage (including one owned by Wayne Gretzky). It would have been rude not to stop in at a few, so we did. They took a liking to our cross country traveling ways and we received tastings for free at each! Hazen was so excited when he heard that one of the wineries specializes in mead - you know, that drink they are always drinking in olden time movies and books, i.e. Robin Hood, Beowulf, etc. For those who don't recall it's a wine-like drink made from honey instead of grapes and delightfully tastes like champagne. Fun fact of the day - the term "honeymoon" is derived from the tradition in olden days when the father of the bride was supposed to supply the newly married couple with enough mead to last 30 days. The new husband and wife were to drink the mead every night for this 30 days in order to help them procreate; thus, the term honeymoon.
When we arrived at Niagra we were taken aback by the awesome falls accompanied by the gorgeous, ever present rainbows arching overtop. For those of you who have not been, the falls are amazing and the town has been aptly coined Canada's Vegas. We can testify that this is very true. We wish we had photos of the tacky streets lined with haunted houses, amusement park rides, ice cream stands and chain restaurants accompanied by an overdrive of lights, sirens and horns for your senses delight, not to mention the many screaming children and people pushing past you through the crowds. Sorry Niagra, we wanted to like you...
Our next destination was up along the Ottawa River near the county of Renfrew - it's ok if you don't know it well, apparently neither does TomTom, our GPS. We were heading to visit Hazen's headmaster's family at their cottage along the river. They kindly offered us a relaxing evening complete with a swim, a sauna and a beer - except we got a bit side tracked on the longest day/night of our trip. We set out on a 5 hour drive that quickly became 8 hours when we hit Toronto's rush hour traffic on a long weekend, but we got through it and headed off into cottage country. We started to get a bit puzzled by the directions TomTom was giving us when we began transferring from highway to dirt road to highway to dirt road, all within 10km of our final destination. We drove down little paths such as Lover's Lane, Pleasant Valley Drive and Gore Line Road - yes, GORE! As it neared dusk and we began to feel a bit like we were in the beginning of a horror movie, we started down a little gravel path that was a mere 2km from their haven in the woods. 1km down this road, the path suddenly veered away from what TomTom was telling us to do (he was telling us to head down an overgrown goat-trail that hadn't been used in 25 years). We took the veer, instead of pushing the van through the woods, and wound up at a clearing with a bunch of old farm cottages - complete with rusty pitchforks and sickles everywhere. Remembering the big, menacing "NO TRESPASSING" sign at the entrance - obviously painted by a one eyed, inbred, chainsaw-wielding giant with a thing for travelers - we quickly determined we had gone the wrong way and went back to find cell service to call Eva, our friend, for directions. At the original confounding point in the path we got one bar and pulled off the path to take advantage. While calling, Hazen shut the van down to let the motor cool from the sweltering summer evening. When Hazen went to get out of the van to cool himself down, he tried pulling the key out of the ignition to avoid the loud annoying buzz it makes with the door open - we wanted to avoid waking the giant! To our dismay, the key refused to come out. 'Never fear', Hazen thought, 'I'll turn the car back on.' Nope. It wouldn't do that either. Ok, so beyond starting the chainsaw for him, we had made it as easy as possible for the horror film to begin! After an hour of frantic directions, an emotional break down or two, Eva finally saved us and took us home in her armoured vehicle - a blue minivan! After a good sleep and that promised river-dip we returned to the van in the morning to call CAA for a tow.
We happened to be there for the buskers festival and took in a few different street performers as we explored Canada's capital city.
We miss you Autumn and Hazen! Thanks for the great visit!
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