July 4 - Orillia

Bratwurst for breakfast at the farmers market (keeping to my see food diet)

After going to the Farmers Market at the Opera House this morning, we said a fond "good-bye" to our crew, and George walked them to the bus station where they were bound for Toronto today, and flying home to Richmond tomorrow. We then followed up doing laundry, cleaning the boat, and food shopping. By the time we were done, the Captain and First Mate were exhausted, but looking forward to moving on to Big Chute tomorrow.

July 3 - Orillia

Orillia opera house

Today we spent touring the town, having lunch out, etc. Sister Pat and Al treated us to a farewell dinner at a lovely restaurant called "Messa Luna", and we had several toasts to our trip. We are certainly grateful for the spirit of adventure and enthusiasm they displayed as they went through 68 locks and traveled almost 500 miles with us on the Erie Canal and Trent-Severn Waterway. This was certainly a cause for celebration!

July 2 - Orillia

Kirkfield lift lock

One of several narrow cuts on our way to Orillia

Today's weather was even worse than yesterday's with rain, wind, and chilly temperatures, but we persevered over almost 11 hours, 62 miles, 9 locks and large Lake Simcoe to arrive at the Port of Orillia at 7:15 p.m. We would ordinarily have broken up the trip, but the wind forecast for the next few days was not great, and we wanted to make sure that we would have sister Pat and Al at Orillia in time to make their travel connections home over the week-end. The pizza we had delivered to the boat tonight for dinner tasted great after a long day!

July 1 - Bobcaygeon

Gordon Yacht Harbor - Bobcaygeon

Canada Day in Bobcaygeon was overcast with occasional showers and the temperature around 62 degrees. Luckily it cleared enough that we could attend the town's parade which was great! They had bagpipe and fife and drum bands along with a drum and bugle corps, antique cars, kids on decorated bikes, fire trucks, bikini-clad girls giving out red and white leis, several floats, etc. (Unfortunately we left the camera on the boat.) George and I wore our red storm-gear, and a Member of Parliament stopped and commented on how great our outfits looked! We watched fireworks from the fly-bridge of our boat, but we couldn't believe that they didn't have a grand finale- the fireworks just ended in a fizzle! We're not prejudiced, but it wasn't nearly a match for our usual 4th of July fireworks on Toms River in New Jersey choreographed to music on WOBM.

The trip by the numbers

As of this morning, we have traveled 624 miles, in 26 days, used approximately 300 gallons of fuel, visited 18 towns and villages, passed through 60 locks and are currently sitting at an altitude of 807 feet above sea level; tomorrow we will reach our highest point on the entire trip at 840 feet above sea level. The amount of gin, vodka, wine, and beer consumed is unknown and will remain so.

June 30 - Bobcaygeon

This entire area we have been going through since Peterborough is known as the Kawartha Lakes area of central Ontario Province. Today we motored through Stoney Lake, Lovesick Lake, Lower Buckhorn Lake, Buckhorn Lake, and Pigeon Lake on our way to Bobcaygeon. Pat and Pat had chosen this town while researching this trip back in April as a prime location for us to experience Canada Day on July 1. We are interested in seeing how their celebration compares to our American 4th of July, and we pulled into Gordon's Yacht Harbor in the early afternoon and secured our prime location for what we hope will be a great day tomorrow.

June 29 - Mount Julian/ Stoney Lake

On his walk this morning, George discovered the town of Lakefield only a short distance from where we had the boat tied up at Lock 26. Unfortunately we missed it because of the rain last evening and the dense foliage near the lock wall which hid it. If we had known that their local ice cream parlor had 55 flavors we would definitely have made an effort to walk there! Today we only went through one lock and headed to Stoney Lake.

The scenery there was completely breath-taking with many rock islands and some with homes on them. Evidently this was a small pre-cursor to what we will see eventually in Georgian Bay. Our destination here was Viamede Resort, an old hotel which has a marina, restaurant, pool, beach, watercraft, walking trails, and riding stables. Because of the cool temperatures and overcast skies, we only took advantage of having dinner at the resort, but it was a great day to relax in a beautiful setting.