Saturday was a really nice 80 degree day so we took the short 20 mile road trip straight north of our KOA to the little town of Penetanguishine. Its name in the local native tongue meant, "Land of the white rolling sands."

It is a picturesque town of about 8,000 with direct access to Georgian Bay from a really nice harbor. In the harbor is the recreation of the naval station called Discovery Harbour which was an important military post during the War of 1812. We had just finished the documentary series about the war so this was fun and educational. The place is manned by interpreters in costume and looks the way it should have some 200 years ago.



As part of the naval establishment it was an important supply base and ship repair and building center at the time. Currently they have two tall ships in residence, the larger Tecumseth and the smaller Bee.

Both ships are wonderfully maintained and we were able to explore the decks again with the help of interpreters in period dress. The Tecumseth is about 125 feet long and has a 90 foot mast. The larger piece of the mast is a single Douglas Fir tree!

After walking the old port for a while we then drove around the little town a bit. One of the remarkable structures is St. Ann's Church which was built in 1886. This thing is huge and beautiful and sometimes called the Cathedral of the North and was dedicated to the Jesuits who were a major factor in the establishment of this region.

After all the history which made us tired and thirsty and hungry, we adjourned to Ken's Pub on Main Street for a couple of Stella Artois and some fish and chips. You will notice the normal table setting which had the normal and malt vinegars for your fries ...

And then the perfectly cooked halibut arrived with chips, slaw and a roll. Jo-Anne is spooning some of the gravy from the cup on her plate onto my chips ... and yes there is some ketchup there as well for some color ... or colour.

Great day ... great food ... time for nap.

Now for the mundane home improvement stuff.

The new sofa-sleeper we picked up in Dubuque is wonderful and well worth the time, money, and effort expended to make it happen. As an extra benefit it has two pop out foot rests as well for the ol tired feet. Nice Flexsteel piece of furniture ... and not bad to sleep on as well!

I showed a picture of me installing the sensors onto the liquid tanks; well here is the rest of the story. Here I'm running the 60' of six conductor wire from the tanks to the main control panel over the front door of the Flying Scotsman.

And the panel where I had to cut a hole for the new readout and switch assembly ... was that the green wire or the red?

And the final product functioning perfectly. The old sensor outfit is at the top left of the panel and about as accurate as the fuel gauges in a Cessna ... not. The new panel is to the lower right and has a nice bright digital readout in percent of fluid in the respective tank ... really accurate.

After a long day's work rewiring things it's time to pause. This is for Richard and Wanda as their recipe bratwurst is boiling in the pot full of beer and corn on the cob next to it.

As per the requirement of the recipe one bottle of beer went into the pot and another into the chef ... makes for perfect sausage every time!

The Big Chute

OK, it's time to get out your history and geography books, eh.



Today about 20 of us, with the help of our park social committee went to visit The Big Chute which some had heard of and some not. This piece of Canada's history is part of the Trent Severn Waterway which runs from the north shore of Lake Ontario through 240 miles of lakes and canals and 45 locks and ends up in Georgian Bay where we used to go.

This transportation system, like the Eire Canal one was started in the early 1800's and by the time complete was made obsolete by more modern transportation systems. Today it is used mostly by the pleasure boat crowd to wander this part of central Ontario and its thousands of lakes and rivers.

OK, now on to the Chute. In the top photo above the sign you can see the cradle which is partially submerged at its starting position in the upper lake.

Pleasure craft up to 100' putt-putt into the cradle where they are secured by straps ...

Then the whole thing moves out of the water, across a road and descends to another lake 60 feet below ...

... while we followed ... the trip taking about 10 minutes to complete.

And gently deposits them into the lower lake to motor on their trip. When these boats exited the rig more were waiting to make the trip up in the reverse direction.

This thing was the result of necessity as funding was reduced before the last couple of normal water locks could be constructed and remains one of two of these water railways in the world.

After the show we all adjourned to a restaurant in the nearby town of Severn Falls ... fun afternoon and really fascinating.

The weather here has been very warm, obviously not as hot as most of the US but still hot for here. Today it is about 90 with a 40% humidity. Last summer we rarely had a day over 75 and it seemed to rain every other day or so. This year we've had very little rain which makes it even worse.

To make me feel cooler, here's a wrap-up of the kid's visit to Barrie which is mostly pools and lakes. Ev getting more instruction in the art of dog paddle at the KOA pool.



The fountain park on the beachfront of downtown Barrie was a real hoot for all.

Then to the beach again in Barrie with the dinner tour boat passing by in the back.

Then Brooks took the little guy out into the deep for some real bonding ....

which apparently didn't faze them at all and Ev is still smiling with the new experience ... neat and versatile kid.

And lastly I couldn't resist this one captioned, "OK, I've been very patient while you've been having that glass of wine, but where's the food you guys promised me?"

Beach Time!

Last week we were hosting Leigh and Brooks and Everett and decided as the weather was pretty warm to expose the little guy to his first beach experience. Above is his first walk through the sand and it was pretty fun for all of us.

Above he is explaining that he is almost three feet tall ... more to come, eh. And below his first real touch of beach sand. It was pretty neat to watch him explore the stuff and watch him thinking, "You guys are all watching me play with dirt ... Mom won't let me do that at home!"

As he waded further in to the water which was pretty cold he had some initial reservations about the waves and texture of the sand ... but with a little reassurance from Mom he would never be afraid of the water again.

Later as he got his suit on the three of them posed as Ev quickly learned to shovel the stuff into his new bucket ... a really quick learner.

Actually the fun part was watching him watch the other kids his size and what they were doing in the water and on the beach ... all sinking into his expanding experience reservoir.

A couple of days ago we found a new Chinese restaurant and decided to give it a try. It's Ling's on the south side of Barrie and proved to be quite good.

Jo-Anne's bamboo box at the top is sweet and sour chicken with salad and white rice. Mine is shrimp tempura (huge) with crab sushi and avocado on the right, a bit of smoked salmon with horseradish in the center and the same really creative salad ... and a couple of orange wedges. Service was perfect and the food choice was huge ... we'll be back.

On one of the days last week we headed up to the Muskoka area which is so beautiful. We had intended to take the steamship ride as we had done before but the one hour trips don't start until next week and the 2.5 hour one would have been a bit much for the little guy.

Here's the Winona and Segwun just prior to their departures. The Segwun is celebrating its 125th year of steaming about lake Muskoka; a real treasure of history.



We did wander about the harbor a bit and took the kids into the wooden boat museum as we have done in the past. Here's the crowd on the wharf on a particularly pretty day. Jo and Leigh wandered over to the farmer's market and got some fresh strawberries which were really good.

And on the way home we spotted this couple biking along in an antique bike and sidecar. If you can't read the helmets they are labeled appropriately, OHL FRT on the left and Myrtle, on the right ... life is good!

For the 4th we celebrated niece Dani's 25th birthday with some pizza and a bit of a cake that Ev is taking a serious look at.

Here is a nice shot in the cabin of Ev and great grandpa Bill having a discussion about life and other things.

And a cute one while Ev was trying out the bow from one of the presents as a hat ...

Obviously all had a good time wishing Dani a happy 25th and we were lucky that she could break away from her accounting job at the end of their fiscal year and come up to the KOA.

While the kids were here last week we rented one of the KOA lodges for them. This is not really camping I guess and the KOA has come a long way over the years. It has a bedroom at the back then a bunk room in the middle and a sofa sleeper in the living room. Let's see ... flat screen TV, full kitchen, full AC and heat, complete with built in BBQ and seats outside ... wow.

Here's the kids and Ev on the Fourth sampling some corn on the cob and other BBQ delights.

Actually it was Ev's first corn on the cob and I think we were all in tears with the experimentation but he really got into the process and devoured the better part of the cob ... quick learner!

Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July!!

Let me tell you what's been going on and catch up a bit. First I've finally given up on the air card here in Canada and now am using the local wireless so I can get back on line.

The last two weeks have been busy in the planning for the arrival of Leigh and Brooks and little Ev and then their week of exploring the area around Barrie.

We got the flag above to commemorate both Canada Day which is the 1st of July and of course the Fourth of July. The banner has depictions of both our flags and has been a source of comment from both Canadians and Americans in the park.

Yesterday we saw the kids and grandkid off at the Toronto airport after a really busy week of fun and exploration and we took another 1000 pictures of the adventure.

Later today I will begin to post a few of these with my new wireless connection and hopefully the Flying Scotsman adventure will be more reliable for all of us!