The Big Adventure: September 2011

Over Labour Day weekend we hired a car (Dodge Calibre) and headed to Algonquin Park (http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/). It's a massive Provincial Park about a four hour drive north of Toronto. We set off really early Saturday morning to avoid the traffic and arrived before lunch. We were booked into a lovely campsite on the banks of Pog Lake.

Our campsite, complete with our new little tent

Unpacking

After setting up camp and cooking lunch we went for a bike ride along the Old Railway Bike Trail that ran along past our campsite. We cycled about 13km in total and would have gone further had it not been for the heat and humidity.

Cycle ride along Old Railway Bike Trail

After our ride, we spent some time relaxing on the banks of the Lake of Two Rivers, taking in the scenery and inhaling the country air.

Lake of Two Rivers

Enjoying the fresh air

That night it absolutely chucked it down! Our wee tent held up quite well considering, but we did miss our Vango. In the morning, we finally decided to brave the rain and went for a shower. By the time we were done the rain had calmed down and we drove over to Lake Opeongo to see about renting a canoe. We were a little unsure due to the weather but as we cooked breakfast on the dock, the sun started to peak through and we decided to risk it. Really glad we did as the weather improved over the next few hours as we canoed around the lake.

Chilling out on Lake Opeongo

We stopped for lunch on Bates Island and got the Trangia out. No boring sandwiches for us!

Lunch on Bates Island

Obligatory couple shot

Taking in the scenery

The journey back was quite a bit harder as the wind had picked up and the water got a little choppy. We made it back without falling in - score!

That night we got a roaring fire going as the temperature dropped and cooked some humble corned beef hash.

Each night we had to make sure that all food and toiletries were stored in the car as there was a resident hungry bear!

Kate was scared to get up in the night!

We were actually quite sad to return home on Monday and would have loved to stay a little longer. We do however, plan to head back up in a few weeks to see the autumn colours.

So here's a very belated update to let you know what we've been up to over the summer. We've had a brilliant summer with a constant temperature of over 30 and a high of 49! We've been to most festivals that Toronto has to offer; including the Festival of India, Jazzfest, Caribana, Taste the Danforth, Buskerfest and the Canadian National Exhibition. Here are the highlights:

We kicked off the summer by spending Canada Day up in Caledon with the Ratcliffe clan. A day complete with red floral garlands, Canadian flags and a BBQ - true Canadian style!

A little while later Tejneet, a friend of David's from university, was in town on a business trip & we met up for lunch downtown on a rooftop patio, followed by a walk along the boardwalk down at the Beaches where we saw someone balancing stones in very high piles (take a look at the picture below) and a taste of the Beaches Jazzfest.

Kate & Tej on the patio

Stone balancing on the beach

Jazzfest

Then was time for our first house guest to arrive! Megan, a friend from Leeds was visiting her Grandma in Toronto and spent the weekend with us. We went to Caribana with Molly & Patrick whilst she was here. This is a festival of the Caribbean complete with a parade of amazing costumes, crazy music and lots of booty shaking!

Molly & Patrick at Caribana

The Parade's just getting started!

Some of the costumes were so big they needed wheels! This is a costume for one person!

Enormous Costume!

Ornate outfit

The next day we headed to the Distillery district for lunch and then walked to Ed's ice-cream parlour (http://edsrealscoop.com/default.aspx). We have never tasted ice-cream like it! Megan couldn't make up her mind so she went for four flavours in one enormous waffle cone - omnomnom...

Megan eating four flavours of Ed's ice-cream!

But alas, the visit had to come to an end and we were very sad to see her go. :-(

Time to say goodbye. :-(

Now, on to August. As our 3rd anniversary fell on a day when Kate was teaching and David was at his French course, we celebrated the weekend before. We went to Yorkville, a very swanky area of town, for a lovely meal followed by a walking tour of the area and finishing with people watching whilst drinking a refreshing ice-tea on the 650-ton Canadian Shield rock in Yorkville park. Our 1st anniversary was celebrated in Belgium, the 2nd in Scotland and the 3rd in Canada. Suggestions for the 4th on a postcard...

Sassafraz - a trendy café in Yorkville

David in Yorkville park

Anniversary meal

Whilst on our walking tour, we came across some quite random sculptures, including an enormous white inflatable horse (if you can call that a sculpture) and this cow driving a tractor.

A cow driving a Massey Ferguson

Next was Buskerfest. This is a festival in our neighbourhood where street artists from all over the world gather together in aid of Epilepsy Toronto. Among the acts there we took in a magic show where David got picked on to take part and a sword-swallower who also juggles knives blindfolded on top of a 10 foot unicycle!

David taking part in a magic show at Buskerfest

Street artitst - nutter!

Towards the end of the month we went to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). It's hard to explain what this was, but here goes - an enormous varied exhibition with shows, a fairground and an enormous foodhall.

Canadian National Exhibition

We started off the day with a visit to the cat show - OMG! These people are crazy (and also quite scary)! Here is an example of how one owner had decorated her cats, their cage and even the table it was on. Words fail me!

There are no appropriate words to describe this!

Next we walked around the international trade section before heading to see the Superdogs show. Here we saw dogs race over obstacle courses, dance and do various other tricks. David laughed joyfully like a small child...

The Midway (fairground) at the CNE

After taking a wander through the Midway (fairground), we took in another show - an ice-skating and gymnastic Broadway extravaganza! It was a bizarre but strangely entertaining show.

From here we made our way to the immense foodhall - we have never seen so much variety under one roof. Below is a picture of the most talked about item of food for sale! Gluttony has taken on a whole new meaning!