Before we left Bracebridge this morning we went to the downtown falls at the 80 horsepower water powered generating plant that the city was wise enough to purchase in 1894 to provide electricity for the town; a very forward thinking elected body.

Then we drove about 10 minutes out of town to High Falls where there is another hydroelectric dam and waterfall.

We crossed the bridge and followed a trail down through the bush to get a better view of the waterfall below the dam.

It was a bit of a tree root/rock scramble to get down from the road and back up.

We left Bracebridge about 11:30 and drove straight to Sudbury passing lots of Ontairo’s typical scenery of rocks, trees and water. There were many pretty little lakes along the way, all of which had cottages surrounding them.

When we arrived in Sudbury we drove directly to the big Dynamic Earth science center and booked an underground mine tour. Sudbury has been a mining town for well over one hundred years. An internet post says: The Greater Sudbury area is an astonishingly rich mining district. By every measure it is huge. By the end of 2021 the district has produced more than 8 million tonnes each of nickel and copper, and over 3200 tonnes of silver, 300 tonnes of platinum and 100 tonnes of gold.

In 1883, nickel-copper ore was discovered during construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The discovery led to development of the Murray Mine. Within a few years many more discoveries were made and Sudbury became Canada’s first major mining camp. Within 30 years of the discovery, the Sudbury area was the nickel capital of the world and the economic engine of northern Ontario. To date, Greater Sudbury mines have
produced a third of a trillion dollars of metal at today’s prices.

The Dynamic Earth science center is home to the Big Nickel, the largest depiction of a coin in the world. Big Nickel is nine meters (30′) tall, weighs 13,000 kilograms (14.33 tons) and is made of a series of steel plates welded together and designed to survive the Ontario weather. The massively iconic coin is an exact replica of the actual five cent coin as it was designed in 1951. It was constructed in 1964 by a Sudbury firefighter who had proposed the idea of the giant coin and a science center as a Canadian Centennial project for the city. The idea was rejected so, despite much opposition from the town, he acquired land (just outside city limits so he did not need a permit), hired a designer, raised funds and did it himself. Upon its completion, the total cost of the construction of the Big Nickel was approximately $35,000. In 1980 he was successful in pitching his idea for a science center and sold the Big Nickel to the Regional Municipality of Subury for $550,000 and the Dynamic Earth science center was born.

We had a half hour wait until our mine tour started so we wandered around a couple of the science center rooms.

Quartz

Amethyst. The photo below is amethyst as well. I have not seen that form or colour before.

Banded iron ore

Petrified wood

Refined nickel. 99.9% pure.

I think the coolest thing I saw was this sand pit. It was very fine sand and you could pile it up and move it around and the filter and lights above it would show the piles as a topographical map. Awesome fun.

I snapped this photo fast and it did not have time to focus properly, but I have included it to show another shape that people made of the sand.

The underground temperature stays about 13° C (46° F). We descended in a cage – big elevator – about 21 meters (70′). The deepest part of an actual mine in the Sudbury area is 2.5 kilometers (just over 1 1/2 miles). The tour showed what a mine and mining was like in 1890, 1950, and today.

Obviously it is dark underground and our guide would only light up the section she was speaking about so photos are not really good. I also do not remember all the names of things. I am usually good taking note of machinery and stuff but I found our guide super annoying so tuned out a lot of what she said. She was just too dramatic and tried too hard to be funny and upbeat for my taste.

This is one ton of Sudbury ore. When smelted, it will yield about a fistful size of nickel. If the mineral content of the ore is as low as 3% it is still profitable to mine.

Back in the early days of the mines boys as young as 13 could work underground. They, and the men, worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Highest paid person was the driller who earned $2.20 per day. Lowest earned $1.20. When the carts were full it was the boys job to bush them to the ore chute where the rocks would drop down to the lowest part of the mine. The mine started at the bottom and worked upward so everything was collected at the bottom where it could all be sent up together. If the ore chute got blocked, which it did often, the smallest boy would be sent inside with a long metal pole to pound the rocks to loosen them, then scramble out of the chute before everything dropped.

By the 1950s and 1960s machines had replaced a lot of the grunt work of pick, shovel and hand-hammered drilling.

This is a weird photo, but it was the most fun part of the tour. They simulated a dynamite blast. The hole in the center is fired first. The four holes surrounding it will go immediately next, the upper sticks will then blow, followed by the bottom ones so the rocks blow into one big pile. We all went around a corner and plugged our ears. It was very loud and smoke blew out and lights flashed. It was quite realistic and well done.

A second generation pnuematic drill. The first mechanized drills created a lot of dust so a second miner had to stand by and pour water on it to keep the deadly dust down in the mine. These ones are hydraulic so have a water source built in.

Much of the gigantic machinery used today is automated and run via joystick from the surface. At one time 22,000 people worked the mines in Sudbury, today it is 4,000.

This is a drill standing on its head. The shaft will go down and then the gold heads will extend and grind the rock away. The jumbo drill has four heads that drill a hole as large as the circular wire net in the photo below and can drill about the length of the ‘hallway’ (next photo below) – about 30 meters (100′) horizontally.

These are fir tree seedlings. They grow them in the mine with UV lights. There is enough moisture in the air to keep them watered and the temperature remains constant. When they get big enough they are planted around Sudbury as part of the reclamation project.

We had not had lunch and it was almost 4:30 so we stopped at the first restaurant we saw and ate before heading to our hotel. Tomorrow we drive to Sault St. Marie where we will stay two nights.

Penetanguishene (Pen-e-tang-WISH-ene) is a bi-lingual community located on the southeasterly tip of Georgian Bay. We drove up here to see the Garrison Church, otherwise known as St. James Anglican. It is one of Canada’s oldest churches, built in 1836 and still in use today, so it was not open. I was hoping to see inside because the church was built with a center aisle wide enough for four soldiers to walk abreast. We had to negotiate detours because they were re-paving the street in front of the church, but eventually drove down a ‘local traffic’ only road and parked in the adjoining cemetery. There was a geocache hidden in the cemetery so we were able to find it while we were there.

There are two suggested origins for its full name – St. James-on-the-Lines. The first comes from its location on the lines of communication, or road, from the former military establishment at Penetanguishene to the south. The second may be from the old Victorian military usage of Lines for the rows of tents or buildings in a military camp.

The steeple bell was taken from an American schooner sunk during the War of 1812. There is some debate over which of two schooers it is from.

We next drove to Midland a few kilometers away to see the Huron-Ouendat (Wendat) Village at the museum. It is a pre-European reconstruction showing what Wendat life was like between 1500-1600. There may be 40-50 families in a large village while only eight or ten may live in a small hamlet. The populations would be made up of extended families who lived together for varying lengths of time.

Agricultural fields surround the village. Corn, beans and squash are planted together to maximize water and nutrients. They also planted sunflowers for oil. These crops provided an abundance of food for the villagers.

The village entrance is narrow and winding and controls access to its inhabitants from wolves, bears and unwelcome people. A surrounding fence also provides protection against strong winds and blowing snow.

The most important crop is tobacco and it is grown inside the village to protect it from frost and wind damage. The leaves are hung to dry in the longhouse in the fall. Tobacco is smoked in order to communicate with the spirit during village ceremonies, council meetings, curing rites and private prayer.

Large quantities of poles are stacked upright to preserve space and keep them dry. The poles provided an emergency building supply to repair or replace damaged structures. Bark containers filled with dried corn or meat were sometimes buried in the center of pole stacks to protect the food supply from animals.

Temporary shelters were fashioned after the wigwam made by the Algonkians, northern trading partners of the Wendat. The wigwams were used inside the village for housing guests and were built as summer shelters for the women of the village to use while they were working the fields as farming fields expanded away from the village. Hunting and fishing parties would also build them at their camps where they might stay for weeks at a time.

Corn comprised over 60% of the Wendat diet. It is harvested in the fall and dried in the longhouse. It would be ground into a coarse meal or flour for use in soups and breads. The kernals were placed in one of the specially hollowed out tree trunks and pounded with a pestle and were further crushed using a heavy wooden pole. The fine flour was done using grinding stones.

This tiny hut is a sweat lodge. They were not always a permanent structure in the camp, but were often purpose built for curing illnes or other rituals. Sometimes they were built inside and sometimes outside the village. Everyone would sit hip to hip, knees drawn up under the chin. The lodge would be covered with bark and skins and hot stones rolled into the center. Then the doorway would be closed. The men would sing and pray to the spirits, drink water and pour water onto the rocks to create more steam.

The shaman were called Arendiwane. They lived within the village but separate from the others. There were four types of Arendiwane: those who commanded the wind and rain, those who predicted the future, those who found lost objects, and those who healed. The healers were further broken down into two groups – the Ocata, who diagnosed the illness or source of the illness, and Aretsans, who prescribed the remedy. All received their powers through dreams, visions and contact with the spirit world.

Lookout towers were used to keep watch over the surrounding countryside. In times of war with other groups, the towers could be used to defend the village.

The Longhouse was a multi-family dwelling that was the center of Wendat life. Platforms lined the sides and were used for storage and sleeping. Cooking fires ran down the center. Rush mats were spread on the floor for sitting and sleeping in winter. Longhouses were where feasts were held, the dish game was played, clan decisions were made, the dead were mourned and babies were born. The upper rafters were used to dry corn, store beans, squash, tobacco, and animal hides.

There were two sizes of canoes. Large ones used to go on long distance trading expeditions could be up to 8 meters long and were used to transport goods throughout the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system. Smaller ones like in this shed were used for fishing, recreation, and personal short trips.

Games were very important to the people. Adults and children alike played them. Even ill people were encouraged to play to assist with healing. Lacrosse was played by all the men, even sick ones. The above photo is a Duck on a Rock pit. It is similar to bowling where you have to knock a small rock off a big one. The game was used to develop skills such as coordination, endurance and cooperation. Games brought clans (family groups) together in a social event which was often part of religious ceremonies.

We did a quick tour of the museum beside the village before leaving Midland and driving to Bracebridge for the night.

I always see a few really nice or unique pieces in museums.

This is an Everlasting Match. I looks like a pocket watch but contains a flammable liquid and flint that would ignite when scraped on the outside of the carrying case.

A shotgun shell loader. It was used to load and reload spent shotgun cartridges. The powder, shot, and wad compressed into the cartridge and new primer was added.

There was no sign to say how old the camera was, but it was really big.

What an amazing amount of detailed woodwork on this gorgeous clock!

Midland is a harbour town and all of these four sided stands have photos of boats and ships that would come into port for one thing or another over the decades.

This is the simplest hobby horse I have ever seen. A curved log, some sticks for legs, a bit of hair for the tail, a notch for the mouth and a carved circle for the eye. But I bet the child had many adventure on this little guy.

We had been hoping to spend a few days in the Muskoka Lakes area. John’s grandfather grew up here and told many stories of his youth. We saw several of the places he mentioned when we drove across Canada in 2014 but were hoping to do a bit more touring around. Unfortunately our accomodation issue has raised its head again and we could find no places to stay. So tomorrow it is off to Sudbury and the beginning of the long trek along the tops of Lake Huron and Superior. Sigh.

Today was an awesome day! And an unexpected one. We had been told Tobermoray at the end of the Bruce Peninsula north of Owen Sound was a nice place to visit so that was our primary destination for today. It is a one and half hour drive so as we were going along I looked up the area in a couple of my travel books. (I usually do this a day or so before we reach a place so we have a list of things to see, but the last few days I have not a lot of opportunity other than noting there were some waterfalls to check out.)

I discovered that there are two National Parks near Tobermoray: Bruce Peninsula and Five Fathoms Marine. Turns out Five Fathoms Marine National Park is the world’s best and most popular fresh water scuba diving site. There are 22 shipwrecks off the coast of Big Tub Harbour in the Georgian Bay and the water is crystal clear. About 20 small islands dot the waters and one of them is called Flowerpot Island after two dolomite formations on the shore. The Marine National Park protects the islands and if you want to visit Flowerpot you must book a tour from a private company that also collects the National Park fee. Thousands of people visit the area every year.

When we arrived in Tobermoray at 1:30 we immediately went to the ticket booth at Bruce Anchor to see if there were any available spots left on today’s tours. Luckily there were a couple of spots for the 3:35 sailing in a glass bottom boat that let you off for a couple of hours at Flowerpot Island so you could hike some of the trails.

It was a picture perfect day!

There was seating outside on top of the boat and that is where we sat. It was a good decision because we had awesome views of the two shipwrecks and the scenery as we sailed the 6.5 km to Flowerpot Island.

Both of the shipwrecks we saw are in the harbour. The first was damaged in bad storm but made it to safety. It was found to be too badly battered so they removed everything of use and let it sink. It is about 15′ below the surface of the water so our boat could go right over it. The captain did a slow 360° so everyone could see it.

The second one is not as deep so our boat could only get close to it. It was not as easy to see but is over 100′ long. A fire started in the ship and they towed it into the bay so it would not start any fires in town, but a storm blew it into the harbour where it burned and sank.

Big Tub Lighthouse.

We could see little islands on all sides of the boat as we made our way to Flowerpot.

The islands look like just trees, but there are some pretty large rocks hidden among them.

The lighthouse was manned for many years, but was eventually automated and the lightkeeper moved off island. The buildings were abandoned and deteriorated. A group of volunteers got together and worked to restore them.

The building on the left is now a museum, the building in the middle was the lightkeeper’s house and the building on the right was the assistant lightkeepers. The Friends of Bruce District Parks volunteers maintain the lightstation and which gives a sense of the lightkeepers lifestyle.

Flowerpot Light.

There are lots of caves scattered among the rocks on the island.

The Big Flowerpot and the Little Flowerpot.

Lots of people on the island. There are two companies that provide tours to the island. On some tours you sail out and then back and don’t leave the boat. Others will bring you out and leave you for four hours and others, like ours. leave you for about two hours. There are 6 campsites near Beachey Cove as well, but I don’t think they were available this year.

The Big Flowerpot

The formation at the top of the Big Flowerpot looks like a face and is called the Old Man. And it also proves that trees can grow almost anywhere!

It is suspected that the Little Flowerpot was once attached to the big rocks on the shore and created a cave or an arch, but that tides and erosion wore it down and it collapsed.

There is a nice protected harbour at Beachy Cove that is formed by a man-made breakwater.

Once we disembarked the boat we hiked along the trail that goes past both the flowerpots and all the way to the lightstation. The trail is a 3.5 km loop, but the section from the lightstation back to the harbour through the middle of the island is quite rugged and and has steep stairs. It is considered a difficult hike so most people walk the 1.1 km and then backtrack on the easy path.

The Little Flowerpot.

The Little Flowerpot has a pretty significant lean if you walk around the back side.

It is amazing that what looks just like a pile of rocks forms a tower that stays upright.

This is another of Bruce Anchors glass-bottom boats, but a much smaller one than we were on. Ours held close to 100 people.

We did not hike down to the Big Flowerpot. The path was quite steep and rocky. We were hoping to hike out to the lighthouse, but our boat left Tobermoray over half an hour late so that cut down our time on the island and we did not feel we had time to make it all the way there and back before we needed to be at the wharf for our return boat.

When we drove across Canada in 2014 it became my habit to sit in all the red chairs that had been set out in our National Parks. So, I needed to follow the tradition when we spotted these two chairs a bit further along the trail past the Big Flowerpot.

As we have been driving around in Central and Eastern Canada we have seen so many lovely stone and brick houses, both old and new. Usually I just admire them as we go by, but this one was very photo-worthy.

We thought we would drive around the countryside near Owen Sound, check out a few of the waterfalls I had noted and drive up to Tobermoray. That would have been a good day, but we very much enjoyed Plan B and our trip to Flowerpot Island instead!

We had a very diverse morning. Our first stop was a bank in Uxbridge to top up the wallet with some cash. Beside the bank was a statue of Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel S. Sharpe and a plaque about his sad end by suicide suffering with ‘shell shock’ (now known as PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

There must be a carillon in the old libray building because the bells were playing a tune while we were in the bank.

We stopped at the Uxbridge Historical Center. They had a small museum display and, as usual, we saw a few things we had never seen before.

There were 10 buildings on the grounds, but they were all locked so we could not go in. I think they only open them for a tour. We were not told there was no access but we were happy enough to wander around. I wanted to stop here because it was a Quaker community and thought there may be some interesting things to learn.

Municipal Hall

Fifth Line United Church. Erected 1870

Quaker Hill School.

Victoria Corners Hall from 1856. Sometime in the past few years a large tree fell onto this building. The back is all covered in tarps. It will be a major undertaking and expense to restore it.

I was a bit shocked to see the maple leaves turning colour already.

A few kilometers up the road we stopped again; to see the Foster Memorial. Thomas Foster, a local man who made a fortune in real estate and became a politician had the mausoleum built for the burial site of his daughter Ruby, who died at age 10 from pneumonia, his wife, who died from either cancer or tuberculosis, and himself, who lived to the ripe old age of 93 and died in Toronto.

The mausoleum was inspired by the Taj Mahal and much of the interior design is reminiscent of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

There are six types of marble, imported from France, Italy, the USA. The building was supposed to cost $125,000 but ended up costing $250,000.

The gold letters around the base of the dome say, “Take this my body, for it is done and I have gained a new life, glorious and eternal.”

Many of Thomas Foster’s relations are buried in the cemetery next door. It was originally called Zion Cemetery, but the name was changed to the Foster Cemetery. Chester McDonald, the eldest son of “Anne of Green Gables” author Lucy Maud Mongtomery is also buried here.

L.M. Montgomery lived for fifteen years in the manse of the Presbyterian Church in Leaskdale a few kilometers up the road from the Foster Memorial. She was married to Ewan MacDonald, the minister. She was already a successful novelist prior to moving to Leaskdale and wrote 11 of her 22 books while living here.

After the MacDonald’s moved the Township of Uxbridge bought the house and rented it out for many years during which time it became very derelict. In 2006 the Lucy Maud Montgomery Historical Society bought it and spent five years raising money and restoring the house. It opened to the public in 2011. Most of the furnishing are period pieces but there are a few original things, like her hope chest in the main bedroom that was donated by her granddaughter.

Maud took many photos of the various rooms in the house and also wrote about her life in the manse extensively in her journals so the Society had quite a lot of information about how rooms were decorated and furnished as they worked to restore it.

Daffy was the cat. The maid had to leave her upstairs bedroom window open every night so the cat could come in when it wanted.

The photos are of her mother, who died when Maud was young, her father and her two surviving sons, Chester and Stuart. Her middle child was stillborn. She named him Hugh.

She hated the dining room. It was too small, had too many doors and she wrote in her journal:

Some of the toys in Chester and Stuart’s room.

This beautiful spread was knit by a local woman without a pattern. She made it based on photographs of one that Maud had knit.

The church was a few doors up the street and on the other side of the road.

This life-size sculpture of Lucy Maud Montgomery sits in the church garden.

Maud claimed the space at the top of the stairs for her sewing room and from the window she could see her boys come home from the school across the street. The school is gone now but the beautiful brick farmhouse that was owned by the Leask’s for whom the town is named, is still there. The gravel road between the old school property and the farm house was one of Maud’s favourite views and the town has never paved it.

We found a few geocaches along a side road after we left Leaskdale and then had our lunch. After that it was a three-hour drive to Owen Sound.

Tomorrow we plan to drive up the peninsula to Tobermory, which we have been told is a nice area, and then putter around some of the nearby countryside.

Today was one of our shortest driving days, but we still managed to take most of the day to do it. We left our friend’s house about 10:30 and drove to the Victoria Park in Cobourg to see the beach.

We headed north and passed through several towns and more farmland.

A bit of a jog westward took us near the town of Orona and the Jungle Cats Zoo. They work extensively with zoological societies around the world to save, protect and breed endangered animals. All of their animals have been born in captivitiy, either at Jungle Cats or other zoos and all have been hand reared. They are not tame by any means, but are comfortable in the presence of people. They did not have really large enclosures but every animal was very healthy looking and any that were walking around did not exhibit the tense pacing we have seen in some other zoos.

So today’s blog is comprised of critter photos. As always with wild animal enclosures you have to try navigate the fencing – so try look past the greenish shadowy-stripes in some of the pics.

Two female white lions. The pale colour (sometimes pure white) is from a recessive gene. The white lions were revered in Africa and found primarily at Krueger National Park, South Africa. It is thought that there are no longer any white lions left in the wild. All of the surviving ones are in zoos or preserves. Jungle Cats has three white adult females, a female cub and a male.

A Kestral, smallest of the birds of prey.

Red fox

Wolf cubs. There were four – two tan, two black.

They were playing keep-away with a stick.

The male white lion.

Serval – a small wild cat from sub-Sahara Africa. Protected in most areas of its range.

Several species of tiger are now extinct in the wild. I think the sign named four different ones. Even though they are protected and critically endangered they, and other endangered cats, are still hunted. The stripped or spotted coats are still prized and the parts of the cats are used in traditional medicines. A small farmer in India can feed his family for years from the sale of one skin.

Arctic wolf.

Black Jaguar

Hyena. They have the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom. They can crush the femur of an elephant. You can buy a ‘Behind the Scenes’ ticket and a staff member will take you to feed some of the animals. One of them had a container with banana pieces and grapes and couple was there to feed the hyena through the bars. The hyena loved bananas and gently took pieces from the woman’s palm. But it rejected any grapes that were offered until it saw that all the banana was gone.

Timber Wolf

This wolf is 14 years old and drags his back foot a bit when he walks, but otherwise moves around really well.

Delilah, the other female white lion and her cub. She quit nursing the cub when it was young so they took her away and bottle fed it and later reintroduced the cub to momma. She was happy to see her, so now they are in an enclosure together.

Cougar. They are very solitary and are rarely spotted in the wild.

Leopard

Bobcat

Madagascar Lemur

Ring-Tail Lemur

Napping Spider Monkeys

Tomorrow we drive to Owen Sound at the bottom of the Georgian Bay. We are spending two nights there just to look around the area a bit more than we did in 2014; then it is up to Bracebridge on Friday.

We only had about a three hour drive from Smiths Falls, perhaps shorter if we took the freeway. We, of course, drove quieter backroads south to Kingston on the shore of Lake Ontario before we headed west along the coast to Cobourg.

Kingston is the site of Fort Henry which was built during the War of 1812, and about twenty years later, became a vital player in the protection of the new Rideau Canal waterway system.

Troop inspection.

Displays of the rooms of the personnel of the fort lined one side of the huge parade ground. I have taken the basic information from the window signs and used it for explanations.

An example of a Transient Officer’s Quarters. Regiments rotated through Kingston about every two yers and officers owned light, transportable furniture, called campaign furniture to make moving efficient and easy. As Fort Henry was never filled to capacity, each officer had a room to himself, whereas in many other postings two officers would often share a room this size.

A Senior Officer’s Quarters. Senior Officers would be men from the upper classes of British society. Unlike enlisted soldiers, officers could wear civilian clothing while off duty and were allowed to partake in activities in the town of Kingston. The majority of officers were from rural backgrounds where there was a lack of acceptable occupations for sons of the wealthy. Three choices for a career would be the army, the church or civil service. For many, the army, was the first choice as it offered abundant opportunities for sporting and social enjoyment.

Commandant’s Quarters. The Commanding officer was usually a Captain, or rarely, a Major. He was responsible for the daily operation of the Fort and there would be a considerable amout of paperwork required, much of it being done in his personal quarters, which also functioned as his office. If an officer was married, his wife and family would not be in residence at Fort Henry, instead living in private quarters in Kingston, or overseas in Britain.

This was the social hub of the Officer’s Mess. Officers would relax while off duty and socialize here following meals. Officers were expected to participate in the social life in whichever town they were stationed and would have hosted invited guests in this room.

The tradition of the Officer’s Mess was a strong one in the British Army. Officers were expected to dine in the mess most evenings of the week, although exceptions were made for those who were married and lived outside Fort Henry. The Mess was the center of social activities for the bachelor officers. The silverware, china, trophies, and furniture were all part of the mess and paid for and maintained by the officers at their own expense.

The preparation of officer’s meals took place in the Messman’s Room under the supervision of the Messman, who was usually a Serjeant nearing the end his service and employed by the officers to run the mess efficiently and oversee training and duties of the mess servants. The food was cooked in the Mess Kitchen through the adjacent passageway and then brought to this room to be carved and laid out on serving platters. Any sauces and side dishes would be prepared here. The Messman would coordinate the mess servants who would serve the various courses.

The guns were mounted between outer and inner walls at the base of the fort, a level below the quarters, supply rooms and parade ground. The stairs down, the floors, and the walls and ceilings of every gun station were wet. The groundwater just seeps through the mortar. It is freezing cold down here in winter.

Soldier’s wives quarters.

There were two bakeries manned by hired civilian bakers. They could bake 120 loaves of bread at a time. The soldiers received 1 pound of whole wheat bread per day as their ration, served at the noon meal which was the main meal of the day. They also received 3/4 pound of meat per day, including any bone and gristle.

The Soldier’s Cookhouse was where the men cooked their main meals. Meals were cooked in cauldrons and usually consisted of boiling meat (salt beef) and potatoes into a stew. Vegetables were purchased at the expense of the men and were also boiled in a mesh bag. The rotating task of being company’s cook was undertaken by the single men of the Company. They began after the evening meal on Saturday and continued for one week. The food was expected to be ready on time, not too early and not too late.

John was taking a photo through the gun barrel.

The parade ground is huge even with all the bleachers set up in it.

He is doing a firing demonstration in the dry moat between the Advance Battery and the main fort.

As we walked back into the Advance Battery to leave the fort these two played a tune on their fifes.

Kingston from the walkway between the parking lot and the fort entrance.

A nice clocktower in Kingston.

We drove along route 2 for a couple of hours to Cobourg and found our friend Pat’s apartment. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with her, and her sister, and brother-in-law before visiting for a bit and heading to bed.

We had a lazy start to the day and spent some time in our hotel working on a few thing and taking it easy. About noon we drove around Smiths Falls doing an Adventure Lab geocache which took us to several places that used to be major employers in the community. There was a huge farm implement company here that closed quite a few years ago and another place that made metal tool boxes which closed in 2008. The big Hershey’s chocolate plant also closed in 2008 but that building has now become a Tweed Marijuana plant. It took over the whole of the old Hershey’s factory, plus two other buildings on the street. It is a huge processing center now.

We also walked around in Confederation Park beside the Rideau Canal lock in downtown Smiths Falls.

After a late lunch we drove 25 minutes out of Smiths Falls to John’s second cousin’s cabin at Ottey Lake where we spent a lovely afternoon, enjoyed a delicious dinner and even had ice cream cake dessert to celebrate her eldest son’s 22nd birthday, which is tomorrow. It was a wonderful day.

Melanie stays most of the time at her own cabin but we met at her father’s cabin a bit futher down the road that she and her sister now own. We went for a walk through the woods to her cabin and back before dinner. We walked on the road between the cabins but came back on a trail through the forest.

Tomorrow is going to be another driving and visiting day. We are heading south to Cobourg where our daughter’s fiance’s mother lives. We are having dinner with her and spending the night before taking off on Tuesday. We decided to only go a short distance to Lindsay so we don’t need to rush away and have time for a good visit. Then we will be spending a few days in the Georgian Bay area.

Today’s blog is really short. We only stopped twice during the five hour drive from Montreal. Thankfully the freeway section out of the city was late enough in the morning that traffic was light. After we left the freeway we drove through farming country and a few villages. That was it.

There is a nano geocache hidden somewhere on this Bofor 40 mm anti-aircraft autocannon that is stationed at a Royal Candian Legion near Finch, Ontario. A nano cache is about the size of my index fingernail. We were warned it was very difficult to find and it was very hot today so we only searched for a half hour before moving on.

Our only other stop was not far from Smiths Falls at Burritt’s Rapids, one of the locks on the Rideau Canal water system. This lock is small and the gates are opened and closed by handcranks.

If you look closely at the map you can see 24 white V-shapes that denote all the locks between Ottawa and the St. Lawrence River.

Just in case you don’t remember how a lock works here is a good explanatory drawing.

We arrived in Smiths Falls at four; just in time for our weekly video chat with our son and his family in Texas, then we went out for dinner before settling in for the night.

We are staying here two nights. John had a cousin that lived in Smiths Falls and he owned a cabin on Ottey Lake about 20 minutes away. His daughter has a cabin there as well and tomorrow we are going to spend the afternoon with her and have dinner. So, if there is a blog tomorrow, it too may be a short one.

We had another great day wandering around Montreal. It was Basilica day. We toured Notre-Dame and St. Patrick’s.

We walked on different streets to get to Notre-Dame Basilica and passed through the Chinese Quarter.

This area looked a bit like a campus but I could not see a name for it.

It would be interesting to know story behind all the figures on this bas relief.

Place d’Armes square from the top of the steps at Notre Dame Basilica.

Before the days of sound systems, the priest would climb to the top of the stairs and deliver his sermon. He could be heard throughout the church.

The organ was made by the Montreal firm of Casavant Frères. It was completed in 1891. Today it has 7,000 pipes. The longest is 9.75 meters (32 feet) and the shortest is 6.35 mm (one quarter inch).

Gorgeous work on the ceilings.

And beautiful doors.

This sculpture of Marguerite Bourgeoys was made by Sylvia Daoust. It did not say in what year. She was the founder of the congretation of Notre-Dame. It is carved from wood.

Around the base of the statue on Maisonneuve, the founder of Montreal that I posted a photo of yesterday, are sculptures of four other prominent persons/peoples in the history of the city.

Jeanne Mance was a pioneer of New France and one of the founders of Montreal. She established the first hospital in 1645 and was the first secular nurse in Canada.

Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil et de Châteauguay was a prominent figure in the early days of Montreal. He was a French officer and merchant and also served as interpreter for indigenous languages.

Lambert Closse became a public notary, as well as Sergeant Major of the garrison of  Ville-Marie. He is most known for fighting the Iroquois and exhibiting combat tactics that allowed him to win many of his battles. He met his wife, Elisabeth Moyen, while rescuing her from the Iroquois in 1657. Lambert Closse died in combat in 1662.

The French defeated the Iroquois in 1644.

The 1866 headquarters of the Molson Bank, begun by William Molson, son of the founder of the Molson dynasty. It was the first building in Montreal to be built in the Second Empire style. The bank had 125 branches across the country by 1925, the year it was absorbed by the Bank of Montreal. 

After a delicious cinnamon pastry for lunch we walked up a few blocks and visited St. Patrick’s Basilica which was built by the Irish Catholics. It was very dark inside, even with lights on. Everything was brown, or shades of brown. Even with a very high ISO setting on the camera the photos are dark. I had to do a bit of filtering and editing to make them somewhat clear.

I think all the gilt squares in the stipes on the high, high walls were handpainted. Notice how the rows are uneven.

A large convention center (the one in yesterday’s blog with all the different coloured panels) is just down the street from our hotel. This weekend Otakuthon is going on. It is Comicron for Animé. With COVID they have not met for three years and there are probably 5,000-6,000 people in attendance. Many of them are dressed like their favourite animé character and we saw a lot of them as we walked around.

This gal was not the only one having professional photos taken. We saw several photographers getting shots in various places.

These two gals were leaving a park as we approached and John asked if he could take their photo. They were more than pleased to pose for us. They said they made parts of their outfits and bought other parts online.

Tomorrow we leave Montreal. John has done his best to find some quieter roads, but pretty much all the roads heading west out of Montreal are freeways to Ottawa/Hull and Toronto.

We managed to drive all the way to our hotel in Montreal without going on multi-lane fast freeways! We were only on a long three-lane section as we approached the center of the city, but it was block by block slow-moving traffic. Much better. John did a great job find a route that didn’t stress me out.

We left our hotel at 11 and pulled into a park in Repentigny about noon. We wandered around the park for a half hour and then sat in the truck and relaxed for another half hour. It was a short distance to drive to Montreal, with nothing I could find to see along the way, and we did not want to arrive too early. We were really hoping, if we could not check in on arrival, that we could at least park the truck.

Driving into the city to find our hotel.

We arrived at 2 and the hotel had our room ready so we were able to freshen up before heading out to walk to Old Town, which was about 15-20 minutes straight down toward the river from the hotel.

The views of the city and the courtyard from our room on the 6th floor of the Courtyard Marriott.

We had a good walk, looking at all the old buildings and wandering the cobblestone streets, but I must say I prefer Old Town Quebec City. There is more of interest to see there with the Plains of Abraham, the Citadel, Martello Towers and the promenade along the front of the Chateau Frontenac – and all that history to read about – as well as old buildings and cobblestone streets. And Quebec seems to have a more ‘preserved and contained’ old section. Montreal has more modern buildings – or modern-ish ones – intermingled with the old ones. Could be just me though, so don’t let it stop you from visiting if you get the chance.

Consequently this blog is a lot of photos of old buildings, almost none of which I can identify.

I love how the stone from the house still shows the shape. Also there is a higher roofline, several windows and an archway in the brick.

Basilica of Notre Dame. We plan to go there tomorrow.

Head offices of the Bank of Monteal.

This monument in memory of Paul Chomedey de Maisnoneuve, founder of Montreal, was unveiled on July 1, 1895, as part of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the city on May 31, 1642. The project was announced in 1891 but not completed and unveiled until 1895. It sits in the middle of Place d’Armes, the square in front of the Notre Dame Basilica.

British Empire Building – now offices and shops.

I like the change of eras looking down the street from old to new.

There is a huge three-level mall under the buildings. They connected the street-level ones with a glass roof and walkways and built underground. We only walked partway into the street level.

The graffiti on this section of the Berlin Wall that was sent to Montreal was done in Berlin. As the wall was broken down in sections people wrote on them or created specific art projects on them. It was an outpouring of joy and also a political statment. We saw lots of them when we were in Berlin at the location of the former wall.

A courtyard in the mall had this gorgeous infinity pool in it.

Even though the water flows off the entire surface of the pool it was very quiet.

I needed to rest my feet and achy hips from all the concrete so we headed back to our room to rest up a bit before supper.