Enjoying Friends and Gatherings in Blue Mountains, Canada - A Return to a Semi Normal Life on Our Vacation in Ontario

After more than eighteen months being isolated from our friends and having more than 75% of our population vaccinated, Canadians are beginning to gather with friends again. We took advantage of our vacation this year and invited a few guests to our resort in Blue Mountains, Ontario.

Since we had a spacious two bedroom condo, we invited F. and her kids to spend a weekend with us.

We drove up on Friday afternoon, while F. and her kids came after school. I had dinner prepared for them and got ready for the next day.

Though a lot of our stores and business are open, COVID19 still has its impact in Canada. Most Ontarians are good at following the health guidelines such as masking and keepng social distance. We were happy to find that many of the resort facilites were open. While we slept in, F. and the kids went biking on one of the many trails.

After lunch, we took them to tour part of Collingwood and visited the Blue Mountains, a popular skiing destination in southern Ontario. When we first came here to ski with our young children, Blue Mountain was mainly a winter holiday spot. Over the years, it has been developed and now is a four season playground for many out of towners.

At the Blue Mountains, besides many eateries offering food and drinks to visitors, chairlifts were operating taking patrons to the top of the ski hills for a birds' eyeview of the region. Other activities that were open included: rock climbing, mini golf, other entertainments for mostly younger crowds.

However, B. was a little too young for some of these activites.

Fortunately, there was a children's park and a couple of free activites for kids. As long as children could run, climb and jump freely, they were happy entertaining themselves and making new friends!

They also went swimming afterwards. It was a fun day for them!

R.T. Blue Mountains Ontario

A Fishway in Thornbury, Ontario - Helping Chinook Salmon & Rainbow Trout to Spawn

We were vacationing in Blue Mountains.

we invited a few friends to come along with us.

One of the places we took our friends to visit was Thornbury, a small town about a 20 minute drive from our resort.

One of our favourite seafood food in Canada is salmon which is found in abundance along the Canadian coast and many lakes in Ontario. There is an unique phenomenon about salmon which choose to return to their birthplaces to lay their eggs.

After the eggs are hatched and grow to a certain size, the salmon will leave their spawning site and swim to bigger rivers and evenutally end up along the coasts.

Strangely enough, no matter how far the salmon have left their orignal birth places, they have been geneticlly imprinted and will try their ulmost to return there to spawn. The fall season is the time when the salmon's mass migration and spawning occur. Along certain rivers, we can often see schools of mature salmon swimming upstream or even flying to incredible height in order to get to their birthplaces.

However, in some towns or cities, dams have been built which have made swimming upstream quite difficult for fish or even impossible for them to reach their intended locations.

Here comes the resuce of a fishway. Managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, a fishway is designed to assist local fish swiming upstream to spawn. A fishway differs from a fish ladder as a fishway is designed to mimic the natural landscape and environment. Thornbury is one of these towns where we can watch the salmon swimming upstream to the fishway ( known as a fish ladder to the locals) this time of the year. On the day of our visit, we did see many salmon doing just that that.

For our friends who have never seen this natural awesome phenonmenon, it was quite an eye opening event for them! Rev. Sue just loved the experience!

R.T. Thornbury, Ontario

Wiarton, Ontario - Home of the Wiarton Willie Who Foretells the Arrival of Spring

We spent the last few dyas in beautiful Tobermory, revisiting the famous Flower Pot Island and explored the Grotto which we had missed thirty five years ago while visiting the Bruce Peninsula for the first time.

We were glad that we saw it this time!

After our visit to the Grotto, we started our drive home to Toronto. We never drive straight from one destination to the next when we are on a car trip. We always take detours and stop by to see the samll towns and hamlets in between.

This time we stoppedd in Wiarton. A small town of about 2,300 inhabitants, located on the Bruace Peninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. We hear about Wiarton every year on the news at the beginning of February. After having been holed up in our homes for the entire winter, Canadians are dying to know when spring will arrive so that we can get out of our caves and come out of habination to play.

Spring arrives sometimes early and sometimes later. How do we know when the warmer days will arrive? Canadians all turn to Wiarton Willie eagerly anticipating what this little guy will tell us each year on February 2.

People from far and wide will travel to Wiarton and a big crowd will gather to watch and celebrate the announcement of spring arrival in Canada on February 2 by none other than - Wiarton Willie! In fact, a famous Hollywood movie, Groundhog Day, featured Bill Murray, was made based on Wiarton Willie!

Wiraton Willie is an albino groundhog.Since 1957, he has been coming out of his underground cave on GroundHog Day - February 2, each year to give us his predictions for the arrival of spring in the forthcoming year. For the past seven decades, this has been how Wiraton Willie shares his prediction:

If he comes out and sees his shadow - spring will be here very very soon! Everyone will celebrate! If he comes out and doesn't see his shadow, it will be a delayed spring, which means Canadians will have to wait for another six to eight weeks or so.

Not only is Wiarton Willie's spring arrival prediction a national news item in Canada and we all sit up straight and pay attention to him; this prediction is also broadcasted globally for all to know!

We were glad that we paid tribute to Wiarton Willie, stopped and visited his home town - Wiarton on this trip!

Another thing we have discovered about Wiarton is that it is a welcoming little town for kids with special needs, particularly kids with autism.

This has been made evident by the huge sign posted in austism friendly language in its beautiful waterfront park.

The Bluewater Park, Wiarton Willie's year round home in Ontario, Canada! R.T. Wiarton, Ontario, Canada

The Grotto, Tobermory - One of the Most Beautiful Places in Canada!

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Though we visited Tobermory before, somehow we did not visit the most beautiful place in the Bruce Peninsula region, the Grotto! On the third day of our stay in Tobermory, our hosts strongly advised us that since we drove such a long distance from Toronto to be in Tobermory, we must pay a visit to The Grotto, part of the UNESCO bioshphere.

We hesitated about the visit as the local weather forecast was a rainy day most of the day and might even be a thunderstorm.

After We got up in the morning, I wanted to prepare a nice lunch for our hosts therefore I spent the morning in the kitchen and cooking together with Helen. It was wonderful spending time with old friends and we vowed that we would keep in touch more often from now on. In fact we enjoyed our time together so much that we would try to visit Tobermory more often, definitely not another thirty years!

After lunch we packed up our things and planned to have a leisure drive back home. As luck would have it, we passed right by the sign pointing us to The Grotto! remembering what our host told us, we were determined to visit this famous spot which we had missed thirty five years ago.

We drove into the park and purchased our park and parking tickets. At the height of the tourist season, it would not be possible to have a parking spot unless you do it the day before. Since it was the fall season with less visitors, there was a spot for us, therfore we took advantage of it and decided to hike to The Grotto.

As soon as we got our tickets, it started to rain and we were not sure if we should go ahead. But the park ranger told us that often it would rain in this area but the rain would stop and it would be clear. Determined to see this famous area, we decided to continue and push on with our hike.

We were not disappointed! It was a beautiful hike with rest benches along the trail for breaks. There were a few trails and we chose the shortest one as we were limited by the amount of time we would have. True to what the park ranger had told us, the weather started to turn better; the rain stopped and the sky cleared. We ended up with a nice afternoon. On our hike we were pleasantly surprised to find young family with parents pushing their youngsters in strollers; senior folks wlaking witjh canes and a young lady gingerly hopping on crutches! What a brave a woman! After about 30- 40 minute hike, we came to an open area with lots of caves.

Wow! What a beautiful unique spot! I have never seen so many caves in one area.

There were people swimming in the water, sunbathing on the beach, climbing and exploring the caves here and there... There were quite a number of visitors doing various outdoor activities at this one spot. I thought that was the Grotto.

Wrong! As we walked further along the trail following the directions, we needed to climb to higher grounds with rocky narrow paths.

We had to be extra careful watching each of our steps with care and attention lest we would lose oir footing and fall.

Finally, we reached The Grotto! What a manificent sight lay before our eyes! It took our breath away and we were speechless!

I had never seen anything like this except in magazines! We climbed up to one of the rocks, laying there still and just take in this awesome scenery!

Below us, there were people climbing the rocky walls,some were swimming while a strong young man trying to scale to the summit and dive from the top of the cliff.

Cliff diving was not advised by the signs posted in this park.

This particular cave resembles a human face and legend has it that he looks out for the people and protects them in this region. We truly enjoyed this exceptional out of the world scenery and natural environment! There was no noise, except for the songs of birds and blowing of breezes and the rustling of the leaves. We will definitely return to the Grotto in the near future!

R.T.

The Grotto, Tobermory, Ontario, Canada