Aug 7 - Whitby Ont

Today it started to rain so we did what everyone else does when it rains - go to the mall!  Walked around the Oshawa Centre and then had lunch in the food court.

The Oshawa Centre has over 230 stores and earlier this year announced a $230 million renovation and expansion to begin in the summer of 2013. It will be completed by 2016.

We spent part of the afternoon at my niece Kimberly’s house with my great nephew Korbin who is 9 months old.  We got to meet Craig and his two children Landon and Brayden who came home in late afternoon from a day at camp, a place they are loving!

In the evening we went to an Italian place for dinner; niece Kimberly, great nephew Korbin, niece Stephanie and mom to Kim and Steph, Janice.  We had a wonderful dinner and evening of reminiscences.

Aug 6 - Oshawa Ont

All we did this morning was drive here (not that it was very far).  We had decided we were going to have someone look at the RV because we had developed a noise and Norm thought it was possibly a ball joint.  He also wanted to have the brakes checked, just in case.

We found a CAA approved auto repair station and they checked it out while we had lunch.  The bad news was that all four ball joints need to be replaced and when they checked the brakes they found cracks in the rotors so both of those have to be replaced.

Yikes!!

Tonight we're in a hotel and we've been promised the RV back tomorrow afternoon.  We'll see what happens.  But in the meantime, we hope to connect up with family tomorrow or the next day here in Oshawa.

Aug 5 - Kingston Ont

We continued our drive along the St. Lawrence and stopped in the town of Gananoque which is recognized as one of Eastern Ontario’s most stunning waterfront communities and the first place you get to see some of the 1,000 Islands. 

The Thousand Islands are an archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in the St. Lawrence River.  Gananoque is a very small town and so peaceful and beautiful.  I think in the afternoons it could get pretty busy as that’s where the cruises to the 1,000 Islands start.  They have three cruises – a one hour, a 2.5 hour and a 5 hour. 

We then drove into Kingston and did the tour of Fort Henry.  We also visited Fort Henry 34 years ago; in fact, I still use the salt and pepper set I bought then.  The weather today has been perfect and we have so enjoyed walking around and looking at the view of and around Kingston from the Fort which was spectacular.

We then thought we would walk around the waterfront in Kingston but that was not to be as today is a Civic Holiday in Canada so everybody and their brother were out in force and there was no parking to be had anywhere.  Instead we came to the campsite and just enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening right here.

Tomorrow on to Oshawa where we get to see some family – yah!

Aug 4 - Brockville Ont

What an interesting day we’ve had!!  All along Hwy 2 we’ve seen magnificent homes with brilliant landscaping – it’s just been a gorgeous drive – and we haven’t even hit the 1,000 Islands Parkway yet!

We started off this morning following the St. Lawrence west and turned off onto the Long Sault Parkway.  This is a series of eleven islands which sweep in an arc through the St. Lawrence River.  A series of causeways and bridges connect these former hilltops of the Lost Villages.  These are villages that were flooded to make way for the International Seaway and Power Dam project of 1958.  It is a fascinating and beautiful drive.  When I looked at the GPS it looked like we were driving on top of water – pretty funny!

Next we stopped at the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary which had a fascinating Interpretive Center.  Inside we saw a Fisher (stuffed, of course) – never saw one before and never heard of one before.  He looked quite cute but apparently they are very aggressive.  They had many species of birds and other animals of the area.  What really threw us was this huge wasp’s nest that someone discovered and donated – absolutely incredible!

Then we stopped at the Upper Canada Village where we spent several hours.  This is a living, working, colonial town where 1860’s pioneer life comes alive.  It was very interesting to see people in period dress living as they did in the 1860’s.  We saw blacksmiths, farmers, ladies spinning wool, quilting, pickling beets, operating a drag saw, various livestock – it was fascinating.

Aug 3 - Lancaster Ont

No WiFi here so posting via phone.

Only made a couple of small stops today.   We wanted to get some miles in and get through Montreal today.   We also wanted to get to The Great Waterway which is the area beside the St. Lawrence River from Lancaster to Trenton Ont.

The most interesting town we stopped in was Champlain QC which was established in 1664.  It was beautifully maintained with lots of grass,  lots of flowers and lots of decorations.  The church in the middle of town was gorgeous.

We stopped tonight at Lancaster Park Outdoor Resort in Lancaster - what a place!   It has 390 sites,  a boat dock,  beach,  swimming,  fishing,  sports field,  restaurant,  etc.  More importantly it is the beginning of a very interesting area to explore,  at least we hope so.

Aug 2 - Levis QC

<photos posted Aug 6>

Today was our day in the old city of Quebec reliving a trip we did 34 years ago.  The old city (founded in 1608) is the only walled city in Canada and home to variety of old forts and military structures, parks, shops, sidewalk cafes, cobblestone streets, artists and more.  Truly feels like being in France as the prevailing architecture is representative of the architecture of Western France. 

Memories being what they are, we can’t decide but we think the place has changed a lot.  We didn’t remember there being any high rises in the city at that time but we remembered the gate to the old city, the horse-drawn carriage tour we took with a horse called Romeo and the walk we took around the old city.  We repeated the walk and took another horse-drawn carriage ride today.  Our tour guide today, Robert, with his horse Sampson, was quite a character, full of historical knowledge, jokes and a constant patter.  The 40 minutes on the tour really flew by!

We had a fantastic lunch in a restaurant called Bello in the old city which apparently has only been open since February of this year and is already very popular.  It was superb Italian cuisine. 

We just made it back to the campsite when a downpour happened and lasted for about 20-30 minutes.  We are now beginning to believe that it rains pretty much every day for at least a short time in Eastern Canada as that has been our experience since we arrived in Halifax.  It’s generally not a little shower either, it comes down like gangbusters!  It would certainly explain why everything is so green and there are flowers in bloom galore, in fact it really reminds us of England and their gardens.  It’s so beautiful to see the homes with all the flowers and wide expanses of green lawn, no small lots here.

Tomorrow we will continue following the St .Lawrence Seaway west.

Aug 1 - Levis QC

We had a lovely scenic drive beside the St. Lawrence Seaway.  Unfortunately it was quite hazy and foggy so we couldn’t get any really good photos.  We thought it might get better as the Seaway narrowed but that wasn’t the case.  Just the same, it was a slow, meandering drive through all sorts of towns and villages.

We saw a ferry picture so turned off the road and discovered there is a ferry between Montmagny and L’isle-aux-Grues; an island situated on the Saint Lawrence River, measuring approximately 7 kilometres by 2 kilometres. It is the only inhabited island among the twenty-one which make up the Isle-aux-Grues archipelago.  We still have no idea what is on the island but it was intriguing to be told we could take the ferry over but to be sure to stick close by for the return trip as it didn’t really have a set schedule and we wouldn’t want to be left behind.  We decided not to chance it.

The GPS directed us to a restaurant called La Levee du Jour which was a small bakery and had a variety of items you either took with you or you could sit outside (there was no seating inside).  They had samples on display but we had no clue what these things were although we were able to identify some of the ingredients from the description (e.g. we know what fromage is – cheese).  At any rate, we picked two items (something inside a fancy designed pastry) and a salad.  They were excellent, whatever they were.

Today was one of those giggly days as Norm kept guessing what different French words meant (of course, our first day here he said “gracias” to someone and then remembered that was the wrong language when they just stared at him.)  We just couldn’t stop laughing, although sometimes he was actually correct (as we could verify on the phone.)

Tomorrow we plan to spend in Quebec City.  Our very first trip together, 34 years ago, was to Quebec City.