Blogs of Note

Port Perry Drive My wife and I went for a drive this afternoon. The weather was cooperating a little. There wasn't the weekend rain we were expecting in Toronto. We headed east on highway 7, with no destination in mind, the music blaring, the windows down. You would think summer was here. We decided to make our way up to Port Perry - a place we had found ourselves this past winter, in search of a shop that promised lots of magical creatures, with a touch of enchantment - we were disappointed to find only a few figurines of faeries and the like. We found however, a nice little cafe, the Pantry Shelf, that served freshly baked scones, tea, soups and sandwiches. So, after meandering a little on highway 7, we decided that Port Perry for a tea (ain't that so British?) was just what the day was going to give us. The weather was good, and so was the music, so we didn't stop off anywhere along the way. We passed through Locust Hill, the outskirts of Pickering, Brougham, Kinsale, Whitby, Brooklin, Myrtle, and Scugog, finally arriving in Port Perry. (Check out the map. We used highway 7 all the way though.) We did a bit of walked around, and spent some money in the local Shoppers Drug Mart, as well as purchased a couple of greeting cards in the most unique of shops. I got quite a few stares as I walked around the stores. Not sure what people thought of me - the beard and the long hair probably throws a lot of them. The brown skin ... well, I'm sure that was *interesting.* We did have afternoon tea at the Pantry Shelf. We chose to share the afternoon tea special. You get two scones, a sandwich and a cup of tea for that - they didn't have Earl Grey, so I optioned for a coffee. That was way too much food for one person. I can't imagine one person chowing down on that ... for afternoon tea. Reminds me of the hobbits. Can you imagine what the people who have that for afternoon tea, have for breakfast, lunch and supper? No wonder obesity is the norm in North America. For dessert, we decided to each have a fruit crisp. Basically, that's a fruit pie that's been trampled on - or pre-chewed. It was too sweet for me, and I couldn't finish it. Imagine, too sweet for a guy who's quite liberal with the sugar he uses for coffee or tea. For some reason, we saw a lot of signs mentioning Maine. Couldn't figure out why. Another weird thing was the fire hydrants - they were all painted with the Stars and Stripes. Before we left, we took a stroll down to the beach. My wife and I took some pictures, with a friendly lady volunteering to take one of the two of us. I think she wanted to chat, but I wasn't being very friendly. Here's a couple of the pictures we took. I took the boring lake pictures, my wife the interesting leaves.