Tobermory Weekend
My wife and I are off to Tobermory this weekend -- Friday to Sunday. We haven't been there for a couple of years, and it's as good a far off driving destination, as any. Tobermory is located on the tip of the Niagara escarpment, where Lake Huron meets Georgian Bay. Haven't a clue what we're going to be doing up there, but it's not going to be scuba diving -- even is Tobermory is the scuba diving capital of North America. Most likely, we'll try to get in some hiking along the Bruce Trail and definitely an evening boat trip out on the Bay. Next week, I'll be putting new photos up.
I've just sorted through the photos I took at Tobermory, and have uploaded some to Webshots. Below are excerpts from my journal that I written during the trip.
ReplyDeleteJuly 22/05 -- 12:50PM
My wife and I are waiting for roast turkey sandwiches in the Jelly Cafe -- a little country store/restaurant in Shelburne, home of the "fiddle contest." My wife has been in here previously with my youngest. She can't help but love small towns -- and small town shops, restaurants and such places. They are certainly unique. I will get into the small town feel -- eventually -- maybe even before the weekend is over. I am unlike my wife in this respect -- my wife even gushed at the turkey sandwiches that just arrived. "Look!" she exclaimed. "Turkey sandwiches with a difference!" Actually, it looks like any ole turkey sandwich I would make for myself at home. In fact, mine at home is better.
We've been on the road for just over an hour -- maybe an hour and a half. We came up highway 400, cut across 9 in Newmarket, then took 50 up to 89 in Brampton. 89 turns into 10 just outside of Shelburne. It's been a good drive so far. My wife got into telling me a few stories. I let her talk -- listening, but I'm sure I won't remember the stories. For me it was her being happy, talking away -- the sound of her voice -- being together -- driving, with the wind flowing through the windows and the beautiful day lighting our way. The sky is a brilliant blue -- brilliant because of the contrast with the white fluffy clouds. Halfway up in the drive we turned the music up -- singing along.
July 23/05 -- 12:40AM
My wife is asleep beside me. We had quite the eventful day. After lunch on Friday, we continued on our way to Tobermory. Just outside of Markdale, we stopped to take some photographs of wild flowers. The day was warm -- hot -- but there was a nice wind blowing. It made taking some of the pictures difficult. You try telling some wild flowers to stay still -- especially when you're zooming down on to them, and focusing manually.
Once back in the car, my wife took over the DJ duties on the MP3 player. Previously, it was set on "shuffle" -- and had even brought us the "Fraggle Rock" theme song. Yes, I have that on my MP3 player.
We sang our way into Wiarton -- home of Willy. We stopped off for a snack at the Three Friends Cafe -- which was a big disappointment. We had been there previously on our past two trips to Tobermory, and my wife loves their date squares -- but this time there was none. We settled instead for a slice of pie, a tart and coffee. The coffee sucked, the pie was OK -- and the local bubba made the experience shit. The guy was probably 40-50. He starred directly at me from the table he was sitting at across from us. He and I made repeated eye contact -- but to no avail -- he never looked away. When he started mouthing words under his breath at us, it was time to continue on to Tobermory.
When we got to Tobermory, we checked into the Princess Hotel, then went to buy tickets to the Blue Heron's sunset tour of Georgian Bay. Supper was a slice of pizza at the Pub by the Tub, After supper, we went on the sunset tour, then enjoyed some refreshments at the Sweet Shop.
July 23/05 -- 11:20PM
Today was one filled vacation day. It started at 7AM when I tried to wake up -- and again a few more times as I tried to wake up between 7 and 8. I eventually found myself facing my wife across the breakfast table around 8AM. We breakfasted at the hotel's dining room -- the standard -- eggs, potatoes, toast and bacon. I don't really eat bacon. I digested some this morning -- but really, I didn't eat any. It's against my religious beliefs you know.
Following breakfast, we purchased tickets for the Fathom Five Marine cruise aboard the Blue Heron. The two hour cruise in Georgian Bay was great. It was nice and sunny, but the cool wind off the lake made it perfect -- well, almost -- I got sun burnt on my arms. It's going to itch like crazy later. The cruise took us to a couple of shipwrecks I had seen previously on my trips to Tobermory. The water is incredibly clear up here, making the sunken ships quite visible -- surreal really. I told my wife later when we were looking at the photos we took, that they looked like ghost ships. We also saw quite a few small islands that make up the marine national park -- including the Flower Pot Island. Unlike my last trip up here, we didn't visit Flower Pot Island. There was still a lot of geography to enjoy however. I wished I had a wide angle lens for my camera. There was so much my eyes were seeing, yet the camera couldn't capture it all. The landscape of the shorelines needed more than my puny camera to do it justice. Some rock formations seemed directly out of a Tolkien fantasy. I could see ancient castles and places of magic. It was amazing the imagination nature conjured. I also took many shots of my beautiful wife -- some of which have made it online, but I tried to keep her private -- suffice to say, her hair was dancing wildly in the wind, and her smiles and laughter made me happy.
After the cruise, we lunched on the balcony of our hotel room on a small purchase from Tobermory's Foodland. While on the balcony, I did a short photo study of my wife's feet. Beautiful and dangerous feet -- dangerous because of her ability to do things with her toes, and beautiful because, well, her feet are just beautiful. If I had a foot fetish, I'd probably have taken more shots of her feet and kept them from public eyes.
Following lunch, we drove to Cypress Lake campgrounds to go hiking on their trails, including a couple of hours on the Bruce Trail. The hike started out easy, but then we got onto the Bruce Trail. Talk about rocks. It isn't a trail for the easily deterred or faint of heart. Uneven, huge, small, sharp and dangerous rocks -- but if you brave them, you're rewarded with some spectacular vistas. It's a place where I could spend hours -- even go camping. I'm sure the sunrise would look spectacular coming up from the Bay.
The only disappointment from the hike was coming up to a great spot that overlooked the Grotto, only to find it overrun by people suntanning or swimming in the water. They were hogging some great photo opportunities from us. My wife and I did find an empty rock beach and indulged in a private wetting of our feet in the water, but we weren't crazy enough to go swimming in the cold water.
After the hike, we drove back towards Tobermory, and stopped off at the Stone Orchid for dinner. We have enjoyed their food previously -- not bad Indonesian-like food.