Trenton

National Flag Day
The Maple Leaf flag replaced the Canadian Red Ensign. The flag, designed by George Stanley, was proclaimed by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, on January 28, 1965, and took effect "upon, from and after" February 15.  

Friday 12^th February a Flag Day ceremony was held at St Patrick’s School. This ceremony used to be held in the shopping mall until the mall underwent a major makeover a couple of years ago.

Service men and women, Politicians, Clergy, the Town Crier, the Fire Chief, a Mountie and flag bearers all attended the ceremony.

Road Trip

Freezing weather so we decided to spend it travelling.

We went on a road trip of 500 K’s. We set the GPS to Trenton, our overnight destination but told it not to use freeways or highways. We drove through lots of little towns. The best one was Newtonville. Yes, we had to stop and take photos with the sign. The town was really delightful, clean and organised.

We stopped in Cobourg for a picnic lunch at the harbour. As the temperature was -27° (wind chill of -38°) we ate lunch in the car whilst watching hundreds of geese sitting on the frozen lake. Even the seawall was frozen.

We made a quick stop at Cobourg beach which was also partly frozen. It was too cold to go near the water’s edge. We also found a very lonely snowman.

Driving through the back roads we came across a safari park which was closed for the winter. There was a lonely tiger pacing in its cage.

Arriving at our destination of Trenton 3 hours after leaving home we checked into the motel and walked down to the water’s edge to stretch our legs. This water mass is the Bay of Quinte which flows into Lake Ontario.  The Bay was frozen with the ice about 1 metre thick.  Newton helped out the birds by filling the birdbath up with snow.

                                                                                                                         
  He then made a snow angel.                                                                         

 

When we returned to our room it was so warm inside my glasses went white. Looked really freaky. It really is a pain wearing glasses when it is so cold, they fog up all the time. 

We had a dinner date with 3 other couples at The Garden of Eatin restaurant in Warkworth.  We were there to see Al Lerman, a blues artist who was exceptional. If you ever get the chance to see him you won’t be disappointed. He is trying to get to Perth for the Blues ‘n Roots festival.

Canadian Royal Air Force Museum

Sunday morning we had breakfast at Dapp’s Restaurant. We had the choice of this restaurant or MacDonald’s, we new our choice right as Dapp’s was really busy with people waiting for tables.

It was then onto the Royal Canadian Air Force Museum where we wandered for a couple of hours.

We had a Veteran volunteer provide us with a lot of information regarding the aircraft. Newton sat in a couple of planes – boys and their toys. The large bullet (20mm canon) shot down a Halifax bomber. The poor guys in the Halifax had no chance as they were shooting back with tiny .303’s.

Olympic Medal

Orval “Red” Gravelle joined the RCAF in 1947 as a machinist never realizing what a momentous choice this would be for his hockey career. A year later the young defenseman was recruited to the RCAF Flyers, an ice hockey team that was to represent Canada at the 1948 Winter Olympics. At age 20, he was the youngest member of the team. During the tournament he played in eight games, scored three goals and helped ensure Canada would take home the gold medal. The National Air Force Museum of Canada is proud to be the home of Gravelle’s Olympic collection including his gold medal and hockey sweater. These items have been donated by Mrs Phyllis Gravelle of Trenton, widow of Orval Gravelle.                                                                                                       http://airforcemuseum.ca

Big Apple

Our next stop was the Big Apple restaurant. They grow the apples then make them into all sort of yummy products. We tried the Mumble Crumble Apple Pie – it was scrumptious. We also purchased an apple pie and Apple and Raisin bread.  The bread is delicious. We were very good and stayed away from the chocolates and cider.

                                           

 Snow

We have had 9cm of snow this week which is really nice. It is so pretty but makes a mess of the roads.  The snow plows come around in the middle of the night to clear the roads then spread salt to keep the roads snow free but it makes such a mess. We also have to shovel the snow from our deck, it is just thrown over the railing down onto the driveway. It eventually melts away.  Snowflakes are gorgeous.

Unusual Food

Blueberry, Maple and Turkey sausages- weird combination even weirder taste. The blueberries are plentiful and the maple syrup makes them quite sweet.

Kitchener, Waterloo, Ice Hockey

The towns of Kitchener and Waterloo are a 2 hour drive west of Toronto. We were told it was an Amish Community with heritage buildings although we didn't see this we still had a look around.We later found out the Community is in a different town so we will return in the spring when the markets are open.

This ice skating rink is in the centre of town . The people skating were of all ages and abilities.

The  Waterloo Region Museum

The 16 colours of the glass wall are translated into a hexadecimal computer code used in mathematics and computer programming.  The words on the building are a speech made by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier in 1905:

"We do not want, that any individuals should forget the land of their origin or their ancestors. Let them look to the past, but let them also look to the future; let them look to the land of their ancestors, but let them look also to the land of their children."

The museum's exhibits were about the settlement of the area.  I loved the old radio's and gramophones that were on display. The grain separator was pretty cool too. There was also an After Dark interactive exhibit for the children. We had go at putting the blocks into the correct holes in the dark, easier said than done.

Radio and Oil Lamps

Grain separator

In the dark

Lunch was the Canadian staple - Poutine.  This consists of  fries (chips), gravy and cheese curds. Poutine can also come with extra toppings, ours had crispy fried chicken, ranch dressing and buffalo spicy sauce. It actually tastes better than it looks.

We then toured a Glass works factory and shop. Wow! the work is beautiful but expensive. The artists are all
Canadians.

Wall art $10,000 and Sun Catcher  $1,000

Sun catcher and hanging ball

Family Portrait (twisted metal) $4250

On the way home we drove over the West Montrose Covered Bridge, also known as the "Kissing Bridge", this bridge is 60m long and was built in 1881. How cool is the horse and buggy with 2 children sitting on the back?

Ice Hockey

Saturday night we went to our first ice hockey game. It was a Junior Hockey League game between the Stouffville Spirit (Red/White) and Coburg Cougars (Green), 17 -21 year old males. They play 3 x 20 minute sessions. The Spirit won in overtime 3 - 2.
Ice Hockey is fast, physical and exciting. I am hoping this will not be the only game we see whilst we are here. Ice Hockey should be one of your bucket list items.

The National Anthem

Barrie and Orillia

We haven't had any snow in Markham for awhile so on Saturday we drove north for an hour and a half to Barrie and then to Orillia to play in the snow.

BARRIE
On the waterfront of Lake Simcoe, Barrie, is the awe-inspiring sculpture of The Spirit Catcher.
The sculpture measures 70 by 65 feet (21 metres high) and has 16 kinetic quills, 2 wings, 3 legs and a pair of kinetic antennae. Weighs 20 tonnes and took 6 months to make.

Spirit Catcher

 The snow on the ground was soft and thick enough for Wendy to make a snow angel, although it is a little hard to see in the photo it is definitely there.

On the waters edge are a couple exercise machines, we had a go to thaw out the blood.

Lake Simcoe is the largest inland lake in Southern Ontario, outside of the Great Lakes. It is about 30 Kilometers long and 25 Kilometers wide which make it roughly 725 square Kilometers. The lake freezes during the winter so no boats in the marina.

ORILLIA

30 minutes further north of Barrie is the city of Orillia which is part of Onatrio's Lake Country.

This section of the lake is frozen solid, we walked out onto the lake as we could see others walking around.
The little black specs in the photo below are ice fishing huts that you can rent out and spend the day/weekend fishing.

 All the trees along the edge of the lake are frozen into the water.

It is quite amazing to think that we could walk on a lake that has living creatures below.  There were also people with snow mobiles on the lake.

Trying to instigate a snowball fight.