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.