Onwards into the Heart of Ontario

Just as Montreal was home to me for my adult years in Canada, Toronto was the city of my teen years. Montreal was a time to visit with friends, Toronto is a time to visit with family and friends from high school. Driving around Toronto was like driving around a clean, orderly US city, and driving around Montreal is a cross between a typical North American city with forages into the Europe culture. I love the architecture of both cities – old stone houses, brick mansions, Victorian houses with gingerbread balconies, and a canyon of new apartment and business buildings.

While in Toronto, I got to spend time with family, visit old haunts, and reconnect with nieces and their children who have grown into young adults themselves.

Christine and Donna - my Toronto hosts
Donna and I went to high school together

My niece Pat's son, Sean, and myself

relaxing at their pool

Then hitting the road again, I headed up to Thornbury on Georgian Bay, a part of Lake Huron. What fun it was to take back roads, through the Caledon Hills, and into Mennonite country. One has to drive very carefully here… at every hill I had to slow down (having seen sign that warned of horse driven vehicles) and sure enough, there I was toodling along, and then I realized that the car in front of me was not a car, but a horse driven buggy clopping along. Luckily he pulled over and I went on. Then as I came up and over a hill and Georgian Bay opened up in front of me, and, as Liam puts it, I knew I had reached my destination. Thornbury is a small town, with no McDonalds or any evidence of the chains and franchises that dominate the retail culture, just local businesses and lovely old homes. I went for a walk today and there is a dam and a fish spillway where the salmon can come to go up river to spawn. It is so rustic here.... you can walk to downtown, the harbor and up and down tree lined streets to see 200 year old houses with widow walks on them.