Wednesday June 30: Finally - Toy Story 3

It was only the second time that was the charm. We made it to see Toy Story 3 - us and about a hundred little kids! If you haven't been to a kids movie where there are actually a lot of kids, try it sometime. They are almost as funny as the movie (as long, of course, as the kid behind you isn't kicking the back of your seat :-))

It was an uphill battle - literally - as my mind clearly wasn't focused on getting us to this movie. And everyone knows what assumptions do anyway. So I assumed the theater was at the Orillia Mall, right? Wrong. It at a shopping center directly west instead of north. We were on bikes again - Steve said it was a test and I passed at least. Didn't rain - just a convoluted way to get where we were going. We left at 2:30 for the 4 pm show. Arrived at 3:55 and found it didn't start until 4:30. But really? Riding all over Orillia (again lots of up hills) for an hour and a half to reach a point that was really only about 20 minutes away. Yikes!

Anyway, the movie was good (maybe not as good as the first one) and as I said, the kids were very entertaining. Steve still managed to get some work done (I was very heavy into a book) as he continues to work on the flybridge steering wheel.

Boats are starting to make their way in for the long weekend but in particular for the Canada Day Parade downtown and the fireworks tomorrow. High today was only 62 degrees - even ran the heat for a while! Sunny but lots and lots of wind.

Monday June 28: Projects in Orillia

The really nice thing about not having an agenda is just that: no agenda, no 'have to' time frame. The weather is supposed to be downright nasty (rain and cold) from now until Thursday - which is Canada Day (like our 4th of July) so we decided to just stay put in the nice marina here in Orillia. The fireworks will be right here next to the marina so a prime seat without leaving the boat! Staying at the dock means, though, we have work days instead of travel days.

Jobs: refinishing both steering wheels (the one of the flybridge is in the worse shape) so Steve got a start on that yesterday and worked on it again today. The other job was to refinish the teak in the aft bathroom. This means sanding and 3 coats of finish. Last coat went on this afternoon.

Having completed or at least well started on two projects, we thought it would be a good time for a bike ride to the mall to see Toy Story 3 - which Becky reported was very good (3-D of course). So off we went. Left at 2:30 for the 4 pm show. You know how on Yahoo Maps they say to take time for a reality check to verify the road shown is really there? Well the same is true of tourist maps with bike paths. Does this look like it leads to a mall??? Well, it didn't.

Which wouldn't have been so bad except it decided to thunderstorm. So we pick a nice big tree with lots of other big trees around and big leaves to stay dry. Right. We finally decided to give up the show as we were already mostly wet and just rode back to the boat in the rain. Of course as soon as we got back it quit raining :-) So the show is scheduled for tomorrow - and a taxi ride :-) Good day though - very quiet around here but the place is packed again for the long holiday weekend. This will be a good place to be for a while as any Canadian with a boat will be out on the water thru Sunday.

Saturday June 26: Orillia

When we arrived mid-afternoon Thursday, the docks at the city marina were almost empty. Little did we know that today was Christmas in June and that we were luck we were even able to get a dock! The first picture when taken when we arrived - the other two is how it is now. And since it's stay two night and get the 3rd free, we signed on for the weekend which it turns out is a good thing as today is just plain ugly. Cold, rainy and cloudy. In fact, it's supposed to be like this for the next few days. I will say I absolutely do not miss having canvas on a boat!

It was nice yesterday though so we spent sometime walking/biking around. Found dessert along the bike path in the form of red rasberries - not really out fully yet but enough to make us want to check back in a day for more!

Some of the sights you might recognize: the statue of Champlain, the original bandstand in the park - built in 1906 and the hot dog stand (not sure if that was there in the '50's but was a favorite spot of Dad's when we'd come up). No black squirrels this year - or at least we didn't see any. The picture below with Mom and Dad was taken at what was the only docking in Orillia for many years - one small city dock - sometime around 1980.

Most of the boats have at least some decorations - others have REALLY gone overboard. See if you can pick out the real dog from all of the stuffed animals on the first boat. This second guy had a whole theme going with the grinch stealing the presents in the dinghy and the grinch bounty hunter on the cabin top! Once it became dark, the lights came on!

Also spotted at the dock for overnight was the Kawartha Voyageur - the cruise boat that Mom and Dad were headed for in 1997 when Dad had the stroke in Toronto on the way up. Someday that may be what Steve and I will do when we get too old to manage our own boat!!

Friday June 25: Orillia

After a nice run across Balsam Lake, we entered the most 'canal' like portion of the Trent System. The entrance to this section is off of the western end of Balsam as we continue to move generally in a western direction. This part of the canal was dug so it is often very straight and very consistently 6' deep. Piled alongside the canal you can see the rock that was removed as the canal was dug. We spent Wed night at one of the remining 5 locks above Lake Simcoe as we head to Orillia - and were not suprised to hear there was a tornado warning for the area as the wind and skies were doing very strange things. At a house near where we were docked we saw a guy on his roof - apparently looking for the tornado! Our plan was to abandon ship and run to the nice solid brick washrooms at the lock! The second lift-lock on the system at Kirkfield is the first downstream lock we went through. It is really an odd feeling looking over the front of the tub - waiting for the lockage to move us down and the other tub up. I ALWAYS have my escape route planned (which means jumping from the boat to grab a bar on the side of the tub) just in case the front door should open and all of the water pours out! And I'm serious :-)

A fun bridge on Canal Lake - and one of the reasons we don't yet have our mast up. Not sure we can clear the 22' bridges on the system. We passed the golf course that sits right next to the canal - my mom always wanted to be dropped off for 'just a quick nine' but my dad never went for it! Saw several farms with cows standing 5 feet off of the side of the canal.

The remainder of the trip down was somewhat slow due to intermittent sometimes heavy rain. I still drive from the top as it is almost impossible to really go through the locks while driving down below due to the limited vision from inside. This is the kind of day I wish I had had time to finish the plastic enclosure for the flybridge .... It's also a slow go simply because the last 5 locks down to Simcoe are still totally hand operated as they were when the locks were originally built (between 1820 and 1890). Which means the doors are still opened using a turnstile and manpower - as are the valves which let the water drain out of the lock. It is kind of neat but somedays it's just too slow!

At the bottom of this last set of locks: the entrance to Lake Simcoe!

Wednesday June 23: Coboconk

We are now at the summit of the Trent Severn System - all of our lockages so far have been up but now that we are on Balsam Lake, we begin to travel downstream. We'll continue down for the next hundred miles or so until we reach the level of Georgian Bay (off of Lake Huron). Coboconk is where many years ago we saw the first Canadian geese we had ever seen on the system - what a treat that was! Little did we know they would become the pesky things they now are everywhere. The first time we were here (my family - 7 of us on a 21 foot cruiser) was in the mid-1950's and of course there was always a trip to the bakery. As we were headed back out of town, we had to turn around and go back to the bakery for more of the bread that my dad had just tried as we were cruising back to the main lake. It was THAT good! It rained all day yesterday - which prompted a chase for a few leaks and a stay of a second night here. Nothing major - fixable by re-waterproofing the canvas over the hatches and sealing a couple of railing screws (of course it was over my side of the bed again). Walkaround decking is continues to be waterproof so we are VERY HAPPY about that. We are headed to Lake Simcoe - largest lake on the system - and may have to sit and wait out the winds predicted. The lake can be very rough as it is shallow and kicks up quickly. My memory of the lake is the time when I was a kid and we tried 2 days to cross the lake and turned back. Eventually, my dad had the boat pulled out, drove around the lake and put it back in at Beaverton! One way to solve the problem .. Check the Fenelon Falls sign - it's still there - just growing larger!

Sunday, June 20: Fenelon Falls

Moving on .... but before we left Bobcaygeon we saw the couple below with their dog on a jet ski - complete with goggles (the dog). Like I said, Bobcaygeon is a great place to people watch :-) Sunday was a lazy day moving west across Sturgeon Lake and into Fenelon Falls. We were relieved to see our favorite Chinese restaruant was still there! The Canadian Tire that used to be on the corner moved out to the edge of town and the building now is a Subway. The movie theatre has been closed for a number of years now but on the corner of the main drag is still Stokes on the Trent. This is a place my Grandma Drouhard shopped when she traveled with Janie and Joe Kraft (and kids) the year they all joined us on our summer trip - and that was about 50 years ago! The falls is of course still there - although a relatively new electric plant now takes a good part of the water some days. The weekend boat traffic was very heavy but by the time we woke up Monday morning, we were the only ones at the dock! You can see the old lock in the picture below as this used to be two locks and was converted to a single electric operated one. A really neat boat we saw at the dock with us: built in Orilla in 1923. All wood and the most ornate boat I have ever seen. Tomorrow: on to Coboconk!

Saturday June 19: Bobcaygeon

We arrived at Bobcaygeon early in the afternoon yesterday - it was starting to fill up already for the weekend. Steve was scoping a good spot in the shade but we ended up just staying where we were - near where the big tree used to be. The place looks the same -- and there is even a new tree where the old one was that Wendy and Becky played in for hours on end! Someday it will be large enough to hold a couple of small kids :-) Laundry day since we aren't plugged in and can't use the washer/dryer. Steve had the other half of the laundry in his backpack and was also riding out to the boat store out of town a ways to see if he could pick up a bilge pump. Sunset was striking - it never did rain although it was supposed to. Slow day - lots of people/boat watching fun. A catamaran went through - it was 18 1/2 feet wide!