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!!