June 6th: Thousand Islands, Kingston and Arrival in Prince Edward County
Daniella and I packed everything up for the trip and drove mid Thursday morning towards Prince Edward County. We had decided to visit the Thousand Islands (Daniella did not remember being there) mid-way and also have a look at Kingston (I have never made it to Kingston before). Since I did not do a lot of preparation we drove to Gananoque. Its name was clearly in my head as one of the starting points for a 1000 Island sight-seeing cruise and that is what I investigated via the web. The web also indicated a 2nd departure location called Ivy Lea. When we left Ottawa I had the cruise departure times in my head and everything was fine. Only when we came across the exit sign for "Rockport" did that name ring a bell for me: It was the starting point for the two prior cruises I took way way back. We did not exit, because I had no clue what the departure times were for that location.
Anyway, Daniella and I arrived at Gananoque, bought our tickets, and 10 minutes later we were on a 1-hour 1000 Island cruise. The Gananoque 1-hour cruise is very different from the one at Rockport (one could also say complementary) and I liked it. The Rockport cruise is along "Millionaires Row" with its oversized and esoteric buildings on the various islands. The 1-hour Gananoque cruise is about "normal" Canadian family cottages built over generations on lots of small and larger islands. A number of islands are also owned/managed by Parks Canada and are paddling and boating destinations with rural campsites on some. Plenty of nature and birds on top of that. The weather was nice for a cruise and the ship relative empty (we were early in the season). The St. Lawrence river water levels were on the high side. After the cruise Daniella and I had a quick baguette bite at one of the waterfront benches.
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| 1000 Island Tour Boat in Gananoque |
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| 1000 Islands near Gananoque |
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| 1000 Islands near Gananoque |
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| 1000 Islands near Gananoque: The St. Lawrence had a high Water Level |
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| 1000 Islands near Gananoque |
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| 1000 Islands near Gananoque |
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| 1000 Islands near Gananoque |
We then continued to downtown Kingston. We parked the car in downtown near Princess Street and the waterfront. The first 20 minutes we walked westward along the waterfront as long as it was possible. And then we returned towards downtown on one of the streets (probably Ontario Street). At some point we headed more northerly by crisscrossing and following plenty of smaller streets until we ended up at St. Mary's Cathedral (its tower gave us some rough direction of where we wanted to go). St. Mary's was open and we spent 5 quiet minutes in it.
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| St. Mary's in Kingston |
After St. Mary's we idled along Clergy Street towards Brock and Princess Street. Princess Street looked interesting and we followed it northward through a restaurant/pub area frequented by students. At a local Metro grocery we bought a late lunch and some snacks for the next day. Then we returned southward on Princess Street towards downtown. Princess Street turned from a student/pub-area towards a shopping street area with plenty of smaller shops and some typical brand shops. It had a decent variety from alternative/artisan shops, Asian and bio grocery shops, Lululemon to Trailhead outdoor to clothing boutique type shops. Then we followed King Street a little bit and also went Brock Street up and down for 10 minutes. There also happened to be a decent sized market on market square with plenty of local grocers and also some artisan stands.
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| Kingston: Downtown Market Square |
Generally Kingston that day struck me as a nice place to live: It has a waterfront, a decent sized old downtown with a variety of shops and also a student culture. We did not see the Queens University area (aside from driving through when exiting the town) and we also did not see the historical forts and military stuff at the eastern side of town (again aside from driving along Highway 2).
We left Kingston at around 16:30. Since it was getting late, we did not drive along the waterfront to Prince Edward County as originally envisioned. Instead we took Highway 401 to Belleville and arrived around 17:30 at our AirBnB place in the middle of nowhere in Prince Edward County.
Later in the evening Daniella and I headed towards Belleville. We had dinner at Burger Revolution and were both thumbs up on the place (a suggestion from Margaret).
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| A decent place for a burger: Belleville's Burger-Revolution |
Afterwards we went to the Quinte Shopping Mall and waited there for Gongyu and Margaret to arrive from Toronto. After reunion we all drove back to the rental place.
June 7th, Sandbanks and Prince Edward County
After breakfast we went to Sandbanks Provincial Park. We paid the entrance fee and parked the car at one of the Outlet Beach parking lots and walked the whole sand dune Outlet Beach up and down its length. The weather was sunny and a surprising number of young student type people (for a normal workday) enjoyed themselves at the beach. It was a nice day to do that.
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| Sandbanks Outlet Beach: Crossing the Main Dune from the Parking Lot to the Beach. |
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| Sandbanks Outlet Beach |
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| Sandbanks Outlet Beach |
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| Sandbanks Outlet Beach |
After Outlet Beach we went to Sandbanks Dune Trail parking lot. We had a waterfront lunch there on of the picnic benches. We noticed lots of people being over at the giant sand dune, despite the trail being flooded (it seems to be a super popular spot). I was the only one with shorts and flip-flops. So I decided to walk over and succeeded. The water turned out to be too deep for Gongyu and the girls. We weren't really equipped for this. I guess it will be a reason to come back. The sand dune area looked enticing and different from Outlet Beach.
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| Sandbanks Dune Trail Area |
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| Sandbanks Dune Trail Area |
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| Daniella trying her Luck crossing over to the big Sand Dune |
Instead we drove 1 or 2 km further and parked at the Lakeshore Trail parking lot (recommended by the provincial park folks at the entrance). We did the whole trail forward backward. It is not a sand dunes trail. The trail leads through forested and boggy areas (plenty of birds) with nice views at Lake Ontario.
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| Sandbanks Lakeshore Trail |
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| Sandbanks Lakeshore Trail |
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| Sandbanks Lakeshore Trail |
Then it was time to consider dinner and how to return back to the AirBnB. We decided to head back via Wellington. We had a nice dinner at Midtown Brewery (a micro brewery with decent pub fare) in Wellington. My fish and chips was very good and the burgers and schnitzels from the others also looked very good.
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| Fish and Chips at the Midtown Brewery |
We concluded the day with shopping in the local grocery, walking up and down a large portion of the local main street and having an ice-cream from the local ice-cream shop. While Wellington is much smaller compared to Picton (and Belleville), it does have a nice vibe of it own. Afterwards we headed back to our rental place in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere was actually also a nice house-half with a large garden attached to it.
June 8th, Prince Edward County
On Sunday morning we checked out of our rooms and drove to Presqu'ile Provincial Park. There we did the "Orange" colored hiking trail (I believe it is called "Newcastle Trail"). It leads to the tip of the peninsula with its lighthouse through different types of forests and marshy areas. It is about 4 to 5 km long. Presqu'ile is a major bird area and also important for Monarch butterflies. After our hike we had a late lunch on a bench at one of the waterfront picnic places in the park.
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| Presqu'ile: Hiking in the Woods |
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| Presqu'ile: Hiking in the Woods |
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| Presqu'ile: Hiking in the Woods |
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| Presqu'ile: Lighthouse at the Tip of the Peninsula |
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| Presqu'ile: Back in the Forest again. |
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| Presqu'ile: Somewhere along the way. |
We continued our drive towards Toronto. Since none of us had seen the Scarborough Bluff's and there was still some time left at our arrival in the area, we headed for the Scarborough Bluff's Park. We were very lucky. Basically it was not a super duper idea to head for such a GTA park on a Sunday afternoon despite it being already late in the afternoon (well after 4pm). Suddenly we were stuck in a traffic jam during the last few kilometers and nothing went. Just stuck. There was no exit point and turning around was difficult because the street was narrow. However after standing for a longer while (15 to 20 minutes) the jam suddenly eased and we could drive all the way down and even found in no time a parking lot despite "heavy competition". Once we parked the car all of us relaxed and the time spent in the park area was worthwhile. The park is a major picnic spot for Torontonians and was full with people barbecuing, playing games with their kids on the lawn and so on. The park is surrounded by a walking path that also offers nice views towards the escarpment/bluff heights from the lake level. We spent about an hour in the park.
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| Bluffer's Park in Scarborough / Toronto |
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| Bluffer's Park in Scarborough / Toronto. The park is well known for its cliffs in the background. |
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| Bluffer's Park in Scarborough /Toronto |
Our last stop for the day was the "Szechuan Legend" restaurant in Thornhill. This was my first Chinese restaurant with mostly Szechuan food (I have been to lots of different Chinese restaurants over the years) and I now understand a bit better, what the Szechuan cooking books I have perused are about, and especially the proposed amounts of Szechuan peppercorns and use of chilli. Gongyu is from Northern China and that is a very different cuisine. I liked the noodle dish we ordered very much. However the fish was really hot (apparently I was not diligent enough removing the individual peppercorns), and the same was true for the ya cai cabbage we ordered. At least I understand now why I am using only a fraction of the spicy peppers and chilli suggested in the various recipes from the Szechuan cooking books I perused :-). Nevertheless I was happy about the experience and I have a better understanding now about this particular cuisine.
June 10th, Dropping Daniella at the Airport and heading back to Ottawa
We drove in the morning to a kitchen shop in Toronto to buy a new attachment for my pasta machine. After looking for several years in Ottawa without success I bought the attachment now in Toronto. The new attachment cuts noodles in the middle (in terms of width) compared to the 2-size attachment I already have. The new attachment should be a better fit when making certain Chinese noodles.
We had lunch at Sweet India near the airport. The place was a recommendation from Steve and Zandra and is the neatest (and very affordable) Indian fast food place I have seen in Canada, in short a gem. I liked all of the lunch items we ordered. Afterwards we dropped Daniella at the airport and Gongyu and I drove back to Ottawa. On the drive back we ended up in heavy rain for a while.
