Day 16 was the Sunday of the long weekend, and another day spent mostly hanging out at the cottage (photos 1-2).
Andrea went out in the boat with her dad and aunt, and her Uncle Rod was using the sailboat (photos 3-15). A bunch of the cousins wanted to go tubing, and I elected to be the designated photographer.
Batch 1 involved Whitaker, Grace and Celeste, and I managed to grab some basic shots when they were close vs. some that had to be cropped considerably when they were farther across the lake (photos 16-37).
I took a small break to snap some clouds and Rod passing by on the sailboat (photos 38-40), and then we went on to Batch 2 — Bruce and Cam on the tube (photos 41-56). Andrea finished off the night with some shots of Grace, Dean and Becky; her hair after Grace did some styling; and Ron raiding the wine collection (photos 57-59).
The tube photos are hard to capture, so I tend to do them in burst modes. That meant a TON of photos for the day — 478 curated down to 59, but no driving.
Day 15 was a light day, mostly hanging out at the cottage. Becky, Dean and Grace were there for the weekend, and we all took Doug, aka Great Grandfather aka GG, out for his birthday dinner — he is 97 this year. They used to live in Norland, so we went to the restaurant there for lunch. Afterwards, we visited the Norland cemetery, to visit his wife’s grave (20 years this year that she’s been gone), and then took him back to Lindsay. Then we returned to the cottage for a relatively quiet day visiting with cousins and other inlaws.
Minimal driving and only as a passenger, with 6 photos only for the day, curated from 8.
Day 14 was a Friday, and the goal was to make it to the cottage for dinner (photos 1-2).
Andrea and Jacob had breakfast at the hotel restaurant again (CoCo’s), and then we loaded up the car and checked out. Our first stop wasn’t too far, just along the parkway (photo 3) — it was time for butterflies at the Butterfly Conservatory!
We checked in for the parking, paid our entrance fee, and then had a “digital photo template” taken where we stood with our hands out like we were holding butterflies. They snapped the photo, and we could pick it up (for a fee) at the exit. There was an intro documentary about the life of butterflies and the conservatory, but we stood watching that for about 2 minutes before jumping ship and heading into the greenhouse.
The greenhouse is about 100′ x 75′ or so in area, with a walking path that mostly goes up the right side, and then starting at the upper right corner, draws a big S over to the upper left, back to the lower right, and then exiting mid-left-side. The first two sides are relatively flat, while the middle S rises up by a small waterfall area, and then drops back down to the exit (photos 4-194).
There were lots of tropical-looking plants and trees, and the greenhouse was kept quite warm for the butterflies. Most of the butterflies were flying around at normal levels, but some were hanging out at the top of trees, enjoying the fruit and blossoms on the trees (photos 20-21). Many of the butterflies were quite easy to digitally capture, either by personality (hanging out on leaves in stretched wing formation) or simply numbers (there were lots of orange ones). Others, like the bright blue ones, were much harder to capture in photos or video. And still, others were more like inanimate objects — they were practically immobilized on the feeding dishes full of oranges.
We saw a statue or two, some waterfalls and streams, a few koi, etc., but the real draw was obviously the butterflies. All three of us ended up with them landing on us at least once (Andrea and I on our heads, Jacob on his arms). When they did, we took LOTS of photos. We were like butterfly paparazzi. I was using my DSLR and snapping away, trying to capture some in flight, particularly the blue ones, while Jacob and Andrea used their iPhones. The really good ones of the blue butterflies? Those are all Andrea and Jacob. I sucked at capturing the blue ones.
After we exited, carefully checking to make sure we had no winged hitchhikers, we picked up the butterfly photo (which we got on paper and could later download digitally). It’s cute, with a nice background from the conservatory and three butterflies photoshopped into our hands. Of course, it’s not real, but it was a cute souvenir (photo 194). We picked up a few things from the gift shop, and then finally headed out.
We grabbed some fast food for our lunch and plotted our route to the cottage. We had enjoyed the toll roads in the U.S., most of which shaved huge times off our routes, and so we opted for the 407 without spending much time figuring out the cost. Cough. Oops. Don’t get me wrong, we got on just after Hamilton (photos 195-197), and made a bathroom pit-stop in the north part of Toronto, and the road was great. It was steady for traffic but not super busy. We were checking out some of the info about it as we neared the end, only to see the cost was about $1 per kilometre. I liked it, sure, but not sure if I liked it THAT much. Oops, too late. (FYI, the bill just arrived — $68 for the route. I don’t know that I’ll do that again unless I’m desperate or worried about traffic…admittedly, it was probably the BEST time to do it, because it was the Friday afternoon before a long weekend, and traffic was heating up out of Toronto, but still…$68?).
We stopped just north of Lindsay and picked up some fresh corn and fruit, and then on to the cottage (north of Rosedale, south of Coboconk). We had dinner with the family and relaxation, with most of the “driving” portion of the trip complete.
We notched another 309 km for the day, but it was the photos that were “insane” — 838 photos and videos for the day, curated down to 197.
Day 13, a Thursday, was a day to relax and hang out in Niagara Falls — no driving! (Photos 1-2).
I really wanted to go on a Falls boat ride, but I didn’t know if it might be rough, and my legs / hips were still screaming at me after two long days cramped in the car ride from Boston. I was kind of worried that it would not go well, and I’d be wrecked for longer, so after Andrea and Jacob had breakfast at the hotel, the old fart (me) sent the young’uns (them) off on their own for a Hornblower cruise. It was busy, but the lines moved along well (photos 3-9). They took ramps and an elevator to get down to the boat.
They wore red rain ponchos and went outside on the long boat. The tour took them close to all the Falls — American, Bridal, and Horseshoe Falls. It was hard to see the American Falls at first because of mist. Some parts of the tour were pretty wet, while other parts were not so much, but it was hard to hear the commentary. It was also impossible to see once they got really close to Horseshoe Falls. They saw good views of the cliffs, falls, bridge and funicular, with good photo opportunities throughout (10-31). They took the elevator back to the top and had a rest.
We met up on Clifton Hill and went to the Movieland wax museum (32-46). There were lots of actors, characters, singers, and superheroes. The faces weren’t exactly the best quality, but the costumes were really good and it wasn’t too busy. Afterwards, we had lunch at Wendy’s (really busy) and then wandered farther up the hill (photos 47-48). We weren’t following a set plan for our route back, and we ended up wandering much farther afield than I intended, so quite the hike by the time we were done. We saw lots of restaurants to consider for dinner.
We hung out at the hotel and then ended up walking to a simple Outback for dinner that seemed much farther away than we initially thought. Fortunately, it wasn’t too busy, and we stopped for ice cream on the way back, eating outside on a patio (photo 49). My hips were screaming at me again on the way there, but one simple Robaxacet later, and I was fine for the walk back. Night and day, making me think I probably COULD have gone on the boat in the morning. Sigh. Next time, I guess. We heard the fireworks from our hotel room, but didn’t bother venturing out.
As I said, today was a non-driving day (yay!) and given the wetness of the initial outing on the cruise, not a big photo day either — 110 in total, curated down to 49.
We had made good headway on Day 11, but we still had to get from Utica to Niagara Falls. In my head, I was picturing a short jaunt and at least half a day in Niagara Falls. However, it was more like a regular day’s haul and part of a day left when we got to Niagara (photos 1-2).
As I said, it was still a long drive (343 km) along the interstate, with lots of tolls and trucks along the way. We managed to see some nice scenery as well as at least one big bridge. We have no idea what happened to the GPS (maybe a cell tower issue), but just as we got to where we should turn in Niagara Falls, NY, to head to the border, our Google Maps froze. It stopped tracking our movements, and I had no idea where we were supposed to go. We followed some signs for the Rainbow Bridge, but it sure didn’t seem like the most efficient of routes. We crossed the bridge at 2:00 p.m. or so (photos 3-12), with a bit of a wait at Customs but no real issues. We were glad to be back in Canada and headed for our hotel (Holiday Inn By The Falls). Our room wasn’t ready, so we had lunch at the in-house restaurant (CoCo’s).
I confess that I was tickled pink by our lunch plans. Jacob and his immediate friends are not the most extroverted groups, and sometimes we have to jump hoops to get people to do things together in Ottawa. Yet somehow, in the space-time continuum that exists only in the land of modern teenagers, Jacob’s friends happened to be in Hamilton visiting their uncle and aunt and thus managed to come into Niagara Falls on the same day we arrived so that they could have lunch together (photos 12-17).
After lunch, we were able to check in and chill for a bit, and then walked down the steep hill in front of the hotel to the Falls. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too busy. We walked up and down for lots of different views, took lots of photos/videos (18-93) and visited the gift shop. We had dinner at Queen Victoria restaurant across from the falls (photos 94-107). It had a really nice view, with Jacob able to order lobster mac and cheese for the third time of the trip. We had a really nice dinner and watched as the lights changed on the falls.
I asked the waitress where the best place was to watch the impending fireworks at 10:00 p.m., as it was almost 9:30. Although the restaurant closes at 10, she let us stay and watch them from the balcony we were already on. It was a pretty good fireworks display (photos 108-119), with lots of big echoes as they went off. An excellent evening, with the small exception that we had to then climb back up the steep hill after a big dinner and a hot night.
As I mentioned, we still logged 343 km for the day, and took 285 photos and videos, curated down to 119.
