Paul and ships, boats, and Locks. He doesn’t like the water but he loves to watch this. We spent our first night on our return trip enjoying a view on the St. Lawrence Seaway from our site at Grass Point State Park. Very nice park, lots of grass and we got a spot right on the Seaway. It was a bit hazy from those fires again but we had a beautiful view in the morning.

From here we are heading into Canada. Next stop Log Chateau Park Campground near Toronto.

Seems to be the theme of this trip into Canada. Grand Valley is where we are staying for the weekend. We do find very nice RV spots. This one is out of town right on the Grand River. I can hear the tiny rapids all day and night. Very calming.

Orangeville is the large city about 30 minutes away so of course it’s raining all day Friday so we go there to get supplies at the Walmart. After some research we found several things to do this weekend. One was golf! Found a very cute 9 hole course with a very interesting driving range. They also have an 18 hole miniature golf course. The best part is Teddy was welcome. Good thing cause he does not like to sit in the car when he can see us. We decided to just use the driving range at Lynbrook Golf as par 3 is not my favorite and we had a slow start to our day.

Next stop is Elora which in the research I did is a very quaint town with a gorge! What a beautiful, hopping village. The shops were all unique other than the 3 ice cream spots. One of them had handmade ice cream and apparently everyone knew it was the best. The line was long. The good news is today I had decided it was a cocktail day, not an ice cream day.

We did not walk down into the gorge, the stairs were narrow and steep and I was just not in the mood to hike back out after reaching the bottom. We could get a glimpse of the gorge from a very nice walk along the edge.

Town was beautiful, not a lot of art but this guy played for the entire 4 hours we were in the town.

We found another quaint spot to have lunch right in the middle of town. Perfect spot because after lunch Paul got onto his phone and I took a little walk. I resisted and didn’t make any big purchases but browsing was really fun. And to finish the day we enjoyed cocktails at a local distillery, Elora Distilling Company had the best Cosmopolitian I have ever tasted! The vodka is Amethyst Spirit with Triple Sec and white cranberry juice and a splash of lime juice. I bought the vodka, now I have to find the white cranberry!

Known for the Trent – Severn Waterway. Paul is in heaven. He will be traveling throughout this area doing dealer visits and he will definitely be stopping and watching all of the action. There are many locks along the canals and there are even lifts!

So many lakes; Balsam Lake, Cameron Lake, Four Mile Lake, and so many more.

Lifts. Kirkfield Lock 36. We watched for about an hour. These people wait to get into the lift, it takes an hour to raise the lift. Once these boats got into the lift we walked to the road way above and we saw many boats waiting for their turn once these got lifted. So I figure 2 hours to go about 100 feet in the canal. Amazing! I don’t get it but the engineering is pretty amazing.

Our campsite is not really close although there is a lock nearby in Fenelon Falls where we spent one day enjoying the small town and of course watching the boaters move from one lake to the other.

Lots of little towns and lots of farmland. Orillia is the largest town we have come across during this part of our journey. We went here one day just for the internet. Lunch was very nice, long but great food. Paul had his Poutine. It was a lot but he wasn’t happy, took 45 minutes or more just to get our food and then it wasn’t very hot. I guess even Canada is having trouble keeping up with customer demand and short staff.

We keep running into long waits at restaurants and then a longer wait to get the food we ordered. Our last attempt in Fenelon Falls we were told a 15-20 minute wait to sit on the patio with Teddy. Great, it’s lunch time and it is a beautiful day. We walked across the street watching the locks (again!) and after 30 minutes I went to check, one party ahead of you and then you will be seated. After 20 minutes more I saw the sign for subway! Yep, my least favorite but the park was beautiful so why not. My lovely lunch with a cocktail just turned into a 6”italian sub and a fountain soda on a park bench. The view was the same and the price was probably half! Paul’s happier and Teddy could care less.

Today we are going to another lock on the Trent canals. Very nice little town of Bobcaygeon. Same type of town, locks very busy as it is Sunday. I guess they all have to get back to work. We enjoyed a local ice cream Kawartha Lakes Creamery. Very good ice cream. The first place had a line at least 40 minutes! Not worth it but Paul found us another spot right in town with no wait. Great ice cream and another park bench with a view of the locks. This is becoming a theme of this week.