Day 33
We departed Flamboro Campground and drove 50 minutes to the Alexander Graham Bell Homestead in Brantford, ON. A tour of the home lasted about an hour. This was Bell’s home with his parents when he arrived sickly from Scotland. The family moved here for his health after the death of his two brothers to tuberculosis. Of course Bell recovered in the fresh air of Canada. It was in Brantford that Bell conceived of the idea of the telephone. The idea of converting sound waves into electrical waves and back was documented in a letter to his father. The idea was so radical that Bell requested his father not reveal it to anyone lest they consider him insane. The homestead became a museum in 1910 during Bell’s lifetime. When Bell was informed of the museum he actually came to the museum and assisted in setting it up as it was during his occupancy. We then drove an hour to London, ON, and checked into the Walmart on Wellington. A phone call to Labatt Brewery to schedule a tour for tomorrow was met with a recording that next tour was 5:00 and no tours the next day. So at 3:30, we drove to the brewery and got permission to attend the 5:00 tour. With an hour to spare we walked 10 minutes to the Covent Garden Market and had a bubble tea and bought some goodies. The Labatt tour lasted two hours and included samples of 8 brews. Amazingly, the brewery produces 3 million bottles of beer a day for 24 hours, 5 days a week. Each fermenter holds one million bottles and this site has 26 fermenters. During the tasting, a trivial game was played for prizes. With questions like which state sells the least amount of beer (Utah), which Disney Theme park sells no beer (Magic Kingdom) and which restaurant only sells beer in a Disney Theme park (MacDonalds in Animal Kingdom - a complete guess since I do not frequent it), my first place finish got me a Budweiser Bluetooth connecting speaker. If I only had Bluetooth!
Day 32
We arrived at the Royal Botanical Gardens about 10 minutes after the 10:00 opening and the parking lot was almost full. 2700 acres of themed gardens with 18 miles of walking trails. One garden, the Laking Garden, was an area of irises and peonies in full bloom and was spectacular. We spent the morning and then went to lunch at Kampai where we each had a bento box. Then back to the Gardens and the arboretum portion. Lots of trails through mostly wild forest and marsh. The heat was fairly bad in the afternoon and although we did not walk the entire 18 miles of trails, it sure felt like we did. But we were not done for yet. We visited the Spencer Gorge Wilderness Area and hiked to two waterfalls, the Tew Falls and Webster Falls.
Day 31
About an hour drive to Flamboro Campground. We then headed to Dundurn National Historic Site. The castle was built in 1835 by Sir Allan Napier MacNab, a former premier of the United Provinces of Canada in 1854-1856. The United Provinces consisted of Ontario and Quebec, that was before Confederation in 1867 when Canada became a country. Dinner at Ben Thanh Viet Thai Restaurant was ok but the service was quite unusual in that when the waitress brought out the wrong dish she insisted that we ordered this dish instead of the one we actually ordered. After several minutes of debate she finally took if away and brought us the correct dish, one that she had in fact recommended as their most popular dish.
Day 30
We cross into Canada with no difficulty and park at the St. Catharines Walmart. We take the car along the Lake Shore Drive and visit 3 wineries, Palatine Hills Estate, Konzelmann Estate Winery and Ravine Winery. Purchase made at each results in our refrigerator be jammed full. We
drive by Niagara Falls but the place is mobbed on a Saturday and no reasonable parking available so we continue to the Niagara Botanical Gardens, visit the Niagara whirlpool and flower clock. Having been here for the third time since 2014, we did not miss walking by the falls.
No comments:
Post a Comment