The North Door

From the list of 52 finalists I chose the following:

Niagara Falls

Old Quebec City

Vimy Memorial

Gros Morne National Park

Haida Gwaii - Queen Charlotte Islands

Library of Parliament

Mt. Thor - Auyuittuq National Park

My predictions for the winners.
1. Niagara Falls
2. Bay of Fundy
3. The Stanley Cup
4. The Rockies
5. Prairie Skies
6. Northern Lights
7. Mum’s House in Scarborough

The dumbiest things on the list
1. Narcisse Snake Dens
2. Vegreville Egg
3. Crooked Trees
4. The Montreal Bagel
5. The Canoe
6. Hartland Covered Bridge
7. Manicouagan Crater

What I really think should be on the list
1. The Queen
2. The City of Melonville
3. snow
4. The toque
5. The 401
6. Brock's Monument
7. Farley Mowat

# posted by jpatersn @ 2:57 PM 0 Comments

We went camping for two nights on Pelee Island (on the 11th and 12th of May), and were the only people to pitch a tent at Dick's Campground on the south shore. We did not see any other people camping with a tent on our drive around the island.

The weather was good enough for us to enjoy our stay there. At the north-east corner of the island (Lighthouse Point), the south-west corner (Fish Point), and the south-east corner (Stone Road Alvar), we walked through the nature reserves full of flowers, birds, and other little creatures such as frogs, turtles, squirrels, and snakes. Plenty of fish jumped above the water surface on Lake Erie. We left Saturday morning at 8 AM.

I later discovered that the writers Margaret Atwood and her husband, Graeme Gibson, own property on the island. Both are very active in naturist causes. Gibson has recently published The Bedside Book of Birds (2005).

A poster announced that David Suzuki (introduced by Margaret Atwood) was giving a talk that night (12th of May) at a banquet ("Singsong, A Celebration of Birds and Birding") at 8 PM at the Pelee Island Winery Pavilion, but we did not stay. I wondered if we might meet him coming over on the ferry in the morning as we were leaving. But one of the crew members of the MV Jiimaan said that she did not think he had been on board. She suggested that he might have flown over to the island.


some links:
http://www.pelee.com
http://www.pelee.org/
http://www.owtoad.com/ - Atwood's page
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

These photos were taken May 3, 2007, in the Clifton Hill/Maid of the Mist area of Niagara Falls. Some people don't like this, but I think it's a truly amazing creation. Where else would could Frankenstein enjoy a good burger, or King Kong hang out with the honeymoon crowd?

It was a beautiful, sunny day today, and we drove to the Falls to catch the launching of the Maid of the Mist boats. This story has been in the papers and on TV news lately because there is a great deal of anxiety about whether American tourists will be coming this year in numbers. One concern is the passport issue, which is confusing Americans--"Do we need a passport to go to Canada?" Two is the strong Canadian dollar, which increases the cost of vacationing here for Americans. And three is the increasing price of gasoline, the highest price we've seen so far this year (I paid $1.07 a litre this morning) and threatening to go higher this summer.

When we reached the bottom of Clifton Hill, we immediately could see that the volume of water going over the American Falls had increased from last week. During the winter the volume is decreased. During days in the summer the volume is at 50% and at night it is 25%. It will not be increased to 100% at anytime because that would cause erosion to the falls and damage to docks downstream.

The Maid of the Mist boats were launched today in Niagara Falls. They have to be kept out of the water during the winter because the river ices over. We went down to the docks where local TV stations (from Buffalo and Hamilton) were taking film of the event. We took pictures and video, and I put together a short film showing what happened.

Go here to see a better quality Flash version of this movie

Currently CBC is holding a contest to find the Seven Wonders of Canada.
www.cbc.ca/sevenwonders/nominate_a_wonder.html Niagara Falls may be choosen. But some people have complained that it is natural not man-made wonder and should not be included. I disagree. Niagara Falls long ago ceased being something "natural". But we love it just the same.

In Thorold, there's an old railway tunnel under the ruins of the third Welland Canal.

I was aware of the tunnel in the 1960s when I went swimming with friends in the old canal above it. At that time I even walked through it to the east end. It is not an easy place to find because it is on an abandoned service road on "private property" (controlled by the St. Lawrence Seaway) surrounded by bush.

Linda and I walked there yesterday and took some photographs.

The tunnel opened in 1881 with the purpose of allowing the construction of the canal and not disrupting the service of the Great Western Railway. This was actually a side track and ran in a curve back to the original line. The tunnel itself is 665 feet long (18 feet high/16 feet wide) and also curves.

The bridge that replaced the tunnel:



The tunnel became popular in recent years because it was rumoured to be haunted. So people went there late at night, took strange photographs, tried to catch ghostly screams on tape. There were late night parties. Graffiti artists decided to decorate the place. The Seaway made an ugly attempt to block it off. The place is now a mess,
but the beautifully constructed tunnel is still visible despite all this.

To see the inside of the tunnel, click here.

go to these sites at your own risk:
www.uer.ca
www.amateurspiritseekers.com
hamiltonparanormal.com
www.pararesearchers.org

On the last weekend in April the peach trees are in blossom and the cherry blossoms are just peeking out of the buds with the intention of coming to full bloom next week.

After picking up our guests at the St. Catharines bus terminal Saturday afternoon, we drove them to Niagara-on-the-Lake just before 5 PM. Most of the shops along Queen Street close at 6 PM. The Old Niagara Bookshop on King St. closes at 7 PM.

On the drive along Niagara Stone Road, I pointed out the many wineries, antique stores, and restaurants. The road (from the QEW) is the one most used by those visiting Old Niagara.

(The other two, less frequented routes to NOTL, are the Niagara Parkway http://www.niagaraparks.com/heritage/ along the Niagara River and Lakeshore Road from St. Catharines. The first is mostly parkland, the second has many orchards and vineyards, all three routes different in their own way.)

I let my wife and the two guests off at Greaves Jams & Marmalades. Most stores along Queen Street are open but the Niagara Apothecary has not yet opened for the season.
http://www.niagaraapothecary.ca/

Usually I parked at the back of Simcoe Park and across the street from 17 Byron St., The Rectory (1858), the house used by Christopher Walken in the movie The Dead Zone. My car was parked where Martin Sheen held his political campaign rally in the same movie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Zone_%28film%29
The Dead Zone is based on a Stephen King novel, and, like The Shawshank Redemption and Carrie, it is one of Stephen King's most popular movie adaptations.

Immediately, I went to the bookstore and spent some time browsing through the books. Then I walked to the back of the Courthouse and paid a visit to the new washrooms previously located in the basement of the Courthouse itself. The new building is an ugly concrete-block construction, although it provides much more room.

The guests were still in the jam store! They came out a little later with very heavy bags filled with mini jars of jam: peach jam, cherry jam, orange marmalade, crab-apple jam, rhubarb raspberry jam, and so on. (Their luggage was about 40 lbs. heavier when they left us Monday morning.) http://www.greavesjams.com/

Their next destination was the Christmas Store. I took the two bags of jars back to the car trunk. I put the seat back and fell asleep for 30 minutes. When I woke up, I walked back up to Queen Street. Where had my wife and guests disappeared to after all the stores had shut their doors for the evening?--Later I learned that they had stopped at the Angel Inn to check for the ghost of Captain Swayze in the basement. http://www.angel-inn.com/

I returned to the car and drove down to the Gazebo at the Queen's Royal Park where you can look across the mouth of the river to Fort Niagara. The Gazebo was built for The Dead Zone and is the location of a grizzly murder in that movie. Somehow, now almost 25 years later, it is a very popular place to take photos, and is used for wedding ceremonies. Are the wedding couples aware of this history?

Then I drove down Queen Street and back to my parking space where I planned to do a little reading. Just as I started chucking over the first page in a book of stories, my wife and the guests arrived back at the car.

The next morning, we drove up the Niagara Parkway, on the way passing Fort George, the Riverbend Inn, Inniskillin Winery, the 200-year-old McFarland House, the many beautiful homes and numerous views of the River, and arrived at the "little church" just before the village of Queenston.

By the guest book in the Living Water Wayside Chapel, this little church is very popular. I walked across the street and took a picture of the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge spanning the Niagara River gorge. This is the place where Niagara Falls began 12,000 years ago. Over that time the falls has moved 11 kilometres up the river to its present location.

Next we visited Brock's Monument at the top of the Escarpment with a beautiful view of the lower Niagara River. I always thought that the general was wagging his finger at the Americans: "And don't come back!" But no, he's holding a Wii wand.

Finally, we came to the Floral Clock. It was built in 1950 by Ontario Hydro and was model after the floral clock in the Princes’ Street Gardens in Edinburgh. Behind the clock is the big hydroelectric plant and reservoir. A canal takes water from the river above the falls through the city of Niagara Falls to this location where electrical power is generated. http://www.niagaraparks.com/heritage/siradambeck.php

The chimes in the clock tower can be heard every 15 minutes on the quarter hour.

We continued our journey to Thundering Waters.