What do we do on a rainy, drizzly day in Canada? Spend money, of course.
Dad and I took a long walk this morning before the rain. The sky was overcast, but as we came to a view of the bay, it looked like it had the promise of clearing later. From our viewpoint we headed over to the Collingwood Labyrinth, a stone labyrinth based on the one in Chartres Cathedral. Being who we are, we walked the entire thing, but not before checking our respective step trackers to see how many steps it takes to get to the center (between 640 and 820, depending on whose tracker we believe).
Unfortunately the weather didn’t clear, and it was raining lightly by the time we were eating breakfast. We took our time this morning and didn’t head out again until lunch, when we stopped at the Georgian Bay Family Restaurant, home of the over-65s, as far as I could tell. But the onion rings were delicious and the portions were more than enough.
From there we headed to Thornbury Village Cider House and Brewery, where Dad and I had two flights of cider so we could try everything they had on tap. Everything was tasty, but the cranberry cocoa hazelnut cider was just amazing. I didn’t know I needed that combination in a cider, but now it’s going down as one of the best ciders I’ve had. I’m no connoisseur, but I do like my cider (much more than beer) and I’ll definitely be trying to find this again.
Side note to brag on myself: Mom was telling our server about the tornados back home, describing things in miles, and I managed to convert to kilometers off the top of my head! Guess that time on the Camino taught me something.
The people at the cider house told us about a couple of places to check out in Thornbury itself, so we headed into town after we finished our drinks. The town of Thornbury has a nice little downtown, with the typical kind of boutique shops that do well in summer months in vacation spots. We stopped at a bakery to pick up Nanaimo bars for everyone and a butter tart for me (I discovered this treat while visiting a friend in Guelph over the years, and I always forget just how good it is). Then it was off to look at some art, which we amazingly didn’t buy, before stopping at a few more shops.
Once we were back in Collingwood we took a little break before going out to buy dinner food and explore a little. We took a few side trips down some roads trying to find our way out along the harbor, but discovered that all those roads were private access. Our next attempt was to find a road to Hen and Chicken Island (yes, that’s the real name) but we found that we could only access it by walking or biking, so that’s on the agenda for another day. So we headed back to the Metro to get our dinner items (spaghetti, for such a rainy day) and had a cozy dinner at home.
It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, too, so we’ll be trying to find some indoor activities to do. If anyone has been up in this area before and has recommendations, let us know!
here, there, and... 