The Wayside Chapel

Hey, I'm not a religious person, but we HAD to stop here and check it out...

I remember seeing this tiny church on our drive up to Tobermory and thinking, on our way back, we MUST go there!

On the way back to Toronto...

Well, my friends, it was time to head back to Toronto. After the nearly 2 hour trip from Manitoulin Island's South Baymouth to Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, we  piled into the car and hunkered down for a long ride back. Joining me, Bert and TC was C's German friend, "K" who was planning to head back to Toronto and then fly back to Berlin.

Canada Day 4 - Breakfast and Heading out for Tobermory

In case you are wondering about dinner photos for Day 3, there are none. Wait, wut?

We were so tired from all our activities that we didn't want to have to drive out anywhere to eat. We ended up walking to the nearest Tim Hortons from our hotel. Bert and I had sandwiches while TC had a chicken wrap. Not very exciting stuff to photograph, thus no pics.

It was our last morning in Toronto because we were heading out to Tobermory, a small town which is at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula. From there, we were going to board the 2 hour ferry ride to Manitoulin Island, the largest island in the largest freshwater lake in the world. We were looking forward to finally visiting my blog friend of 4 year, the lovely C of the blog Life on Manitoulin.

The map below (courtesy of Wikipedia) shows the Bruce Peninsula in red. Tobermory is at the northern tip. Manitoulin Island is slightly to the left of Toberymory.

Now, back to the ho-telll.....

Here's pix of their ultra swanky lobby:

Cue some Rat Pack music...

The dishes on that counter were part of the breakfast bar...

This was my plate - From left to right: sauteed mushrooms, Canadian Pea Meal Bacon, a bacon strip (in the back), triangular hash brown, croissants, plus scrambled eggs and a few pieces of fresh fruit.

About the Pea Meal Bacon, I'd heard about this and wanted to try it so I was pleasantly surprised that it was at the breakfast buffet. Unfortunately, it didn't taste too good. Pea Meal bacon is a cheap cut of back bacon (tastes like ham) that is brined and coated with pea meal crumbs. You can fry it up and serve it that way. This was kind of rubbery tasting and was too salty. I only ate a few bites.

This was Bert's plate - From left to right: croissant, sausage, scrambled egg, pea meal bacon and hasbrown. I'm not sure what the black speckled thing was in the back, but next to it was a piece of cheese and a slice of prosciutto. Wait, the speckled thing was salmon.

This was TC's plate which had a Belgian waffle, fresh fruit, has brown and bacon strip. I'm really glad my kid likes fruit and not so much the salty stuff (like me).

So off we went on the Gardiner Expressway...passing by CN Tower...

Let me tell you that this was one fucking long ass ride. C told us it was 3 1/2 hours but it took us nearly four! The speed limit here is pretty strict - 55 mph! We passed by a lot of small towns. As always, here are some pix of what amuses me.

Below is Champ Burger in the tiny town of Shelburne (population 5,149 as of 2006) which is:

"... town in Dufferin County, Ontario, Canada, located at the intersection of Highway 10 and Highway 89. Shelburne is best known for the Annual Canadian Championship Fiddling Contest that is held each August."    (from wikipedia, "Shelburne, Ontario"): 

Here's Super Burger:

Don't ask me what town this was because I don't remember, but there were a lot of tiny and cute brick homes like this one.

The church (what I got of it) was really cute and old looking too...

During our drive to the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, we came across drizzly and rainy weather. It was so very "Every Day is Like Sunday" (Morrissey).

Country Music and Home Cooking y'all:

See this long building? I didn't get the sign when I took the shot, but this is the town's Curling Arena! Turns out when I talked to C later that a LOT of towns have their own little curling rink!   I remember watching Curling for the first time during the Winter Olympics (2002'ish) as well as the most recent one in Vancouver. Man, Canadians are hella into Curling!!!!!! While it looks (to me) rather comical, it's actually quite difficult to do.

I love Canadian gas signs! I think we bought gas here and it was full service. A girl came out to pump our gas.

This was where we were at...

Passing by fields of yellow Canola flowers (canola as in 'oil').  Here's an interesting factoid, The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978. Canola comes from "rapeseed" but "rape" doesn't really sound consumer friendly:

Ooh, the Gas Barn! I love it!

This reminds me of the Chicago Black Hawks emblem...This was a drive in movie place.

Another small town, the Village of Shallow Lake:

We saw a lot of these here - Mac's, a chain of convenience stores in Canada.

"The original mascot for Mac's was a cat wearing a tam o'shanter carrying a jug of milk. In 1999, it was changed to the winking owl , which was the mascot for the 'Winks' chain of convenience stores and gas stations..." (from wikipedia, "Mac's).

Here's another funny thing I found while "researching" Mac's on the internet. Turns out they got into a lot of trouble for their suggestive ads for these cold beverages ("Frosters") that they marketed to teen boys. The drinks were called WTF (meant to be "What's the Flavor?") but come on now, you KNOW what they meant by WTF! That's pretty damn bold! I remember seeing ads for Domino's "BFD" (Big Fantastic Deal) Pizza a few years back. Uh huh, really? BFD??? "Fantastic"???

For some of these towns, you would literally drive through them after one stoplight. It was like being in a movie set in old times...

Another small town...Wiarton (I looked up "Lloyd's Smoke Shop" below and that's the town that came up)...
(from wikipedia, "Wiarton, Ontario"):

"[Wiarton is] a community in Bruce County, Ontario, at the western end of Colpoys Bay, an inlet off Georgian Bay, on the Bruce Peninsula. The community is part of the town of South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario. Wiarton is also known for the Wiarton Willie Statue in Wiarton, Ontario...[as well as] the Wiarton Willie Festival, in February each year, when national and international media cover Wiarton Willie and his Groundhog Day prediction..."

Finally! After listening to a few Simpsons episodes on my iPod as well as the magic of the iPod shuffle, we saw the sign!

We were advised to arrive at the ferry landing at least one hour prior to departure. By this time, it was already noon. Our boat would leave at 1:30 pm...