Ferry Ride on the Chi-Cheemaun!!!

We were lane number one. After the motorcylists boarded, our lane was up next. There were workers to guide us onto the boat...This was cool, the tip flipped up.

They also helped us once we were inside, guiding us to our parking spot...

You entered the interior of the ship through doors that led to stairwells on the right...

Because inquiring minds want to know...

This was before I used it by the way.

The view near the back end of the boat overlooking the lot and the ferry terminal...

The next series of pix are the back end of the boat (the part we entered) lowering.

Very cool! There was also a Mennonite girl and her boyfriend/companion. You can see her little hair bonnet. I'm not sure if he was Mennonite as well since his clothese looked more modern, but what do I know? Maybe the dress code is more lax for guys?

TC's candy resting on her Happy Bunny socks.

 

Bert bought TC a cheeseburger with fries. That coleslaw looks too "spring green" to me...ugh.

TC checking out the watery vista...

"Fezzig...are there rocks up ahead?"

"If there are, we'll all be dead!"

(quotes from "The Princess Bride")

Our ferry ride to Manitoulin Island would be nearly two hours...

Almost to the island now!

Beaver Tails!

Back to the Canada Posts...

We're still in Tobermory waiting for our ferry, so in the meantime, we check out the shops that are there. We also check out a little place selling a Canadian delicacy...recommended highly by the lovely C.

This is the one and only place selling Beaver Tails pastry in Southern Ontario. The rest were up in Quebec, Ottawa, and Montreal! Lucky us, eh?

Beaver Tails are "fried dough pastries individually hand stretched to resemble a beaver’s tail sold by BeaverTails Canada Inc in Ottawa and some other Canadian cities...


The BeaverTail is similar to several other fried dough pastries and is topped with various condiments. BeaverTails Canada Inc. was the first to operate a business based on this style of pastry and to operate about 100 BeaverTail stands worldwide." (wikipedia, "Beaver Tail (pastry)" entry)

How could we pass up this golden opportunity?  In French, the Beaver Tail is called "Queues de Castor". Roh roh roh!

Check out their official website here.   You can get all kinds of toppings on your Beaver Tail...

We ended up getting the regular one with Nutella on top. We didn't get one each because we weren't sure if we could finish it all so we shared just one. Turns out we probably could have eaten another one easily. The dough was pretty thin!

More of the wharf by the Beaver Tail stand...

So here it is - our Beaver Tail with Nutella and TC's hot chocolate...

Even though it looks pretty big, the dough is stretched pretty thin. It was also kind of messy to eat but we weren't complaining!

We love Nutella!

Here I am finishing off the last bits...

Tacky beaver statue next to the stand. TC was embarassed because I wanted to take a photo of her next to it making a bucktooth face (which I did!).

It was nearly time to get back to our car and wait to board the ferry...

Here are some of the shops we passed by walking back to our car...

Tourist shirt in one of the store windows...

And before I go, here is a Tribute to Beavers

The Beaver from the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago (we saw him last fall!) This is somebody else's video but we saw this beaver do these graceful flips and turns in the water.

The "Should be Classic" "Winona's Big Brown Beaver" by Primus

and of course, Jerry Mathers, as the Beaver

That must have been a later season because the Beave looks old!!! And they jazzed up the theme song too!

On to Manitoulin!!!

Tobermory & the Ferry Visitor Center

Yes, we were finally here at the very tip of the Bruce Peninsula in the small town of Tobermory. Three and a half hours of driving at a snails pace!

"Tobermory is a small community located at the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula in the municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. It is 300km northwest of Toronto. The closest city to Tobermory is Owen Sound, 100km south of Tobermory and connected by Highway 6." (wikipedia, "Tobermory, Ontario")

Tobermory is known as the "fresh water SCUBA diving capital of the world", because of the numerous shipwrecks that lie in the surrounding waters.  This place is a popular vacation destination due to the beaches, the diving, and the relaxed pace of life and the untouched land.

People were there pretty early. We waited to get our car registered. If you are going to ride the ferry then you must "reserve" your ticket ahead of time. A cool plus was that we had a bit of a discount because the car was "energy efficient" (made after 2006), so yeah man!!!

After we were assigned a car lane, we parked it and checked out the area. There was a series of informational  posters about the area...(click to make larger if you are interested in reading the text):

Wow, Manitoulin Island's population is only 12,000.

Looks like they serve food on the boat. We'd eaten that big breakfast earlier and snacked on the way here...

Map of Manitoulin Island at the Ferry Visitor Center. As you can see, there are tons of bays and lakes within the island.

Here's a closeup of where we were going - C lives in the town of Tehkummah (pronounced "Tah-kuh-MAH"):

Here is a model of the ferry boat we would be boarding, the MS Chi-Cheemaun (Objibwe for "Big Canoe"). Call me immature, when I hear the word "Chi-Cheeman", I'm feel like I should be saying that perversely in a lilting Jamaican accent, "Chi Chi Mon!" Heh, heh, she said Chi Chi.

The MS Chi-Cheemaun passenger-car ferry connects Tobermory to Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.

(from wikipedia, "MS Chi-Cheemaun")

"The MS Chi-Cheemaun is a passenger and car ferry in Ontario, Canada, which traverses Lake Huron between Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula and South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island. The ferry connects the two geographically separate portions of Highway 6 and is the vessel that replaced the MS Norgoma and the SS Norisle in 1974. The ferry service runs seasonally from mid-May to mid-October.



Chi-Cheemaun (in folk orthography or chi-jiimaan in the more standard Fiero double vowel spelling) means 'big canoe' in Ojibwe.

At the time of its launch the $12 million Canadian MS Chi-Cheemaun was the "largest, most modern vessel ever built for ferry service on the Great Lakes"."

Since we had some time to kill, we decided to get this "only in Canada" delicacy...a dessert with an unusual name...