Being retired means you can go on vacation during the middle of the week to avoid the weekend crowds, especially on a long weekend. My husband Rich and I had this in mind when we planned our trip to Ottawa, leaving on the Tuesday prior to Victoria Day long weekend and returning home on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, such plans do not work as well for those that are still employed.
When we asked our friends Kevin and Olena to join us in Ottawa for cycling and the Tulip Festival, they loved the itinerary but not so much the schedule, as it would mean taking too many days off work. As a compromise, we decided that we would overlap our trips. We would be in Ottawa from Wednesday to Friday while they would be there Sunday to Monday. On Saturday, we could convene in Perth, Ontario to spend the day together. We even booked the same motel which they checked into Friday night and we met them there early on Saturday morning.
We had never been to Perth before, but it turned out to be one of the prettiest small towns that we have ever visited. I selected a motel that was right on the edge of town, a “mere” 20 minutes walk from the heart of the historic downtown. On a bright sunny morning, we had a very pleasant stroll while admiring all the beautiful houses along the way. This seemingly short distance would come in play later on in the day when the weather took a wicked turn.
Our first stop was the
Perth Farmer’s Market, which is held each Saturday both inside and in front of the “
Crystal Palace”, an event space made of glass and parts taken from the Rideau St. bus mall in Ottawa. The structure now sits in a scenic location next to the
Tay River Basin. The market features vendors of fresh local produce, meats and eggs, breads and baked goods, maple syrup, olive oil, flowers as well as crafts and jewelry. We participated in some maple syrup tasting, while the vendor explained the difference between golden (light, delicate taste), amber (richer taste) and dark (even more robust taste) syrups. After all four of us did the tastings, the consensus was that the amber was the best and Rich decided to purchase a bottle of this.
Also located at the Crystal Palace is a tribute to the “Mammoth Cheese”, a 22,000 pound cheese created in 1893 to be exhibited in the Chicago World’s Fair. The cheese was created from the milk of 10,000 cows owned by 12 different Lanark cheese makers and was 6 feet high and 28 feet in circumference. The size of the cheese was shocking enough, but it reached ultimate infamy at the fair when its weight caused the exhibition floor to collapse. Nevertheless, the cheese won a bronze medal at the fair and a small portion sits in the Perth Museum.
After the Farmer’s Market, we went to
Coutts Roastery and Café for breakfast. Coutts offers Arabica, Fair Trade and Organic beans sourced directly from small farmers, as well as soup and sandwiches. This was exactly what we were looking for in terms of breakfast, but what really attracted us was its outdoor terrace and deck that overlooks the
Tay River, providing a stunning view. In addition to the café’s name, the front sign also indicates “The Sheriff’s House 1841”. The building used to be the home of Sheriff James Thompson (1852-1912), whose photo is proudly displayed just inside the café. On this warm, sunny morning, we sat outdoors and enjoyed iced coffees and breakfast sandwiches consisting of egg, bacon, cheddar and tomato on a croissant while admiring the view.
Next, it was time to wander around the town and poke into the quaint shops and art galleries. For a relatively small town, Perth has multiple art galleries along its main streets and we saw quite a few pieces that we liked. At
Studio 87 Art Gallery, we chuckled at the whimsical, brightly-coloured cow paintings by Cristina Del Sol including the one titled “This Heifer Don’t Take No Bull”. Kevin and Olena liked the impressionistic floral paintings by Hanna MacNaughtan. At
Katherine Muir Miller Gallery, Rich and I loved and seriously considered purchasing the large, vibrant, jazzy paintings by An Nguyen, before the lack of wall space at home brought us to our senses. We admired many items at the
Riverguild Fine Crafts including the detailed etchings/engravings by Franc van Oort, and the intricately carved miniature canoes which had exquisite tiny accessories including wicker seats, a tent, knapsack pack and a sleeping bag, all carved with different types and shades of wood. We finally decided to purchase one of van Oort’s etchings of a man paddling in a canoe as a souvenir. We were particularly taken with the surrealistic rendering of the water, and the details in the canoe including a map, binoculars and sandals. This work was small enough to fit on our walls and relatively reasonably priced compared to the large paintings we were looking at before.
Throughout the downtown area were many great shops and restaurants with amusing signs or interesting facades. The
Father & Son Barber Shop provides both cold AND warm beer, with a haircut and beer costing $35. It also offers hot towel shaves, razor hair cuts and hair tattoos. A neon sign sarcastically announces “Sorry, we’re open” while a large red and white sign in the front window advertises the ultimate promotion-- “Husband Day Care”! Where can I sign up?? The
Skye Dragon Chinese Restaurant has amazingly ornate front pillars with dragons carved into them, while the
Butcher’s Edge has a cow peering out of its faux side window. We laughed at the sign over the
Law Office with the quote “First..let’s kill all the lawyers” from Shakespeare’s play Henry VI Part II. Who knew lawyers had a sense of humour? Then we spotted the gorgeous 2-storey
Streamline Moderne/Art Deco building built in 1947, that was a former automotive dealership and showroom, with the
Perkins Bowling Alley in the rear. The large “
Perkins” and
“General Motors” signs still grace the front of the building, which was turned into a commercial shopping centre in 1991. There is talk of having the neon Perkins sign lit up again, which would make the building even more spectacular!
In addition to the Perkins building, there are so many other heritage buildings in downtown Perth that they actually published several
heritage walking tours, which mostly span Gore St. where just about every building or group of buildings have historic significance. Historic sites can also be found on Wilson Street (where the Perkins Art Deco Building is), Herriott St. and Foster St. The pretty
Town Hall at 80 Gore St., dating back to 1864, is an elegant two-stored building topped by an ornate layered bell tower. The
McMillan Building is a three-storey Beaux Arts structure erected in 1907 to house the
Perth Carnegie Library. It has arched windows, a row of tall pilasters leading up to a triangular pediment and is topped by a rooftop parapet. The red-brick and stone American Federal-styled
McMartin House (1830) was the residence of Daniel McMartin, one of Perth’s first lawyers. The house is open to the public free of charge from 1-4pm Monday to Friday. Unfortunately, we were there on Saturday but we would love to tour this house on our next visit to Perth. The 1835 stone building that is now the Red Fox Restaurant was originally the
Black Sandy Ferguson Hotel (renamed the Revere Hotel from 1869-1983). The “Porter Stout” sign hanging in front of the Golden Arrow Pub & Eatery marks the location of an old tinsmith shop built in 1871.
The Matheson House was constructed in 1840 by Roderick Matheson, local merchant and eventual member of the Senate of Canada. The two-stored sandstone house surrounded by a stone garden wall is now home to the Perth Museum. We did not have time to tour the museum but did take a quick look at the pretty garden. From the garden we could see the old 1960s vintage sign of the Perth Restaurant, which resides in an 1840 stone building that was once a general store, Salvation Army, beauty salon, tobacco shop and other establishments before becoming a restaurant. We saw the distinct markings of the former Shaw’s Department Store, opened in 1840 by Roderick Matherson as a saddle and harness shop. At 27 Wilson St. can be found the sign of the former restaurant (1981-1986) where “Mrs. Gee’s Homemade Eggrolls” could be found.
Thomas Alfred Code moved
to Perth in 1882 and established the
Codes
Custom Wool Mill company that was used to process yarn in order to make
clothing. In 1883, he consolidated 5 buildings to create Code Mill at 51 Herriott St. and in 1907, his beautiful Edwardian red
sandstone home
Kininvie House (meaning "Where my family lives") was
completed at 50 Herriott St., right across from his mill. Talk about not having
to commute far for work!. In the
winter, the house would be heated by steam fed via underground tunnels from the
mill. What looked like a huge side
garden attached to the house was surrounded by tall cedar hedges so we could
not see through and I wondered what it looked like. I would find out a bit later.
The mill was renamed Tay Knitting Mill in 1896 and then Code
Felt in 1899, continuing to stay in business until 1998. Today, Code’s
Mill has been repurposed into retail space for various establishments
including Fiddleheads Bar & Grill, Perth Chocolate Works, Kelly’s Flowers
& Gift Boutique and Concave Gallery, as well as the Carding Ballroom, a
luxurious and romantic wedding and event space.
The Concave Gallery has to be seen to be believed. It was conceived as a collective space for artists who don’t fit into traditional art gallery platforms and so the gallery is filled with weird, strange, fantastical and even macabre items of various mixed media including prints, paintings, sculptures, photography and hand-crafted works. The store’s main promotional logo is a ghoulish rabbit with bulging eyes and large grinning teeth which is part of a series called “Precious Mutations” by Keith Busher. In the atrium before entering the gallery, there is a gory “blood-splattered” foosball machine where the men are all characters out of horror movies, the cup holder where the ball drops out of is shaped like “rotted teeth” and the point counters are “eyeballs”. Works in the store include a stained glass window depicting a skull, Star Wars shaped planters and sculptures, oozing bottles of spider hair and centipede legs, old cameras turned into robots and monsters, creepy paintings and t-shirts and more.
Stewart Park is a gorgeous 5.24 acre green space with the Tay River meandering through it, that was donated by the Stewart family after the death of the patriarch. When we walked up to the edge of one of the ponds, we spotted the back of Kininvie House. Now we know what the garden looks like behind the cedar hedges! Just on the edge of the park, directly across from Cole’s Mill is a life-sized bronze sculpture of Canadian equestrian, Olympian and Perth local Ian Miller on his beloved horse Big Ben, who passed away December 1999 at age 23. The statue depicts Ian and Ben in midst of a jump and is situated not far from Miller’s home and Ben’s final resting place. From within the park, we could also see the giant Perth water tower.
Venturing further into Stewart Park, we were surrounded by
beautiful scenery and landscaping everywhere.
There were bridges spanning the river and small ponds which contain at
least one or more large (possibly snapping) turtles. We watched a mother and child try to cross
the river on a narrow concrete “bridge” laid over a shallow part of the
river, forming a mini dam and “water fall”. I hoped there were no snapping
turtles awaiting any accidental slip. We found the Perennial Gardens, featuring
stone steps, a rock garden and a pretty pergola, paths to stroll on with mature
trees to provide shade, picnic areas, green space for sunbathing or field games. This lovely, serene park is definitely one of
the highlights of Perth.
So far it had been a gloriously sunny and warm spring day. Despite the forecast predicting days in advance that we were expecting some sort of big storm, it seemed hard to believe when the weather was so nice. Optimistically (or in retrospect, foolishly), we hoped that the frequently unreliable predictions were wrong, or that maybe the system would bypass us. We were having such a good time that we ignored the signals, as the gentle breeze slowly quickened to more of a wind gust, and the sunshine slowly faded behind clouds. It was that around 3pm on Saturday May 21, 2022 when an Emergency Alert suddenly blared on all four of our cell phones at the same time, warning of the imminent arrival of a severe thunderstorm and advising all to take cover. We were still in historic downtown Perth—a good 20 minute walk away from our motel!! That leisurely distance that we strolled in the morning to get to the downtown now seemed insurmountably far away. We started to walk briskly and then even broke into a slight trot to try to get back to the safety of our accommodations.
Rich had just bought the canoe etching from Riverguild Fine Crafts. Realizing that the storm was actually coming, the gallery owner kindly gave us a large garbage bag to cover up our purchase. The four of us scurried towards our motel with me clutching onto the garbage-bag covered art while Rich lugged the bottle of maple syrup that he bought at the farmers market hours before. The skies suddenly blackened, gale force winds picked up and it actually started to hail on us as we traveled again through the neighbourhood with the nice houses that we saw on our way downtown. Without any stores to duck into, there was nowhere to hide. Suddenly I spotted a man dashing towards the large porch of his home and desperately called out to him, asking if we could shelter under his porch for a few minutes while the brunt of the storm was upon us. I felt like Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desired, relying on the “Kindness of Strangers”.
I think Rich was appalled at my brazenness but these were desperate times. The man generously agreed and we all rushed with him onto the covered porch. There were large plastic toy cars on the porch and they started blowing from side to side before the man wrangled them and dragged them into the house. The four of us huddled together on the porch, out of the full force of the storm but still feeling what was now pelting rain and strong winds. Suddenly the front door of the home opened, the man’s wife poked her head out and waved for us to come in and wait in their vestibule. She was a bit embarrassed since the hallway was stacked floor to ceiling full of stuff as they were preparing to renovate, so we were crammed in between book cases and boxes. But we were just grateful to be warm and dry and totally out of the storm. After a few minutes the storm subsided as quickly as it arrived. We thanked the couple for their kindness and were on our way.
As we walked the last 10 minutes back to the motel, we saw the devastation in the storm that resulted in downed trees everywhere. Once we arrived, we found out that the motel had lost power and had no clue when it would come back. Worse than that, when we looked across the road at the McDonalds and the Canadian Tire, we saw that all the lights were out and the parking lots were emptying! Fearing the worst, we phoned
Bistro Italiano 54, the restaurant in downtown Perth where we were supposed to have dinner that night… no answer! We called around to other restaurants in Perth with the same result. When we stepped outside of our room for a minute, we saw the family of 5 with the room beside us coming out of their car with bags of snacks and pop from the local gas station, ready to hunker down for the evening. We started to phone neighbouring towns including Almonte and Carlton Place but received no answer to any of our calls. While we continued to phone places further and further afield, we also started to take inventory of what was in our cooler in case this was going to be dinner. This included half a loaf of apple bread, caramel popcorn, a few granola bars, a bag of chips, water and an apple. Not ideal, but not the worst emergency meal. Yet the thought of eating the last meal of our trip in a darkening, powerless motel room was really depressing.
Luckily we finally found a restaurant that was open in
Smith Falls, about a 20 minute drive back towards Ottawa. Ironically, it was the
Lockmaster’s Tollbooth, an interesting restaurant that we considered on our way up to Ottawa, but rejected because it was empty on a Wednesday evening. This time, the restaurant was packed and the waitress said it was the busiest that they had ever been, since they had people flocking in from all over the county. The waitress joked (or maybe not!) that her mother was the first one to arrive. We were fortunate to snag the last table for four in the back and had the added bonus of having a view of the waterfalls. We were told that the kitchen was backed up and it would be up to an hour before we would get food. We were so grateful to find a restaurant open at all that we did not mind, and the bluegrass duo playing in the front entertained us during our wait. Just to fill our stomachs in the meantime, we ordered drinks including beer for the guys, a Caesar for Olena, and I had a hot chocolate with a kick (Kahlua and crème de mint) topped with whipped cream.
When our food finally came, it all seemed extra special given how close we came to dining out of our cooler. We started with coconut shrimp and onion rings and then I had the most delicious steak with a bourbon peppercorn sauce, seasonal greens and home fries while Rich had the pork schnitzel with a mushroom gravy. When we got back to the motel, the power was still out so we had to change and brush our teeth by cellphone flashlight
We woke up the next morning to find that the power had been restored. Kevin and Olena headed to Ottawa where they would encounter more drizzle, downed trees and the tulips in the festival mostly decimated. Good thing that they are troopers and still had a good time cycling on the beautiful trails. Right before we left Perth to head home, Rich and I visited the “
Last Duel Park”. As indicated in its name, the park is the site where the last fatal duel in Canada was fought in 1833, between law students Robert Lyon and John Wilson who were both vying for the affections of governess Elizabeth Hughes. Lyon was fatally shot and is buried in the cemetery across the street. His grave stone reads “Student at Law – He fell in mortal combat”. The pistols used in the duel are on display in the Perth Museum, which we will need to visit on a return trip to Perth.
On our drive back to Toronto, we made one last stop in
Haverlock, Ontario for lunch at the
Station Restaurant and Bar. As its name indicates, the restaurant has been converted from the old train station which was built in 1929, and still boasts many of the memorabilia from that time. There are old photos and newspaper clippings, railway signal lanterns, various references to Canadian Pacific Railway and even a mannequin dressed as a train conductor in uniform behind one of the bucket seats. As with the Lockmaster’s Tollbooth the night before, the restaurant was packed since it was also one of the few places in the county that had full power restored. By the time we got there, we once again snagged one of the last seats and some of the food items had run out of stock. Again our food took quite a while to arrive, but it was just fun dining at the heritage railway station so we didn’t mind. This was a nice final cap to our 6 day trip to the Ottawa-Perth region.
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