Trip to English Island

The remote four acre island on Lake Minnitaki in North-West Ontario has been in Rich's family since the 1920s when his grandmother Jean, a singularly independent woman for her times, bought it as a vacation spot and had a rustic log cabin built on it.   This was where Jean romantically and unexpectedly met Rich's grandfather, who was touring the area by boat.

Since then, four generations of family have regularly visited "English Island" for rest, relaxation and good fishing.  The cabin sleeps up to 8 people and acts as a great gathering spot for family reunions.  Rich and his brothers have been going up there since they were children so the place holds great sentimental value for all of them.

It has become a tradition started by Rich's grandparent's and still carried out today for each year's visitors to document the year, the members of the excursion, and any notable events like "snow this year!".  This would be written right on the logs inside the cabin, so it has become a bit of a treasure hunt to wander around and find these entries from the past.

Getting to the island is quite the trek, involving either an 18 hour drive or a flight to Thunder Bay followed by a short hop on a small  Bearskin Airlines plane to get to the town of Sioux Lookout.  My first trip involved flying on a 5-seater where you are staring into the cockpit and the passengers were shifted around to balance the load on the plane.  Flying through turbulence in a tiny plane is really a stomach churning, white-knuckle roller coaster of a ride.

From there, an hour ride in a motorboat traversing over two rapids is required to reach the "camp" as it is known in Western Canada.  Navigating to the island seems to be a family secret passed down to each generation involving directions like "turn left at the big tree" and "right at the huge rock jutting out of the water".

There is no plumbing, electricity, cell or internet service so this is really an opportunity to get away from the hubbub of the city.  A gas generator provides lighting at night as well as powering a small fridge, while a propane stove is available for cooking.  There is also no air conditioning or heating other than a wood burning stove in the main room.  So the year that it was over 30 degrees was spent mostly cooling off in the lake, while the year that was 8 degrees and rainy saw us burning every scrap of dry wood, cardboard and paper that we could find.

The deck, overlooking the lake and neighbouring islands, provides a great spot to chat with family or catch up on pleasure reading during the day, and watch spectacular sunset views in the evening.

One year it was fascinating to see the skies darken, listen to the thunder getting closer and watch as a massive storm literally rolled across the lake from the mainland.  We scurried back to the cabin just in time before deluge began.

Beautiful, isolated soft sand beaches with clear shallow water are just a five minute boat ride away.  The peaceful calm atmosphere of having a beach all to yourselves trumps any experience you can get closer to Toronto.

There is even one beach which the family has nicknamed "Blueberry Beach", regaling me with stories past forages of bushes bursting with blueberries.  After five trips, I have yet to see a harvest of blueberries.  We've been either too early or too late.

We've seen plenty of wildlife on the island and in the surrounding areas including loons, bald eagle, a beaver.  I've heard stories of past visits where moose and bear have been spotted on the mainline but luckily for me, I've only come as close as seeing animal tracks.

This year we had the eery sensation of hearing a large pack of howling wolves on the mainland.  The sound traveled across the lake in such a way that made it sound like the wolves were right outside our cabin.  This made the thought of walking to the outhouse at night a much more daunting proposition. 

The most unusual sighting was the year that a huge pelican floated right by the island.  Rich and I could not believe our eyes when we saw it.  We could not fathom where it had come from or where it was headed, but at that moment, it was content to just bob up and down about 50ft away from us.

One of the major attractions of the island is the great fishing by the English River Falls.  Most years, there is a bountiful amount of fresh pickerel as well as the occasional perch, pike, trout and small mouth bass.  It is definitely a highlight of the trip to sit down to a plate of pan-fried breaded pickerel that came from the lake the same day!

That is why is very disappointing for our trip this year to find that the weeks of drought had caused the water levels to be too low to get to the falls to fish.   We knew it was trouble when we showed up and saw parts of the island that were usually under water.  We actually were able to hike around the island mostly along the shoreline, which is usually not the case.

We tried still fishing from the boat but were unsuccessful in landing a fish, even though I did get one to bite but lost it at the last minute.  Hopefully the fishing gods will be kinder on our next trip. But we still enjoyed a peaceful relaxing week with great weather and hardly any bugs.

Tobermory Weekend

Tobermory, Ontario marks the north-western starting point of the Bruce Trail.  It is arguably the most beautiful and unique portion of the over 750km trail that follows the Niagara Escarpment to Queenston (near Niagara Falls).  The hiking in Bruce Peninsula National Park is rugged and varies from dense forest to rocky beaches to cliff climbing, and of course, the views are spectacular. 

 Singing Sands beach was a 5 minute drive away and was named after the sound that the always prevalent winds made while blowing across the sand.  In mid June, the water was still very cold but shallow for a long way out.  Only Rich was brave (or foolish?) enough to wade in.

 The quaint little village of Tobermory is a harbour town on Georgian Bay that is full of boats, artsy shops and restaurants.  The Mermaid's Secret sold colourful clothes and accessories while Circle Arts displayed beautiful stained glass and pottery.  And imagine my surprise to find a new flavour of Hagan Daaz ice cream - my favourite flavour of Peanut Butter and Chocolate, at the Foodland grocery store in this tiny village.  At this point, it had not yet shown up in Toronto! 

 

One of the specialties in the restaurants was local fresh white fish and chips.  The best offering we found was at the "Fish and Chip Place" which offered large chunks of tasty fish that were lightly breaded and not greasy.  Unlike the other places that loaded you down with french fries, this place sold the fish pieces alone in 2, 6 or 20.  We were all ready to go back for more the next day but were disappointed to find out it was only open on the weekend this early in the season.

 A World War I war memorial in the middle of town honoured dead soldiers from Tobermory.  We were taken aback by the large number of "Hopkins" that we found on the memorial.  We counted at least 10 and thought sadly that this town might have lost an entire clan to this war.

 Enroute to Tobermory, we stopped in the town of Wiarton, best known (only known?) for the famous groundhog who predicts the length of our winter - Wiarton Willie.  Images of Willie dominated the streets and down Wiarton Way, there was a statue in tribute to all the actual groundhogs that have played this role over the years.  In a cage by the library, after much waiting and coaxing, we actually saw the current version of the albino creature. 

On the way home, we stopped by Bruce's Caves Conservation Area where we found some impressively large cave formations that were cut into the escarpment face by post-glacier waves thousands of years ago.

Arizona - Phoenix - Mystery Castle

The story behind the Mystery Castle in Phoenix, Arizona is so fantastical and fairy tale-like that its hard to believe it's real.  One afternoon in the early 1930s, Boyce Gulley went to a doctor's appointment and found out that he had tuberculosis and probably only months to live.

Stricken by the news and not wanting to infect his family with the extremely contagious disease, he simply left his job, family and life without a word to anyone and went away to wait to die.  After travelling a bit, he ended up in Phoenix where he decided to use his last days fulfilling a childhood dream of his 7 year old daughter Mary Lou.

Saddened as her sand castles were washed away by tides at the beach, she used to ask her father to build her a real castle.  This is what he set out to do, armed only with 2 years of architectural training and much ingenuity, resourcefulness and determination.  Making bricks out of local sand, cement and goats milk and using found and disposed objects such as windshields and hubcaps of old cars, wagon wheels, refridgerator panels, pyrex dishes, coloured glass and tiles, he began to build a castle.  Inside, he filled the rooms with all sorts of oddities and souvenirs from his travels and scavanging excursions.

It seems the heat of Arizona healed him of his tuberculosis, but still he did not go home or contact his family.  Instead, year after year he continued to expand the castle until he passed away of cancer in 1945.  Upon his death, Mary Lou, now 22 years old, received word that Bryce had left her an 8000 sq. ft. castle with 18 rooms and 13 fireplaces (although no running water or electricity).  Mary Lou and her mother moved into the castle and gave guided tours to generate income.  Business picked up when Life Magazine did a feature on the castle and its owners.

There was a trap door at the entrance of the castle, guarded by a metal crocodile.  Mary Lou was given strict instructions not to open the door until 1948.  When she finally did, she found a deed to the castle, two $500 bills, a piece of iron ore, a photo of her father right before his death, and a valentine that she had made him when she was 7. 

Mary Lou continued to live in the castle until she died in November 2010.  As much of an eccentric collector as her father, Mary Lou seems to have added many whimsical items to the castle.  As we continued the tour, room after room were stocked full of Southwestern art (probably Bryce's contributions), stuffed animals (probably Mary Lou's) and other knick knacks.

Dining Area

Kitchen

Dungeon?

Parlour - Items from Madame Jenny's Brothel in Jerome?

Bedroom

There is a Cantina/Bar area down in the basement, and a wishing well up on the top level patio.  The well acts as a dumb waiter where you could place your order for drinks in the bucket, and the drinks would be sent back up to you.  The bar is made up of half of an old stagecoach wagon.

Mary Lou loved cats and the cat motif shows up repeatedly in sculptures, paintings and even rocks painted to look like cats.  She kept a pet cat up in one of the towers who might have been named "Agatha Christie the Cat of Mystery " based on this pillow painted by "Picatso".

Portraits of both Boyce and Mary Lou are scattered throughout the castle, as well as  clippings of articles from Life Magazine and other newspapers that have visited the castle.  Many celebrities have toured the castle including Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne.

Bryce Gulley left his daughter a unique expression of his love, which she embraced and made the centre of her whole life.  Somehow I think she would have traded it all to get back those 15 years with her father.

Arizona - Phoenix - Biltmore Hotel and Condos

On the Taliesin West tour,  we learned that Frank Lloyd Wright was a consultant on the design of the Biltmore Hotel.  We were shown a beautiful photo of it, prompting us to go see it in person.  We did not realize until we got there that the Biltmore was also owned by gum magnate William Wrigley and was situated right next to the Wrigley Mansion, which we also planned to tour.  In fact we intended to see the Wrigley Mansion first but our GPS led us right in the middle of the Biltmore complex and insisted that "we had arrived", even though the mansion was actually further up a hill.

Frank Lloyd Wright's influence was obvious both inside and outside the hotel.  In the gardens, the Asian sculptures that he designed featured prominently, and were the same ones found at Taliesin West.
Inside, there is a bar named "Frank and Albert", named after Frank Lloyd Wright and architect Albert Chase McArthur.  The decor prominently featured Wright's favourite colour, a deep orange-red that he used frequently in his furnishings, as well many of his cars.

It was over 36 degrees celsius in the blazing sun in Phoenix (quite a difference from the -2 low in Grand Canyon a few days earlier), so stopping in the bar for a cold drink and air conditioning was top on our agenda.

William Wrigley invested in the construction of the Biltmore just before the Great Depression.  When the markets collapsed, all the other investors went bankrupt.  Wrigley never believed in banks and kept his money stored in vaults on his property, so he was not affected by the stock crash and ended out buying the Biltmore all on his own.

Wrigley was both an altruist as well as an excellent business man.  During World War I, he could not produce enough gum to supply both the troops and the general public, so he decided to send all supplies to the troops.  However he continued to advertise his gum, building excitement so that when the war ended, there was an explosion of pent-up demand for the gum.  This was truly an amazing man as well as a wonderful family man.

On the same "compound" as the Biltmore Hotel were the several condo complexes built around a golf course.  We thought it would be fun to take a tour of the model suite to see how the millionaires live.  To our surprise, we did not get a huge sales pitch or have to fill out any forms or personal information in order to see the suite.  Neither did we get turned away for not looking rich enough to warrant seeing the place.

So we were allowed to wander around on our own through a 3500 square feet, $1.5million condo, imagining where we could hang our art if we lived there ... I think we would have to buy more art!  There was a huge open concept living room/dining room/kitchen area, 3 large bedrooms, each with ensuite bath and walk-in closets, other offices and studies and a large covered ground floor terrace with a view of the golf course.  The place was so large that I kept getting lost.

Continuing further down the road from the condo development, we started getting into the designer homes.  Finally after being in suburbs of Phoenix where cookie cutter homes all looked identical, we were able to see huge houses each with unique design, landscaping and personality.  It was also interesting to note all the Mexican gardeners busy at work on the lawns.  Despite all that effort though, the grass of these upscale homes were still slightly brown from the sun and heat.  There's no escaping the power of the desert, even if you are extremely rich!

One house in particular had a definite Frank Lloyd Wright feel to it with the patterns on the gates.

Arizona - Phoenix - Botanical Garden

We were lucky enough to go to the Phoenix Botanical Garden on National Public Gardens Day, which gave us free admission, although it was probably unusually crowded.  When we took our tour of the Red Rocks State Park in Sedona, we learned a lot about cactus and desert plants.  Unfortunately many of the plants they described as having colourful flowers were not in bloom at the time.


At the botanical garden finally we saw proof that beautiful lush plants and flowers actually could thrive in the desert.  There was an entire trail devoted to desert wild flowers.

Some of the varieties of cactus also produced flowers including the hedgehog as well as the prickly pear, whose fruit provides a sugary syrup that is used to make candy, ice tea, sweeteners, etc.


On the guided tour that we took, we learned about the Saguaro cactus which can grow up to 40 feet high, weigh over 6 tons and live for several hundred years and may not grow arms for the first 80+ years.  The Saguaro is an endangered species so you need a permit to take any part of this cactus out of the desert (even a dead cactus is not allowed).  We heard about a couple of guys who caught with a saguaro and were fined by the inch, resulting in a whopping $75,000 fine.

We were shown a sickly looking stick and were told that it was called the "Arizona Queen of the Night", which seemed like a lofty name for this stick.  But apparently this plant blooms a beautiful flower for just one night, which then dies in the heat by the next day... blink and you'll miss it! 

We also saw a tree aptly called the Palo Verde, that had green bark, tiny leaves and small yellow flowers.  The leaves were too small to provide enough food for the entire plant, so  photosynthesis also takes place in the bark to help out.

Arizona - Phoenix - Wrigley Mansion

Rich always displays mock annoyance at other husbands who go out of their ways to please their wives, saying that "they are bad influences and set the bar too high".   When we heard the history of William Wrigley Jr, the founder of Wrigley gum and his acts of love for his wife Ada, Rich knew that he was way out of his league.

Wrigley bought Catalina Island and built a home with 360 degree views on Mount Ada, named after his wife. 

Then for their 50th wedding anniversary, he built Wrigley Mansion, again up on a hill with panoramic views of Phoenix including the Biltmore Hotel (which he also owned), and Camelback Mountain (also known locally as Praying Monk Mountain due to a small mound of earth that seems to represent that shape).

We took a guided tour of the mansion which included lunch at Geordie's, the in-house restaurant.  The mansion contains 24 rooms, 12 bathrooms, spans 19,000 square feet and cost 1.2 million dollars when it was built in 1930.  In the ballroom sits a Steinway piano that was rigged to play automatically via remote control.  Wrigley arranged for George Gershwin, Ada's favourite musician, to record 10 songs for the piano.  The remote control had a long cord so that Ada could listen to the music while curled up by the fireplace.  The tour-guide played us a sample of Gershwin's Rapsody in Blues and the acoustics were amazing.

Wrigley owned the Catalina Tile Company for a few years and all the bathrooms in the mansion are walled with ceramic tiles made from this factory. 

We learned that Wrigley was a very kind and generous employer.  He treated his 14 servants like family and gave each of them their own bedroom and bathroom.  The sample room we saw was lavishly furnished and not what you would expect for a servant's quarter.  At his company, he gave provided life and health insurance for his employees and was one of the first to support 5 day work weeks.

After William and Ada Wrigley had passed away, the mansion was up for sale and possible demolition when it was bought and restored by millionaire stew maker George (Geordie) Hormel.  Geordie was an eccentric who liked to wear his hair long and dress like a hippie.  He was known to play the piano at the mansion during Sunday brunch and was often thought to be a homeless man by the restaurant patrons, which he thought was hilarious.  It was interesting to see old photos of Geordie as a young man, including his wedding photo with his first wife, actress Leslie Caron! 

We had lunch in the restaurant named after Geordie, where I had a mahi mahi fish sandwich with truffled french fries and Rich had a "caprese salad" although it was made with spinach instead of basil.