Ottawa 2022: Perth, Ontario + The Big Storm

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.

Ottawa 2022: National Gallery, Downtown, Hull and Dinners

In between the two sunny days when we went cycling on the Ottawa bicycle paths along the Rideau Canal and Rideau River, we had a day of rain. This fit in perfectly with our plans to spend a morning indoors in the National Gallery of Canada, one of the largest art museums in North America.  Even better, we received free admission due to the reciprocal privileges that we had with our Art Gallery of Ontario membership.

The first exhibit that we saw as we entered the art gallery was titled “Snobird” (1985) by the subversive art collective General Idea. Depicting a flight of birds made from cut-out plastic bleach bottles, the piece is a direct homage/spoof of Michael Snow’s Flight Stop (1979), a permanent installation of 60 fiberglass Canada Geese flying high within the Toronto Eaton Centre.  Given Michael Snow’s total lack of a sense of humour regarding his work, as exemplified by his Grinch-like response to having his geese adorned with Christmas scarfs over a holiday season, I’m not sure he would have seen this imitation as a compliment.

The main exhibition that was running was one on Canada and Impressionism which highlighted Canadian works that were influenced by the Impressionist art movement.  Over 100 works by 36 artists were on display.  We saw David Milne’s “Blossom Pickers” (1911) which is a rare example of Milne’s happier, pre-WWI works.  Amid all the flowers, you need to look closely to see the man in a blue suit with a striped hat in the background, in addition to the joyful woman (bride?) dressed in a white gown in the foreground. Maurice Cullen’s Ice Harvest (1913) applied Impressionist techniques to Canadian topography and harsh climate.  It was also one of a multitude of paintings depicting snow and ice.  Helen McNicoll was one of the leading female Impressionist painters in Canada, specializing in the depiction of women and children going about their lives. “Cherry Time” (1912) features two siblings engrossed with eating their snacks, with the light of the sun shimmering behind them.  I marveled at how with very few brush strokes, Kathleen Moir Morris perfectly portrays a group of nuns strolling in Quebec in her painting simply titled “Nuns, Quebec” (1925).

We really liked the works in the gallery devoted to Contemporary Canadian and Indigenous works. Aganetha Dyck’s “Queen” (2017) sculpture made with honeycomb on porcelain was one of the most stunning, unique works that I’ve seen for a while. Dyck created the porcelain figurine and placed it within a beehive, allowing the bees to cover it with honeycomb. Kananginak Pootoogook’s satirical lithograph on linen paper titled “The First Tourist” (1992) depicts the first white tourist in the Arctic Community, motioning for an Inuit woman holding a seal skin to pose in front of an Inuksuk while he frames his photograph. A very interesting work titled “Inagaddadavida” (2015) is a collaboration between two famous artists—Inuit artist Shuvinai Ashoona and Contemporary visual artist Shary Boyle, who each drew a portion of this work.  Using coloured pencils, Ashoona drew the initial landscape, wild octopus-like creatures and several Inuk men. Boyle then overlay her imagery of an inky river leading to a red moon, using watercolour, pastel and black felt pen.

By the time we finished our visit at the National Gallery, the rain had stopped but it was still a grey, chilly day.  Standing just outside the building, we could see impressive buildings and sculptures in all directions.  Off in the distance, we spotted the Peace Tower, a bell and clock tower that is part of the Parliament Buildings.  To the right of the Peace Tower, stands the cone-shaped Parliamentary Library, the only surviving part of a larger building that was destroyed by a fire in 1916.  We toured this library on our very first trip to Ottawa back in 2000.  To the south we could see the Reconciliation: Peacekeeping Monument, commemorating Canada’s role as international peacekeepers.  Across the street is the majestic Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica, with its tall twin steeples.  This is the oldest and largest church in Ottawa dating back to 1865.  Continuing towards Byward Market, we spotted more contemporary sculptures and murals.  

Not finding anything that we wanted to eat at the Market, we settled upon the “Chateau Lafayette”, which despite its ritzy-sounding name, is Ottawa’s oldest tavern dating back to 1849.  Nicknamed “The LAFF” which seems much more appropriate, this legendary waterhole and “original dive bar” features live music, pub food and a lively ambience (although not so much on a mid-week afternoon). We ordered some light snacks to share including a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato, pork meatballs and battered cauliflower with a srirachi sauce, which would tide us over until our dinner reservations later that evening.

For dinner we had selected Vivaan, a restaurant featuring modern Indian cuisine with some different dishes that are not found on the typical North American Indian restaurant.  For appetizers, we ordered pan-seared scallops seasoned with cardamom and fennel, served with coconut foam, beet chutney and micro greens, as well as Amritsar fish, a popular North Indian appetizer made of lightly battered cod coated with a Chef’s spice blend and chickpea flour, served with slaw, cilantro and mint mayo.  For our main courses, we chose the butter chicken topped with burrata cheese for extra creaminess and texture, as well as what was advertised as the chef’s signature dish—a chicken biranyi consisting of marinated, battered fried chicken cooked in spiced yogurt and flavoured rice.  As with most restaurants that we dine at, we enjoyed the appetizers the best and found them to be the most special and unique.  While the burrata was a nice touch, ultimately the butter chicken dish did not taste that different from all the other butter chicken dishes that we had in the past.

We also enjoyed our dinner at Frasers the previous evening.  This is a restaurant with locally sourced ingredients that are used to create globally inspired dishes.  We started with albacore tuna sashimi served with dashi-radish, and a large slab of foie gras pate with focaccia bread.  For mains, Rich ordered the lamb with deep fried broccoli and a croquette filled with cheese/spinach.  I selected a dish with seared scallops with zucchini on shell pasta.  For dessert, Rich picked a  raspberry rhubarb donut.  My dessert consisted of a chocolate and cassis mousse cheese cake sitting in a chocolate cup, topped with blackberries and accompanied with a cassis sauce and crunchy meringue pieces.  This was exactly how I like my desserts, with a eclectic combination of tastes and textures featuring chocolate and fruit!

Our last day in Ottawa included a quick trip to Hull, Gatineau, Quebec.  Rich had found reference on the Internet to an Art Culture Trail and we even had a map of where the artworks could be found.  But we quickly realized that the post was from last summer so most of the works were no longer there.  We did come across a giant wire sculpture of a seated man with a hat, an overhead canopy of netting covered with colourful butterflies, a Litchenstein-esque mural created in 2018, and a large lot where the surrounding buildings were covered with graffiti-like murals (which might just be graffiti?).   At the pretty Montcalm Bridge which spans the river that runs through Hull, we found the perfect place for a later afternoon meal.

Les Brasseurs du Temps (aka BDT) is a brew pub that offers beers brewed on site, beer flights and bar food.  We were able to snag a table on the large outdoor patio, right by the river with a view of the Montcalm Bridge. Unfortunately, it was over an hour before they started serving dinner fare, but we were able to get a pitcher of sangria made with rose wine, Midori melon liquor, Peach Schnapps, Cranberry juice, Orange juice and 7-up, and an order of nachos topped with BBQ pulled pork. With the great ambience, good food and drink, this was not a bad way to while away a sunny afternoon, and marked a pleasant end to our stay in the Ottawa area.

Early the next morning, we left Ottawa to meet up with our friends in Perth, Ontario where we had a lovely day before getting caught up in the massive storm that triggered emergency alerts across Central and Eastern Ontario.  There is a story to be told in the next blog...

Ottawa 2022: Cycling and Tulip Festival

In planning our trip to Ottawa for cycling, the utmost concern for my husband Rich and I was weather and in particular, rain.  Our typical vacations involve walking, hiking and indoor activities such as visiting shops, art galleries and museums—all pursuits that can withstand some amount of rain.  On this trip, we hoped to ride our bicycles for two out of our three days in Ottawa. The main ride would be along the Rideau Canal to get to Dows Lake/Commissioner’s Park to see the Tulip Festival.  Weather permitting, we also wanted to ride a second day along the east side of the Rideau River to visit the Prince of Wales waterfalls and Mooney’s Bay Park and Beach.  We planned a third day in the National Gallery of Art, thinking this could be done on a rainy day.  We were quite flexible in terms of which day we executed each of the three plans and were ready to switch it up at the last minute to match the weather.  

For a trip where the main focus is cycling, we needed to have days that were not necessarily sunny, but warm and dry enough so that we could ride comfortably on paths that were not wet and slippery. The trouble was that in order to secure our desired  apartment rental, we had to commit to paying for the accommodations 9 days prior to the date of the trip. Given the unreliability of weather forecasts these days, looking at long-term forecasts did not give us much reassurance.  So we made the decision to go regardless of what the forecast indicated, but would have backup plans in case we could not ride the two days that we planned for.

As luck would have it, we did have two sunny days in Ottawa sandwiching a rainy day that we spent in the National Gallery. Even more fortunately, we missed the massive storm that hit Central and Eastern Ontario on the day that we left Ottawa to head to Perth, Ontario.  But more on that in the Perth blog!

It was cool but sunny on our first full day in Ottawa, so we executed our plans for cycling to Dows Lake and Commissioners Park for the Tulip Festival.  We wanted to do this as early in the week as possible, to avoid the Victoria Day weekend crowds.  Rich had mapped out a route to Dows Lake that would take us mostly on bike trails that followed either the Rideau River or the Rideau Canal with just a few short stretches across quiet streets, and then to the falls via the Rideau Canal Eastern Pathway.  We would then retrace our route to return home.

We rode the 3 blocks from our rental apartment to an entrance to the Rideau River Eastern Path. We proceeded north for a short distance along the east side of the Rideau River and crossed at the Adawe Crossing Bridge, which featured a great art installation created by Kenneth Emig in 2016, titled “A View From Two Sides”.  It consists of two reflecting spheres affixed to each side of the bridge which provide panoramic views of the bridge and its pedestrians and cyclists, as well as the surrounding river, shores and sky.  These cool orbs brought us to a temporary stop as we took time to try to capture our images reflected by them.

We continued south along the west side of the Rideau River, following the Rideau River Nature Trail while enjoying some beautiful views along the way.  We turned west at Brantwood Park, making note of the public tennis courts with a view of the water and thinking that we could bring our racquets to play here on our next visit.  We rode across the park and then 4 blocks across Clegg St. to reach the Rideau Canal, which we crossed at the Flora Footbridge to get to the west side of the canal.  From there it was a smooth ride to get to Dow’s Lake and Commissioner’s Park where the Tulip Festival was being held.

The Canadian Tulip Festival runs annually in Ottawa for 11 days ending on the Victoria Day long weekend.  It is touted as the largest tulip festival in the world with over 1 million blooms on display.  While tulips are planted throughout the city, the majority are found in Commissioners Park.  The tradition of tulips in Ottawa originally started as a gift from Princess Juliana of Netherlands in 1945, as thanks for sheltering her family during  WWII.  It was amazing to see so many different varieties of tulips in all different colours, including double bloom tulips which have extra petals and fringed tulips with seemingly frayed edges.

In addition to the tulips, there were other points of interest at Commissioners Park.  We admired a stunning  Modernist house at the corner of Old Sunset Blvd and Dows Lake Road that overlooked both the Tulip Festival and Dow’s Lake.  Lining the boardwalk by Dow’s Lake Pavilion were brightly coloured wooden tulips.  Lawn games were found on a large grassy area including giant Chess, Checkers and Connect4 boards that seemed to amuse both kids and adults.  There were two major sculptures of both artistic and cultural notes.  Aries (2009) is a bright red, colourful geometric sculpture donated by Mexican artist Sebastian as a symbol of cultural ties between Mexico and Canada.  The bold red colour alludes to Ares/Mars, the God of War which this zodiac symbol represents.  The sculpture was originally part of a larger exhibit of all the signs of the Zodiac. The Man With Two Hats sculpture (2002) by Henk Visch commemorates the liberation of Holland by Canadian troops during WWII and acts as an expression of joy and celebration of freedom.  An identical sculpture in the Netherlands symbolically links the two countries as friends and allies.

Leaving Commissioners Park, we rode through the Dominion Arboretum towards Hog’s Back Dam where waterfalls could be found. Despite its name, we did not see many interesting trees in the Arboretum other than a few cherry blossom trees.  In order to cross the canal to reach the Rideau Canal Eastern Pathway which would lead us to the falls, we had to lift our bikes and roll them across narrow lock bridges at the Hartwells Locks #9-10.  There is only enough room for one person to cross at a time, so there is often a lineup in both directions waiting to cross.

We continued riding on the Rideau Canal Eastern Pathway, hugging the shoreline of the Rideau Canal, until we reached the Hog’s Back Dam, where the Rideau Canal meets the Rideau River.  The creation of this dam, which diverts water from the Rideau River into the artificially-created section of the Rideau Canal leading to the Ottawa locks, resulted the massive man-made Prince of Wales Falls (more commonly known as the Hog’s Back Falls).  Right up until we passed under the bridge spanning the dam, we did not hear any sounds indicating that a waterfall was up ahead.  Then suddenly as we reached the dam, we heard the loud roar of rushing water.  We have been to Ottawa multiple times in the past, but never knew there were such large, albeit man-made waterfalls here.  By now it was quite a hot day so the spray from the falls felt so refreshing!  We saw people walking along the bridge spanning over the dam but given the big flight of stairs to get to it, we decided not to go there until we could approach it from the other side on our next ride.  Many locks were hung along the wire fence protected us from the falls, including some fairly unique ones.

For our second bike ride, we planned to travel south along the Rideau River Eastern Pathway all the way to Mooney's Bay Beach.  While this path is still fairly smooth and flat, it is much less scenic than the path along the Rideau Canal.  For the most part, there are just trees on either side of the path with little to no view of the river.  However, it was still a pleasant, serene ride, so imagine our dismay when we hit a detour around Bronson Ave, about 2/3 of the way to our destination.  We found out later that the detour was for LRT construction on an existing train and spanned just under 1km, up to Heron Road.  So instead of riding through nature on a nice secluded bike path (I regretted disparaging the pathway at this point), we were forced onto a makeshift path right alongside the busy and extremely steep Riverside Drive.  At least they had erected concrete barriers to separate us from the speeding traffic beside us but it was still daunting, especially given the extremely steep slope of the lengthy incline. We considered turning back but this would mean missing out on the nicest part of our ride. After some consideration, we decided to press on.  I geared down and actually almost made it to the top before I lost the will to continue, as much mentally as physically.  Rich didn’t even try and just pushed his bike up the hill.  Once we reached the top, it was just a few more meters more before the detour ended and we could duck back onto the pathway.

Shortly after that, we arrived at Vincent Massey Park, a 28.9 hectare green space named after former Governor General Vincent Massey (brother of actor Raymond Massey).  The park has picnic areas, barbeque pits, walking and cycling paths, rolling meadows and a pretty pavilion built in 1957 by architect Hart Massey, son of Vincent.

Riding past Vincent Massey Park, we reached Hogs Back Park and saw the Hog’s Back Falls again, but from the other side of the Dam bridge.  The park features a modernist pavilion with a multi-coloured folded roof that originally dated back to 1955.  There are refreshment stands and public washrooms underneath.  It was apparently renovated in 2011 to restore the vibrant colours, but the blue, red and yellow paint has started to peel again and needs another refresh.  Unlike our previous bike ride when we accessed the waterfalls from the other direction, this time coming through the park, we were able to easily access the bridge spanning the dam and overlooking the rapids.

Continuing south after riding through Hog’s Back Park, we finally reached our destination of Mooney’s Bay Beach and Park.  Mooney’s Bay is an artificial bay created during the construction of the Rideau Canal.  The beach features a wide stretch of fine sand and is a popular destination for swimmers, rowers and volleyball players in the summer.  Still early in the season, it was relatively quiet on the beach with just a lone kayak in the water and a few people strolling on the sand.  Next to the beach is a park with some of the coolest playground equipment that I’ve ever seen, including climbing apparatus shaped like a huge whale, a Viking Ship, totem poles with logs, a lighthouse and more.

This marked the end of our ride, so we retraced our steps to return to our rental apartment, this time going downhill on the detour, which was a welcome respite.  Ottawa has exquisite bike trails throughout the city that are a joy to ride on.

Ottawa 2022: Drive through North-East Ontario

We have planned several overnight driving trips within our province in order to take advantage of the Ontario Staycation Tax Credit that will let us claim up to $2000 of accommodation expenses when traveling within Ontario during 2022.  This would result in a tax credit of up to $400 for a family.  Our first trip was to Ottawa during the annual Tulip Festival in May, where in addition to checking out the beautiful flowers, we would cycle the extensive bike trails along the Rideau Canal and Rideau River.  We also planned a leisurely drive to get to Ottawa, with several interesting stops along the way.

Heading out in the late morning, our first planned stop was just over 3 hours east of Toronto at Seeley’s Bay, where we intended to look for some lunch.  But only 1.5 hours later, as we were passing Coburg, I realized that I was hungry and did not want to wait several more hours before eating. We were just coming up to The Big Apple, a roadside orchard and general store with touristy attractions including a petting zoo, mini putt, ping pong tables, and most notably, the eponymous “Big Apple” sculpture.

The last time we visited The Big Apple was in 2017 when we stopped for a muffin and a coffee before continuing on to our destination. Rich paid for the bill, then being the honest soul that he is, went back to the cashier to let her know what she had forgotten to charge him for the coffee.  “It’s OK sir, it’s Seniors Tuesday and the coffee is free” she replied with a smile.  Rich walked away perplexed as to what that had to do with him, when it suddenly dawned him.. the young cashier thought he was a senior, although he was only 53 at the time!  Instead of feeling lucky that he received a free coffee, Rich walked away feeling insulted and continued to complain about the indignity for years to come.

Now in 2022 and at age 58, Rich is accustomed to receiving and even outright requesting the seniors discount at places like Shoppers Drug Mart.  So when we returned this time to the Big Apple, Rich was miffed when he did not receive the free coffee or the 10% discount on Seniors Tuesday!  How times have changed!  We each ate an apple-based treat and shared a cup of apple cider, which sated my hunger.  We also bought a loaf of the famous “Apple Bread”, a bag of apple pie flavoured caramel popcorn and a bottle of non-alcoholic tart cherry-apple cider to consume while we stayed in Ottawa. 

Our next stop was indeed Seeley’s Bay but other than a general store, there turned out not to be much to see there, especially on a cool, grey day that was not conducive to exploring.  Just as well that we did not wait until arriving here before eating something.  The highlight of the stop came as we continued east on Hwy 15.  We passed by some fabulous folk art on the lawn of a roadside establishment advertising custom wooden signs and memorial plaques.  I requested that Rich make a U-Turn so that I could have a closer look. First there was what looked like a giant weather vane topped with an orange Vespa on which several memorial plaques were hung.  Next to the this were several humanoid figures riding various bicycle and motorcycle-like contraptions made from spare parts.

We had better luck in Lyndhurst, which is a pretty little town with various interesting features including one of the oldest bridges in Ontario dating back to 1856.  The curved, 3-span Lyndhurst Bridge was built with local field stones and has one lane, requiring traffic in both directions to take turns crossing.  Next to the bridge is Furnace Falls, named after the blast furnace from the first iron smelter in Canada that used to reside on this site.  From our vantage point, we did not see much evidence of any falls but there was rapidly swirling water flowing towards the first of many locks that we would see en route to Ottawa.  We also found a whimsical sculpture of a turkey made from rusted farm implements.

Continuing along Lyndhurst Road, we came across the “Plaid House”, a creative endeavour by the Lyndhurst Rejuvenation Committee completed in 2015.  We found out later that there is actually a Lyndhurst Art Trail which provides a self-guided tour that showcases works of local artisans.  We need to return another time to check this out. We also saw several funny signs including “An Old Goat lives here with his Chick”, and “Warning – Bad Ass Dog On Duty”.  The people of Lyndhurst seem to have a good sense of humour!

Our next town en route to Ottawa acted as a throwback to the theme of our 2021 Europe in Ontario road trip of south-west Ontario, where we incorporated stops at the road signs of little towns and communities named after major  European cities.  In most cases, the communities consisted of a single street with a general store or sometimes only the road sign and nothing else in sight!  On this trip, we made a point to pass through Athens, Ontario and were pleasantly surprised at the relative size and vibrancy of this town.

The main street stretched for multiple blocks with many shops/restaurants, as well as a bank, hardware store, pharmacy, auto repair shop, several churches and even a Chinese Restaurant and a Masonic Lodge.  The post office is housed in a beautiful 19th Century red brick building with ornate copper roofing.   In a small parkette in the middle of town, there was a war memorial as well as what looked like two grave markers with plaques honoring immigrants from Scotland and farmers that came from the British Isles.

But most notably, Athens Ontario proudly displays some impressive murals spanning the sides of its buildings that convey the history of the town.  One mural depicts some of the old shops that used to grace the main street, while another shows the townspeople boating, fishing and picnicking out in nature.  But look closely for a surprise!  Three of the picnicking group are drawn in the exact poses of the figures in Edouard Manet’s iconic painting “Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe”, except that the female figure is fully clothed and a fourth figure with a plate of sausages sits next to her.  Across from the Post Office, a large mural honours Joshua Bates, the founder of Farmsville, which became Athens.  Bates donated the land, built the first schools, churches, general store and mill, and become the first postmaster.

Recently many of the murals have been refreshed or repainted to repair damage due to aging and weathering. Shortly after leaving Athens and continuing north-east towards our next stop of Smith Falls, we passed a alpaca farm where multiple alpacas perked up their heads and looked curiously at us when we stopped for a photo.

The large water tower in Smiths Falls overlooks the quick-flowing current of the Rideau River as it flows away from small man-made rapids created as part of the Rideau Canal lock system.  Given the name of the town, one would expect something more substantial, but the falls are still picturesque to see at sunset.  A mural depicts some of the movies that used to be shown at the old Capitol Theatre including Casablanca, Robin Hood, The Thin Man and Zorro.  The historic Hotel Rideau dates back to 1901 and is currently being renovated and converted into a luxury rental apartment offering 25 suites for long term rental.  As it was getting late, we considered stopping for dinner at Smith Falls.  But it was mid-week and all the restaurants along the main drag were empty, making them seem less appealing.  So we decided to press on to our last stop of Merrickville, where Rich had scouted out a potential restaurant for us. 

Merrickville turned out to be a great little town with lots of interesting sites to explore and some cute shops.  We plan to return some other time when we have more time to spend here, but for this trip, we only had enough time to have dinner and wander around briefly.  We came across the Baldachin Inn, a quaint hotel whose building dates back to 1860 and was once the largest department store between Montreal and Chicago.  In addition to accommodations, the inn features an elegant dining room, the cozy Harry MacLean’s Pub named after the building’s developer, and a 6000 square-foot Baldachin Ballroom.  We peered into the window of the main dining room, which is decorated with stained glass windows and a stunning Art Nouveau styled lamp.  We agreed that it would be fun to stay here one day.

For dinner, Rich had researched and selected the Goose & Gridiron, a large restaurant/pub in an old 19th Century stone building that sounded fun to dine at.  More importantly, it was open late since many of the restaurants in small towns close early on weekdays.  The interior décor was architecturally interesting, including a patterned tin ceiling with pretty lamp fixtures whose motifs reminded me of Tiffany lamps.  There was a stone fireplace and various plaques depicting both the goose and the gridiron. I'm not sure why the plaques also indicate the year “1717 AD”, since the sign outside the restaurant specifies that the building dates back to circa 1856 (which makes more sense historically).  The food was good and the portions were large, which was great since we hadn’t eaten since the Big Apple earlier that morning and we were starving!

Following dinner, we took a quick walk around the town and came across more locks on the Rideau River, similar to the ones we saw in Smith Falls, but without the waterfalls.  Instead we found smooth, calm water on the river, which started to glisten as the sun set. A sign by the locks describes the 202km (126 miles) of waterway from Kingston to Ottawa, made navigable by 47 locks grouped in 22 stations with their associated dams, including the ones at Smiths Falls and Merrickville. The Rideau Canal was built between 1826-1832 and provided the British army a safe route to transport supplies to its garrisons.

Blockhouses were built as defensive structures along the waterway and the one in Merrickville still stands as a National Historic Site of Canada.  Merrickville was already an established village since 1794 with thriving industries in lumber and wool and therefore a logical target for invaders.  This blockhouse was built in 1833 with a basement and ground floor made of stone, the upper level made from wood covered with tin, and the entire structure surrounded by a ditch.  During the summer months, the blockhouse is open to the public for tour.  Across from the locks and blockhouse are the Merrickville Ruins, which are the abandoned foundations of the 1844 woolen mill that ran from 1844-1954 before 2 fires led to its closure.  Also found on the site is an old water turbine for generating electrical power from the river that was in use from 1915-1990s.

We finally arrived at our rental apartment in Ottawa around 9:00pm.  As we were planning a cycling vacation and brought our bicycles with us, we looked for accommodations that would address several factors.  First we needed on-site parking for our car.  Secondly, we wanted a place where we could bring our bikes inside the premises rather than leaving them locked to the bike rack on our car overnight.  Finally we wanted easy access to the bike trails that followed the Rideau Canal and Rideau River.  Luckily using Booking.com, we found the perfect 1 bedroom apartment just a few blocks east of the entrance to the Rideau River Eastern Pathway, a smooth, paved, and relatively flat trail that follows the Rideau River and connects to other trails leading to Dows Lake where the Tulip Festival is held.  The apartment had a parking spot right in front of its entrance and a large foyer that allowed us ample space to keep our bikes safe overnight.  It is catered towards short-term rentals since entry was via an electronic keypad whose code was sent to us by email a few weeks earlier.  This meant there was no need for exchange of keys or for the owner to await our arrival.  We would definitely rent this place again the next time we plan a cycling trip in Ottawa.