Day Five: Road trip!

Pioneer Park in Bayfield.

Today was nuts.  We left later than we anticipated on our road trip with the final destination of Owen Sound.
We said goodbye to everyone, but likely we will see them all (but one - my niece who had to return home to Toronto) for at least one more day when we return, as my sister in law is flying to Penticton with her daughter and two granddaughters on the 27th to visit her mother.  The youngest has never even met her great-grandmother, so that's pretty cool.  My mother in law will have her hands full, that's for sure.
Since we already visited it, we bypassed Grand Bend and our first stop was Bayfield.  We went there ten years ago and not much has changed.  When we drove in there was the coolest container house made out of eight recycled shipping containers; the square footage was 4,000!  It was part of a hospital lottery for Bayfield so we excitedly checked the website online when we got to our next stop of Goderich, but the lottery draw was actually for today so we missed out.  Bayfield remains a quaint, tony tourist town right on the lake and the marina was chock full of boats.

Windy day in Point Clark.

Goderich is an interesting town, which is laid out in a radial pattern with the court house in the centre.  We strolled around the downtown before grabbing something to eat and heading out again.  It was quaint, but a little small.  Unfortunately we didn't check out their beach while we there.  When we headed out of town we saw some of the big box stores, but I hope people still support their downtown because it is unique and Queen Elizabeth II called it the "prettiest town in Canada".  It's sad to see people turn their backs on historic downtowns and buildings, especially for me coming from such a relatively young city like Vancouver.
We opted to take some of the back roads on our way to Kincardine and stopped off at the Point Clark Lighthouse.  The wind was starting to pick up and the forecast was for a possible thunderstorm even though it was still hot and humid as hell.

Kincardine.

Kincardine is a beautiful town and possibly my favourite so far.  The main drag is historic and happening and seems to be going strong, and there are some stunning old houses with amazing views of the lake.  At this point the rain started and we thought we were in for it, but it seemed to blow over and by the time we arrived in Owen Sound and the cloud cover was actually burning off.
Along the way we passed through Tiverton which houses the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station.  Per Wikipedia "it occupies 2,300 acres of land... It is the largest nuclear nuclear generating station in the world by total reactor cound, and number of operational reactors".  This I did not know.  I think a lot of the money and big houses in the Kincardine area are due to jobs at the nuclear plant.
Finally we arrived at Owen Sound which is also a beautiful town, but it's a bit removed from the water.  The waterfront seems to be a working one which leads out to the Georgian Bay.  The downtown of the city also seems to be doing quite well, but there are still a few empty storefronts.

Michael at the entrance to the Georgian Bay.

We went for dinner at Shorty's, the top rated restaurant in town, and I called for reservations just in case (even though it's a town of 22,000) and I'm glad I did because the place was packed.  Our meals (a salmon burger and a California burger) were excellent and the service was small town friendly.
Our motel is a dive but it was only $90 and (so far) seems pretty quiet.  We'll explore a bit more tomorrow: there is a park that marks the end of the Underground Railway here; a Tom Thomson museum; and a lot of waterfalls to check out and then we make our way to Huntsville.
I love exploring Ontario.  There is so much history here and so many small towns to check out.  People are friendly.  It's safe.  It's beautiful.  The back roads are quiet.
Road trips are the best.
#makeDonaldDrumpfagain