Ontario Travel: Owen Sound Harbour

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• published: 11 Sep 2007
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If you want to read more about my trip to Ontario please go to: http://www.travelandtransitions.com/our-travel-blog/ontario-2005-2012/ This clip was taken during my little weekend escape to Owen Sound. My good friend Yolande and I hopped into the car early Saturday morning and took a nice country drive up to Georgian Bay. We drove through Collingwood, Craigleith and Thornbury before we made a stop in the historic town Meaford which has a nice waterfront and a decent main street with Victorian townhouses dating back to the 1880s. We continued our adventure to Owen Sound which is a beautiful town located right where the Sydenham River flows into Georgian Bay. The Niagara Escarpment also goes right through town. We checked out the waterfront area near the community centre where a triathlon was being held and the kid's run just got underway. Then we looked for the tourist info which was closed for lunch and headed for a late breakfast to the local Boot & Blade Restaurant. The customer service rep in the Tourism Office was extremely helpful and even made himself available for a little on-camera interview. So equipped with lots of local knowledge we embarked on the Historic Downtown Walking Tour where we enjoyed the many Victorian heritage buildings and the picturesque Sydenham River that runs right through town. The city has also put up many flower boxes all over the place that make the city more attractive. Our next adventure was a very rugged hike that started at Harrison Park, a large public park with ponds, pedal boats, minigolf, a restaurant, a playground and other facilities, which took us up and down some steep hills along the Niagara Escarpment to picturesque Inglis Falls where we climbed around the interesting limestone rock formations beside the river for a while. We then hiked back up to the road, picked up our car and drove to our accommodation for the night: the Garden House B&B; in Williamsford, about 25 minutes south of Owen Sound. Maria, the owner, welcomed us in her gorgeous house. She has 3 rooms available for B&B; guests and we took up two which she gave us generously for the price of one. The house has huge panorama windows and the waning daylight just flooded the place. The walls are adorned with Maria's watercolour paintings and well-cared for plants grow throughout the whole house. Our bathroom was also very spacious and featured a claw-foot tub. Hungry from our excursion we asked her for advice for local food and she sent us to the Kettle Restaurant 10 minutes up the street where we had a filling meal. Yolande enjoyed her salmon filet and my dinner was okay. Tired from all the hiking we dropped into our comfortable beds and I fell asleep right away. In the morning I had a chance to interview Maria (the article will be written shortly, you'll find it on www.travelandtransitions.com in the Interview section), and found out that she's a very interesting person and a real survivor. She then fixed breakfast for us, a delicious omelette with home-baked multigrain bread, fresh yoghurt with home-made jams, and fresh tomatoes from the garden. We were ready to head back to the city, packed our bags and thanked her for the great hospitality. She even gave us some free home-baked bread to take home. Originally we had wanted to stop in Guelph for a bit of sightseeing, but since it was raining we went straight back to Toronto and decided that we needed to do another country excursion soon. The full travel article about this experience with background information will go up soon on www.travelandtransitions.com - check out the My Stories & Photos section. I am actually a travel writer who loves to explore international destinations as well as my chosen home town of Toronto. On Youtube you will find hundreds of video clips from a wide variety of destinations. Feel free to check out some of my 700+ articles and interviews on http://www.travelandtransitions.com. My personal travel stories are located at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos.htm and my recent Austrian travel articles will be published shortly. Also, my FREE travel e-books containing stories from my trips to destinations such as Sicily, Havana, Mexico City, New York City, Chicago, Florida, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Halifax and many others are available right now at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/e-books.htm.