City with half a slice

Today we chose to venture further afield and went and explored Orillia. I knew that ExerciseNic was from there so I asked her advice on must-see things to do and we had a fairly comprehensive list which we almost followed. We had breakfast first and showers and finally left the house around 11am.

One and a half hours drive later and we arrived and parked. As we were hungry we headed for the main part of the town (or city as it purports to be) and wandered along checking various eatery places. We tried to look for a restaurant that was high on Huffle's Trip Advisor list but it was closed down. We entered an Italian but were put off by the waitress telling us we had to order at the counter. It looked like a deli with tables and after looking at the blackboard menu and then spying a wood fired pizza place across the road, we scooted out and went there instead. Good choice. We got to sit outside and the temperature was just nice enough to do that. Not too hot and not too cool and we played Monopoly Deal while we waited. I ordered a half of Moretti which seemed to confuse the waitress and she brought me a glass half filled with beer. Maybe my pronunciation of half (harf) confused her and I should have said Hairf. Still it went nice with my lovely pizza which was a Bianco with Percorino, Gorgonzola and Mushroom. Pile on the rocket and it would have been perfect. Stick me in the middle of Italy to eat it too and it would have been even more perfect. It must have been good because Smallest ate a whole pizza and not a kids one either! The kids had a margarita (standard) and Huffle had a prosciutto one.

Full of pizza and a werther each (called old people candy so we were told) we wandered down towards the lake. Orillia sits between two lakes, Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching and it was the latter we walked along via a boardwalk. There wasn't a huge amount of beach, probably due to the high water levels again but there were plenty of people swimming despite the sun hiding behind the clouds for most of the day. It was very muggy though!

The boardwalk seemed very varied in ethnicity and we even saw a large group of people praying to Mecca (we assumed). There were people picnicking and partying everywhere. We didn't venture off the boardwalk just walked along and to the ice cream place where we ordered a kids for Smallest and I (too big for me and I had to give half of it away to Small and the end of my cone with some in to Smallest). Huffle and Small had a small one which was two huge scoops! Goodness knows what Grandad would have had, maybe a whole tub! We sat on a bench overlooking the lake and harbour and discussed why people had boats. We came up with lots of reasons but decided it wasn't for us.

We then wandered along the street of shops and entered a few, including the famous Mariposa Market which was a curious place. Partly a bakery and cafe and partly a gift shop. We were supposed to choose something for later but couldn't as we were too full of pizza and ice cream so we left it for later and did come back but still couldn't choose so we went without! There were some nice shops but boys don't like shops and I was quickly steered away from anything vaguely interesting. As usual, we entered a salubrious area which consisted of a sexshop, a smokey shop, medicinal marajuana shop and rehab and what Huffle thought was a strip club plus many dubious individuals standing around looking weird. I don't know how we always do this but I can tell when Huffle is feeling uncomfortable about an area because he walks really quickly. The boys started regaling us about other places where we walked into the 'wrong areas'. I blame Huffle!

Statue of a French Dude with a fancy hat who settled here in Canada

We are very childish but it amused us

We grabbed some waters and headed back to the main area and decided to leave as it was getting muggier and stickier.

Canada is celebrating 150 years birthday and there were lots of art in the shape of maple leaves everywhere. Some were very cool. Here are my favourites.

We thought about heading towards Lake Simcoe and tried but there were too many cottages in the way to get to the actual lake so we ended up coming home. We dropped the kids and went off to get a few things. However, two of the shops were closed and the fruit we intended to get from the supermarket was horrible and mushy, splashed their juice on my top and we didn't bother. The boys got their own tea while we were out and were watching TV. Huffle and I got our tea and we all sat and watched some of the last Harry Potter film until Smallest's bedtime. I am reading My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell to him at the moment. I thought I read this as a child but it seems very grown up (not so much on the content but in the details and descriptions). Lots of huge words, some that I don't know. Smallest says he is still going to read it on holiday even if he doesn't understand some of the words. Maybe I was older when I read it!

Huffle and I watched Going in Style this evening - good film.

 

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