Tag Archives: serendipity

Toronto: Old Town

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view to the north from our apartment

We’ve arrived in Toronto and are loving city life! We’re in a fantastic Airbnb rental on the 27th floor of a tower in the Church-Wellesley area of downtown. This is one of our best rentals ever!

Our first day: walking tour of Old Town, the Entertainment District, the Financial District, and the Harbourfront.

first stop: St. Lawrence Market

 

We love these European-style markets, chock-full of fresh foods.

 

Couldn’t resist a peameal bacon sandwich, known to those of us from south of the border as Canadian bacon.

 

Toronto’s Flatiron Building

 

humorous trompe-l’oeil mural on the back of the Flatiron

 

stumbled across this delightful park—Berzcy Park—behind the Flatiron Building

 

adorable dog fountain!

 

the pinnacle–the almighty bone!

 

Five bonus points if you noticed the cat on the fountain!

 

Airbnb Roulette

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Riverview B&B

Months ago, when I was planning this trip, I was looking for a place to stay between Lake Placid and Toronto. We wanted to see the Thousand Islands area, but I didn’t know any of the towns along the St. Lawrence River. So I played Airbnb roulette: Pick a town anywhere in the vicinity—Kingston, Ontario, say. If you don’t see anything you like in Kingston, keep zooming out on the map until you find something. That’s how I found the Riverview B&B in Gananoque. Ganawhat? Doesn’t matter. Just put your chips down and spin the wheel.

The Riverview was a bit difficult to find only in that our GPS (some of you may remember the obstinate Rita from previous trips) disavowed any knowledge of Thousand Islands Parkway where the B&B is located. How can that be? It’s a major thoroughfare along the river! With Rita in a huff and not having cell service in Canada, we were on our own. (What did we do before Smart Phones?) Fortunately signage was good, and we were able to find the parkway, which, by the way, is spelled “1000 Islands Parkway.” Hence, Rita’s attitude.

The B&B, the former Lansdowne House, stands out like a manor house in its rural community just east of Gananoque. It was a large, stately home that has recently been remodeled into eight spacious guest rooms, plus a large suite for the owners. It also has a fitness room, a breakfast room, and a beautiful rooftop terrace. Relieved that we had at least broken even on our bet, we dropped our luggage and headed in to town to explore. 

What an adorable town! Gananoque—or Gan, as locals call it—is just our speed: small, picturesque, quiet, and oh-so friendly. There are several scenic walks through the town of approximately 5000 which highlight some of the elegant homes built during Gan’s heyday as a major transportation hub on the St. Lawrence. Perhaps it’s fortuitous that river traffic was later diverted to Kingston, a city of over 120,000 today, so that Gan could retain its 19th-century charm.

We started at Tourist Information, where a pleasant woman educated us as to Gan’s many highlights. Primarily, it’s a launching point for boat tours of the 1000 Islands. Rather than being cooped up with tourists feeding seagulls for five hours, we opted to see the sights of the town on foot, starting with the Ganonoque Brewing Company which, as luck would have it, was right across the street from TI. We enjoyed a very talented (humorous, as well as musically endowed) duo performing in the brewery’s diminutive Beer Garden while we washed down the dust of the road. 

at the Purple House Cafe

A couple saw us reading through our TI brochures and asked if we were looking for a place to eat. Not particularly, but we would take all recommendations. Purple House Cafe, hands down. Just a pleasant stroll away, Purple House had a sweet stone patio with a wood-fired pizza oven out front. The weather was perfect—sunny and a warm 75°—so we enjoyed a delicious pizza while playing a rousing game of dominoes. Board games are part of the ambience. It just keeps getting better. Winner, winner, pizza dinner!

Bendominoes, bendy dominoes

Local knowledge

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entering High Peaks territory

Our next stop northbound was Lake Placid. I really didn’t know what to expect. A lake, of course, and who can forget the 1980 Winter Olympics when the US hockey team upset the Soviet Union? But do tourists come here? Maybe not; I couldn’t find an Airbnb rental within 100 miles.

Turns out Lake Placid is quite the tourist destination in summer because of the beautiful Adirondack Mountains and the lakes. The Main Street area is adorable, with lots of cute shops and yummy restaurants with lake views. And there are three craft breweries! But physical activity comes before beer. So what to do? When in doubt, seek out local knowledge.

I approached the woman at the hotel reception desk. “If you had only one day to spend in Lake Placid, what would you do? Where is the ‘wow’?”

She didn’t hesitate. “The High Peaks.” 

Adirondack Mountain Club trail

The High Peaks are a cluster of 46 mountains in the Adirondacks, just south of Lake Placid for the most part, that are over 4000 feet in elevation–or so they thought at the time they came up with the designation. If you climb all 46, you are eligible to join the Adirondack 46ers club.

mountain flora

She recommended three easy-to-moderate hikes, at our request, in the High Peaks region. We chose to summit Mount Jo. I’d never summited a mountain before! I mean, how many mountain summits do you know of that are moderate hikes? Jo isn’t one of the High Peaks, but at 2876 feet its summit offers great views of 17 of the Big Guys.

mountain fauna–the third snake we’ve seen on this trip [so far]. Anyone know what kind?

We drove to The Adirondack Mountain Club’s High Peaks Information Center and consulted the experts. The difficult decision: Do we want to take the short, steeper route up Mount Jo, or the longer, less grueling path? We debated, considering our already fragile knees. Our expert suggested we climb up the steep path and return on the gentler path. Perfect!

at the summit

For much of the hike up, we were climbing a dry, steep stream bed like stairs. It must have been a waterfall during the Spring snowmelt! Not too bad though; it only took us an hour to summit. And the view was spectacular, especially of Heart Lake in the valley below. The hike down? Well, let’s just say that the longer path was only mildly easier. We had our hiking sticks with us, so we were able to save our knees, but my quads hurt for days afterward.

And the black flies! The only good thing I can say about them is that they distracted me from the steep descent. We had purchased a natural bug repellent from the information center, which worked well around my bare legs, but apparently my hair product was just too intoxicating. By the end of the hike I looked like a measles-riddled crazy women, with bites all around my hairline (despite my repellent-doused hat) and an extra-special, bulbous bite smack dab in the middle of my right cheek.

Heart Lake

Despite the flies, mosquitos, and sore quads, it was great to get out-of-doors and give our dormant hiking boots some exercise.

elevation gain on our hike: the descent was only mildly gentler than the ascent

From the Vanderbilt estate

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view of the Hudson River from the Vanderbilt estate

As with most trips we take, we ran out of time to see everything we wanted to see in Hyde Park. My intention with extended travel is to see an area so thoroughly that I can happily cross it off my bucket list, satisfied that I have seen it all, and focus future travel on other adventures. In actuality, we rarely see a place as thoroughly as we’d like. I make an exhaustive list, we prioritize as we go, but you never know just how it’s going to flow. And sometimes we want to return to a place we’ve explored because we’ve seen enough to have fallen in love with it. So the plan may not work the way I intended, but there’s a certain serendipity to it that we’ve come to love.

the Catskill Mountains in the distance

My deepest regret in Hyde Park is not giving Eleanor her due. Little was said about her on our guided tour of Springwood, Franklin’s home. And even though her papers and other memorabilia are stored in the Presidential Library, you really have to search to find her in the museum exhibits. 

The day we hiked to her cottage, Val-Kill, on the Eleanor Roosevelt National Heritage Site, we didn’t stay for the tour. For one thing, we were focused on completing our hike up to the top of the hill, to Top Cottage, and back down again before the day grew too warm. But also, there was an administrative meeting of all tour guides for the Roosevelt properties that morning and a backlog of tourists waiting to tour both Val-Kill and Top Cottages. Somehow I thought that we would catch up with Eleanor later, but sadly our time in Hyde Park evaporated.

The same goes with the Vanderbilt estate, which is located just south of the B&B where we stayed. It was so close, we thought we could stop in any time. We barely managed a drive-through of the property at dusk on our last day in town. While we rarely tour houses just to ogle at the opulence, the mansion does look architecturely stunning from several vantage points along the river. I was intrigued, and I’m sure we could have learned something about the prolific Vanderbilt family.

So we will bid adieu to Hyde Park and continue on our journey up the Hudson. Maybe one day we’ll return and pay Eleanor a nice, long visit. I believe her story is worth hearing.

At the CIA…

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I brake for chefs.

…the Culinary Institute of America, that is. Another reason I wanted to visit Hyde Park. Thanks to a friend (Hi, Toni!), who clued me in to the need to make reservations, we were able to enjoy two meals during our three-night stay in Hyde Park. The first night we went to their Italian restaurant, Catarina di Medici; the second night, their farm-to-table restaurant American Bounty. The food in all their restaurants is prepared and served by students. The service left a bit to be desired, but the food, by and large, was delicious. We were especially fortunate to share our meal at American Bounty with our daughter-in-law, who happened to be in New York visiting her father.

The campus itself is beautiful. The main building on campus looks like a brick cathedral, and the grounds are lush and green with an amazing view of the Hudson River.

In the wild

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manatee sighting at Kings Bay Park, Crystal River

On a whim, we drove to Kings Bay Park in downtown Crystal River to see if there were any manatees hanging around. It was a chilly morning. Maybe there would be some stragglers who weren’t on their way out to the gulf yet. Several dive boats full of tourists in wetsuits and snorkel gear were prowling Kings Bay looking for manatees as well. Suddenly a large manatee surfaced at the dock we were standing on, practically under our feet.

“Don’t point at it!” I whispered urgently to Marcus as his arm naturally began to extend.

“What? Why?” he asked.

“I don’t want those boats to see you pointing, or they’ll head over here to have a look and scare him away.”

We kept our arms, and our first wild manatee, to ourselves for just a few moments longer.

a cute little guy wearing the floor of the bay on his back!

Up Close and Too Personal?

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manatee with an injured flipper (behind him)

We were eagerly anticipating the manatee program at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park as they are known primarily for their manatee refuge. The park is the only place in the area you are likely to see manatees year round. I don’t think they have any permanent residents, thank goodness, but given all the boat-strikes and other mishaps, they are usually working continuously with injured manatees to heal them and prepare them to be released back to the wild. We weren’t having much luck finding manatees in the area’s rivers this week because of the warmer-than-usual weather—record-breaking highs five days in a row. So we were excited to see some up close and personal.

When we arrived at the manatee tank, we found it high and dry with three manatees in it—and about a dozen people. No manatee presentation today; instead, the three new manatees the park had recently acquired, victims of last September’s Hurricane Irma, would receive their first medical checkup. Visitors were welcome to watch, however. I wouldn’t call it entertaining, but it certainly was an eye-opener.

As we arrived, there was a bit of a discussion amongst the staff members, volunteers, and vets in the enclosure as to the best way to give the manatees their much-needed shots. These guys were injured and needed antibiotics, among other things. They were not used to being handled by humans, and yet it was necessary for them to be restrained so the vet could inject them.

 

A nod of heads all around and four staff members and volunteers placed foam mats on top of one of the manatees. There was a bit of foot shuffling and half-hearted attempts to kneel next to the immense animal. Finally one of the staff members, aptly wearing a wetsuit, draped himself over the foam-topped manatee and the rest clumsily followed suit. The manatee struggled under the sudden weight, the restrainers renewed their efforts, slipping awkwardly in the mess at the bottom of the tank, and the vet was able to administer the injections.

Owie! Owie! Owie!

Well, we got our manatee encounter, up close and personal, but nothing like the volunteers and staff members did! I’ll bet it took half a dozen showers to wash away the smell of distressed manatee!

 

Olivia

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Olivia (aka Robin)

My third treat for the day was Olivia, a resident opossum at Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. Olivia and her sister were orphaned at a very young age and are now wildlife emissaries at the park. On the day we were there she was assisting a volunteer with the park’s Wildlife Encounters program by showing us how many kibbles she can eat.

Note: For some reason the volunteer kept calling her Robin. What? She was obviously mistaken. Look at that face! That’s an Olivia, if ever I saw one. Don’t you agree?

I had no idea that possums could be so adorable! I could have watched her munch on kibbles all day. Such a good employee!