Algonquin Park

Algonquin Park has over 2000 lakes and the most popular way to explore it is by canoeing. We woke up early in the morning for a change, early enough to see the sun rises over the steaming lake. We rented 2 canoes in Opeongo lake and rode a water taxi to get to a start point up the lake.

The taxi dropped us off in a marshal creek off the lake. This creek's supposed to be a good place for wildlife viewing. This time of year the moose have shiny big antlers and the leafs changing color and preparing to fall off the trees.
We didn't get to see a moose but we had seen few birds - blue heron, many ducks and a Loon. The loon appears on the Canadian dollar coin which is also called "Looney"

Loons are known for their hoot which sounds like this .
We spent 4 hours in the creek, including a lunch break, enjoying the scenery, sun, wind and pure nature. It was wilderness at its best, since it possible to get there by canoeing only. At some points we had to paddle hard, struggling a thick layer of Lilly pads, roots or mud.
The advantage of going early in the morning is that wind doesn't blow yet and the reflection is so perfect We will probably stay here for 3 night to grasp some more of this beautiful park.

Elora gorge

From Toronto we continued north to Elora gorge. This is the agricultural part of Ontario with views of farms and fields. Also in this area live the Mennonites. They are a group of christian people who very much like the Amish, live non modern life. They work their fields with horses and also use buggies as a mean of transportation. outside the local supermarket there's a special horse parking and as you can imagine, it's not so hygienic... They dress up like in the old days of "Little house in the prairie" and we spotted tens of little Laure Ingles.

Elora is a sweet little artistic town. We saw the Grand River gorge and strolled through the streets. There are many statues and art works along the streets. This taxi car is a small gallery. As you look through its windows you see few exhibits inside. Then we took a long bike trail around the area.Biking allows seeing the area in more details and revealing hidden spots. For example we ran into this surreal store, specializing in lawn mowers, chain saws and naturally... used books. The place is heaven or readers. We loaded our backpack with children books and moved on.

We ended up in the local museum, featuring the place history. The beautiful house started as a poor house in the late 1800's.

Toronto

We're in Canada again and our phone doesn't work here. Also Nuve, the GPS doesn't work so we feel a little lost sometimes...
We drove yesterday to Toronto to meet Tracey (Aviv's grade 2 teacher) and Vito (the other grade 2 teacher). We don't like big cities with the rv but here we found a good parking spot. We hopped on the subway heading downtown Toronto, where Tracey, Daisy (Tracey's dog) and Vito were waiting for us. We haven't seen T for 3 years and V for more than a year so we had a lot of catching up to do.
We strolled through the streets of the city to the harbor on Lake Ontario, where we stopped for a drink. Then we visited Tracey's friend until it was late.

Today we parked the rv by Vito's sister & husband house, Paula and Frank. They have a beautiful house and a lovely garden.

We took the bike on the subway to go to a bike ride in the park, along Humber river
where the kids also played in a little
Adi and a Canadian gooseLater on we went back to Paula and Frank's, where Aviv showed T and V pictures of kids that they had taught in Porto Alegre.
Paula and Frank are so nice and kind people. They invited us for dinner and later on suggested that we park for the night in their driveway instead of driving to the campground. Frank cooked the yummiest sausages and steaks!
Frank is a real handy man and helped Dagan fixing the roof rack afetr it was torn out by a branch the night before.
When it got darker and chillier we sat by this cool campfire in the garden. We were roasting marshmallows, drinking Grappa and having a lot of fun. It's amazing how many great unplanned experiences we're having in this trip! Thanks Vito, Tracey, Paula and Frank for an unforgettable day!

Niagara Falls

After the previous "verbal" post, this one is more about pictures.
We spent the day in both the American and the Canadian sides of the falls. We woke up early thanks to the towing that luckily never really happened. We parked in Goat Island and went to take our first look of the horseshoe falls.


The weather was perfectly warm and sunny so we went back to the car to take the bike to ride along the river. The peak season is over and the park was empty.

Out of the many suggested tourist attractions we chose 2: Maid of the Mist boat ride (almost) into the falls and the Cave of the Winds.
Maid of the Mist-

For Cave of the Winds, we had to change our shoes to the latest fashion sandals and yellow poncho. We went along a boardwalk under the Bridal Veil falls. By the end of the trip we were all soaked wet, including the camera.
After that we crossed the border to Canada to find a campground for the night. In the evening we drove back to the falls to see them from the Canadian side. After dark the falls are illuminated with colorful lights. Then there were fireworks.

Tomorrow - Toronto!