Aug 20 – Parry Sound

We are changing our plans a bit. Originally we were going to move, on Thursday, to a friend’s house near Kingston and explore that area for a while.

Today one of our daughters called and said she is having a pretty bad allergic reaction to some medication she is on. She is also moving from Toronto to London, Ontario this weekend. So we are going to head home tomorrow to help move and just provide some support. We will head to Kingston early next week.

Today we decided to head into Parry Sound and explore before we leave.

Terry had told about a boat cruise that takes you out to a great fish restaurant that can only be reached by boat or air. When I looked it up online, they only run that trip on Fridays. Even if we had wanted to stay until this Friday, when we were at the dock today, the sign said that that trip was full. Maybe next time we are all here, we will try to go as a group. The trip by air was $170 a person, not happening.

The other cruise choice was the Island Queen, which does a “3 hour tour” out amongst the 30,000 islands. Since the scenery looked much like that at our cottage we decided to wait and possibly do one of the 1000 Islands tours when we are around Kingston.

The boat holds about 500 people.

I looked this ship up online. It is an ex coast guard boat that has had several name changes and was once used in a TV series called Adventure, Inc. filmed in Toronto.

We walked up a path along the river that sort of splits Parry Sound in two. The huge railway bridge dominates the skyline.

We wondered if it was still in use because it looked quite rusty and the concrete piers had some cracks but later in the day I am pretty sure I heard a train go over it. We were too far away and behind some trees to see the train though.

Of course we got as close to the water as possible.

We took what I think was another old railway bridge across the river to walk back towards the lake on the other side.

The other side proved to be not very interesting so we soon turned back.

We headed into downtown.

Jennie spent a long time in this shop.

It was really hot and humid out so we went back to the dock area for our regulation ice cream.

From the docks I had seen a lookout tower high up on a hill.

I decided to try and get up there to see if I could climb it.

Sure enough it was open so up I went, while Jennie explored the gardens below.

It was a very steady structure so it was not that scary to climb other than it was pretty high. Jennie looked very small down there.

The harbour and the railway bridge are far below.

After a long stare I headed back down. The open steps made it more interesting when you have to look down.

No jumpers allowed.

I had never read anything about this in the tourism brochures so I am glad I saw it from below.

It was just after I was down that we think we heard the train go over that trestle. It would have made a nice picture from the top of the tower.

That was enough for today so we headed home.