Small towns of Ontario - Peterborough

Another weekend spent exploring one of the wonderful small towns, actually a city of Ontario.  Peterborough is located in the Kawartha Lakes District on the Otonabee River which is part of the Trent Severn Waterway.  We stayed at the Best Western Plus Otonabee River.  Situated in a quiet area of Peterborough on a lovely little river leading into the Otonabee. Our room was spacious and bright and the view quite tranquil.  The continental breakfast was sumptuous with fresh fruits, cereals, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs and more.  I was quite impressed as I was only expecting coffee and muffins. What a  nice surprise.

The downtown core of Peterborough is where everything happens. There's a great marina with a large parkt next door.  Quite often there are activities in the park with live entertainment.. This particular weekend there was an Elvis impersonator performing at the bandshell and the park was full of avid Elvis fans.  Just down the road the Rib Fest was on.  The bustling crowd seemed to be quite happy with the many choices of ribs being served and there was a band playing. During the summer months Rib fests are quite popular throughout Southern Ontario. If you like ribs, you must check out a Ribfest  in your local area.

 

Little lake is situated in the centre of town and is home to many waterfowl and fish. The view of the town and surrounding area are quite beautiful from the lake side.

 There's a paved pathway alongside the lake with picturesque gardens, memorials and statues. This memorial garden was dedicated in loving memory of the children who have passed far too soon.

This sculpture is dedicated by the Peterborough and District Labour Council to the men and women workers past, present and future. 

 There's an old railway bridge spanning the lake and functions as short cut from one side of town to the other.

Peterborough's lift locks are an engineering marvel.  If you've never seen a lift lock in action I suggest you visit this one. The lift lock opened in 1904 and this project included many engineering firsts. It was the first lock to be built out of concrete, and at the time was the largest structure ever built in the world with unreinforced concrete.The lock has two identical ship caissons (like bathtubs) in which vessels ascend and descend. Both caissons are enclosed at each end by pivoting gates, and there are pivoting gates at the upper and lower reaches of the canal at the junctions with the caissons. The gates on the caissons fit into slots on the gates on the reaches, so that they open in unison. No external power is needed: the lift lock functions by gravity alone using the counterweight principle.

  

Small towns of Ontario - Lakefield

This summer I've had the opportunity to visit many of Ontario's small towns. They are charming and historical, have wonderful shops and restaurants that you would only expect to find in a large city and the people are warm and friendly and willing to share great tips and information about their area.

This past weekend I visited Lakefield which is situated in the Kawartha Lakes district of Ontario. This charming town is situated on the Trent Canal River system www.trentcanal.com  which allows you to visit by boat or by car. My girlfriends and I spent many hours browsing in the shops, chatting with the store owners and clerks and yes, you guessed it, buying some great items. Our first stop was www.sunblockers.ca a bathing suit shop that I had heard so much about.  It was a treat.  Great variety, very helpful and knowledgeable staff and excellent quality bathing suits.  

 After purchasing our new suits we continued along Queen Street and popped into www.TragicallyHip.com to browse through the nooks and cranny's that are  filled with wonderful items; clothing, jewelry, and  fabulous hats.  We had great fun trying on tops, trinkets and whimsical hats.  The store clerks were very interesting and happy to share their passions with us. Mary's passion is everything Celtic, she has a website www.celticconnection.ca and a radio show out of the local university. Jeanne is passionate about numerology and is happy to share this with you. Her website is www.thenumbergenie.com.  If you happen to be in Lakefield be sure to visit these lovely ladies and take the time to browse in this wonderful store.

With all this shopping we worked up an appetite.  Time to take a snack break and have some of our favourite Kawartha Dairy ice cream.  This is the best iceream I've ever tasted and there are many interesting flavours to choose from: raspberry thunder, moose tracks and my favourite parlines and cream. MMMMM!

We continued our stroll along Queen Street and came across the very colourful Stuff Store.  The outside decor was so inviting we just had to go in.  There are fabulous jams, vinaigretts, sauces, trinkets and much more. I purchased some delicious balsamic salad toppers flavoured with raspberries and sour cherry.  Very yummy.  Lori purchased a wine stopper to go with her worldly collection and we had a wonderful chat with shop keeper Justin.  He was happy to offer tastes of the products we were interested in and told us about  the local winery which offers tastings of their fruit wines, www.kawarthacountrywines.ca.

Our afternoon shopping excursion was successful.  Time to go back to the cottage, change into our new bathing suits and relax lakeside in the warmth of the sun.  Great friends, good food and the charming town of Lakefiled.  The perfect way to spend a summer weekend in Ontario.