2014 - Tobermory (Day 3)

Today we head back to Toronto.

We woke up at 7:00 AM so that we could head home before the crazy traffic that we expect from all the people heading home back from the long weekend.

Princess Hotel is where we went for breakfast.  Your typical breakfast set you back $8 (eggs, choice of meat, toast, home fries and a drink).  The breakfast here was pretty good.  I'd suggest coming here if you wanted a quick bite to eat.  The sausages seemed like typical breakfast sausages but the ham was actual ham (compared to luncheon meat I had two days prior).

Lion's Head is a small down that is just off Hwy 6 which is on the way home.  Roughly a 30 minute drive from Tobermory.  We were going here to check out the lighthouse.  When we arrived, we were a bit disappointed.  The lighthouse itself is as tall as a 2-story building.  Oh well, it does provide a nice view of the lake though.

While we were there, we got some pictures and talked to a couple of ladies.  One of them was from around here (she said she was 69) and was showing her friend around.  She had pictures of the area from 50 years ago!  Wow, that would be pretty cool to compare her old photos to how it looks now.  They told us that they were staying here for the weekend and came from London.  It sounds like a better place to stay than Tobermory.  During the long weekend there was a sandcastle competition, fireworks, stargazing (there were telescopes set up for people), pancake charity breakfasts and much more.  After listening to her talk so proudly about her hometown, we thanked them for their time and headed over to the beach which was just a short walk from the lighthouse to see if we could catch any of the sandcastles.

The sandcastles were still somewhat intact although you could see that the rain from early this morning broke down a bit of them.  It was really cool.  I wish that we would've stayed here inside of Tobermory.  Oh well, live and learn!  This area seemed nicer since it was smaller and less touristy since there aren't too many motels / B&Bs to stay at.

We headed for the scenic route from Wiarton to check out the drive that was suggested by the server of Sidekicks.  The drive is nice, mostly along the water.  There are two lookout points, Colpoy's and Kemble Women's Institute lookout.  They are both worth a short stopover and break from driving.


Midway between the two lookout points, we stopped at a garage sale where Allison was able to get some cookie presses that she has been looking for for awhile.  They seemed okay and she was happy with them.

Also, we stopped at Big Bay General Store.  Allison was pretty excited since most of our general store experiences were pretty cool.  This was really just an ice cream shop which happens to sell snacks as well.  No fancy cool old things here.  The ice cream here was really good though.  It was the first time that we saw Apple ice cream and decided to try it.  It was really good ice cream.  Nice and hard, none of those cheap ice creams that melt as soon as you take it outside of the shop.  Stop by here for a quick ice cream if you are in the area.  It seems like they are quite a popular ice cream stop.

We drove back and stopped at Super Burger on the way home for lunch.  I thought it would be worth it to stop by one of these burger joints since I saw them about a month ago.  Super Burger actually has an old TTC street car connected to it and it has tables and seats inside that you can eat at.  Very cool!  The food was okay, nothing special.  If the line up looks long, don't be deterred, it goes by pretty quick.  It reminds me of a Harvey's but slightly more expensive (hamburger combo was roughly $8).

And this concludes this trip.  I would say it's definitely worth going to Tobermory if you are into scenery / hiking / water.  I would suggest staying at Lion's Head though since it is less busy.  Go here for a long weekend to see if you like it enough to return.

Expenses
Adventure The Bruce Inn : $517.76 ($129.39 per person)
Cruise: $41.64
Flowerpot Access: $3.67
Provincial Park Parking Pass: $11.70 ($2.34 per person)
Food: Roughly  $65 (3 breakfasts, 1 lunch, 2 dinners)

Total: Roughly $245 for 3 days, 2 nights.

2014 - Tobermory (Day 2)

Today we are off to an early start in order to ensure that we get a parking spot at Cyprus Lake.  While we were at the Visitor Information Centre yesterday, they told us that the lot would fill up really early in the morning, so we were trying to arrive before 9:00 AM.

We woke up this morning to try to get out of the hotel by 7:00 AM, grab breakfast and try to head there as early as possible.  I was hoping that Little Tub Bakery would be open by 7:00 AM, but unfortunately it wasn't open when we arrived slightly before 7:00 AM so we headed back to town to see what was open.

Luckily Craggies was open for breakfast.  We ordered a BLT sandwich for roughly $5.  It was expensive, but it tasted really good.  The others had a western omelette, not sure how they liked it.  It was weird since I noticed that their western omelettes don't include pepper.

Off to Cyprus Lake!  We arrive and we noticed some large gates with the gates up and a car was waiting there as if they were waiting for a park ranger to pay for the parking permit.  I got out of the car to check and right behind us was a car who told us to just keep going because this was the point where they would turn back people since they parking lot is full.  Thinking back, I thought this is ridiculous, how could something like this fill up that badly?

We kept driving, and noticed why the gates are where they are.  It was another good 10 minute drive to actually get to where the park office is to buy a parking permit!  If you drove all the way in to get turned back, I would be really disappointed.

Once we got to the park office, we got out to notice that they office itself wasn't even open yet!  They open at 8:00 AM!  Luckily we were only 10 minutes early, enough time for the girls to take some pictures and go to the washroom.  The parking permit at this time cost $11.70 per vehicle.  Good for all Parks Canada parks for the day.  With the permit bought, off we went to see how tiny this parking lot would be that turns back people!  The parking lot itself is actually pretty large.  I would say over 100 cars can fit here, but I guess if you don't carpool, it isn't that many spots.

Off we go!  Off to the Grotto!  Our first stop was a pebble beach at the Indian Head Cove.  I have never seen such blue water in Ontario before!  The view is beautiful.  Since we were early, we got to see the area with just a few people and it was great for pictures since you were alone with nobody in the background.  We stayed here awhile and wandered a bit and took A LOT of pictures.  I really enjoyed this area and was glad that I actually made it here.

After this, it is a short walk to The Grotto.  I didn't know what to expect, since looking at pictures is not quite the same as looking at it with your eyes.  The Grotto itself is actually right underneath The Grotto area.  You can't actually see much of it from up top and you need to climb/jump down to get the full experience.  We were told that there was a hole that you can actually climb down into to get there.  I stared at the hole wondering how the heck I was going to get down because it is a pretty small hole.  After the initial small opening, it actually widens up pretty quick and after a few guess-work steps and handholds, we were down in The Grotto!  Looking at it, I'm glad I went rock climbing because it did give me a better idea of what I could use as a foothold/handhold.  All but Nancy went down, so she actually got some nice pictures of us climbing up and down into The Grotto.  Nancy, if you read this, do try to go down next time if you can.  It's worth it.

The Grotto is really nice.  If you don't mind the climb, you should definitely try to get down there.  I think a combination of it being early and the fact that it was a bit more difficult to get to meant that there were less people there.  This also meant that we were worried about bringing our real cameras down so we brought waterproof ones and Sharon's iPhone down.  When we were at the bottom, there were probably 10 other people there.  We decided to do a different climb up to get to the top instead of using the side hole that we went down with.  It was a little bit more difficult, but still manageable for all of us.

At this point, Nancy decided to head back to the car since we were heading to the Overhanging Point and she has been there before but didn't want to go.  Sunny joined her to the car since it was his car and we agreed to meet there to have lunch when we go there so we part ways for a bit.


The walk to the Overhanging Point was rough, it wasn't flat like the Georgian Bay Trail which is the trail from the parking lot to the Indian Head Cove.  It was hilly and rocky.  It is not difficult, just watch your step and wear proper footwear (don't try with sandals or flip flops).  It probably took us half an hour to get there.  We stopped a few times to take some pictures and eventually got there.  The lookout is nice, although the rock itself is weirdly porous, so I couldn't tell whether or not the thing would just snap.  Since it is not flat, it was actually somewhat difficult to step because one wrong move and you are off the cliff and likely dead.

While there, we met this old couple who was telling us that you could actually make it to the bottom of the area through this side hole.  What's up with this place and holes that you can climb?  During our lunchtime I kept teasing that Sharon would go down the hole and have a look.  In the end, I went down first and Sharon followed.  I would tell Allison whether she would make it since I am taller, I could grip things a bit easier than she would.  I would say that it isn't anything special.  If you don't want to climb down the hole, don't.

Next we headed down the Marr Lake trail to go back to the parking lot to meet up with Nancy and decide where to go to next.  We were told it would take an hour to get back and the total distance is 0.9km.  I don't think you actually need that long.  There isn't much to see on this trail in my opinion, so you can just head back the way you came, although distance-wise, this is probably quicker than going back to The Grotto and back to the Georgian Bay trail.

We met up with Nancy and head back to the hotel so that we could rest up and decide on what to do next.  In the end, we planned to head to Half Way Log Dump (as per the receptionist from the Visitor Centre) and Singing Sands Beach before heading to dinner.  Half Way Log Dump is a bit of a bust compared to Cyprus Lake.  Maybe if we came here first we would have liked it more.  It is similar to Cyprus Lake, but not as pretty.  After a few quick pictures, we left to our next stop.

Singing Sands Beach is a sand beach!  All the other beaches that we went to were pebble/rock beaches, so if you walked barefoot, it would hurt.  This is an interesting beach.  While we didn't go into the water, there were a lot of people here.  If you plan to swim, I would avoid this place.  It looks like you would walk out for at least a kilometer and you still wouldn't be able to swim.  It is THAT shallow.  We saw people really far away and they were just standing there in the water.  I found this really odd.

For dinner we ended up at The Fish & Chips Place.  For $80 we got 12 pieces of fish and a family size portion of chips.  A much better deal than Shipwreck Lee's.  This fish is a bit fishy for me, so I didn't enjoy it as much as Allison did.  I wouldn't return, but only because I don't like fishy-fish.

We stopped at The Sweet Shop for ice cream after dinner.  It was slightly more expensive than Ice Cream & Treats, but we much preferred this place.  It does have to do with the flavor though since we liked this one more.  We got toasted s'mores ice cream, not quite as good as Greg's Ice Cream but still good.

Big Tub Lighthouse is our last stop before we called it a night.  A short drive from the downtown area is a lighthouse that has been there for over 200 years.  It was cool to see a lighthouse, there is a good view here, but unfortunately you can't actually go inside the lighthouse.  It is probably a 10 minute stopover.


Tomorrow, we go to Lion's Head to see the lighthouse and head back home!

2014 - Tobermory (Day 1)

After some planning, our first trip of the summer is here and we are off to Tobermory!  Tobermory is on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula roughly 4 hours north of Toronto.  We will be going for 2 nights (leaving Saturday morning and returning on Monday) and there were 5 of us on this trip, Sunny, Sharon, Nancy, Allison, and myself.

Our initial itinerary is as follows:

Day 1 - Flowerpot Island
Day 2 - Cyprus Lake / Singing Sands Beach
Day 3 - Lion's Head

For Flowerpot Island, based on Sharon and Nancy's previous experience, it was decided that we go there for roughly 6 hours.  With a 11:15 AM boat departure time, we decided to head out at 5:00 AM giving us some time to grab breakfast and check-in early if possible.

Our first stop was Sidekick Cafe for breakfast, which is in Markdale, roughly 2 hours into our trip which I thought would be a good stopping point for rest and breakfast.

The servers were really friendly at this breakfast spot, gladly provided us some information (and a map) on how to go to Tobermory and what we can do based on our schedule.  The breakfast there was okay, your typical breakfast food, nothing to write home about.  But they were very curious about how we found out about the place and thought we found it through Facebook since we were younger and foreign (all other patrons were older white folk and we were a group of 5 Asians in our 30s).  Your usual breakfast (eggs, meat, toast and home fries for $6, coffee extra).  I've had better breakfasts (the bacon and sausage looked like they came from cheap frozen packages and the ham was luncheon meat), so, unless you need some information or some hospitality, you can look elsewhere.

After breakfast, we headed to the motel to see if we could check in.  For this trip, we decided on Adventure in the Bruce Inn, located just a short 10 minute walk away from the downtown area.  Unfortunately, we arrived too early for check out, so we headed downtown to walk around the area.

We stopped at the Visitor Information Centre and got some maps and things to do for our weekend.  We already had a rough idea of what we would be doing, but it was good to learn about some extra places to visit and what times we should head to certain places.  As a bonus, you can park here all day (as long as you move your car at night).  It is a 5 minute walk from the downtown area.

The downtown area is pretty small (you can walk it all in 5-10 minutes), it is just shops, restaurants and boat cruise stores.  The area is nice and quaint with it being a dock/marina where you see a number of ships and boats and as a bonus you can see the sunset from this location.  Unfortunately, it was too hazy/cloudy every night we were here to catch the sunset.

At 11:15 AM, we board the Bruce Anchor Cruises' Crusader and we were on our way!  The first two stops were two shipwrecks which you could see from the glass bottom of the boat that we were on as well as from just looking over the side of the boat (it is very shallow here).  It was cool to see, although I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought it would.  Afterwards, it was off to Flowerpot island.  The total time from coast, shipwrecks to Flowerpot was probably 35 minutes, the boat is really quick (they said it can reach 45km/h).

Flowerpot Island is very pretty.  There is one main loop on this island, estimated time is 4-5 hours to do the complete loop which covers all of the island's sights (small flowerpot, big flowerpot, lighthouse station, marl beds), since we are on the island for 6 hours, that should be more than enough if we stopped for lunch and took our time wandering around.  The island itself has no restaurants, so be sure to pack a lunch.  Also, as a national park, it has a 'leave no trace' rule where whatever you bring with you, be sure to bring back with you.  There are no garbage bins or recycling bins (except at the dock), so be sure to bring a bag to pack everything back with you.  We had more than enough time to visit everything.  By the time we were done, we still had an hour to spare.  I think you can do everything within 4 hours, (flowerpots and lighthouse station, you can skip Marl Bed, there isn't much there).

Overall, I enjoyed Flowerpot Island, although I think the price of admission is pretty steep.  It cost us $45 each to do the boat cruise and go on the island (you actually need to pay to go on the island, otherwise they just loop around it and return back to the dock).  Look at the pictures to see if you think it is worth it.  My issue is that it is a HUGE tourist spot (I know it sounds silly as a tourist).  It may be because we went during the long weekend, but the amount of tourists there was ridiculous.  When you see people with Chinese tour company stickers, you know it's a big tourist spot.

After Flowerpot Island, we went to the Bruce Peninsula National Park Visitor Centre.  If you go on a boat cruise, bring your ticket to here and you will be able to go to the visitor area (it contains information on the Bruce Peninsula).  If you are brave, there is a nice observation tower that you can climb up for a nice view of the area.  The tower is 20 meters high, which is constructed from wood and steel.  When you get to the top, if there is a breeze, you will feel the entire structure move.  As a person who is afraid of heights, this feeling sucks.  I do admit though, this is a very nice place, as a plus, the observation tower is free!  Just make sure you don't look down.

For dinner we went to Shipwreck Lee's which is right by the downtown area.  We went based on suggestions but in my opinion, just walk further.  This place is a tourist trap.  Servers clad in pirate clothing with expensive fish and chips.  $20 for 2 pieces of fish with chips.  I'm glad we weren't overly hungry and didn't order much more.  The only plus (depends on if you are into this), the server we got was really friendly and provided us with pirate hats and posed for pictures with us.  I wouldn't suggest it.

After Shipwreck Lee's we went to The Fish & Chips Place for a fish taco, ya, I question why we didn't eat here first either, but someone in the group wanted some fish tacos and went here.  We looked at the menu, low and behold, 2 pieces of fish with chips for $12 and this is not even a 5 minute walk away.  The fish taco was okay, nothing special in my opinion, but I am not a big seafood fan.  If you like fishy-fish (fish that taste fishy or oceany), this is your place though.

Ice Cream!  We stopped at Ice Cream & Treats for an ice cream before we head back to the motel.  I forgot what we ordered, but the ice cream was okay.  We did a stroll down the marina to see what was there while we had the ice cream.

Allison and I headed back early and called it a night since we would have an early morning tomorrow while the others stayed to catch the sunset.  I thought that since there were 5 of us in a room, it would be better if we headed back to shower and clean up because the wait would be long since there is only one washroom.

Tomorrow, we head to Cyprus Lake to see the Grotto!