Niagara On The Lake

 Have you ever walked through the beautiful, buzzing, old streets of Niagara On The Lake, on a cold rainy day, licking your favorite ice cream in a crunchy cone ? 

Yes..? Cool..!

No..? You have to try when you get a chance? Or make a chance and try..! It's worth it..

Statutory Warning: Sour-tooth folks are advised not to go ahead with the reading.

Early fall time - Abhi had been getting a lot of IG stories on Dundas Peak on his feed. And as suggested by IG, we planned to explore the peak on a sunny Saturday. After the hike, we could spend the night with Abhi's cousin who's in Kitchener and then on Sunday we all could go to Aglonquin, and then back home. Plan is ready. Suitcases ready - packed with fall clothes, trekking shoes ready and kids too ready on time!! What's happening!! I wondered, but then didn't want to jinx it by asking out loud. :D

We started 'like' an adorable family of four. Half-way through, 'the adorable' got assigned a new meaning. The rear seat passengers started fighting over a toy steering wheel that one of them took from home, to play with. The front seat passengers were not so different - the driver had his own steering wheel, but started feeling jealous over the sleeping passenger. Eventually, the front passenger decided to become the referee for the rear ones, thereby waving white napkins(read as doves) at the driver too. 

We took a snack break at one of the Tims and restarted the journey. We reached Dundas Peak at around 3 PM. The parking lot was manned and we came to know about the naked truth that advanced booking was required and that their slots are full. What !!! The first part of the plan 'brought to you by IG' ended up as 'just another plan'. 

'Don't worry, we still have the rest of the plan and 2 more days. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, Monday was a holiday too. 

We spent the night with Abhi's cousin -  Paaru, her hubby Kannan, and his friend - Abhi.. Yeah, I get it, another Abhi..! While having dinner, we planned to wake up early the next day. But the dinner and the chit-chat after that extended very late and all of us slept till we 'can'. Abhi's biological clock is weird and it wakes him up at sharp 6:30 AM, no matter what. He will chill out in the snor-acapella rhythm, enjoy some IG/FB time. But when he gets bored after sometime, he wouldn't let us sleep. 

Anyway, by the time Kannan and Abhi(other one with a malfunctioning biological clock) woke up, it was half past 11. By the time we were ready to start from Kitchener, it was around noon. The sunny sky started giving way to its non-identical cloudy twin.

"There's no point in going to Aglonquin now. We will reach there by evening and it would be raining there" - Abhi(mine).

"Then, let's go to Niagara" - Abhi(other) 

Watch closely folks.. you're witnessing the 2nd part of the plan being trodden down by the rain.(Of course, not because we slept off). 

We remapped our course to Niagara On The Lake - the small, historic and beautiful town near the Niagara Falls. Adaptability is men's greatest virtue.. did someone say so? Even if not, it's true. :D But can men avoid nature with this virtue? Not at all.. We were welcomed by cold breeze and drizzle when we reached the town. We parked the cars.(PS: The town has metered car-parking all around the place.)

The boys had some snacks to eat and then we left for the buzzing streets. n number of people, from different nations, even continents(like us), swarming together, some actively window shopping, some carrying multiple shopping bags.. Some people are wearing the red ponchos from Niagara Cruise, some are wearing raincoats, some had umbrellas, big and small.., while we were just wearing early fall clothes.. But it didn't matter. Our first destination was the Cow's IceCream shop. The adults had icecream scoops and the boys had chocolate bars.(They can't eat cold icecreams as they're prone to sour throat, you might already know..)

The rain had no plans to stop, so we bought an umbrella from the next antique shop, and enthroned our elder son as its owner and got his affirmation that he will share it with his brother. It didn't go well as planned as both of them had little interest in being under same umbrella.  

As the winds gained speed, we decided to go back and get ourselves warmed up. Just on our way to the car, I noticed a building, it looked like a small museum with lots of jars in display. One by one, we had every one in the gang inside the building. It's the Niagara Apothecary - a museum curated by the Ontario Heritage Trust. Niagara Apothecary was opened in the 1860s and was open as a healthcare service provider till 1964. After that they redesigned the building just the way it was when they opened it the first time. Only the main hall was open to the public., but it was enlightening. They had old prescriptions, medicines, advertisements of some break through medicines, different instruments used back in the day for various medical purposes and so on. Abhi, Paaru, the kids and I were awed by the exhibits. While we stayed there asking different questions to the curator, Kannan & Abhi(other one) nicely scooted. The curator was a nice lady and she patiently explained us a lot of things, answered all the questions we had. I sent a handful of pictures to my sister, Sree. Being a homeopath, she was excited to see a lot of homeopathic medicines among the collections. We left the museum pondering over the past. 

 We had our dinner from a Kerala hotel near the Queens Express Way and said our goodbyes. The sweetness of the ice cream(for the kids -chocolate bar), the heaviness of the past lingered in our talks on the way back home. We cleaned up and changed into comfy, warm clothes as soon as we reached, and hit the bed. 

PS1: The cold that started the next day is a story for another time :D 

PS2: I had to change 'insta' to 'IG' as my GenAlpha son said, "Amma, only old folks say Insta..!!".  

Fork of the Credit Scenic Road

Any day on the weekend is incomplete without getting a glimpse of the open sky, or a gentle touch of breeze. We got the boys ready and started around 3:45 PM for a small, 2-3 hour long road trip. We set off to explore the Fork of Credit Scenic Road. It was suggested by one of Abhi's globetrotter colleagues.  

We entered the Fork of the Credit Road around 4:30. The road was narrow, and it slithered through the disrobed trees. 

The one single hairpin curve[Fork of the Credit Hairpin] pulled Abhi and me back to the serpentlike roads of Valppara, Munnar and Vagamon, adorned with breathtaking views. While enjoying the sun-kissed groves, we had this surge of memories of our numerous trips to the Ghats of our small, but beautiful "Gods own Country - Kerala". Nostalgia, it is!!! And nostalgia is Tea & Coffee.. We stopped at the first cafe we found - BellFountain Cafe.  

To Aadi's and my surprise, it was a 'HarryPotter' themed cafe shimmering in  warm colors and cozy smell of pumpkin spice latte.. The cafe even had a door labelled 'Room of Requirements' - if you know what I meant..!. [FYI for muggles: In Hogwarts, the Room of Requirement could be any room and would be redesigned to match your requirement. In the cafe, it opened up to a small, clean washroom.]

The boys had hot pizza and latte, while Abhi and I indulged in creamy scoops of icecream. [The boys are prone to sore through just like their granny.] It was about to get dark when we left the cafe. We thought of roaming around on the by-roads to see the good old BellFountain Village. Some of the roads were like small roller coasters. And as we moved on, the shades started being so dramatic at the horizon..yellow, orange, orangish red. Then there was pink, pinkish red. It was magical, that's all I can say.  We couldn't but share the feeling. So, we called up Abhi's brother, it was around 2 AM at his place. He didn't had much to say either, but exclaim.. :D 

We drove back home with our filled up hearts and gleaming eyes and almost hungry tummies. :D

We should definitely come back as we missed some of the other attractions near by or on the way to Fork of the Credit Road, like The BellFountain Suspension Bridge, The Cheltenham Badlands. 

 Photo Dump

Hole in the Wall @ LimeHouse Conservation

 It was a Sunday and the whole house was brimming with a slothy vibe. Both Abhi and I were rooted on the couch. It's not just the inherent longing to stay still, but also the fear of being spiked by the lego minefield scattered all over the floor.

At about 11 AM,  the obsolete wanderer in Abhi woke up and suggested, "Let's go for a mini hike". After a quick Mission Impossible level assessment of the situation in hand, I came to the conclusion that it's better to pull myself up from the couch and get ready for the hike. The main reason being the "enthusiasm" that our boys were showing. They dodged their daily "chore" of writing-pages-in-exchange-of-watching-TV, and already started layering up for the cold weather.

Just like that we dumped the slothiness and started for the LimeHouse Conservation Area in Halton Hills. It was about an hour from our home and as usual we let Abhi to drive peacefully by allowing ourselves to the 'discomfort' of sleeping. :D

We reached there around 12:30. It was partially cloudy with sun peeping out of clouds in certain intervals. There is no entry fee or parking fee at the park. There's an info board at the entrance of the trail. Although there were 3(or 4) trails, we decided to take the Bruce Trail with moderate difficulty level. 

After a small stride, we entered a grove of tall trees. The fall foliage had almost hit the ground leaving those bare trees staring at us. By the side of the trail, just at safe distance, we notices small trenches.

The brown-yellowish big leaves on the trail gave way to dried pine needles as we moved ahead further. Possibly as part of security measures, a strong plastic rope was fastened across metal poles, in some part of the trail, where the trenches are seemingly deep.

5 more minutes of walking and posing for pictures and making our kids to smile for the camera(which they would never do together. When one smiles, the other makes the most embarrassing faces), we saw something really curious - A guy came up from underneath the floor..!!! But how?? The four of us marched towards the guy, or from where he just popped out. 

For the sake of our sanity and of yours, I must say that there was a gap, or a trench there by the side of the trail, and that my fellow folks, is known as the Hole in the Wall, or one of the entrance to it. It is not too long, not to narrow, not too deep, but a bit shady. I felt a light sense of adrenaline flashing through me while we went down the trench through the other entrance. There were 2 flights of short, but steep wooden stairs to reach the bottom and then you could explore the limited space between the rocks.

The boys were too excited to come out of it, but we managed to get through with them to further explore and see atleast one of the kilns for which the Conservation Area is famous for. The place has got a long history starting from the 1750s. Fear not, I wont tell you all those stories and take up your time. 

We ended up consuming all the oranges and the snacks that we took along and the hunger over powered us. Finally, while we were at the Magazine room(where they stored the explosives for quarry), we decided to go back. 

The boys were talking about lime quarry and the kilns on their way back. The elder one was boasting about the process that he read from the boards kept at different stations and the magazine room. The younger one couldn't stop, but add more terms from the bits and pieces he read as well. Finally, by the time we reached the parking lot, they were discussing their usual stuff - Minecraft :D

Over the short trail, we saw families, people walking dogs, small friendly gangs, lone hikers.. The warmth of smiles and greetings is a good-to-have during cold hikes. :)

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Photo Dumps

One of the LimeHouse Kilns

Squeezing ourselves out :D

Lost, Again !!

 This happened a year ago, during December 2023, which is exactly one year after "The Search". 

Another winter(my second) is here. And yes, the flu season has been accompanying the cold weather with much companionship. On my way back home from office, Abhi called up and he asked if I could get a Tylenol syrup for the boys. The flu is hitting us hard.

I got down a couple of stops before my usual stop. There's a Shoppers Drug Mar, but I had to walk for about 800 meters from the bus stop. It was dark, but the street was both lively and lovely as the shops were lit up with Xmas decors. I pictured myself walking through a street in a Xmas movie... but my nose wasn't walking, it was running. Oops, that was a sick joke, I agree. My red, runny nose is my body's typical reaction to the chilly wind. But let's walk. At some point, I realized,  the clear boogers oozing out might get highlighted by one of those Xmas lights. To avoid the embarrassment, I took a napkin out of my jacket pocket, wiped my nose & threw it into the garbage bin kept by the side of the walkway.

There it is, the drugstore. Luckily, i got the non-dye Tylenol syrup that the kids would have without any fuss. (They don't like the grape flavor). I took an uber home as I dint want to catch cold. I was dropped off at my apartment in less than 10 minutes, amidst the crazy traffic on the Eglington Avenue.

While getting off the car, i got a notification from FindMyDevice app that the right airpod is last seen at Bayview(drugstore). "Oops, my headphone is out of charge", I mumbled and took the elevator. Once i reached home, I started with the 'ritual' of getting off the winter layers.  As usual, I took the airpod case& airpods out, along with the home keys and some neatly folded napkins. 

I put one airpod in the case, but where's the other one?? Missing ?

I pulled down the earlier notification & looked for the direction to the missing airpod . It's not with me. It didn't get switched off, but lost! AGAIN!!!

Upon seeing my clownishly red nose, Abhi insisted on going out to look for the missing airpod. He took my phone & left his with me. 10 minutes later, he called me telling that he is standing exactly at the same place where my phone was showing as the location of the missing airpod. But he couldn't see anything there, but a garbage bin!!

Quick rewind !! I guess you might now know what happened !! He came back home, without the airpod. 

Couple of days later, when i checked for the location again, I got a different address. It never changed after that i think. 

TailEnd: Some things are never meant to be..!! 😂 And to respect that universal philosophy, i haven't bought another set of airpod. 😁😁 Now a days, I just nick Abhi's headset. He could've dived into that bin chivalrously and brought back the lost goods.. !! 

The Search

 Thursday evening.. it was raining snow or rather snaining, I would say.. 

If it was not for the green GO train, it would look like scene from a black and white movie. I think you could see some random people walking in the same direction, towards the gate. Winter jackets, hands in pockets, they want to walk quickly, but then, don't want to fall down, hence making careful strides, they went ahead.. Now.. if you slow down a bit, and look for someone standing out, then you could see me. Do I need to make it explicit.. I'm telling the story, so I have to stand out, right.!!

So, she(me) walked towards the bus boarding point. She couldn't find the 902 bus and checked online to find out that next one is only after half an hour. Yeah, she just missed her bus. It's all because of you.. she did that slow-motion walk just because you were looking..!

Snaining is going into a higher pitch with the wind and it's difficult to stay in the open for another half an hour, so she decided to take shelter in the VRail waiting area. 

She kept her bag and phone down to adjust the neck wrap and free out the hair pricking through it. that's when she noticed the greenish notification on the phone., it says something about ear bud.. let's take a closer look.. (zoomin please..) It's a notification that the right ear bud is missing.. OMG.. she checked her right ear.. hell, yeah it's missing.. checked in the jacket, tried couple of jumps to see if it magically falls.. nope.. "Argh... this is not happening..I might be dreaming", she pinched herself.. it's not!!

It begins here, my dear folks.. The Search...!! As you watch, she quickly grabs her bag, started tracing back her footsteps. Not literally, as the falling snow is making sure to clear out all the tracks. How do you search a 1.5 inch, white earbud in snow..!! 

"Find the Device" app, shows the location of the bud a little further, that means it would probably be in the train. It might have fallen off her ear while she was sitting in the train and fell asleep over the side window. So, she finally decided to search in the train. This is where the actual question comes., in which compartment did she sit.?? Who knows, does anybody notice it, that too on the way back from office, hoping to reach home, change into something comfy, longing to be a couch potato. She too didn't.. She hopped into the 4th compartment. She sat in the middle layer, on the corner seat near to the steps. This made it easy, she only need to check those corner seats in the middle layer. One silver lining.. 

Finally..!! she reached the last compartment and still couldn't find it. The last announcement said that the train will start in 3 minutes. "Okie, I will check in 3 more compartments and it's done, I will have to offboard the train". 1 done, nothing. 2 done, nothing, 3 done nothing..

Wait!!!

Did you see something there? No? Crouch over and zoom in again! yes.. yeah.. there it is!!

We got it!!!

She took it.. rushed out of the train.. waved her hands happily at the train official who was making the final announcement for departure..

Search completed..! she got to the bus terminal just in time for the 902 bus.

This could have gone another way, where she might have decided not to look for it. She could have used the left one that is left with her now, for sometime. Then, may be buy a new one after the remorse is settled. But there would always be this question of  'What if?' and the feeling of incompleteness whenever she opens the bud box. 

P.S. - The 'What if?' popped out anyway. :D

A Sunday @ Greenwood Conservation Area

 Another lazy Sunday to be a couch potato!! 

But! There's a always a BUT.. The climate is crazily sunny for end of October and perfect for a ride. I had been thinking of going to Greenwood Conservation Area from last couple of days. But how does a lazy body with a crazy mind would go on a ride, to a place that is more than 20 KM away, just like that..? 

But! But, then, I had to find the laziest possible way out..! May be bus + bike would do! I took around 5 minutes to decide on the route and the buses. Breakfast and packing done in another 20 mins and yeah, all set for the Greenwood Conservation Area, Ajax. 

I had to take 2 buses. I got down from the second one(a 915) at Westney Southbound @ Taunton. From there, I had to ride through Westney Rd, without any sidewalks for about 1.3KM to reach the entry point.

Left-turn from Westney Rd

I already started getting the feel of a park. There were some houses on the right side and lot of trees on the other. Another ~500 meters to the parking lot and then I was at the official entry to the Park.

Map & other details

There were some 10-15 cars parked in the lot. Unless you are a camping guest, I don't think you can take cars inside the Park.  I went in, parked the bike to the side of the road and that is when I saw the sculpture carved out of a tree trunk.

The 'HOPE' by Dorsey James

From the name board, I came to know that it is an art piece by Dorsey James, installed in 2018. 'She' is the spirit Elpis(from the story of Pandora) and is entitled as 'HOPE'. 

Back at my home in India, we had some guests. I had a quick call to see all of them. There was our uncle, who himself is quite an artist and is into carving. He was delighted in seeing HOPE. I was so glad to know that it made his day.

After bidding farewell to HOPE and Uncle, I started riding again. It felt as if the place is extending the hands to hug me, so serene and picturesque, and sunny and breezy.

I stopped here and there for a couple of photos. But then, I'm no photographer, y'all!! So, I called up my husband, whose 'secret' passion is photography, to get some online photography lessons. But, again.. I have always been an average student whose presence(both physical & mental) was limited to the back benches of any class. He ended up giving me some tips and closed the call for 'good'.  The man asked for fee as well!! :D

[the model basking in the sunlight and swimming under the shadows at the same time..]

Alongside the road, I saw some hiking paths. Seems like the hikes were easy ones as I saw people going in with kids as well. 

[seems like the model is not tired of posing]

There was a small building at the end of the bike trail. One can book the place for some small events. The ride back to the bus stop was uneventful other than this small bit below:

No!! I didn't ride the whole way back! You might have forgotten about the 'being lazy' part. I took a bus from the nearest bus stop. And I got back home by 1PM, to join my friends for the weekend grocery shopping and bla bla blaaas..

A Solo Ride to Darlington Park

 Days are getting shorter, but working hours are getting longer. I don’t know how long I can convince myself saying that it is because the project is new!!

The much-awaited Friday night is here, and I see that I am still working.!! The usual questions came running across and my eyes got stuck at the bike at the corner of the room. There you are - my answer! I shut down the laptop and started searching in my phone for “fall colors near me” and ‘ended up’ in Darlington Provincial Park, which is about 10 KM from my home. This is it, decision made, good night!