BY Clay Larroy
The preparation for a vacation is almost as
exhilarating as the vacation itself. I love printing out the tickets and
confirmations while thinking about how much fun I will have on vacation. I
think that some of the best destinations in the world are located in the Canada.
So I am continuing my tour across Canada. When
you want to plan a vacation contact me!
Things
to see and do in Ontario
Algonquin Park
Nature lovers are drawn to
the protected wilderness of Algonquin Park, Ontario's oldest provincial park;
7,600 sq km (2,934 sq miles) of forest and lakeland provide the perfect
environment for outdoor recreation. For campers and day visitors, Highway 60 is
the center of the park, offering campgrounds, walking trails, conducted hikes
and access to public wolf-howling sessions. In winter, cross country skiing
trails are popular. Visitors can also soak up the history of the park in the
Logging Museum, or in the Algonquin Gallery, which focuses on the Canadian
artist Tom Thomson's (1877-1917) famous group of painters, the Group of Seven.
Butterfly migration
Beautiful and unique (to
Ontario) monarch butterflies stop off at Point Pelee on Lake Erie in September
during their annual migration to the mountains of central Mexico. These colorful
insects cover the trees, providing an amazing spectacle.
CN
Tower
Thrill seekers can hurtle
up to the top of the CN Tower in Toronto (www.cntower.ca):
Canada's national tower was until recently the world's tallest freestanding
structure. From the public observation deck in its Sky Pod, 447m (1,465ft)
above the ground, you can see Niagara Falls on a clear day.
Canoeing
Ontario is particularly
well known for canoeing, and has more canoe routes than any other region in the
world - more than 5,400km (3,355 miles) of routes in northwestern Ontario
alone. Good locations include Killarney and Algonquin Provincial Parks in
southern Ontario, the latter being within three hours' drive of Toronto.
Hiking
From hiking trails on the
Bruce Peninsula, the views are spectacular.
Maple Syrup Festival
The Sandy Flat Sugar Bush
and Pancake House in Warkworth hosts the annual Maple Syrup Festival in March.
Amongst the many demonstrations, races and contests is also the chance to
sample lots of this sweet and sticky fluid liberally poured onto anything from
pancakes to sausages. The maple trees and their sap are unique to eastern North
America and Ontario is very proud of its culinary links to the syrup.
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of
Canada was founded in 1880 by the Governor General, the Marquess of Lorne and
since then has grown to become an internationally-renowned art museum. The
permanent collections reflect Canada's diverse history, and includes works by
European masters such as Monet, Turner and Di Cosimo, as well as avant-garde Canadian
paintings from the 1960s and religious sculptures from Québec. The museum also
contains a large collection of Inuit art, including prints, drawings and whale
bone sculptures, many of which portray the cultural and social issues that have
affected Canada's indigenous population since WWII.
Native pictographs
Lake Superior Provincial
Park has many beautiful ravines, lakes and waterfalls. In particular, its Agawa
Rock Pictographs are highly famed. These are one of the largest collections of
Indian rock art in Ontario. The pictographs remain one of Superior's most
sacred spots.
Niagara Falls
A must-see; Niagara Falls
are a legacy of the Ice Age, gushing out half a million gallons of water every
second. The falls are made up of two separate parts, Horseshoe Falls on the
Canadian side and American Falls on the USA side. Although not the highest
waterfall in the world they move a staggering 168,000 cubic metres (219,600
cubic yards) of water per minute over a drop of 51m (167ft), making them one of
the natural wonders of the world. The city of Niagara Falls itself is stuffed
with wax museums and theme restaurants, but just to the north lies the
storybook village of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Southwest of the falls, the north
shore of Lake Erie is dotted with small resorts and good beaches; Port Stanley
is particularly popular.
Ottawa
In Canada's capital city,
you can admire the imposing gothic-style Parliament Buildings, Peace Tower,
Confederation Square (site of the National War Memorial), and the Rideau Canal,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Among the city's many museums and galleries are
the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the
Canadian Museum of Nature, the Canadian War Museum and the Museum of
Civilization.
Skiing and sailing
Midland commands a
spectacular view of the Muskoka-Georgian Bay lake district and is a popular
resort, mainly because of the various minor ski resorts located around Georgian
Bay.
Summer theatre
The Stratford Shakespeare
Festival focuses mainly (but not exclusively) on the Bard's plays, while the
Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake highlights the works of George Bernard
Shaw and his contemporaries, and the Blyth Festival presents Canadian plays.
Toronto
Canada's
largest city is also the provincial capital. The CN Tower has glass-fronted
elevators rising to indoor observation decks that afford a 160km (100-mile)
panoramic view on a clear day. Yorkville, the hip part of town in the 1960s,
now caters to the tastes of the city's upwardly mobile, but is a good spot to
go window shopping or enjoy a cup of coffee. Queen Street West attracts a
younger, more style-conscious crowd. In the eastern suburbs, the spectacular
Ontario Science Centre and the Toronto Zoo are both worth seeing.
REFERENCE SITES:
http://www.travelresearchonline.com/
Growing up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, I took classes as a young girl and became very serious about ballet, and also performed with a local company, although it wasn't a professional company.
Cathy Marie Buchanan
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