Wendy's Brother Brad (and Denise) Moved to Belleville from Toronto

Friday morning we struck out for Brad and Denise's new house near Belleville, Ontario, 225 miles east of London. The drive was a little slow due to heavy Friday traffic and road construction through Toronto.

I did get a chance to pick up a 25 kg bag of psyllium seed husk in the east end of Toronto. The money I saved in freight paid for all my gas too.

The new house is beautiful and is situated on a very large lot, right on the same bay as Belleville. Toronto real estate prices have been "on fire" for the past years so they did well selling their house there.

The weather was hot (humidex 89F) so the living was mostly outdoors in a delightful breeze off the bay.

From left, Denise, Brad, Daphne, and Doug.

Wendy's youngest brother Doug (and Daphne) from Thorndale ON, arrived at exactly the same time as we did. How nice that we could all get together as we don't get to see Brad and Denise too often. Christmas was the last time we saw them at their former home in Richmond Hill near Toronto.

The back yard flows down to a man-made canal cut in from the bay.

Brad hopes to have the canal dredged out to allow his boats to dock in the back yard.

Saturday we headed out in Brad's big Ford Expedition diesel truck.

There are hundreds of square miles scenic land to explore in this amazingly beautiful area of southeastern Ontario.

An old drive-in theater survives the march of time. Coincidentally we too have an old operating drive-in in London and it is also called the Mustang.

The small town of Picton with its old buildings reflects the history of this very old part of "Upper Canada" Many buildings and barns in the area date back up to a couple hundred years ago.

A ferry takes cars from Glenora across towards and is part of the old Loyalist Highway to Kingston.

A grist mill, right at the ferry dock is over 100 years old. It now houses the Ministry of Natural Resources.

A view of the ferry from the cliffs overlooking the waterway.

Click on map to enlarge

 Wine tasting tours are a big part of the tourism of this area. Small ma and pop wineries dot the region. 

This lady at Devil's Wishbone Winery seemed genuinely happy to see us as she "floats" towards the barn. It's only 11:30 am so I hope she hasn't already been sampling her products.

The wineries we visited are in very old barns.

Our animated hostess eagerly shows us around, pointing out the features of this historic building.

Paul, the owner dispenses samples of the wine produced here on the farm.

I can't tell wine from Welsh-Aid but our connoisseurs seemed to enjoy it and they purchased a few bottles to take home.

Another refreshing stop was the cider mill, again located on an old farm near Waupoos.

The cider tasted good and was so refreshing on a hot summer day. We enjoyed it on the terrace in the ever-present breeze overlooking the water. http://www.countycider.com/

They must also make wine since there was a vinyard right beside our table.

Two children enjoy themselves while their parents sip on some of the many flavoured ciders being served here
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Sunday, after a fine breakfast, we embarked on a lovely sailboat owned by Brad's Toronto friend Howard. He brought it down to use here while he tries to sell it.

In the morning there was barely any wind but as the day progressed it increased so we enjoyed a wonderful day sailing. With a humidex of nearly 90F the water was "the place to be" and everybody had a great time.

Monday we headed back to London and made excellent time as the traffic was lighter and the roads were not as crowded. Less than 4 hours in Wendy's Hyundai Sonata put us back at 1:30 pm. Great trip!
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