On our way back from the Scenic Caves, we stopped in Wasaga Beach. Well stopped... it was not that easy. We had the Tom-tom to navigate us, and it did. We drove and drove and drove until we heard You have reached your destination. The only problem was that we weren't anywhere near a beach; there was just nothing around the road. John found a different Wasaga Beach in the Tom-tom database and this time we got a little closer. Not very close though, because if we followed the exact instructions, we would have ended in the lake. Many times we heard Tom-tom say something like drive straight immediately followed by John's reply no, I can't drive straight, I would have ended in the water.
Several times the Tom-tom mentioned a bear left when there were no bears, or any other animals, anywhere close to the vehicle. This started a discussion about bear sightings in Canada, especially about confirmed and unconfirmed sightings. An unconfirmed sighting sounded weird, because we were imagining that perhaps a lady called the police saying Hey, I saw a bear, oh maybe it was a mouse, but it was probably a bear, can you please send someone to confirm? We were laughing a little (yes, very little), then John explained to us that an unconfirmed sighting really means that they didn't catch the bear.
The closer to the beach we were getting, the funnier the Tom-tom's instructions were. We were instructed to turn left, turn right. Luckily the beach was already in sight, so it was easy to get there even without the navigation. And then we were instructed to turn left and turn right. This was too much for Nicole and Dar, so they started to laugh hysterically. This went on for good 15 minutes. Every time it looked like they would finally stop, it started again. And again. And again. John was able to take a video with his cell-phone, so you can see - and hear - yourself. To have the highest degree or realism when watching, you need to loop the video and let it run for 15 minutes!
On our way, we often saw a Canadian flag on the houses along the road. The flags are common especially in tourist resorts; their owners use them to show that they're not American!
Wasaga beach is a popular tourist destination on the shore of the Georgian bay of Lake Huron. During summer months, especially weekends, the beach is packed with people - but we were there on a Tuesday evening, there weren't many people. We only took a short walk on the beach and in the town. We still had almost two hours of driving ahead, so we didn't want to stay for long. Thus, we only have a few pictures of the beach.
On the way back from Wasaga beach to Toronto we stopped in Barrie to have dinner. We went to the Moose Winooski's restaurant. It's a themed restaurant, so you will find things like moose horns on the walls. The food was great too. The only problem was when Nicole went to the toilette. Because it's a themed restaurant, the signs don't say just toilette or something similar; this sign said Outhouse. But it wasn't clear to Nicole, so she had to ask the waitress about it. This was the first embarrassing moment of the evening for her, but certainly not the last one. When Nicole passed the first door, another surprise was waiting for her. Two more doors, one labeled as Buck and the other one as Doe. Nothing as simple as Ladies or Gentlemen. So the poor Nicole had to go back and ask the waitress again. Having learned which door to take, Nicole was embarrassed for the third time by a small child, who went through the correct door without having to ask the waitresses.
But it all worked well in the end and we've all had fun.
After the dinner, John and Dar drove Michal, Nicole, and Torsten to their hotels and then continued back to Oshawa. We called it a day, we wanted to be ready for the trip to Niagara Falls.
Copyright notice: Text, images, and videos copyright by Michal Řeháček, Nicole, Torsten, John Philip, Darlene Sine.