Sept 11-13, Midland, ON

We had a beautiful fall day with plenty of sunshine and a cool temperatures of about 60 degrees as we start out on the water. We cruised back into the Georgian Bay and moved about eight miles to Midland, Ontario, and enjoyed seeing the largest mural in North America (80 feet high by 250 feet wide) painted on several connected silo's which dominate the harbor as we enter. Midland is known for the more than 30 murals painted on buildings all over town.

80 feet high by 250 feet wide

We are tied up at Midland Harbor adjacent to the downtown. Power and internet access are available, our first in about a week, although the internet is not strong enough to load pictures for the blog. The Pictures will have to wait. There is a cruise boat which takes tourists on a three hour cruise to see a portion of the 30,000 islands of the Georgian Bay. That is where we are heading next. The Georgian Bay is considered one of the spectacular boating areas in Canada. Looking forward to seeing the sights for ourselves. Several marinas in Midland have hundreds of boats in each marina. Midland must be a popular jumping off point for the Georgian Bay.

Midland City Hall

Ken and Owen take a break from shopping

Mural artist at work with Linda, Ken and Jodie looking on.

We walk the town in the afternoon and find quite a variety of stores including a large grocery, drugstores and bakery. Probably the most interseting part of our tour of Midland is the large number of murals painted on the walls of buildings downtown. We even see artists at work painting murals while we are there. The artists doing the painting are not bothered by our chatter as they go about their work, in fact they seem glad for the attention. These are historic murals and some are based on Indians and settlers and others on some other part of the history of this area. Temperature stayed in the 60's to low 70's all day with hardly a cloud in the in the sky. Pretty day.

Overnight a front moved through the area and it rained all night. KOKOMO II is dry and cozy. Friday we found the temperature a little cooler in the morning and the sky was overcast and threatening more rain all day. We got the generator fixed in the morning. It turned out to be a loose fanbelt. We are hopeful that this will fix the problem.

Ken and Jodie and Linda look over a Ste. Marie among the Huron's 1600's style vegetable garden.

Guide demonstrates a carpenters machine from the 1600's.

We spent the afternoon at "Sainte-Marie among the Hurons" which was founded by French Jesuits as a mission settlement in 1639 in the land of the Wendat or Huron people. The mission of the Jesuits was to teach Chrisianity to the world. The mission was a large fortified settlement and by 1648 was home to one-fifth of all the French in the new world (about 30 out of 150) and many Wendat, some converted and some not. The following year european diseases claimed many natives and conflicts arose among the Wendat as to whether the French should be asked to leave. The Iroquois, who were traditional enemy of the Wendat, took advantage of the Wendat weakness and repeatedly attacked the Wendat villages. Many Wendat were killed along with two Jesuit priests (now martyrs). The mission was abandoned and burned in 1649 and the Jesuits and a handful of converted Wendat retreated to Quebec. The remaining Wendat fled or were disbursed with some relocating as far away as modern Kansas where they are known as the Wyandot Indians. This is a reconstructed site and there were costumed guides explaining details of the settlement and some really impressive native "long houses".

Today is a day for shorts. Fall weather is changable. Low overnight was 65 and high today to be near 80. Hope we can put the blue jeans away for a while. The Wye Marsh Wildlife Center is known for it live Swans, so we went to take a look. Nice walk in the woods to get to the swan exhibit. Only one pair in evidence today and they were not very active. However, they were having a fair today with a woodcarvers competition and exhibit featuring some great carved birds. Such detail and color. The highlight for us was a live show "birds of prey soaring show" featureing several types of owls and a Turkey Vulture flying away from their handler and returning in the attack mode to be fed. Have only seen this on TV.

Jodie checks her wingspan against that of a swan.

Turkey Vulture spreads it wings.

Hooded Owl with trainer

Barn Owls are pretty good hunters

Turkey Vulture can be trained.

Took Jodie and Ken to the Toronto airport this afternoon. Sure has been great to have them with us. Jodie has done a lot of boating in Southern California and Ken is a professional Great Lakes boat captain. There were lots of boating and cruising stories told this week on the bridge as we motored along. Ken was great at the helm. Jodie thought the Big Chute Marine Railway was really unique. Great fun! Weather is overcast and getting warmer.