Greetings from Brantford to Niagara Falls, Ontario

Botanical Gardens at Niagara Parkway

The Falls at Niagara (American and Canadian)

JR captures a butterfly

Well, we’ve passed the 5,000 mile reading on the odometer in Ontario. Woodside National Historic Site  at the tenth Prime Minister William Mackenzie King’s boyhood home in Kitchener provided a chance to have a wonderful private tour by the curator. Thank you Robert. It was an old Victorian style house with docents in period costumes. 

South to Brantford we stayed several days at Val and David Archer’s (our daughter-in-law Genifer’s aunt and uncle) home. 

Alexander Bell Boyhood Homestead in Brantford

Val and David have a lovely patio with bird feeders which attract a variety of birds we hadn’t seen yet. 

Woodside National Historic Site 

They took us to the Royal Church of the Mohawks the oldest chapel in North America and the Alexander Graham Bell Boyhood Homestead. Niagara Falls and Niagara-On-The-Lake was an easy day trip away from their place without the motor home. At Niagara Falls the Canadian Horseshoe Falls are much larger and breathtaking than the American Falls part. It was great fun stopping at the Butterfly Conservatory and Botanical Gardens along the Niagara Parkway. Trying to photograph butterflies on the wing was a real challenge. A horse carriage ride through the 100 acre gardens gave us an overview of assorted horticulture grounds. There is a valley of wine vineyards leading to a charming resort town called Niagara –On-The-Lake. It is a bit like Carmel by the Sea with all its quaint shops and restaurants.

Red Cardinal on Archer's patio

 We have bypassed Toronto in order to take in several recommendations for some grand sites along the St. Lawrence Waterway and Ottawa the capitol city ahead.