Day 8: Saturday, September 19

A Day Trip to Meaford

We got up at about 8:30. The day is not as sunny as some of the days past.

At about 9:30 we drove out to Highway 26 (where all the restaurants are) and went to A&W. We got our breakfast there and returned to the hotel with it (no full breakfast at the hotel, just a very light “grab & go” available). Finishing our A&W breakfast in our room at the hotel, we got ready to head out for the day. We decided to have an easy day today as we’d been walking a lot lately and getting very tired as a result.

At about 11:00 we piled into the School Bus (aka The Durango), set the GPS and off we went, bound for the small town of Meaford which we’d heard so much about. Meaford is very close to Owen Sound, taking only took about 20-25 minutes to reach.

Upon arrival in Meaford we parked the vehicle and began strolling around the town. We started at their beautiful harbour and walked across the bay, taking in everything along the shore. So nice here!:

After about 45 minutes on the harbour we went up to Highway 26 (which is Meaford’s main street) but called Sykes Street, and walked along looking at the shops. We came upon Meaford’s Tourist Information Booth which was in the shape of a big apple, no less (a nod to the local agriculture). A very friendly and helpful young woman gave us a lot of Meaford information plus brochures for various places of interest in and around the town.

For lunch our guide recommended a couple of places, so we wandered off down main street in search of some mid-day sustenance. We decided to try one of the restaurants she’d highly recommended called The Leeky Canoe on Sykes Street. We sat out on the Leeky Canoe patio and, despite the hordes of wasps competing for our food, had a very good lunch. We both ordered the Mandori Grilled Chicken Wrap (recommended by our friendly rep at the Tourist Information place). It took a long, long time to come but was well worth it – fantastic!:

Leaving the Leeky Canoe at about 3:00 after a very leisurely lunch, we strolled further up Sykes Street to where else – Dairy Queen – so that I could get my daily ice cream fix. This time I settled on a medium Strawberry Sundae and enjoyed every last slurp:

Leaving the DQ behind (oh noooooo!) we walked to the other end of Sykes Street past the Bighead River, taking in the buildings and scenery:

Coming back we stopped in an amazing bric-a-brac shop called This n’ That – what cool stuff they had! We looked around and I said hello to a very friendly, huge Sheepdog-like canine in the shop (all small Ontario townspeople seem to really love their dogs).

It was getting on to about 4:00, so we made our way back to our parked vehicle. Dog lovers that we are, we wanted to see the Beautiful Joe Park while here but we’d run out of time – next time we come to Meaford we’ll do this (for there’s always a next time, and we will be back). We started the car and headed out of Meaford.

Irish Mountain Lookout

Our friendly guide from the Tourist Information booth had suggested checking out the view from a location called Irish Mountain Lookout, so we set the GPS for this destination and proceeded. We found the lookout, parked the car and went to the cliff to look over – it was indeed a wonderful view of Meaford and the entire county. We took lots of pictures, of course. There were only a few other people here and it was extremely quiet and peaceful:

After getting our fill of the view, we continued on the highway back to Owen Sound and our hotel, but not until we got a selfie in the Big Chair!:

We reached our hotel at about 5:00 so we just rested in the room for a while, then at 6:00 set off in the vehicle again for our dinner – this time we went to Montana’s out on Highway 26. Awesome food! I had the small-size wing and ribs combo in honey garlic sauce, with beans, coleslaw and corn bread, and Vince had the Smoky Bacon Mac & Cheese with Chorizo. It had been many, many years since we’d eaten at a Montana’s (I’m thinking back to the late 90s/early 2000’s here) and we were long overdue. We were not disappointed; it was delicious.

After stuffing our faces, we got back into the Durango and returned to the hotel. It was about 7:30 by the time we reached our room. We just took it easy for the rest of the evening, and had yet another early night.

This was our last night in Owen Sound… tomorrow we hit the road for Tobermory!!