PELEE HOLIDAY: DAY 2

More on our get-away last week.

WED 12 OCT 2011 11:47am   In a word – rain. All night and so far all day.  We're just kicking back and reading all the fine magazines left here. I used to subscribe to The Walrus and may again, lot's of good reading there. It was a comfortable sleep and I feel rested. J is still dragging a bit, but after a shower we'll head out to the museum, a rainy day seems like a good time to do that.

10:20pm  We went to the museum and it was wonderful. A real old-fashioned museum. A little bit of everything from Indian artifacts, many and varied, to stories of the rum runners to the history of the vineyards. And a whole bunch in between. I was in heaven. And the curator, Ron Tiessen, literally wrote the book on island culture and history. A brilliant guy who loves to tell all about the island. It was a treat to talk to him. And we bought the book he wrote. There was also a great exhibit of kites.

Pelee Island Heritage Centre

Go Fly a Kite

Winery history

Heavily armed ship

Then we continued on down the road and made a stop at the Pelee Island Winery. It was closed for the season to tourists but there was much to look at outside, including vines representing each of their varieties with a sign describing each one. And roses everywhere, dying down a bit but this is October for heaven's sake. Maybe that's normal for roses; I don't know.

Pelee Island Winery

Examples of each kind of grape they use.

One kind of wine.

Autumn rose

Then on to Fish Lake Conservation Area, where the most amazing thing happened. We walked the trail, which was excellent in itself. But, on the path I spotted the leaves moving and it was a frog. Being very patient, it allowed me to take many shots at all different angles until I got a good one. Then we read a sign that said this particular frog, the Blanchard's Cricket Frog was all but eradicated. So we spent time with an almost extinct creature. That really makes you think. How lucky can you be? How sad is his story? [More on this later. But, we enjoy the feeling for now.]

Cool fungi

Ground stars

Where the trail ends. The black streak are Cormorants, hundreds of them.

Earlier I went to pay Zane and found he only took cheques or cash, of which we had neither. So, we went to the west dock and tried the bar. The ATM was unplugged and the waitress said she could only give me what was in the till which was about $40, but if I came later this evening after they had some business they could probably give me the $200 we needed. Then we tried the LCBO and she was able to help us. We bought a couple of bottles of wine (Pelee Island, of course) and then went to the museum.

Back at the cottage.

After the walk in the woods, where I got some good fungi pics, besides finding a rare frog [We thought...], we came home and had great meal of sausage and stirred vegetables, helped down by the wine.

Then after a lay down we went to the bar to see what was happening. There were a couple of guys smoking the good stuff outside and about 12 or so patrons around the bar watching the baseball game. It was a large area with one pool table and a karaoke set-up. It would be a good place for an open mike, but it wasn't happening tonight. I had one beer and we left. 

We really do like it here. The thought of leaving the outside world to it's own devices is appealing.  There's something about a finite world. You can drive all day and end up at the same place. 

It's all a dream right now, but I do feel at home here, like nowhere else. I could move here tomorrow. I like how there's very little traffic and everyone drives slowly. What reason is there for going fast?

Off the side of the side road.

There are things that probably aren't pleasant like the month of pheasant shooting and the ATV week. But, maybe we could be off-island for those glorious events. But, boy, is it nice here. It's like discovering the world that resides in my head. It really exists!