Upper Canada Village!

Every time we visit the lovely Upper Canada Village, we think this may be our last time. And, every time there are changes to the village as staff maintain and improve the experience for visitors. The village has an extensive summer camp program. This morning, some of the young campers were assigned to do some fishing near the mills. What fun!

We noticed that the gardens weren't in as fine form as they had been in recent visits. When one of us asked, we learned that the gardener had passed away. Later in our trip, we learned from the chair-maker that when staff have babies, they are given a hand made cradle and when staff pass away, an animal is named after them. Today, we saw a frolicky young calf named Phil. Named after Phil, the gardener.

My favourite thing to do in the village is to take a ride on the horse drawn barge through their hand-dug canal. So peaceful!

Our navigator used his legs to push the barge from the wall and then, at the right moment pulled on the rope to turn it around. Amazing timing!

And, we were off!

It really felt like I was living in a time 160 years ago.

Trees were bigger then.

We zigzagged our way through the village, finding places to...

... rest every so often. Looking around, I noticed I was one of the older folks visiting today.

School kids were walking back to class after their lunch break and....

... sheep were still eating.

Horse-drawn wagons circled and circled the village and...

... these little guys were taking a break from circling their little barn. They look like they have something mischievious in mind.

Or maybe they just heard that their lunch had been served.

Who knows?

Upper Canada Village gets better with each passing year. And, spending the day with friends we have holidayed with for 20? years was the icing on the cake of the day. Lucky us.