This year’s first trip to Canada was different to previous trips as we seemed to have a whole variety of weather.. From bright hot sunny days of temperatures in the mid twenties right the way to snowflakes falling and settling over night, it all seemed to happen this last trip! It was on one of the more wet days that we happened to be passing here.. In fact it had been raining solid for over a day, but that didn’t make any difference to our experience of this fantastic store.

If you are driving north, passing Muskoka Wildlife Centre on your right, you’ll begin seeing signs on your right telling you how much further it is to the Muskoka Store, and with its large signs beside the road and its distinctive black and white log cabin style building you’ll find it difficult to miss, just remember to be in the right lane on the highway and start slowing down as soon as you see it as you pull straight off the highway into their large car park!

When you walk into the first part of the store, it had, on the day we went in, the feel of a garden centre, the feeling that sure, it’s a Store but you get the idea there’s much more there than it first appears.. And that’s exactly what you find out, turning left and walking down the corridor you step through a door and find yourself immersed in the cozy comfy environment of a cottage, a cottage that’s seen everything and been there for years – and so accumulated many mementos of its past.. the only difference is, almost all of it is for sale.

The store has been designed well, selling just about anything you’d ever want, especially if you happen to have a cottage in Muskoka! If you haven’t, that’s fine too – the store has a massive selection of gifts – so if you were stuck wondering what you may buy friends and family as mementos from Canada, or maybe you want to treat yourself, your almost sure of finding something you’ll want in this store! .. I certainly did!

The store its self is split into a number of different, almost themed rooms, for example you have the cottage-ware of furniture and ornaments as well as a room for books, and even a sea-shells themed room where you can buy all sorts of shell-based gifts

The Muskoka store however is a General store, and as the name suggests, it sells many different types of goods – in addition to the gifts, furniture, ornaments, books and shells, they also sell clothes – even down to specialist camping equipment. You’ll also find preserves and confectionery – so if you’ve got a sweet tooth you wont be left out here either!

Chosen as Canada’s most innovative retailer of the year by the Retail Council of Canada for good reason, Walter Page’s Muskoka Store combines high-quality merchandise with friendly service. Along with the store though, if you’re hungry why not check out Page’s Grill!
Add some fun to your. meal – eat in a boat! Page’s Grill boasts a seating area with comfortable log chairs inside a 34′ wooden lobster boat, which was given to the restaurant by a local cottager and boating enthusiast.
The Grill is a convenient spot for a casual meal, or lunch with the kids, serving top-quality fast food and with TVs throughout the restaurant to entertain you while you eat. Burgers are made of ground 100% sirloin, grilled over charcoal, and served with Strubb’s pickles, Heinz ketchup, Kraft cheddar cheese – and, of course, crispy, golden french fries. Grilled boneless, skinless chicken breasts are available as a healthy alternative. Shakes and cones are made with real Nestle ice-cream.. when you’re done eating, why not then head outside into the sunshine and have a game of mini-putt golf – which the Muskoka Store provides for free!

Overall Walter Page’s Muskoka Store is definitely a place you wont want to miss.

For more information on opening hours as well as what the store stocks, check out Walter Page’s Muskoka Store’s website: http://www.muskokastore.com/

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I brought you the summer fun of horseshoe valley resort, in the shining light of the 2010 winter games I’ll give you a taste of the Canadian winter in this part 2 resort review.

(Horshoe Valley resort from the top of the hills)

As with the my personal experience with this resort over the past 4 years, everytime I go there I always find something new, something fun, something exciting, and most importantly, something relaxing after a long day.

This year was diffrent, much diffrent, every morning when we hit the slopes the pride of Canada came out in the form of apparel, Canadian gloves, hats, jackets, everything!

This was all brought forth by something that sat in my mind the entire time there which was the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, openly celebrated by Horseshow Valley Resort in it’s winter activities and openly displayed in the restraunts.

There was not a place I could turn and not see a Canadian flag, showing the true pride even in the middle of the hills of Ontario of this great country.

The start of my adventure was of course, skiing! This year dragging along 15 pounds of camera gear to the slopes to give you, our readers the best possible example of this resort, or well the next best thing to being there!

My first ride up ski lift 3 brought my attention to the half pipe, a source for thrill, skill and snowy crashes, the first thing I always notice when going around what is usualy listed as black siamond hills (Highest Skill Rating for the hill) is just how young some of the people are that go down these. Ranging from the age of 5 up to mid 50′s, every seemed to be able to enjoy themselves on even the hardest hills.

(One of the many skilled skiiers catching air on the half pipe)

Making my way down the hill I met up with the tail end of the adventure park, a hill filled with ramps, stairs, railings and other thrills for the most advanced adventure seekers. As I was not able to go down this hill myself I stayed at the trail end with my trusty zoom lense to give you a few good action shots.

(A snowboarder riding one of the railings at the Asventure Park hill)

(Another snowboarder catching air off one of the ramps, my favorite photo from this trip)

As with the many thrill seeking hills, there are alot of hill dedicated to family skiing, hills that you can stick together as you go down, or go on your own and enjoy the amazing scenery around the resort.

(Amazing scenery seen from the top of the hill “Donkey Serenade”)

New to skiing or snow boarding? No need to worry, the resort offers many schooling sessions for all ages and all diffrent skill sets.

(One of the many schools getting ready to go down the hills)

The resort offers so much more besides snowboarding and skiing you can also hit THunder Valley for snowtubing fun, rent a snow mobile and tread snow on the many back trails, go for a horse drawn carrage ride, hike the many wooded areas, enjoy a hot chocolate by the wood burning fire in the lobby, or just enjoy a relaxing time with your family beside the pool or in the spa.

As with alot of my articles, I am going to leave you with a gallery of my adventures in photos!

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Although it was a pretty cloudy day, it was pretty neat to see such a huge structure moving, and it was a lot quicker than i thought it would have been too! check out the short video:

While we were there we actually hit it at a busy time, getting to see it in operation twice, one ferrying a single boat up and the second ferrying three. Since I’ve got so many photos here’s a selection of them

Remember to check out the full article about Kirkfield Lift Lock here – well worth a visit if you’re passing by!

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Muskoka Heritage Place is a trip back in time to an authentic pioneer village – all fully furnished genuine muskoka buildings including General Store, Church, Inn, Barn, Blacksmith Shop, dwellings and a trapper’s cabin. You will also find a First Nations’ Museum Exhibit & Encampment, the Muskoka Museum, Costumed Narrators, Farm Animals and Gardens and hands on demonstrations! If you’ve been to Beamish Open air museum in the UK, this place is a smaller version of that style of attraction, all based around a time gone by in Muskoka, Ontario.

As you can see from the image above, the Heritage Place has its own steam engine, which runs rides through the season. They have brought an historic narrow-guage steam train back to life. The Portage Flyer has a long history in the Muskoka Area, running from 1901 until 1959. The engine and cars have been restored to their original splendour. They have also re-created a 1920 train station. It’s important to note however if you’re heading out this year, the train is undergoing some renovation this year but will be up and running by December 19th for a special event called “Portage Flyer Christmas” Their one and only pre-2010 train event which is a train ride to Santa! This event happens on Saturday 19th December 2009 between 5pm and 8pm. The Heritage Place run a number of events throughout each season so remember to check out their events website by clicking here

If you like steam trains though, the train isn’t the only attraction that may interest you as there is also a steam museum!

Muskoka Heritage Place is located just two hours north of Toronto, in the town of Huntsville, within easy walking distance from the main street.

The current admission prices for this season are:

Museum:
Adult: $2
Child: $1*

Village:
Adult: $10
Child: $7*

* One child under 3 is admitted free with each paid adult.

The Muskoka Heritage Place is part of the Muskoka Attractions scheme, if you have proof of purchase from any of the other participating attractions you will be able to get into the Muskoka Museum free.

The Museum is open 10am to 4pm Daily between May 16th to October 10th 2009 – but remember there are two events after this date – the Great Pumpkin Trail Hallowe’en Night on 31st October and the Portage Flyer Christmas, so if you will be around then it’s worth contacting them for information on how to take part!

You can find the Muskoka Heritage Place by putting the following address into your Sat Nav:
88 Brunel Road
Huntsville, ON P1H 1R1, Canada

or ring on
+1 705-789-7576

Alternatively you can always use trusty Google Maps

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This place is definitely a must see for anyone who really wants to get a sense of the true pioneering days of Canada while you’re out on your trip! Remember to check out their website at www.muskokaheritageplace.org for a list of all the events, and more information about what’s there!

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So here’s what it’s about:

Muskoka is a region in Ontario north of Lake Simcoe, so like many regions there’s always lots to do. The clever thing Muskoka region have done is team together their attractions to help customers experiance more in Muskoka, rather than simply seeing one of the attractions. I’m going to briefly mention the attractions in Muskoka which are participating in the scheme – I’ll have articles in the future about a number of them, so keep your eyes open for this, especially if you’re planning on a Muskoka road trip!

The way the scheme works, is you go to one of the attractions and get proof of purchase for your visit. You can then go to any of the listed participating attractions – provide them with this proof of purchase and you will get a discount or receive the offer they state on this flyer!

The participating places to visit in Muskoka are:

Santa’s Village
Lady Muskoka Cruises
Muskoka Wildlife Centre (Highly reccomended!)
Muskoka Heritage Place
Back Country Paintball
Muskoka Lake Museum
Rich Hill Candles / Gifts
Bala’s Museum
The Real Muskoka Experiance
Bethune Memorial House
Muskoka Rails Museum
Eaglecrest Aerial Park

To check out exactly what discounts or offers these great attractions are offering in this scheme take a look at Muskoka Attractions’ Website: http://www.muskokaattractions.com – this gives you a breakdown of each attraction and lets you know exactly what each attraction is offering. A couple of examples are:

Muskoka Heritage Place: [With proof of purchase from another 2009 participating attraction] Visit the Muskoka Museum at Muskoka Heritage Place free of charge.

The Real Muskoka Experiance: [With proof of purchase from another 2009 participating attraction] Recieve 50% off admission to the Muskoka Boat and Heritage Centre.

Black Country Paintball: [With proof of purchase from another 2009 participating attraction] Recieve free admission for up to 3 players including marker rental, hopper and goggles. (customers would purchase paintballs)

So, if you’re heading to the Muskoka area, get your proof of purchases and make the most of this great scheme!

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(The main entrance to the Resort Hotel, Photo ©2009)

This resort is proof that Canada is a diffrent country every time the seasons change, in this article, I’ll give you a taste of the summer fun at this mountain top resort.

Lets start with the area, Horseshoe Valley Resort is located just outside of Barrie in amazing mountainous terrain providing an amazing view from all sides of the resort. If you’re up for a hike, these mountains are for you!

(The Ski hills durring the summer, now only used for curious guests climbing to the top, and a putting practise area, Photo ©2009)

Just driving to the resort you’ll notice one major thing, the trees, there’s trillions of them, which means lots of local animals, although most animals avoid the resorts so they are likely to be seen unless you wonder into the woods.

Horshoe Valley Resort is host to a top of the line golf course providing an amazing challenge with the hilly terrian. If you’re there for adventure the resort has many out door summer activities including: Tree top treks (rope bridges among the tree tops) ATV and segway all terrian trails and all of this wouldn’t be complete without zip lines! If you’re there to relax, the resort has a spa and hair salon, indoor and outdoor pools.

(The indoor pool at Horseshoe Valley Resort, Photo ©2009)

 Adventure and relaxation will lead to everyone’s all time favorite thing to do, eat! Horseshoe Valley resort is home to 3 restraunts, although only 2 are opened durring the summer seasons. The first restraunt, and my personal favorite, The CrazyHorse Saloon, this family centered restraunt is home to all of your favorite Canadian classics, including Pizza, hamburgers and so much more! The next food stop on my lis of good eats is the FireSide Cafe, a more fancy dining experience, perfect for the romantic night out or an amazing sunset dinner, the FireSide Cafe is also host to the breakfast buffet on weekdays and the Brunch on Sundays.

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So if you want an out of the way family adventure, horseshoe valley resort is the place to be for summer fun! Stay tuned for part 2 of the Horseshoe valley resort where I’ll bring you on the winter side of this home away from home.

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Upper Canada Mall Entrance

If you like shopping, this place pretty much has it all, and is the biggest mall in the area – catching people from all the way up from Orillia and the whole Lake Simcoe Region. The mall is located right in the middle of Newmarket and easy to get to no matter which direction you come from. Now I’ve been to Fairview Mall, which is another mall in Toronto, and I’m sure this place is bigger than it – and the variety of stores will pretty much suit any need you’d have.

Walking around the mall, it reminds me a lot of my own home city mall / shopping centre Meadowhall, with both these malls being on two floors, with large open areas through the upper floor so you can view the concourse below.. But me being me… food is one of the reasons i love this Mall.. This mall, like many Canadian malls has a huge variety of different foods available for you to try

The variety of different foods include typical American burgers and hot dogs, Canadian sandwich deli, doughnuts and coffee shop Tim Horton’s, Subway for any other sandwich needs, Mexican, Fried Chicken, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Italian, Greek, and Mediterranean all in one tidy, and recently revamped food court!

Upper Canada Mall's Food Court

Of coarse, if you’re just thirsty — there’s plenty of places to get a drink – I’d straight up recommend Tim Horton’s.. I’ll be featuring this chain of great coffee shops in its own article later this week, but if you want the best hot chocolate you can buy for incredibly low prices – this is the place you want to go .. Not only would i recommend their hot chocolate.. but they also do a French Vanilla Coffee… this is another one you want to try while out there, providing you like your coffee sweet of coarse! But if you’re looking for other places, there’s always Starbucks or another specialist coffee shop – Timothy’s Coffees of the World. You’ll also find a great Juice shop which specialises in all sorts of exotic combinations of fresh fruit juices.

And since I’m a foody – - I’ll also mention that you can also find in this mall, a frozen yoghurt store – Yogen Fruz, a store dedicated to Muffins – Mmmarvelous Mmmuffins, a sushi bar – Mac Sushi, a french pastry store – Crepe de Licious, a popcorn stall, doughnut holes store and of coarse a pretzel store.. Oh .. and yes – for you chocolate lovers out there, there’s certainly a classy chocolate shop there too!

With all those food outlets, its difficult to imagine the mall actually has space for all the normal things a mall would sell, but this place is definitely big enough to carry this out successfully. The mall boasts a huge selection of Women’s Clothing stores, as well as catering for Men. It also has a number of large department stores, health and beauty stores, hair salons and spas, Electronics and mobile phone stores, and yes – this Mall does have an HMV!

If you have small children the mall also has a Soft Foam Play Park, located in the Toys R Us wing – this park also has free Wi-Fi available so while your kids play you can get on your blackberry, netbook or laptop and check on your emails.. or maybe even the latest article here on Canada Trip.. sorry i had to! Another thing you’ll find at the entrances is that there are no shortages of single and double seated “strollers” themed as various emergency vehicles.. no this isn’t so that you can relive your childhood – it’s for your kids to be pushed around the mall, keeping them safe and happy while you browse the store windows. They’re available for $3 with $0.25 going to charity.

Mall hours are:

Monday to Friday – 9:30am to 9pm
Saturday – 9am to 6pm
Sunday – 11am to 5pm

You can find the mall on your GPS by using the following address:
17600 Yonge Street, Newmarket, ON, L3Y 4ZI

Telephone them on 905-895-1961

Go to their website: www.uppercanadamall.com

or you can use our trusty google map below

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So! Do check this place out, its definitely worth going here before going all the way down to Toronto – if you’re staying in the Lake Simcoe Area.. especially if you want a different style of food every day of the week!!

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Algonquin Provincial Park

Now, we’ve been busy, we always are – and now we find ourselves specifically hunting out and descovering places to tell you about, and we sure have done that! – places we’ve been so far this week include Bancroft, Algonquin park (and wow did we underestimate what was on offer there!), Muskoka Wildlife Centre, Kirkfield Lift Lock, New market, Orillia and of coarse the beach near Bolsover, Lake Simcoe.

Baptist Lake Near Bancroft

We headed to Muskoka wildlife centre yesterday to call in on Juniper, and found that not only is she very happy, she’ll be introduced into the other raccoons and the foxes soon. Not to mention that they now have a new Albino Raccoon, another Red fox and a Fisher (which is a member of the weasel family) – and they were all out so we got plenty of photos of them!

Muskoka Wildlife Centre

And while we were at Kirkfield lift lock today we were lucky enough to see a number of very large boats going up and down the huge structure – so we got plenty of photos of that as well! Yesterday we were doing some star gazing, using the telescope we have over here – - a telescope i wished i had back home, since it has electronic movement where you press buttons and it moves.. very steady so very good when looking at stars! And with the sky out here so free from light polution, it makes spectacular viewing – especially when you’re lucky enough to see shooting stars!

Kirkfield Lift Lock In Use

So that’s about it! – This article obviously is set to go out on Saturday 22nd, so I’ll be sleeping when this actually goes out, and having a nice Canadian Breakfast when i do actually get up – but right now, I’m off to go to Newmarket and call at Upper Canada’s Mall – which we’ll also be featuring next week, along with a place which i cant wait to tell you about sat right on the side of Baptist Lake near Bancroft – so! I’ll see you all shortly on my return with plenty of fresh stuff to share with you all!

From Rocky — wish you were here!

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(Engineering Monument in CFB Borden, Photo ©2009)

So read on for the sights and adventures in this leading canadian military installation.

C.F.B. Borden is the leading training base for the Canadian Armed Forces, and highly active with our current world wide humanitarian missions ranging from Afganistan to Africa. In this article I will personaly review this military insallation, and the fun that comes with it, starting with the public access land and naval museum.

(Entrance to the Land and Naval Museum, Photo ©2009)

This museum is the center piece of Canadian military history, containing enough tanks and vehicles to start a war of  it’s own. Inside you will find clothing, ranks, vehicles some of which date back to the first world war. Everything you find inside was used in a battle at one time in history, protecting what we so proudly call our home.

(A line of trucks from World war 2 and World war 1, Photo ©2009)

There are two sections to the museum, land vehicle based on the right, this is where I’ll start. In this section of the museum is where the brunt ground forces of Canada now sit for generations to see, guns silent and on a final mission to serve the public. The most distinctive feature of this section, is the overwhelming smell that is throughout the building. It’s the smell of spent gun powder and oil, the smell of the past. While on your exploration, read the displays infront of the vehicles, they will tell you what battle the vehicle saw action in, what it’s uses were and more!

Moving into the Left section of the museum, you will find your self among both air and naval uniforms, model, and full scale replicas.

(A replica WW2 Chapel in the museum, Photo ©2009)

This section of the museum contains, as seen in the photo, a replica World War 2 chapel, retired airforce training simulation equipment, and many, many exhibits of badges, models, truely a step into the past. AS with the other section, read the information posted, it’s amazing how much you can learn from one simple piece of paper! This museum is a definate place to see on your experiences in CFB Borden!

The next stop in this article, was the birth place of the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Borden Airfield.

(A Retired fight plane sitting on the Borden Airfield, Photo ©2009)

The Borden airfield, is a place of mixed scenery, the airfield was abandoned by the RCAF in the early 1970′s, it is only used by the 400 helicopter squadron. Sadly, the airfield it’s self has fallen into such a state of disrepair, that they have to land CF-18′s at a local airfield, then tow them to Borden for the yearly airshow. Multiple treaties have been proposed to the Canadian forces, to restore borden back to it’s prime state of the worlds most advanced airforce training facility. Even with the airfield disrepair, a great ammount of funding is put into it’s old hangers, to keep them standing, all of which were built in 1914! Alot are currently under renovation and may seem like a state of being purely abandoned, but the work is slow but steady. To get to the museum, you must drive down the aircraft parking and service road until you see 3 fighter jets (The ones in the photo above) they are parked directly outside of the museum.

(A World War 2 training aircraft inside of the Airforce museum, Photo ©2009)

The airforce museum is truely a piece of art, showing the true history of what is still a proud and large Canadian Airforce. Containing multiple aircraft, workbenches, weapons platform, jet engines, and even blue prints for the once secret Avro Arrow! Besides these two museums there is far more to be seen at C.F.B. Borden, if you get a chance always show your support for the troops that keep Canada, a proud and safe place to visit and live!

Just a hint of advice, C.F.B. Borden is an “active”military installation, keep in mind some areas are off limits, but are clearly marked, please have photo identification ready if the front gate requests it, just say you’re visiting the museums, and enjoy your stay!

 

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The Shorline at Barrie

The special thing about Barrie is it’s location. It’s just down the road from Orillia – so it shares many of it’s locational attributes- such as being half way between Algonquin Park and Toronto. Though Barrie also has some of its own special places to visit on top of this.

Just outside Barrie is Base Borden Military Museum one of Canada’s largest Military Museums. The Museum holds a significant collection of WWI, WWII and post war armoured vehicles, trucks, and aircraft. The Museum tells the story of Camp Borden and the various Schools, Corps and Branches that have their heritage vested at Base Borden.

There also is the Horseshoe Resort, which provides fresh activities whether its winter or Summer, by having a great ski village when the snow is layed down by Canada’s weather – or outdoor adventure pursuits if the summer has set in.

Barrie is a city of 128,430 residents, the 35th largest municipality in Canada. The city’s north and south ends are separated by a deep valley which contains the downtown area along Kempenfelt Bay. Many consider Barrie as the gateway to central Ontario’s resort destinations (referred to as cottage country).

Barrie is located in the central portion of Southern Ontario, known as Central Ontario. It is accessible via Highways 26, 400, 11 and has convenient access to Highway 401, the Highway 407 Express Toll Route and to neighbouring Toronto. Pearson International Airport in Toronto is a one hour drive from Barrie via Highway 400, a six lane highway that runs directly through Barrie. It also has easy access to Toronto by Rail!

As you can see from the photo above, Barrie sits on the shore of Lake Simcoe, so if you’re looking for pretty photos at a town with plenty to look at, its always worth giving Barrie a visit!

We’ll be covering the places to visit in and around Barrie in posts in the next few months!

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