Fenelon Falls - the jewel of the Kawarthas

"A historic village nestled on the shores of Cameron Lake, this day tripper hotspot offers shopping, arts and culture, water falls and gorge, historical sites, a community beach with a park and picnic area, all in a 4-block radius. Come and catch the spirit of Fenelon Falls."  Official Website

Hump Day and I don't have to work.  Yes there is always work to do, but today I had a good excuse to just turn off the computer and jump in the car.  Rachel and Jay were up on Sturgeon Lake, just a drop of water away from Fenelon Falls, one of my favourite little towns in Ontari-ari-ari-o (aside - yes I am old enough to remember 1967, and actually remember the words to most of this song, OK OK, at least the chorus).

Beautiful Sturgeon Lake

Can you think of anything more exciting than having your mom pop in on your holiday at Jay's parents cottage.  LOL.  So toss my camera in the car, make sure my visa is paid off and I'm on my way.

It is a beautiful day for a drive and I managed it without really getting lost.  One stop to check the iPad to see whether I did a left or right hand turn and I'm off again.  Drove by the turn into the cottage road and ended up in Fenelon Falls, turn around and 2 miles down the road, voila the road I didn't think was the right road was.

The drive from Aurora to Fenelon Falls is a truly perfect example of how beautiful Ontario is.  I can see doing this drive again just to take pictures of the beautiful farms and fields.  Rolling hills, picket fences, cows grazing, horses (even babies) frolicking (yes I said frolicking) in the fields.  Small convenience stores where you can picture the candy counter from when I was a kid, 5 big feet, 10 little red strawberries, licorice, pipes, etc.  How do I still have my teeth. LOL  Not a Tim Horton's until I reached Fenelon Falls.

The sun is shining on the lake as I pull into Jay's cottage.  And there my darling daughter is with a bottle of champagne ready to pop.  What a perfect hostess and host.  And let's not forget Shelby.  Rachel didn't jump up and down quite as much as Shelby when I arrived :).

This lovely cottage has been in Jay's family for 3 generations now.  Full of memories of his Poppa and Nanny are visible all around the property.

Thank you Jay for allowing me to see where some of your wonderful memories come from.  Your Poppa's garden is a treasured place, that you seem to get so much enjoyment out of.  I hope you keep it up and continue to be very successful with your green thumb.  Glad to see you are passing some of your knowledge onto Rachel :)

After our lovely glass of Ontario Champagne we popped into Fenelon Falls.  Amazingly it hasn't changed much since the last time I was there.  I was telling Rachel about the time we went up there for a picnic with them (they were quite little) and we didn't realize it was mating season for the Canadian Geese and Ducks.  There we are eating out little sandwiches and these Geese are going at it.  The kids were horrified and so was I, one of the little geese ended up with a broken leg.  Those males didn't like taking no for an answer.  Visiting friends cottages - MJ and I staying up all night during a thunderstorm absolutely sure there was a crazy person running around the yard, dashing from tree to tree.  Yes there were 6 little ones in the cottage and NO we didn't drink too much wine.  LOL.



First stop was lunch.  The Lake House was perfect, outdoor balcony, overlooking the canal and the best bruschetta ever.

Fenelon Falls is a very pleasurable drive of 1.5 hours from Aurora.  The scenery is beautiful and the history in Fenelon Falls was very important in helping Ontario become the province I sang very loudly and proudly and very out of key about in 1967.  (For the under 30 group:  FYI 1967 was the 100 year anniversary of Canada becoming Canada)