(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Last weekend, we decided to take a short drive to some nearby small communities.   We were only gone for a couple of hours but it was time well spent:  we ended up making some important decisions about our summer holidays.  More on that later.

We started out in Inverary, a village about 15 minutes north of Kingston.  The photo at the top of the post shows the main intersection:  of course, it has long been home to a general store.  Not long ago, almost every village had one of these.  However, this store, like many others, has now closed.

Our next stop was in the larger village of Sydenham.  It’s just a bit farther from Kingston and is able to sustain more local businesses.  In the warmer months, it probably also helps that a lot of cottages and outdoor attractions (Frontenac Provincial Park, Gould Lake Conservation Area) are nearby.

When we arrived, we stopped by the local soccer/football field.  It’s got a great location right on the shores of Sydenham Lake.  I used to play minor soccer and high school soccer games here from time to time and always enjoyed the setting.   It was good to see the field in use:  on this weekend afternoon, a minor football game was in progress.  It seemed like everyone in the village had come out to watch.

As it was unseasonably warm, we decided to visit Ronnie’s restaurant for some ice cream.   We had never eaten here before; in fact, we didn’t even know about it before arriving.  However, we thought it would be nice to patronize a truly local business and the ice cream was just what I needed.

As we left, we made an important decision about our summer travels:  as much as possible, we are going to try to avoid chains and eat at/patronize locally-owned businesses.  Visiting the “Milky Way” and the other local businesses in Regina was fun…who knows what other local treasures we will find this summer?

I suppose this flows from my recent experience with Record Store Day and its emphasis on independent record shops.  It’s not always easy to take this approach in our busy day-to-day lives but it is something we can definitely do while on vacation.  If we stumble across local events (fairs, pancake breakfasts, spaghetti dinners, etc.) held  in community halls, we’ll wander in and see what happens!

A stroll down Sydenham’s main street also revealed some interesting buildings and photos.  It’s difficult to identify potential pictures when you are in a car…but opportunities abound when you are walking around.  In fact, we sometimes get out and go for a walk in a small town even if nothing looks interesting.   It almost always works for us.  I say “almost” because my wife was stung by a bee (and promptly discovered her previously unknown bee allergy) while we were walking down the main street of Claremont, New Hampshire, a few years ago.  We now have a new appreciation for those blue “Hospital” signs:  when you are someplace unfamiliar and are having a medical emergency, it really helps to be able to locate a hospital quickly.