(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Tillsonburg (see photo at top of this post) has an impressive main street: very wide, and a nice collection of old buildings. It clearly has been an important place for a long time.

But, like other agricultural towns in this part of Ontario, Tillsonburg is not stuck in the past. It is alive with newer Canadians, including a sizable Latin American population. As a result, the Rinconcito grocery store has found a niche. We enjoyed some decadent churros and ice cream there, on another hot summer’s day.

We didn’t take many photographs at our tournaments. However, we were very impressed with the lawn bowling greens in both Windsor and Woodstock. We look forward to returning for more tournaments next year, as each club is very active in hosting important competitions.

Once the tournament in Woodstock was over, we took a very indirect route back home to Kingston. Our first stop was in the historic town of Elora. In addition to an extensively restored downtown, Elora is also home to the Elora Gorge. My photo doesn’t do it justice, but it is an impressive sight that is still very close to the historic downtown.

We didn’t quite feel the hunger here, however, and pressed on to the nearby town of Fergus for lunch. Fergus was clearly a very Scottish place at one point, although it also had a Dutch grocery store. This was a recurring theme on our drive back to Kingston, as a couple of hours later we also visited a Dutch grocery store in Bradford. After those two stops, we didn’t need to visit the Dutch stores in either Whitby or Trenton. I now have enough atjar tjampoer to last at least until Christmas.

We had been on the road for nearly 8 hours by the time we stopped for dinner in Peterborough. After a trip featuring a lot of Latin American food, we both had a craving for something Asian…so we found a humble Thai restaurant and remembered what it was like to have one final meal on the road at the end of a long trip. It’s been a long time since we’ve had that feeling.

So what’s up next? Canada’s advisory against non-essential travel has just been lifted. And as I never made it to the slopes last winter, a ski trip is looking really appealing now. There is more prep work required than “in the old days”, but it’s something I’m willing to undertake. It’s the only way to see if the pandemic has forever changed the type and amount of travel that I want to do.