We got up and moving a little late today, had a late breakfast and then ate a light lunch shortly after the noon hour. It is threating to rain, so before that happens we decide to take a drive to Port Dalhousie Ontario.
The attraction for us is an antique carousel located at the Lakeside Park.
At 5 cents a ride you can’t go wrong. What can you get for 5 cents these days..
This is an especially nice antique carousel. Hand carved by Charles I.D. Looff. He manufactured over 50 carousels in his lifetime and one of them is right here in Port Dalhousie ON. This one was carved between 1898 and 1905. The carousel has 68 animals, including horses, lions, camels, goats, giraffes, and four chariots. The music is played by an antique Frati band organ which uses a system of paper music rolls to serenade the riders. Each animal has been hand carved and the horses still have real horsehair tails. The carousel animals have all been carefully restored by the Friends of the Carousel, who continue with annual maintenance and repair work to keep the carousel in sound working order.
The main attraction of the carousel is the carved Looff Lion. The Looff Lion on the Lakeside Park Carousel is one of five existing Looff lions in all of North America and it is the only one that has its head turned to watch onlookers as it circles by.
We walked down to the beach after riding the carousel and saw the Maccoa, a Bulk Carrier, built in 2009. She was sitting there at anchor.
Leaving Port Dalhousie, we drove to the very end of the Welland Canal Parkway. This is where the ships enter the Welland Canal from Lake Ontario. This is where Lock #1 is located. No ships in the lock at this time.
Here is the end of the road.
We can see the Sea Eagle II (a pusher tug) just leaving the protection of the canal break walls and heading out into Lake Ontario.
We can also see the Michigan (a pusher tug) is tied up to the shore wall.
By now it is pouring rain as we cross over the canal on Lift Bridge #1 and headed towards Niagara on the Lake ON.
We pass by this very uniquely designed McDonalds. Not your typical design.
We are in search of a roadside fruit market so that we can buy locally grown peaches. As we drive along we pass the War of 1812 Bicentennial Garden. It is raining too hard to be getting out of the car so the photo is taken as we drive by.
It continues to rain as we drive through the downtown section of Niagara on the Lake. Again photos are taken as we drive through.
Here is the popular Prince of Wales Hotel.
We did stop and get a basket of freshly picked peaches. Then we stopped again to see the Tiny Church. According to Roadside Attractions, this is the Worlds smallest Church. Several weddings have taken place here, obviously not inside. It is reportedly less than 10 ft x 10 ft and has 2 small pews inside.
We continued along the Niagara Parkway. The Niagara River is on our left hand side and way down deep in the gorge.
We stopped to view the Floral Clock, always a popular photo opportunity. The rain let up enough that we could get out for a few minutes.
There wasn’t much point in continuing along to view Niagara Falls in this rain. We will come back on a nicer day to enjoy a day at Niagara Falls. For now, we just headed back to the motorhome. It is still raining at supper time, so we just popped some frozen dinners into the microwave. We worked on photo naming and editing this evening and got this blog written.
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