I’m Baaaack!!!!

It’s been a while since I added to this blog – not because I lost interest, or stopped travelling, but simply because sometimes life gets complicated. In February we went to New Orleans, but cut the trip short because my mother-in-law fell ill. She lived a full, interesting and independent 96 years. After her memorial, we sold our house, bought a new place in a different part of Ontario, and with the move, and work that we wanted to do on our new home and the spectacular FISHING… well, I just didn’t get around to writing up my travels. But with plans for another trip in the works, I’ve decided it’s time to get caught up. So here we go!

January 25 2018

La Chute, QU

We made a quick trip to La Belle Province to visit friends, but as always, we tried to add a little side trip to see a Big Thing. This time it was to see a big beer stein in La Chute. It appears to be made from a beer keg or some other large barrel, but still fun.

Location:  461 Rue Principale, Lachute, QC

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OCTOBER 15, 2017

We are on our way home from the Laurentians in Quebec. The leaves have changed, but the colours are nowhere near as vivid as other years. We left early, so we have time to make a few side trips on our way back to Ontario. Plus, it’s Sunday, so the traffic shouldn’t be as crazy as it was on Tuesday.

SAINT-JÉRÔME, QU

I felt like I was trespassing just a tiny bit to see this shoe. It’s parked beside a house in a residential area! This is another piece by  artist Mathieu Isabelle. Currently it is mounted on a trailer, and is waiting for its forever home. I think it would look great in a high end shopping mall.

Location: 3 rue du Tour-du-Lac. St-Jérôme

This cone has a real retro look to it – not as flashing as some of the fiberglass ones we’ve seen, but has a nice old-timey look. Everything was dripping wet, but I managed to hop out of the car between showers to get this picture.

Location: 629 rue St-Georges, Saint-Jérôme

This ice cream awning was one of those incidental  just-happened-to-be-on-the-way opportunities. Pretty cool!

Location: 1095 Rue Melançon, Saint-Jérôme

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LAVAL, QU

  

I love this grocery bag and all of its very french contents – wine, flowers, garlic, lobster and cheese – no frozen pizza or pop tarts! The exit to this shopping experience is right off the 440 highway – if you miss it you have to play cloverleaf blind-man’s-bluff to work your way back!

Location: 3535 Autoroute Jean-Noël-Lavoie, Laval

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SAINT-EUSTACHE, QU

Visible from the 640 highway, this guitar is the sign for the Texas Star Restaurant, one of several businesses buried in the complex that includes drive-in theatres (at least 5 screens), a spa, a flea market and a sports centre with bowling alley and tennis courts. It looks like there is a lot going on here!

Location: 455 Avenue Mathers, Saint-Eustache

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We have accidentally found ourselves in apple country during the high season. It’s a great opportunity to stock up on some fresh picked apples. Our choice was a bag of Lobos, a variety I’ve never seen before – firm, sweet and juicy. YUM!!!

Location: Cueillette 640, 41 Rue Binette, Saint-Joseph-du-Lac

    

We are hunting for a picnic basket – a bit like Yogi Bears! It was easy to get distracted by this funny guy and his jug of apple cider that advertise Le Pomiculteur du Bûcheron.

Location: 494 Chemin Principal, Saint-Joseph-du-Lac

Another nice apple, this one at Trottier Fruits Et Légumes Inc. Still no picnic basket, though.

Location: 642 Chemin Principal, Saint-Joseph-du-Lac

VOILA! the picnic basket at Verger Lacroix & Cidrerie. Definitely worth the hunt!

Location: 649 Chemin Principal, Saint-Joseph-du-Lac

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BAIE-D’URFE, QU

I almost got whiplash when this guy caught the corner of my eye. We’ve driven past this spot a dozen times, and I’ve never noticed him before. Easily visible from the Trans Canada Highway, this fellow guards the entrance to Sentinel Storage. Seeing it from the highway was easy – finding the route to the location, with added construction detour as a bonus, was another thing altogether! Still worth it! I thought I was standing seriously at attention for this picture, but my wife thinks I just look like a grumpy, old stick-in-the-mud! No respect!

Location: 18970 Rte Transcanadienne, Baie-D’Urfe

October 10, 2017

We’re on our way to Quebec! I’ve picked a side trip so we can enjoy this unseasonably nice weather and stretch our legs.

BLOOMFIELD, ON

Our first stop is the Oeno Gallery at Huff Estates Winery, outside Bloomfield. The grounds hold exhibits from a variety of artists, and some of them are Bigger Than Life.

This zipper was my favourite. I’ve seen other large zippers, made from stone, but this one looks metallic, and it gives a good impression of zipping up the grass.

This baby parrot is also good – it’s bigger than our Thanksgiving turkey!

The photo doesn’t really capture the dried leaf feel of this sculpture.

I’ve seen big cones like these before – not sure if it’s the same artist.

There were several of these big, colourful bowls spread around the sculpture garden, but I must have accidentally deleted the others. This would hold a LOT of Froot Loops!

I caught a falling star! It looks like an enormous Christmas tree decoration.

This large megaphone comes with instructions!

Eh? What’s that? Speak up – I can’t hear you!

The Oeno Sculpture Garden is a nice place to while away an hour if you happen to be in the area. Its a nice break if you are visiting any of the 30+ wineries within a few mile radius.

Location:  2274 Prince Edward County Rd 1, Bloomfield, ON

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PICTON, ON

We made a quick stop at the Canadian Tire store, and despite ongoing construction, they still found a spot for this big chair.

Location: 13321 Loyalist Pkwy, Picton

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

After a wet and cool summer, we are getting a glorious fall, so we decided to take a drive to the Haliburton Sculpture Forest, a four hour drive that will take us through the Ontario Near North, and hopefully we will see some autumn colours.

 

CALEDON VILLAGE

Our first stop isn’t too far from home, but I need a coffee (I’m fighting a head cold, but want to do this trip. My wife pointed out my wonky hat as a symptom!) There is a new log sculpture near the Tim Horton’s, with a pretty nice squirrel at the top. The animals are nicely proportioned, and benefit from the addition of glass eyes.

Location: 3003 Charleston Sideroad, Caledon Village

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MINDEN, ON

We stopped in Minden to get a picture of one of the few Tastee Treat stands in Ontario (I’m aware of three – Minden, London and Windsor) The Minden River Cone has a nice new paint job, but unfortunately was closed, so no treats for me!

Location: 119 Bobcaygeon Rd, Minden

I didn’t get ice cream but this big fella across the street was a bit of a treat! I especially like his mustache, which appears to be made from horse shoes.

Location: on the Minden River Walk, near 126 Bobcaygeon Rd, Minden

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HALIBURTON, ON

We were disappointed that the leaves hadn’t started changing colour, but the Haliburton Sculpture Forest more than made up for it. Situated on park land behind the Fleming College – Haliburton School of Art and Design, a trail winds through the natural growth, revealing vignettes set with unique sculptures from local and international artists. Some fit the criteria for Bigger Than Life, but all are exceptional, even if they aren’t pictured here. Definitely worth a trip, though I suspect fall is the ideal time to escape the wee beasties!

This might be my favourite, with the sun shining through hundreds of glass beads from which the shoe is created.

   

This frond was an interesting mix of fused and painted materials. The sun refused to cooperate, so I didn’t capture the stained glass effect at its best.

This sculpture represents the surveyors tools, a nod to the namesake of Fleming College (Sir Sanford Fleming, noted surveyor, engineer, railway magnate and, most notably, the inventor of time zones!)

I liked this sculpture, with the amusing juxtaposition of urban and rural. That is one big beaver!

    

                  Location: Haliburton Sculpture Forest, 297 College Dr, Haliburton,                                 (though the signs and my GPS took me along Museum Rd, and then you walk through the Glebe Park to the Forest. Not well signed from that direction, but locals were friendly and pointed us in the right direction.)

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ALGONQUIN HIGHLANDS, ON

I almost skipped this one, because I couldn’t ‘see’ it on Google Streets – you forget that you are in the barely developed north, and Google stays on the main roads up here. I’m glad we did take the short trip off the highway – this dude and his cross cut saw were definitely worth it!

Location: 1123 North Shore Road, Algonquin Highlands

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DORSET, ON

The rest of the tourists paid their money for the chance to climb the lookout tower and see for hundreds of miles, but not this guy! It was all about the giant binoculars. OK, they have no lenses, so you don’t see anything enlarged, but still! (and I climbed the lookout tower, too!)

Location: 1191 Dorset Scenic Tower Rd, Dorset

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That was it for big things today. Still a four hour drive home, and no colours to see, but a nice day out, anyway

AUGUST 30, 2017

We are still doing day trips close to home. The forecast is for one of the few warm days this August, so we are heading to the beach again. We plan another trifecta – beach, big things and fresh fish (I couldn’t get the alliteration going – what fish words start with B!) So our plan is to head to Grand Bend via Exeter

EXETER, ON

 

There was supposed to be a large bobcat on the roof of the Ford/Lincoln dealership, but sadly, it wasn’t there. Still showed up on Google streets in 2016 though. Our consolation prize was this red chair at the local Home Hardware store

Location: 110 Main St N, Exeter

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GRAND BEND, ON

Now normally I would avoid Grand Bend like the plague – beautiful beach, but too touristy and TOO MANY PEOPLE. But I had read about Purdy’s Fish and Chips, and it sounded good enough to put up with the crowd. I should have read more carefully, though, because they aren’t open Monday to Wednesday! And if I wasn’t getting fresh fish, I wasn’t battling crowds on the beach! Instead, we decided to find this big chicken, get our picture, and head up the road to Goderich.

Location: 48 Ontario St N, Grand Bend

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GODERICH, ON

It was a nice day on the beach – not crowded like Grand Bend, but not as nice a beach, either. Fine for me though. And we got to eat fresh yellow perch at the Goderich Harbour Restaurant, which is tucked out of the way near the salt mine, and has the BEST fish!

Speeking of the salt mine, Goderich is home to the Sifto Salt Mine, the largest underwater salt mine in the world. But that isn’t what we came for – we were looking for big wooden shoes! Somehow we missed them on our last trip through town.

Location: 91 Hamilton Street, Goderich

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August 23, 2017

We decided it was a nice day, and we should go to the beach, so my navigator found some BIG THINGS, a secret beach and a chip truck with fresh cooked Erie Yellow Perch – a perfect trifecta for a drive in the country! Dunnville, here we come!

HAMILTON, ON

We spotted this while hunting for cheap gas! It always pays to get off the highway. This is outside a developer’s showroom, and probably isn’t there permanently. It’s a rip off of the famous LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana, (even down to the blue highlights!) but still fun. Pretty sure it’s breaking copyright laws

   

Location: 1890 Rymal Rd E, Hamilton

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DUNNVILLE

*WORLD’S LARGEST

Now for the money shot! Somehow, I had thought Dunnville was down near Leamington. If I had realized how close it was, I’d have been here sooner, because this is one HUGE fish! At over 50 feet in length, ‘Muddy’ was billed as the largest statue of its kind in the world when it was erected in 2009.

Location: Centenial Park, 98 Robinson Rd #2, Dunnville

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PORT MAITLAND, ON

Not far from the beach in James N. Allen Provincial Park, this chicken, which appears to be made of old propane tanks, guards the entrance to a local farm.

Location: Johnson Rd just south of Kings Row, Port Maitland

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PARIS, ON

During our scenic drive home on a lovely evening, we detoured slightly through Paris to get a shot of this knitting needle at Mary Maxim (whew! it was closed – close call!) It is a bit stubby, and looks more like a pencil, but what the heck – still bigger than life.

Location: corner of Grand River St N and Scott Ave, Paris

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August 2017

Kitchener/Waterloo

We are still recovering from surgery, so our trips are close to home right now. After a drive up to Listowel so my wife can indulge her yarn stashing habit at the Spinrite Tent Sale, we circled back through Kitchener/Waterloo. The cities still have a very blue collar feel to them (despite being the home of two universities and Blackberry) so it is always a surprise how much public art there is. And a lot of it depicts every day objects, bigger than life! The first were these amazing granite acorns at RIM Park. I thought they were a bit nutty! Or squirrely!

  

Location: 2001 University Ave, Waterloo

Our next siting was this origami goose, which oddly, is outside the Stork Family YMCA!  Maybe it should have been an origami stork! The building also houses the Funkee Goose Cafe, but I’ll bet the sculpture came first. There was no placard on the sculpture – a problem I see on a LOT of public art – but some quick research got me the artists info.

Location: 500 Fischer-Hallman Rd N, Waterloo

I guess it’s a day for birds, because our next stop was to see this Kingfisher. Its part of a playground/ eco trail, with an interactive board describing the local birds. Fun for young and old!

Location: Westmount Sports Park – 440 Westmount Rd N, Waterloo

We continued south into Kitchener, and found these books outside the Grand River Stanley Park Community Library. Looks like I got caught up in a book!

Location: 175 Indian Road, Kitchener

Our last stop for the day was at the Farmer’s Market in Downtown Kitchener. We looked around without spotting the sculpture, and eventually had to ask directions – It’s tucked around a corner outside. Called ‘Sweet Pea”, this sculpture was unveiled in 2004 to celebrate the opening of the market. Seems appropriate!

Location: 300 King E, Kitchener

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Well, that’s it for this day – there is still more to come, though

 

July 7, 2017

We decided to make the 2 hour trip to Owen Sound to see the ‘controversial’ Giant Rubber Ducky. I couldn’t face the crowds that showed up last week in Toronto to see it – 750,000 people! Now, the ducky doesn’t really fit enough of my criteria for this blog – it isn’t a permanent installation, and it’s not made of solid materials, but it is outdoors and it is free to see. And anyway, I make up the rules, so I can bend them!

VARNEY, ON

Our first stop was in Varney, to see (one of the runners for) The World’s Largest Chair. We visited it April 16, 2016 (scroll WAY down to see it), and it needed a bit of sprucing up, which it got in celebration of Canada’s 150th Birthday!

Location: Hwy 6, Varney

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OWEN SOUND, ON

We arrived in Owen Sound at 3 pm, knowing that the ducky was supposed to sail into the harbour at 5 pm. We wanted to be able to park a reasonable distance to the location. We were SO in luck! We parked just a few hundred feet from the place it would be moored. How did we know? Something about the big yellow paddle in the harbour.

What has happened?!? Apparently fowl weather the evening before forced them to deflate the ducky and tow him/her into the Sound. We sat around for two hours waiting for something to happen, as the crowd began to gather. At 5, the yellow puddle was still laying there, and we were were told there were technical difficulties At 5.15 a cheer went up, and the ducky started to inflate.

We were told 7.30, so we went for a walk and got some dinner. We walked to the other side of the harbour to check out progress up close, and were surprised to see how small the blower was that was supposed to fill a 60 foot tall inflatable – not a lot bigger than you would find on a large lawn inflatable. We were expecting something the size of the ones used to fill hot air balloons.

So, needless to say, it took over three hours to fill the duck, and thee was no sail past. A bit of a let down, but the thing is STILL huge, and that’s really the point.

 

JUNE 29, 2017

MISSISSAUGA, ON

Our wings have been clipped this summer, because my wife has some heath issues that have to be addressed. So our trips will just have to be local! Today we visited the Square One Shopping Mall area of Mississauga, just west of Toronto.

Our first stop was at the foot of the Absolute Buildings – which are either really cool, or ridiculously ugly, depending on your point of view. Because they are in an area of new and modern architecture (instead of being plunked in amongst old and classical buildings), I’m going to lean towards the ‘it’s cool’ school of thought. Three large horses prance, graze and…. poop? at the intersection!

      

Come on! you know it’s pooping! When else do you see a horse hold its tail out like this!

                Location: 60 Absolute Dr, though they are around the corner at                      Burnhamthorpe and Hurontario.

On the other side of the mall, we parked and walked to see this book. Originally it was located on the 401 at Toronto International Airport, and you couldn’t stop to check it out. This is a much better location.

It’s a bit breezy today – I’m struggling to stop the pages from flipping in the wind. Oh Oh! Looks like I’ve torn this one!

Location: Mississauga Civic Centre, at the corner of City Centre Dr and Duke of York Blvd

Carrying along with the book theme, this stack is just one block north.

Location: Living Arts Centre, corner of Princess Royal Dr and Duke of York Blvd

Another block north brings us to this most confusing road sign. Rotaries are hard enough to navigate, and I don’t think these arrows are helping!

Location: Middle of the rotary at Square One Dr and Duke of York Blvd

And then I had a Sesame Street moment, brought to you by the letters S and M! The S is outside the Sheridan College Mississauga Campus.

Location: corner of Prince Of Wales Dr and Duke of York Blvd

M is for Mississauga. Maybe it would be a challenge to build an alphabet of 3D, free standing, oversize letters!

Location: Burnhamthope just west of Conferderation Parkway

Well, that’s all for today. More ‘local’ images coming soon!

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MAY 10, 2017 – NIAGARA and BUFFALO part two

FORT ERIE, ON

Uncle Sam is looking fondly back to the US and saying “What am I doing in Canada!?”

Location: 437 Garrison Rd, Fort Erie

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NIAGARA FALLS, ON

The volume of water going over the falls was impressive – even the American Falls looked good. No pictures, though – that’s a different blog!

More illegal parking, sigh. A pretty good chocolate bar at the Hershey building. There is also a giant Kiss on the roof, but it looks more like a giant garlic right now – needs a new paint job. Looks like it was left in the sun too long and is melting 🙂 Not picture worthy, anyway.

Location: 5701 Falls Ave, Niagara Falls

Clifton Hill is always good for a hefty dose of tacky. The two cones are almost across the street from each other. The first one looks extra tasty!

    

If it’s Canada there must be beavertails – deep fried dough pastries, individually hand stretched to resemble a beaver’s tail and topped with sugar and cinnamon (if you are a traditionalist) or weird stuff like Nutella (if you want to be unpatriotic)

Not sure what Burger King and Frankenstein have to do with each other. Monster Burger?

There were a couple of other Big Things – a candy apple that was too faded to make the cut, and several items that were just too cartoony, plus the crass commercialism puts me off. Time to move on.

Souvenir City was the MOTHERLODE! I expected a teddy bear, a vase and a thimble, and got SO much more!

Jaime, we thought of you when we saw these thimbles!

In keeping with the souvenir theme – keepsake spoons and collector plate

   

And for those men on your list who like kitschy things – a key fob, bottle openers, a thermometer and a letter opener. The fob and bottle openers were behind a construction fence, but it looked pretty safe, so I wedged myself through an opening and the picture was taken through the fence grid. I think this is what my wife means by potential jail time 🙂

     

A teddy bear dressed as a Mountie is perched above one of the doors.

Rossi Glass is famous for it’s Cranberry Glass, which this is supposed to represent. Could use a new paint job.

I guess the moose represents toy animals.

So then the Indian must be advertising our famous Canadian Cigars! (Not a thing, BTW!)

Location:  4199 River Rd, Niagara Falls

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NIAGARA-on-the-LAKE

I was surprised to find anything of questionable taste nestled among the vineyards an boutique hotels of Niagara-on-the-Lake. This is a bit out of town – close to the QEW highway, so maybe that’s how they snuck (sneaked?) it in.

Location: 590 York Rd, Niagara-on-the-Lake