Comments (0) Unless the weather is absolutely unbearable, I try to climb the fire tower on the Tower Hill whenever I go up in the winter. The fire tower is almost 100 feet tall and it sits on an already steep hill. From the top of the tower, you can get quite a view of the bay and of Parry Sound. Below are a couple of pics to show you what I mean.
View of some of the town:
and here’s a view of some of the bay:
I didn’t want to overload you with pics in the last post about the Grande Hermine, so here are the other ones that I have on my computer. If/when I ever find some pre-digital camera pics, I’ll be sure to scan them and post them here too. It’s crazy to look at the pre and post fire pics and see where all of the now missing wooden decks used to be.
Early spring 2004:
Summer 2005:
Side of the ship - 2005:
For over a decade, I’ve had a favorite roadside attraction / landmark on the trip up north. Between kilometer markers 55 and 57 on the QEW in Jordan, rests the once beautiful and majestic Grande Hermine. Some know it as the pirate ship on the way to Toronto, some are just confused by it, and a surprising amount of people get off of the busy highway to try to figure out what on earth it is.
The Grande Hermine was built in 1914 and it was used as a ferry in the St. Lawrence River. In the early ’90s, it was converted to a beautiful pirate-esque boat. Wood was added everywhere and masts with sails were added too. The goal of all of the extra wood was to make it look like La Grande Hermine, the ship that sailed around exploring the St. Lawrence River way back in the 1500s. Wood wasn’t just added to the boat though. A big kitchen, freezers, refrigerators, and cooking stuff were also added because it was converted to be a floating restaurant!
I’m not sure if the restaurant ever opened or not, but it was towed into the Jordan Harbor in 1997 and was just left by their marina. It leans sort of sideways and just stays there year after year. Ever since its great arrival, I’ve been fascinated by it. I try to stop by at least once a year to take a picture of it.
In 2003, vandals set the Grande Hermine on fire. Most of the wood exterior and decks were burnt off and the interior was gutted. I still stop by though as often as I can. Below are some pics that I have taken over the years of this lovely boat. I’ll add some more pics in another post too.
Here are some links for more info on the ship:
-An article about the boat
-Pics of the inside of the ship - before the fire
-A photographer’s pics of it before the fire - look at the exterior of the stern where there were a couple of staff cabins and a ballroom - wow!
Me in 2002 with the Grande Hermine:
from the side, you can see it’s lovely wooden decks:
and in 2003, after the fire:
To keep up with the February countdown, here’s another pic taken from my December 2002 trip up north. Here I am sitting on the pier in town. You can see the Island Queen hibernating further down the dock. Looking at the footprints, I think that there were only a few people that made the trip out to the end of the pier that day.
So now that the new year is here, the countdown to February is on. The husband and I, and possibly some friends too, will be spending a weekend in February in Parry Sound. The husband has never been able to experience it in the winter, so he is super excited. It’s been years since I’ve done it, so I’m quite excited as well. Life up north in the winter is quite different than it is in the summer. There will be sure to be lots of snow and enough ice for us to walk out to the island.
Here’s a pic from December 2002 of the island. I took it from the mainland when I went on my last winter trip up there. I’ll be posting more pics from that trip later. Hopefully I can find and scan some of my older pics from our winter trips too.
Ever wonder what the island girls do to pass the time until it’s summer again? Well other than working our respective school jobs, going to the gym, vegging out, and planning our summer Canada dates, we do one interesting thing - make chocolate. The husband and I mainly make truffles. Not those truffle balls that people roll and then dip in chocolate. I’m talking real truffles in molds. Here’s a very small sample of what we made in the last week or two.
The swirls are milk chocolate with blueberry ganache, the plain dark ones are dark chocolate peanut butter cups, the light ones are white chocolate with blueberry ganache, and the geodesic ones are dark chocolate with an espresso ganache.
So what do you do to pass time in the colder months?
Today the Pants turns 9 years old! Ok, maybe not exactly, but we celebrate him today. We got him from a shelter on this day four years ago. By looking at his teeth and other health issues, his vet guesses that he is nine. So today, we celebrate his ninth year of life. Tonight, he will have a burger from one of his favorite restaurants and if all goes well, we hopefully will get a video of him singing happy birthday with us.
To commemorate this wonderful occasion, here’s my favorite pic of Pants from this fall. Here he is Pants doing one of his new favorite past times - babysitting. He loves taking care of our friend’s baby. He is quite protective of her, watches over her, and carefully tucks her in over and over until the blanket is to his liking.
I got one other piece of island “art” from my dad as a gift. I’m usually not a fan of cutesy signs, but this one has a certain charm to it. It will be going up on the porch opening weekend in May.
The husband got me a pendant that’s in the shape of Ontario. It has a star over Parry Sound. It’s sort of cryptic down here in Ohio, but I know what it is. 
Each year at our annual holiday party, we have an awful gift exchange. This is much different than a standard white elephant - our guests bring the most terrible or offensive gifts possible. This year, my brother brought this ugly and broken toilet seat clock to the exchange. Our friend, Roger (of Pee Pot Pasta fame), got the clock in the exchange. He “accidentally” left it when he left the party. Usually I get annoyed when people leave their awful gifts at my house, but this time I wasn’t annoyed at all. I think it will go perfectly in the outhouse - especially considering the outhouse’s new blue underwater theme. I also think that it’s perfect because it’s broken. It’s like it’s permanently on island time.
Panorama theme by Themocracy
