Visiting Al & Sonja in Hamilton, Ontario

We are so happy to be back in Canada!  On Wednesday, July 8, we crossed the Thousand Islands Bridge from Watertown, New York to Kingston, Ontario and immediately felt this familiar, wonderful feeling:  the cool Canadian air, the low humidity, the pink granite rock formations, the lush green landscape, the relaxed, friendly people.  What more could we want?

One of our first plans was to visit Al and Sonja, friends we made at the Miami Everglades RV Resort in Florida.  From Hamilton, Ontario, they travel down to Florida in the winter with their triangular pop-up with skylights, and know how to share a good time well.

Hamilton is a four hour train ride from Kingston, on the west side of Toronto, opposite to Kingston.  We caught the VIA train to Toronto on Thursday, July 9 and stayed overnight with our son Matt (more on that adventure in the next blog entry), then arose early with him, and when he went to work we caught the GO train to Aldershot and then transferred to a GO bus to Hamilton.

Al picked us up at the Hamilton GO Centre Friday morning and brought us up to their lovely home, which also serves as a bed and breakfast:

Their home sits proudly atop Hamilton Mountain, overlooking James Street and the entire city of Hamilton.  After some refreshment, they took us on a long walk around Hamilton Mountain:

The city stretched out proudly below:

Inspired by what they showed us, we took a walk down into the heart of town to view all that it has to offer.  One of the more striking historic buildings is St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, which sits directly across the street from the facade of James Street Baptist Church, to be preserved as part of a modern condominium project:

We discovered that Hamilton is home to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.  Here, David helps snag an errant pass just in front of the museum:

The museum shows busts of the players that have been elected to the Hall of Fame:

Hiking further down James Street to the waterfront, we encountered the trailhead mast for the Waterfront Trail:

After slaking our thirst at Sarcoa Restaurant in Pier 8 right on Hamilton Harbour, we explored the waterfront, and found this series of murals painted in 2007 by elementary school students.  We imagined what fun it would be for one of the young artists to return from her or his first term at university and enjoy his/her artwork gracing this beautiful recreational area.

We were taken with this evocative sculpture along the Waterfront Trail:

Sonja and Al picked us up and drove us to a wonderful Italian meal at Bronzie's on upper James Street, after which we strolled down James Street to the James North Friday Night Art Crawl, where we encountered arts of all sorts, not least of which was this blues band complete with roadster:

Our evening was topped off with country and bluegrass music from this group, whose age must have averaged 80+ years:

After a wonderful night's sleep, we enjoyed looking at Sonja's jewelry craft work --

-- then embarked on a tour of waterfalls along the Niagara Escarpment.  Al reported that Hamilton calls itself the "City of Waterfalls," and, indeed we saw some impressive ones, including this one on Spencer Creek, where Al is framing a photo:

The falls above was the site of the Darnley Grist Mill, only the ruins of which remain today:

Al then took us over to nearby Webster's Falls, then finished with a tour of one of his favorite childhood haunts:

With that, the Horzelenbergs dropped us at the GO Centre to begin our return trip.  We were very grateful for their warm hospitality and had a great time catching up with them after Florida.  They plan to spend this winter back in Miami Everglades RV Resort, and we're very jealous!