Day 11: Relax and Unwind

Day 11: Friday August 5th, 2016.
Port Burwell, ON. 0 miles.

By Victoria Curran.

We awoke this morning to peace and quiet in our cozy room of the quaint Grey Gables Bed and Breakfast in tiny Port Burwell.  We are taking our second day off from cycling and does it ever feel good to give our bodies a rest!   We meandered downstairs at 9am and enjoyed a homemade breakfast of plain yogurt with sliced apples and currants

followed by a plate of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil, toast with jams and chutney made by our host, and eggs made to order (scrambled, please).  After breakfast we headed outside to go explore. First stop, the HCMS Ojibwa, a Cold War era submarine (HMCS stands for Her Majesty's Canadian Ship).  For about $20 in Canadian dollars (or $14 in American dollars...wish this had been the conversion rate when we went on our honeymoon!) we got an excellent tour of the interior of this Oberon-class submarine.  

As we entered, it was fun to look at this map where visitors could place a pin to indicate their hometown; we were the first from San Diego

Heading outside to meet our guide, we climbed aboard the sub with anticipation of what we might see.  With only 6 of us on the sub, I found myself trying to imagine how one could live for more than a few days confined to such a narrow space with no windows and no means to exit once underwater.  Guys would sleep in the tiniest of bunks (about 2 feet wide by 6 feet long) triple bunk style with something like 15 guys (or was it 21?) in a room that was maybe 15' by 10'.  No food was ever cooked; it was all served cold. They never washed their clothes while underway and the stench of diesel (which still lingered today) was ever present. I found this cool blog from a guy who served on the Ojibwa if you're interested to read a little personal insight. http://hmcsojibwa.blogspot.ca/2012/11/while-we-wait-perhaps-submarine-story.html?m=1

During our tour, a veteran who had lived aboard a submarine for two years joined our group briefly.  He told us he'd recently met an American veteran who, upon meeting our guide at a local resort, said, "Man, we hated you guys!  Your subs were so quiet, we never knew where you were!"  The secret to this silence was the design of the propeller (according to our guide) and for many years, this secret was closely guarded.  But now, we were able to walk around these propellers and even take pictures

Next, we walked across the street to the maritime museum.  Before we walked in, Judd spotted this boat that was named for Henry Steinbrenner, father of George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees.  It is apparently the one remaining lifeboat that was found after the wreck of the SS Henry Steinbrenner, a dry bulk freighter designed for the iron ore, coal and grain trades of the time on the Great Lakes.

While the museum was quite small and some items were unlabeled, there was still a lot of interesting information to be gained.

How cool, if ineffective, is this fire extinguisher?

And this beautiful dress is actually a wedding gown.  The picture of the plaque below explains why this dress is pink rather than "traditional" white.

After learning all this information, we had worked up an appetite.  As usual, we were in the mood for ice cream!  Luckily, we found this place with many choices:

Ready to go burn off all those calories (that Judd assures me are ALL being burned off by cycling), we headed out to the historic lighthouse.  Our host of the Bed and Breakfast told us that the lighthouse was the oldest wooden lighthouse on all of the Great Lakes.   He also told us, however, that most of the lighthouses were, and had been, made of stone.  So, there's that....It's a cool lighthouse, nonetheless.

This pic was shot from the top of the lighthouse after climbing three sets of incredibly steep stairs made especially challenging after 4 days of riding!

And this is a picture of the lens that has been there for over 100 years to guide ships safely through the lake

Tired from our climb up the stairs, and hot from the heat that hasn't relented much on this trip, we headed to Lake Erie.   Because of the smelly, icky looking algal blooms, I've grown wary of the cleanliness of these lakes so I decided to wade in thigh deep and take the picture from there.

Judd, in fact, just did a Google search and found that at least some of the beaches along Lake Erie have been deemed unsafe to swim in.  Eew.  

For the rest of our day off, we just kicked around town.  Fish and chips was dinner from a cute little food cart called Aunt Tammy's and then we headed back to our B and B for a little R and R55 and to work on the blog.  We headed to bed early to get a good start to our first of four more days in a row!