Wednesday, June 17, 2009 – Day 20
We had only heard about Upper Canada Village three days earlier as we were reading a National Geographic Guidebook on Canada.
Not only did this old 1800’s style town deliver on its reputation, it exceeded all of our expectations and definitely had become one of our favorite stops on our Cross Canada Trip.
Upper Canada Village is made up of many homes and buildings that were recovered and moved to this location in the 1950’s as the St. Lawrence river was flooded using dams to create a seaway that was navigable by ocean going vessels. Due to many communities being completely submerged, the historical buildings of the time were moved to create this Historic Village that takes visitors back in time.
Our first stop at Upper Canada Village was at the photography studio to get some family photos in period costume. Although my boys were a bit hesitant at first do to the ruffles on their white shirts, they didn’t seem to mind as much when their smart looking vests were put over their shirts and they found some cool looking flat caps. For a family of 8 however to get dressed up it did take us way too long and in the end we ended up spending close to an hour for our photo shoot. Good thing we were there before the busy summer season.
Throughout this hot day we saw most of the buildings in this village. The weather was perfect for exploring this village that produces every item that a community would need to subsist on its own. It has its own water powered saw mill, flour mill, cows, farms, vegetable gardens, flour gardens, shoemaker, cheesemaker, schoolhouse, blacksmith, restaurant and more. The kids enjoyed rides on the horse drawn wagon and the boat that is towed along the canal by horses.
Some of the highlights of the day was our stop to milk the cows, watching how the wheat was milled and having a bite to eat at the restaurant that only prepared food based on the time period. As we left the park just before closing we got some bread and cheese that was made in the village… was it ever delicious.
Just before going however our kids wanted a ride on the miniature train. It was a beautiful 3 km ride along the shores of the St. Lawrence River… my only suggestion would be to sit well back from the front three cars where the fumes from the diesel engine are a bit strong unless there is a good cross breeze.
Only a few kilometers away from the Village is the Riverside Cedar Park Campground also operated by the St. Lawrence Parks Commission. It is a great spacious camping area where the kids could play around on the playground and splash in the water of the river. It was hard to get the kids to come out of the water they were having so much fun… that was until after the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out… then they were all too happy to hide inside the RV to stay away from the bugs along the shore.
It was at that time the kids remembered how hungry they really were and warmed up in the hot showers provided. We slept great that night in the peaceful campground overlooking the river.