We continued through the Small Craft Channel to Midland Ontario. It is a civic holiday in Canada on Monday and there is lots of boat traffic. As we got closer to Midland the islands were more populated and busy.

We arrived in Midland to the Bay Port Yacht Harbor around 2pm. I noticed that a nearby boat was from Alexandria and we had a nice chat with the boaters (who were also doing the Great Loop- but in the opposite direction). Another boater came and talked to us, and his home anchorage was the same as ours! He and his wife are also doing the loop. We took our bikes into town. Midland is a mid-sized town with some nice restaurants. We had a nice farm to table type of dinner.

Day 2- I got a much needed haircut in the morning. We then went on a nice bike ride along a paved trail that runs along the lake. We ended up visiting St. Marie, which is a tourist attraction that is a recreation of an Jesuit outpost from the 1680's. After 10 years of trying to convert the Huron Indians, most of the Jesuits and Hurons were killed by the Iriquois indians. It was a sad story of bringing disease and religion to a nation of people. The tribe was fractured and unable to defend themselves in the face of a stronger group.

Day 3 - The morniing started off with a visit to the farmers market. I was super excited because we seemed to miss every weekend market. We loaded up with fresh veggies, herbs. bread, cheeses, a cream filled donut, butter tarts, a rhubarb pie, sausages, olive oil and marinara sauce. I was in heaven!

After we unloaded our bounty and split our donut, we biked around 20 miles, in 90 degree heat:( and visited a nearby port - Port McNicoll. At that port there is the last of the British Edwardian-Era Passenger Steamships there. It has quite the history and it is the only passenger steamships of its time to survive (there were 3800 built). It was saved from the scrapyard from her retirement in 1967 by a US couple who towed her to their marina in Saugatuck, MI. The owners did a lot of refurbishment. In 2012 the 94 year old owner sold the ship to a Canadian entrepreneur, and it was brought to Port McNicoll. We had a great guide for our visit and learned lots about the ships history and the steam engines, which are still operational.

Since we skipped lunch, we treated ourselves to ice cream and then had a great pizza dinner at Dillons.