A weekend escape to Belleville, Ontario

A lot of us enjoy spending some time on a mini vacation and it doesn’t have to be that far from home to make it enjoyable. The trip I am going to write about is going from Toronto to Belleville for a weekend escape. The distance is 175km so it should take you around 2 hours to get there if you take the highway but there are lots of things to do and see if you decide to take a slower route. 

Here it is an idea of a possible route so that you can see some of the other things during your journey.

The first stop for us along the way is to stop in Cobourg to visit a yarn store that I like. Yarn It! Where you can find some nice hand-dyed yarns and accessories to go with them. When we make this stop there is usually some yarn added to the stash because I cannot resist getting yarn from here as they do have yarn that they dye themselves.

The second stop is going to be The Big Apple which is just off the 401 in Colborne. If you are driving east, you will see the Big Apple as you are approaching Percy St so that is where you are heading. This is a nice stop where you can pick up some pies that are so nice to have. There is also a general store as well as 401 Cider Brewery where you can pick up Hard Cider as well as some wines. If you have children, there is also a petting zoo and train rides if you are there in the summer.

This picture was taken from the highway so it is that close to the exit.

From The Big Apple you can decide if you want to get back onto the 401 or take the slower route which takes you through the towns of Colborne, Brighton, and Trenton. If you take highway 2 through Trenton you will pass the Canadian Forces Base Trenton, and you may see some of our military planes sitting on the tarmac. In Trenton there is also the National Air Force Museum of Canada where you can see the past, present and future of Canadian aviators.

After leaving Trenton we normally will continue the drive along Highway 2 until we are just outside of Belleville where we head towards the 401 and our hotel which normally has been the TownePlaceSuites by Marriott as it is a convenient location for making day trips into Prince Edward County. There is a lot of things to see and do while in Prince Edward County from walking along the main street of Picton, to going to Wineries as well as spending some time at the beach.

Now one of the reasons we enjoy staying at the TownePlace Suites is there is free breakfast each day of your visit and all the rooms have a kitchen area which is wonderful as you do get a full-size fridge. The fridge comes in handy for keeping the things you pick up in the county cold until you head home. There are a lot of restaurants within a short drive from the hotel so lots of choices of where to have dinner. For us one thing we enjoy is being able to work next door to the Casino and have dinner there. The only disadvantage of this restaurant is its adult only as it is inside the casino and it closes at 8 pm except Friday and Saturday through the summer it closes at 10 pm. (separate blog written about the hotel and casino)

While in Belleville there is still lots of shops to visit and restaurants and one splurge is to go to Reid’sDairy and have some ice cream. One word of warning when you go there is that the amount of ice cream you get if large. If you get 2 scoops, be prepared to have lots of ice cream but it is so good.

I hope that I have helped you plan a trip out to Belleville, and you enjoy a mini vacation away from the city. I know that we always enjoy our trips and each time we go we try and do something a little different and explore a different area of the county.

Please read the original post

There are so many times that there are comments on a post that don’t have anything to do with the original post. What is important is if you are replying to a post on social media is that you need to read the original post and then comment on that.

Recently there was a post that asked people to clean the dead leaves from the curb in front of your house. This person was simply asking everyone to make sure that the water could drain alone the curb to the city drains to make sure that there was no flooding on any of the streets.

What happens was a lot of people decided to complain that they were asking people to rake their lawns which this person never asked for. It is amazing how many times people make assumptions and don’t read what the original post was about. Of course, I tried to manage it the best I could by repeatedly saying it wasn’t requesting people to rake their lawns just clean the curb of leaves. 

It is amazing how many people only see a few words that are written and don’t read the entire post and then they complain that the original poster is wrong. What we need to do is look at and read the original post to make sure that we understand what they are saying before we post a comment. 

If there is a post that you don’t totally understand, maybe try and ask a question or two before you complain that the post isn’t correct. In this case someone was simply asking for leaves to be removed from the curb to ensure that water could drain to the city catch basins.

Canada Day

 Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day, is the National Day of Canada. It celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which happened on July 1, 1867. It is a statutory holiday, and everything is closed (outside of Quebec). You can sometimes hear it referred to as Canada’s birthday

There are usually a lot of fairs on Canada Day which can include parades, fireworks and some rides and food. Also, on this day it is quite common for new Canadian citizens to be sworn in during a ceremony. This ceremony can take place in different locations and sometimes can even happen before the start of the Blue Jays Baseball game if the Blue Jays are playing at home. 

A lot of cities and communities plan their local Canada Day celebration, and they can be a lot of fun to attend.  Here are just a few locations where you can find an event

• East York, Toronto, Ontario

• Ottawa, Ontario

• Vancouver, British Columbia and region

• Calgary, Alberta

Each event is going to be a little different than the next one and it all depends on if it is a big city organizing it or a local community. No matter where you are in Canada (except Quebec) you will find some sort of festival celebrating the Confederation of Canada. If you happen to be driving around on Canada Day, why not stop in at a celebration to see what is going on. They can be a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate with others.

Ice cream trucks

When do ice cream trucks think it’s ok to pull into an apartment driveway to sell ice cream but block access to and from the underground driveway. 

So, recently we had an ice truck decide that the driveway in our apartment building was a great location to sit and sell ice cream to various members of the community. Well, there was a major issue about where this truck was parked. It wasn’t in a parking spot but in part of the driveway which is used for both cars turning from dropping off people at the front door and cars coming up or into our underground parking garage.

The ice cream truck was in this same location for over 1.5 hours, and it didn’t seem to register to them that they were causing a major issue for people coming and going from our property. It seemed like selling the ice cream was far more important to them.

We did place phone call to our security to let them know of the issue, but after them telling us someone was dispatched, we didn’t hear anything or see anything so that wasn’t a great experience. After we made that call, we decided to call 311 which is the city area that we can report issues, but after an extremely long hold and then being placed on hold again when the person looked up how to manage this, we were told that because it was on private property there was nothing that the city could do.

So, the results of hearing an ice cream truck for over 1.5 hours was not results at all, so now we are going to be heading down to talk to our superintendent to see if they can report the issue and maybe get some results. We do have the vehicle method license so hopefully that will help keep this vehicle from setting on private property and seeing ice cream.

Sitting and trying to enjoy a nice summer evening on our balcony can be an issue and knowing how to handle each issue is very important.

Shorelines Casino Belleville

If you are someone that enjoys spending a little bit of time in a casino to try your luck on some slot machines here is a location that I would recommend.  This location has 500 slot machines and 18 table games but besides that it has a restaurant which I would recommend. There was a buffet prior to Covid but it doesn’t exist anymore, but the restaurant is located that you need to try out. The restaurant is open to anyone 19 years of age or over as it is within the casino.

The casino is not open 24 hours a day so that is something that you are going to have to understand before you go. The Belleville hours are something you are going to have to check because most times over the weekend it is open 24 hours but during the week there are limited hours. 

Now the restaurant that is within the casino is a spot that you need to check out because the meals can be outstanding depending on when you go. We went just after the New Year, and we were lucky, and I was able to enjoy a hot turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce because the casino has a special dinner for all the staff that had worked over the holidays. I was so happy to be able to get this special because I love turkey dinners, so this was exact special.

We have found that the meals are a reasonable sized portion so don’t be afraid to ask for part of your meal to go. The last meal I had was a stir fry and there was enough leftover that I was able to have it for another meal. This meal was so good and I wasn’t able to find the rice easily until I did some digging so it was worth having the leftovers.

This casino is located right beside the TownePlace Suites Belleville so that means that you can have breakfast in the hotel and walk over to the Casino to have a very nice dinner. Of course, the restaurant isn’t fancy, and you might have to wait for a table but honestly the meal is so worth it. When we are in the Belleville area we will stay here because it means that we know that we will have a good dinner and might have some leftovers depending on our meal. Normally, I will also spend a little bit of money ($20) on the slot machines and see if I can come away with more than I put into the machines.

For more information about what to do on your way to Belleville and while there check out this blog (A Weekend Escape to Belleville posting July 15th, 2025)

Saying goodbye to someone that was important to a community

There are so many times that we see someone that has passed, and it has been felt within a community or multiple communities. This past week Canada said good-bye to a former MP and someone that wasn’t just a MP but was the first Canadian Astronaut in space. 

Marc Garneau within the East York Community was someone that was recognized by having a school named after him and it was because of who he was that the school decided to rename itself from Overlea Secondary School to Marc Garneau Collegiate. I was happy to see that renaming because it was the East York Community recognizing someone that did something special for Canada.

Marc Garneau was the first Canadian Armed Forcer officer, astronaut and politician that went into space on October 5, 1984, and flew on three Space Shuttle missions. After doing this he became a member of parliament and served from 2001 until he retired from parliament in 2003.

The school in East York was renamed in 1987 from Overlea Secondary School to Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute and he regularly visited the school and the students. I know that the community around Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute is going to miss who the school was named after because he someone that a lot of the students were able to look up to.

Marc Garneau passed away on June 4, 2025 and he will be missed within the community and all of Canada.

Why?

 This seems like such a simple word, but it can have so many meanings, and we just have to look at why someone is saying the word why.

Why? This can be a question that so many people don’t know how to answer, and it can really depend on the contents that it is being said. I know that when I say this work it can be taken so many ways, and we need to figure out what the true mean of this simple question is.

Here are some ideas of what why is being asked:

• Why is this happening and can you please explain the issue that you are trying to resolve.

• Why can’t people understand what I am trying to ask them to do? Maybe because you haven’t cleaning defined what you expect someone to do.

• Why is this issue not resolved? Maybe because the issue hasn’t been cleaning defined so there isn’t a method to resolve the issue.

It is amazing how many times we hear the word “why” and there isn’t a definition associated with it. When we try and say the word “why” we need to understand that the person that is hearing it needs a definition to help resolve an issue. The simple question of “why” doesn’t really help resolve anything because what we haven’t done is explain the reason, we are using that work. 

I know that when I ask the question “why?” it is followed by a lot of other words as I am trying to resolve an issue and want to understand the entire issue that we are trying to resolve. It is so amazing how many times I hear it just doesn’t work, and they expect me to have a solution without them telling me what is really happening. The question “why” is something that needs to be explained and also understood because it can help answer a lot of questions if people are just willing to explain what is happening and maybe why they are looking for in an answer.

Why to me is just a start of a conversation and it isn’t a solution because why doesn’t answer the overall question, it is just the start of a conversation.