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Postcard from Prince Edward County: A Different Kind of Canada Day Celebration
Canada Day celebrations are big and plenty in Toronto and its surrounding areas. For the last few years we have loved to stay in the city and maybe check out any of the big fireworks displays that take place all around the city. For the past couple of years, in fact, we have stayed right here at home, attending the festivities at Rotary Park in Ajax on the big day of Canada’s Birthday and at night going to Kinsmen’s park to catch the show and the splendid fireworks finale, which have been very impressive the last couple of years.
This year, however, since we went on our first camping trip of the season to Sandbanks Provincial Park, we got a chance to visit frequently the picturesque town of Picton, a small town located a few short kilometres from Sandbanks. This is a very cute little town located in the Prince Edward County, just south of Belleville, about 2 and a half hours from Toronto. The scenery that surrounds it is breathtaking, an island community just on the east end of Lake Ontario and surrounded by over 2 dozen award-winning wineries on all flanks. In the last few years it has also become a top culinary destination and, in fact, in many circles it’s been branded the gastronomic capital of Ontario.
We played tourists for a few days, and not only were we blessed with amazing weather, which made it so much more pleasurable to hop about town, but we also bore witness to the high number of tourists that visited in droves, seeing literally crowds walking up and down Picton’s Main Street for most of the week. Every day we went to Picton we enjoyed a delicious ice cream treat at Scoops Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt (pretty much the highlight of our days). For one of our lunch adventures, we heard people raving about the awesome gourmet hot dogs at Buddha Dog right on Main street and we had to try it. They were absolutely fantastic and definitely lived up to the hype!
We also got a chance to get a bite to eat on Canada Day at the Acoustic Grill, another great find in Picton, where we had a great meal (we were served by a really great waitress, but I couldn’t catch her name; she was super nice and extremely efficient) while enjoying some live acoustic music. It’s a small place, but the ambiance was very nice and welcoming.
We had also heard great things about the Lake on the Mountain Provincial Park, so we visited one afternoon and we were absolutely amazed because the view is nothing short of spectacular. It’s just one of those wonders of nature that you have to see to believe: You can see Lake Ontario at the bottom of the park (and the ferry travelling back and forth) and right across the street there’s a small lake right on the mountain. Literally, across the street! It’s absolutely stunning! We tried to have dinner at the very popular and highly recommended Inn on the Lake restaurant, but alas, there was a long wait and we had no reservations.
Being big soccer fans, we inquired with people for a good place to watch the Spain/Italy soccer finals that were to take place on Canada Day. We were referred to a couple of places in Bloomfield, another small town just a few kilometres west of Sandbanks and off we went to try to find a spot where to have a bite to eat and enjoy the game. We got really, really lucky because upon arriving to town we were sent to Dave’s Roadhouse, a bar and restaurant at the end of Bloomfield’s Main Street, which we were told it would most likely be filled to capacity– and sure enough, it was.
As we arrived, we could see that it was a packed house (with blue shirts everywhere mainly rooting for Italy, and we’re Spain fans). The affable and jovial bartender, Dave, (who we later learned was Dave, as in the owner of the place) was kind enough to let us sit at the bar and boy, our afternoon couldn’t have gone better. We enjoyed some amazing wings (one of their most popular items, we were told) and the game turned out much better than anticipated. By the end, some people in red shirts, who were there celebrating Canada Day, were all rooting and screaming for Spain. Such a fun afternoon and such a great way to experience and getting a true sense of community right there in Bloomfield.
But that was not it. After the game we saw people lining up outside an ice cream store and we just had to have some. We scored big once again. The place is called Slickers Ice Cream, and it was just to die for. We heard people talking in line and they were saying they buy the ice cream by the quarts and tubs, it’s that good. The had a large variety of flavours, all homemade ice cream, and the taste was simply like no other. Each lick was pure decadence.
To end the long weekend in style, we decided to join, back in Picton, what seemed to be the entire town for their Canada Day celebrations at Delhi Hill, right in the middle of town. We were told that the entire town comes out for this, and even people from all over the county make the trek to join in the festivities. The show before the fireworks included performances by brother and sister duo Instant Rivalry and other performers equally talented as well.
The night ended with a unique display of fireworks (it was a pleasant surprise to see fireworks with the crowd being at the top and the display starting at the bottom of the hill, something I’d never seen before) and we were very happy to see that everyone celebrates Canada Day with the utmost respect and pride in this country we all love and cherish, an adopted land for a lot of us and the place we call home and have learned to love as if we had been born here.
