Canada 8

We have been out of touch with the world for the last week due to having no units/minutes left for me to blog, e-mail or use the telephone. Last night we are in a marina with wi-fi so I am able to update you.
First of all, the boat is having problems. The starboard engine is over heating so we are running on the port engine only. No, we are not going round in circles!!! Also, the loos have problems, both of them. We are unable to use the toilets so I will leave it to your imagination what we have to do during the day and hence the marina last night.
We have seen some lovely sites in the past week and met two very nice couples, Susan and Brent and Larry and Gail. We spent two nights with them playing Skip-Bo and a game that Brent showed us how to play. The games were accompanied by wine and snacks and lots of laughs. 
We are still in Georgian Bay at a little town called Kagagong on Manatoulin Island. They had live music at the marina last night so we were serenaded with "House of the Rising Sun" etc.. The group was very good.
To get to Kagagong we have travelled through some lovely areas accompanied  by really calm waters. The area is part of the Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau. The area covers 2/3 of Canada and into the United States and is made up of mostly granite. Because the area is mostly granite the soil is poor and thin and cannot support trees with deep root systems. We have seen several trees toppled over by high winds exposing a very shallow root system.

The granite varies in colours from pink to grey to white. Every housewife must have a counter top in one of these colours in her kitchen as there is absolutely loads of it around.
We ate at Henry's, a famous fish and chip restaurant on Frying Pan Island (yes, that really is the name of the island). Gary had fresh lake perch, I had haddock and chips. Both were very nice.

We have passed several light houses and because I have a friend who likes light houses, I am including them here.

 You can see the pink granite nicely in the above photo underneath the light house.

This was a wet, drizzly day but at least the winds were calm.
We came across a couple of signs that made us smile.

 Somebody had kindly put a direction sign on one of the granite islands.

This sign reads "boat-in theatre". That makes a change from a drive-in. I guess there was nothing on the night we arrived. We had one morning of thick fog and could only drive the boat using radar. However, it did make for some interesting photos and driving.

We passed a couple of interesting sights somewhere in Georgian Bay (I do not remember where though). One was of a cross which Jen thought was erected by Native Canadians. We are in an area inhabited by many "natives" who live in areas called "First Nations" not reservations as we call them in the U.S..

Jen very kindly gave us a plaque with her photo of the cross on it and it now hangs proudly above our sofa in the living room. The other interesting sight not too far from the cross was a barrel on a tall pole which, supposedly was used  years ago to tell sailors of a safe passage through the turbulent waters. Now we have NOAA..

Unfortunately, I could not find any information on the "web"  about either of these two landmarks. If anyone can give me any info, I would really be interested in hearing from them.
A blog would not be complete without reflection and sunset photos, now would it?

Before finishing I would like to say a big thank-you to the following friends and family members: Mum and Dad, Cheryl (sister-in-law), Linda S, Linda M, Juju, Joy, Sigrid, Carol DeC and Sharon W. You were all so kind after finding out about the loss of Mia. It was a very tough 4-5 weeks for me and I could not have got through it without your kind words. I especially want to say a big thank-you to Mum and Dad and Linda S, both of whom cried with me. Everyone should have a friend like Linda. She has been behind me through thick and thin and I am not talking about my weight. She is the sister I never had and I thank her for being there for me.