Balls Fall Conservation Area

 We recently spent some time near Jordan, which is just southwest of the town of Lincoln, located in the gorgeous Niagara region of Ontario.

This is in the heart of Niagara wine country - prevalent vineyards and acres of farmland.  Much much prettier in the summer months when everything is green.

I've seen it then when there are rows and rows of perfectly planted grape vines and there is a stark difference in the early signs of spring.

In this historical ghost town is Balls Falls Conservation area.  It occupies a small portion of the 1200 acres bought by the Balls Brothers in the mid 1800s.  There are two waterfalls at it's location, known simply as 'Upper falls' (10.7m), and 'Lower falls' (27.4 m) high.

They both run out of the 20 Mile Creek and both are pretty impressive to look at and easy to get to which is why it's family friendly and great for families with little kids.

One of the most frustrating aspect of taking waterfall pictures is when there always seems to be a tree(s) in the way!  Such is the case here in when I was taking pictures of the Upper falls.  It's really difficult to get a picture around it, but the Lower Falls has a clear path.  It also doesn't help when the trees are mere stick-like twigs!  It sure doesn't make much of a picture frame, but you can get the idea of how lovely the water flows over firmer limestone and several weaker sandstone layers.  

The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority had purchased this land in 1962.  The gorge has become somewhat of a scientific interest and at the Ball's Falls Centre for Conservation (located near the parking lot as you come in), there is a lot to help visitors learn of the area's cultural and natural history.

Inside when opened (may-October) includes galleries, exhibits and interactive displays, archaeological finds and some information about the watershed ecosystem of the 20 mile creek.


The village of Glen Elgin is located near the Lower Falls, just opposite of the foot bridge located at the bottom of the park.  In the village, you can see the original Ball family house, and operating gristmill, a lime kiln, a restored church, a blacksmith shop and a carriage shed.

The Ball family house is a Georgian style home, and was built in 1846 for George Ball and his family.  The front of the house was then used as a general store.  George's idea was for Glen Elgin to become somewhat of a hamlet for local residents.  It never came to pass and when Mortimer inherited the home in 1883, he decorated the home to be a law office so he could work from home.


You can also see the renovated Woolen Mill was reconstructed in the early 1840s to manufacturer cloth with water and the power of steam.  By 1851 George had over 30 employees working at the mill.

There is a quaint little church in the village called, St. George Anglican church.  It was built in 1865 to serve the growing hamlet of Glen Elgin.

By the 1960s due to the growing population on the Hamilton Mountain, it was advised to build a larger church to accommodate all the parishoners.  The old church was bought by the Niagara Conservation Authority and put on the Balls Falls Conservation area as part of the Elgin Mills village.  The church today is still used occasionally for small wedding services.

I had a wonderful time here, and despite slightly chilly temps, it was still a great visit.  This is no my list to return once the weather is warmer again.  I really do need to remember to bring my tripod!

Sheppard's Bush Conservation Area

We recently stopped for a visit and a lunch into Aurora, Ontario which is a small suburb north of Richmond Hill.  You can eventually reach it if you continue north on Yonge Street outside of King City.


Aurora is big on its historical buildings - in fact in 2008, the town was awarded the Prince of Wales Prize for Municipal Heritage Leadership.  Again in 2009, the town received the Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Community Leadership in Heritage Conservation and promotion.



From the moment you step off the train at the old Aurora Train station (which also was built in the 1800s and still remains), you can see old houses with plaques proudly displayed under street numbers giving the dates when they were built.

After a nice lunch, we took advantage of the mild temperatures to check out a nearby conservation area.  Sheppard Bush Conversation Area has a few trail loops covering about 3 km of land that take a little over an hour to complete.  I had my running shoes on, so ended up doing a little cross country skiing instead of walking as the treads were wearing down.  It was above freezing and a great day to get around without mitts and a hat for a change.

The hardwood forest greets you as you enter the mature sugar bush and upland forest, pine plantations along the ravine and East Holland River.

The trails are hard-packed with gravel and limestone for the most part during milder temperatures (April - October) so there's no reason not to use them even in winter if you stick to the course.  It's good to note that once the park reopens, this trail connects to the Nokiidaa trail to go as far as Holland Landing, or the Oak Ridges Trail to reach Palgrave or Rice lake. 

We finished the marked paths of the Sheppard's Bush, Tim Jones and Klaus Wehrenberg trails.  It took slightly under a couple of hours to move through it though most likely much quicker without snow.

There's some spectacular sized sport fields (11 soccer fields in total) which you can gain access to through the parking lot entrance off Industrial Parkways South.

The parking lot has a 3 hr visitor parking in effect so also good to note.

Also another bonus is this trail is bike friendly - what's there not to love?  

Cuba! Cayo Coco

walk to the beach

24-hour bar

It's been years since we took a real vacation.  I've never been on a plane, or even outside of Canada, let alone both at once so this was exciting for me.

I couldn't sleep the night before because I kept checking our luggage to make sure we had everything.

Our vacation was at one of those 7-day all-inclusive resorts in Cuba where the flight, hotel and your meals and drinks were included.  Initially my husband was a little worried I'd go back my old habit of having one too many but much to his surprise and mine I happily limited my alcoholic intake to no more than 6 pina~coladas for the entire week!

late at night at the front lobby

huts where lounge chairs normally are

The all-day all-you-can-eat  buffets were great, despite the many warnings that the food was going to be bland and that we should bring our own condiments!

I'm not sure what other resorts are like yet in Cuba, but the food in Cayo Coco ("flamingo island") was pretty amazing.  Sure they had some hit-and-misses on some days like their "Asian-station" for variety but hey, at least they tried. At least it was all safe, which isn't the case at all resorts.

windy afternoon by the pool

bubble play

Their strawberry and mango yogurt smoothies, bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese and fruit trays, the make-your-own-burrito stations, pizza and lasagna trays and of course the ice cream were all consistently good!

A la carte menu

Also included in our package was the 'a la carte' menus at the 3 different gourmet restaurants on the resort.  This was especially nice since we normally would never go to a 5-course restaurant.  Like everywhere else, the wine and beer is all included (again, I opted out).

Cayo beach

giant chess game

One thing I did agree to was to leave our cell phones at home.  We didn't want to bring any techy gadgets with the exception of my aging camera.

This I thought was going to be a somewhat of a challenge for me since I am one of those people who wake up looking at my phone to check out the latest on Twitter, Instagram and the occasional Facebook postings.  For starters, I bought a cheap watch to help us keep track of time (which I am still wearing) and after a few days by the ocean, it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me in a long time.

kayaks, hobie cats

The weather in Cuba during the week we were there was a little unseasonably cool and very windy, with the exception of two very beautiful days, so we couldn't get out on to the kayaks because they worried for the winds.  There was still plenty of exploring to do on the island.

wading pelican

royal terns

The ocean would be the best thing for me spending long hours a day walking along the 3km sandy beach, listening to the soothing crashes of the waves, feeling the salt-water splash on my face, seeing different kinds of birds like the pelican that taking  a nose dive into the water at full speed to gulp that fish that no one else sees, the royal terns gossiping (which resemble little old men with swooping bald spots) and the northern mocking birds,  which would carry on little conversations with my husband on some mornings repeating the same whistling patterns back to him.

views from the extinct restaurant

Island of Aa

extinct restaurant

Our resort was next to an abandoned restaurant, which I wanted to check out on my own for a little while.  It sat on a mesa of 'aa' rock, (a Hawaiian word derived from the sound made by someone walking over it in bare feet... even through my thickly rubber-soled sandals I was terrified the spikes would puncture through.)

Strange sort of jungle gym?

Our view from our place towards the main hotel

 The highlights of the vacation were centered around all things natural despite the many activities the resort had planned for their guests.

They really go out of their way to entertain their guests with days filled with different activities like bubble play where the swimming pool is doused with bubbles, daily yoga and kickboxing classes, Spanish classes, dance lessons, and off the resort excursions to the Moron (pronounced Mo-RONE) where you can check out the sugar plantations and meet the locals, as well as day trips to an off-resort town where you can share the same water tank as the dolphins while the poor things are trained to kiss you and do other tricks.  We opted out.

locals

 No... for me, my memories will always be the first time I set eyes on a palm tree swaying in the breeze off the ocean at night, the moon which shines directly above you because you are so close to the equator, the brilliant and rare queen conch shells (which we left because there was still life inside), whelks, sea urchins and brain corals (which I so wanted to take back, but were too heavy to bring so I left where found for someone else to enjoy) and little sand crabs that come out of hiding when the tide was out (this is also caused by the moon) and the little sandpipers as they scurry out to the ocean sand bed to pick at some grub just before the waves come back in to scoot them along.

a 

Mercedes taxi

Chevy Belair

 Cuba is a small island country filled with big-hearted people, who are poor but live with dignity.  They are hard-working and unspoiled by modern technology so they're very creative and talented.  'Hidden Cuba' which is a book you should pick up, is a real look at life of the Cuban people who live far away from the life on the resorts.  Their average income is about $3,000/yr.  Cuba is a socialist country just like China, but they treat their people a little better giving them a good education and health care, and no constant surveillance.  Despite that, most of them live on the poverty line and barely get enough to eat every day.  I was saddened by the fact that the food on the resort was so abundant for the tourists while the native Cubans didn't have access to it.  Maybe that's why I didn't want to over-indulge? 

Our gardener

My final thoughts about being there, was that it was the first time in my life (since I was a kid) that I had no worries.  I didn't worry about my kids, my job, my parents, my self-consciousness.  I was completely and utterly at peace with myself and the world around me.  It was amazing.  My husband wasn't affected as deeply as I was as I think for him he had traveled so much as a child to many countries and much of what he experienced he had something to compare it to I imagine, but not me.

Gardener weaved this pretty bird for me

I was an unspoiled child as my family had next to nothing except each other, so in a strange way this made me feel sorry for the Cuban people (who were not lucky enough to work on the resort.)  I want to come back again but will try and take more time to to explore the rest of the country. 

 

Rockwood Conservation Area

My hubby and I went to the Rockwood Conservation area because of an Instagram photo I saw of how amazing this place was.  I wasn't really disappointed, although the sky wasn't what I would call ideal.  It had rained a few times but I managed to take some photos.


The park charges $7/each person.  They are friendly and had pointed us in the right direction to the waterfall I thought would be the main feature, but wasn't.  The real feature here are the caves.

There are over 194-acres of great hiking trails, boardwalks and idyllic sandy beaches.  It also houses an interesting array of castle-like ruins which are the remains of a woolen mill that once existed here.

Rockwood is just an hour outside Toronto. Its accessibility and proximity to major highways like the 401 make it an easy city escape.  What makes Rockwood Conservation Area unique from most parks is the sheer amount of activities it boasts and its rich geological aspects.   A few environmental features it’s known for are the glacier bluffs, extensive cave systems (12 in total) and some of the oldest dated trees in Ontario. 


Even with Rockwood being a nature lovers paradise, it seems over the years the biggest tourist draw has been the stunning Harris Woolen Mill ruins, the remnants of an ancient textile mill.

Built in the mid 1880s, the mill was forced to shut down during the Depression and has remained vacant since.

Over the past decade, the mill had gone through almost a million-dollar renovation to preserve its history and make it safe for visitors to walk through and appreciate.The site is part of the Grand River Conservation Authority, and is an extremely popular spot for picnics, hikes, photography shoots and weddings.

If you want to spend more than a day inside the park, there are over 120 campsites on four main campgrounds.

Fill your entire weekend up with swimming, fishing, canoeing, hiking, and even paddle boarding — which you can rent in the summer.  The conservation area is open year-round and camping is available from May to October.

I loved it here so much that at the end of the day I almost wished I brought a tent.