Trip to Manitoulin

Hi everyone, I am now just about up to date with my computer. For our few days away, I thought I would just reprint the diary I wrote and include some pictures. The first two are the view from the harbour in Tobemory.

September 15, 2008

My first problem in life is that I can’t connect to the net. My lincsys seems to be kaput. Not sure if there is a store here for PC parts, at the moment I’m not sure what there is on Manitoulin Island, I presume there must be shops of some kind somewhere. We had a very uneventful if somewhat damp ride here, like going through what the Irish would call a heavy mist. In a few places it turned into rain, but never for very long. We got to Tobermory quite early and checked in, paid our fare and got into line. We then strolled over to a restaurant close by and had their special, chicken noodle soup and a corned beef sandwich. For my limey readers, that is not the stuff out of a can tin, but sliced brined beef, delicious stuff, much nicer than the stuff produced by Mr. Fray Bentos and his ilk. We then walked around the ferry dock and took a couple of pix (I forgot the cord for my camera so I can upload the pix onto the Laptop, duuh). We then saw the Chi-Cheemaun in the distance so went back to the car, in fact we would have had time to take pix of her coming into dock. Walking past some of the waiting cars, I heard a woman saying “put it in the boot” I said “boot? I haven’t heard that in a long while”. We stood chatting for a while and they are over here for a month. Spent a few days in Toronto, a few in Niagara and were now going to visit Manitoulin. She told me they were from Derbyshire and it was their second visit to Canada, last time they went to BC. I should have so much money!! We boarded the ferry and left our cars. Not that we wanted to, but you are not allowed to stay with your car and if, for any reason, you need to return to it, you have to get a crew member to take you there to open the door to the vehicle area. There is a cafeteria, a bar, an information area with leaflets on every conceivable thing to do with the island. Decided to have a beer as we were thirsty. Having finished that, we sat on the afterdeck which was out of the wind, but in the sun, and was delightful. Any rain had completely disappeared and it was now a lovely day. The lake actually looked blue and we passed lots of quite big islands, naïve of us, but I hadn’t even realized there were so many islands out here. We docked and once ashore, found our B & B quite close. This picture is through a window on the after deck. The B & B have a gift shop which is also the office and which sells lots of locally made bead stuff!! Not quite our thing. The owner, Brenda, took us over to the house where our bedroom is. I’m glad it isn’t raining. Matt is not too happy as there isn’t really anywhere for us to hang anything. The room isn’t bad though with a queen sized bed which looks quite comfy. Later Brenda showed us where she serves breakfast, another house. She suggested a place for supper and told us of another restaurant for Tuesday night. I wasn’t too sure about her first recommendation, however having had a drink in the little kitchenette/sitting area, we went and had salad and a breaded pork cutlet (I think it was some kind of minced pork) which wasn’t bad, but the veg were canned or overcooked. Not sure which. Price wasn’t bad though but then we were a tad took aback, they only took cash, luckily we had enough. We came back and had a couple more drinks and that’s when I discovered I couldn’t get on the net. So we played a few games of cribbage and pored over some of the leaflets. We had decided where to visit tomorrow and check out accommodations for later in the week.

Pork Chops Smothered with Cabbage

Servings: 6

Source: Cookbook Wizard

8 cups coarsely shredded red cabbage (about 1-1/2 pounds)

4 cups chopped apples (about4 medium)

2 cups sliced red onion (about1 large)

1-1/2 cups chicken broth1/4 cup red wine vinegar or cider vinegar

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 bay leaf

6 pork rib or loin chops, about 3/4 inch thick (about1-1/2 pounds)

1 cup cranberry juice cocktail

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Cover and cook all ingredients except pork chops, cranberry juice and parsley in Dutch oven over medium heat 10 minutes, stirring occasionally; reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Trim fat from pork. Stir cranberry juice into cabbage mixture; add pork. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 45 minutes or until pork is tender. Remove bay leaf. Serve cabbage over pork chops. Sprinkle with parsley.

Have a great day