Canada Day Long Weekend Getaway – Glass Bottom Cruise & FlowerPot Island (Tobermory, Ontario)

When you come across pictures of Tobermory and gaze upon its beautiful blue waters and waterfront views, it hard to imagine that this place could exist only a few hours away from city life. With our travels to Boracay long behind us, we began to grow a longing for beautiful, picturesque scenery. We were so eager to arrive and soak it all in.

After our cave adventure on the Saturday of our arrival, we headed in town to get some dinner and check out what was around. We browsed through galleries, souvenir shops, bought ourselves a stuffed bear to commemorate and even some silver necklaces which was on our to buy list for a while (I had broken my favourite necklace a few weeks back). We settled on the Tobermory Brewing Company for lunch as David was looking for a place to sit down an unwind. Seated indoors and near the back of the restaurant (it too long of a wait for an outdoor table) we settled in for dinner. Surrounded with the brewery tanks really added to the atmosphere and fascinated us during the short window for our food arrival. We both opted for the prime rib burger with all the fixings and David had their local beer (though I forget now the name of his selection). It came piping hot and very satisfying. After dinner got some ice cream & sorbet for this lactose-sensitive girl. We made a few more stops to get some information about what to do the next day before heading over to our Airbnb for the night.

Apparently I visited Tobermory once before with my family a long time ago. While the place felt familiar during this visit, I certainly didn’t experience any strong flashbacks. It all worked out as David had never been before and this gave us a chance to experience it with fresh eyes together. We had grand plans of visiting the grotto and perhaps even do a little swimming (which failed miserably due to our lack of research on the limited/first-come first-serve entry style of the park). Our plans were quickly scaled down once the weather report of rain came in. David’s primary desire was to take a ride on one of the glass bottom boats. While there is a quick option to visit flowerpot island and return back to the mainland, we opted for a little longer stay. With a Tim Horton’s lunch packed, we took our boat tour and trekked around the island’s trail.

It was truly a beautiful day on the island. The weather held up the whole way through. Refreshing enough to stay cool, but warm enough that the sun’s rays blanketed you in a comforting hug. As one of the last people to board the boat, we stood on the upper part of the deck which luckily seems to provide the best 360 view. On the island, we challenged ourselves to make use of the time and do the full tour of the island. It became really muddy once we passed the lighthouse and explored deeper in the forest, due to the rainfall the day before but we marched on. It was time really well spent together and the sort of challenges I wouldn’t necessarily have taken if it wasn’t for David encouraging me. Couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day together. Since we didn’t want to make ourselves sick, we waited until the end of the trip to eat. Taking a seat on some benches near the campsites, we fed a few chipmunks (and by ‘we’, I mean David did) while we had our lunch. A quick ride on the speedier boat back, we returned to the mainland and headed home.