Upstate New York and Canada: Home, Sweet Goderich (9.5.24)

I wanted to see two things as we traveled through southwestern Ontario on September 5, 2024.  One was Goderich, the town where my Hamilton ancestors lived after they emigrated from Canada, and the other was the Nauvoo Road.

This map shows Toronto, which we visited on September 4, 2024, and Goderich (starred), on the banks of Lake Huron.  The Nauvoo Road extends towards Detroit.  

The Nauvoo Road was constructed in 1846 by Mormon converts traveling to Nauvoo from Ontario.  My great-great-grandfather, James Hamilton, traveled with his family along the Nauvoo Road in 1846.  They arrived in Nauvoo in April 1846, just in time to attend the dedication of the Nauvoo Temple in May 1846.  Four Scottish and Scots-Irish convert families traveled together--the Hamiltons, Hills, Parks, and Gardners.  The Hamiltons and Hills, to whom I am related, settled Millcreek, the section of Salt Lake City where I and three of my children have lived.

Dave and I browsed through two county museums, looking for history of my ancestors or their times and places. The Lambton County Museum included log cabins from the same time period that my Hamilton ancestors lived in the area.

The Hamilton journals described clearing the heavily forested land and building log homes.

These photographs of early Goderich pioneers were taken later than the Hamiltons' time, but the cabins, horse-drawn carts, and barn raisings were probably similar.

William "Tiger" Dunlop was head of the Canadian Company Land Office in the area during the early 1800s.  I'm not sure why my Hamiltons emigrated to this spot in Ontario.  I learned that land grants were made to British soldiers after the War of 1812, and that John Hamilton, my great-great-great grandfather who emigrated, had been an officer in the British army.  Maybe there is a connection.

On our way to and from Goderich, we passed rich farmland with picturesque farmhouses and barns.  It looked like the American Midwest and, in fact, it is north of Ohio and Indiana.

When we arrived in Goderich, we visited the Huron County Museum, with its vintage jail and artifacts from Goderich history.

A curator at the museum looked in his records for James Hamilton, but couldn't find him.  He directed me to a history of Goderich County which describes its founding and history.  I will buy it on eBay.

Dave and I ate a gourmet dinner at the Cork & Coast Restaurant in a restored home in Goderich.  The waitress told us most of their guests are visitors from Toronto who want to get away from the crowded city.  "I'm not sure what they see in Goderich," she said.

We wandered through the quaint downtown.

We walked along the banks of Lake Huron and savored the glorious sunset.  Reputedly, Queen Elizabeth II once said that Goderich had the most beautiful sunsets in the world.  Unfortunately, there is no record of Queen Elizabeth II ever having visited Goderich!

Upstate New York and Canada: Toronto--a Melting Pot (9.4.24)

For years, I've wanted to visit my Hamilton ancestors' home city in Ontario, Canada.  On September 3, 2024, Dave and I flew into Buffalo, New York, and spent the next day exploring Toronto.  We stayed in Hamilton, a suburb of Toronto.  Hamilton was settled in 1770 and my Hamilton relatives didn't emigrate from Ireland until 1810, so the town was settled by my clan, but not by my direct ancestors.  Today both Toronto and Hamilton are multiethnic, with many Indians and Chinese on the streets and as proprietors of local shops.  Our Toronto guide told us that 40% of the inhabitants of Toronto were born in a different country.  Fittingly, we had delicious Indian food for dinner.

 

We spent several hours at the impressive Royal Ontario Museum.  Its collections were massive.

A favorite exhibit, for both Dave and me, was "Earth: An Immersive Journey."  We traveled through four or five darkened rooms, filled with wall-size videos of huge, larger-than-human insects, an underground slice filled with moles and ants and roots, and an Arctic room with walls patterned with glaciers and icebergs.

The Oriental treasures were amazing.

I enjoyed the special exhibit on "cats," with stuffed versions of the dozens of varieties of wild cats in the world.

And, because I so love studying history, I was fascinated with the period rooms, from the dark wood of the Elizabethan period to the brilliantly colored walls of an 18th century salon and the "Chinoiserie" influenced by Britain's trade with the Orient.

In the afternoon, we took a two-hour city tour on the top of a double decker bus.  Our guide was an immigrant from India.

We saw the shiny skyscrapers holding the office workers of this city of six million, which is the commercial center of Canada.

We saw Toronto's new, multiethnic culture in the Chinese and Indian stores and signs.

And we saw vestiges of Canada's British heritage in these "bobbies" riding horses down the city streets.

We passed by Toronto's huge stadium and Toronto's iconic tower.  Dave hated the big city traffic, but we agreed to return someday and stay in a hotel, carless, in the center of town.  There is so much more to see in this beautiful city!

The End of the Trail (9.4.24)

Dave began running with Richard Carman in 1984.  Richard died, after a long illness, in late August, and his funeral was held on September 4, 2024.  Dave was asked to speak at Richard's funeral, but, unfortunately, we were on a trip.  Richard is pictured on the second row, far right, of the picture above.  Dave was close friends with his entire running group, which ran up City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake City five or six days per week,  The group has slowly fallen apart, as one member after another has quit running due to injuries, illnesses, or moving away.  Dave now walks alone.

Running has been an important part of Dave's life, ever since the glory days when he ran a 3:06 St. George Marathon.

Dave arranged for the old running group to send flowers to Richard's funeral.

Mary Carman, Richard's wife, sent photos of the running group that had been displayed at Richard's funeral.

Mirror Lake and West Africa (9.1 and 9.2.24)

A great weekend, for Dave and me, includes a "date" for the two of us, and a family dinner on Sunday.  During the weekend of September 1, 2024, we experienced both.  Dave and I spent a night at our cabin in the Uintah Mountains, visited Mirror Lake together, and then fixed a West African dinner for the family.

We have become very fond of the Oakley Diner, located on the corner in Oakley, Utah, where the road turns to follow the Weber River to our cabin.  The diner was originally towed from Rhode Island and, after going through a series of owners, is now spacious, clean, and has good food. Dave and I ate Saturday breakfast there, and I enjoyed my avocado toast.

We never tire of visiting the Alpine lakes of northern Utah, particularly including Mirror Lake.  It took some maneuvering, on this weekend summer day, to get a photo with no one in it!

Since most of my family was out-of-town, I cooked a West African dinner for Mike.

Peanut soup and jollof rice with chicken are delicious, but not for the gastronomically squeamish.

Mike and I decided that the jollof rice was good, but not yet on par with the jollof rice we ate in our cooking class in Dakar, Senegal.  I'll keep trying!