Rattlesnake Point and Crawford lake

We drove a few miles north to the Niagara Escarpment to take a look at a couple of conservation areas.

The path through the woods to Rattlesnake Point. It was a lovely afternoon and it was exceedingly pleasant strolling along under the shady trees.

Looking out from the point.

There was a curious rock pillar just below.

You could take some steps down to look more closely at the pillar. Apparently the area is popular with rock climbers.

It was amazing how some of the rocks managed to stay up there. I certainly wouldn't linger underneath.

There is much less ground level vegetation here that we would find at our woods in Maryland. Some areas like this were completely bare.

We then walked back to the parking lot and then drove to Crawford Lake.

Before walking to the lake we visited the Wendat village which was home to some Indians from the Iroquois tribe. The village is reconstructed and is surrounded by a picket fence.

This building was constructed based on the findings of archaeologists.

A reconstruction of the archaeology process.

The bark used to enclose the building.

The building is quite large with very high ceiling. I wonder how the Indians managed to climb up there to put on the roof.

One half of the building was set up to show what life was like in the building. Here are animal skins on what presumable would have been a bed.

Moose antlers.

Tennis racquets. Just kidding, but they did have some sticks that looked like lacrosse sticks.

There was a park ranger who demonstrated how the Indians would have made a fire using the local flint stones. She used a white fluffy plant called milk weed along with some flammable bark and when she got a spark it really went up very quickly.

This looks like where you would shoot your arrows from to keep raiders away.

The building from the outside.

As part of the archaeology exploration, they found the traces of two other buildings and have erected the skeletons of the buildings to show where they were.

You might be surprised to know that the Iroquois were the inventors of solar hot water. Apparently it got pretty funky in the big buildings and so they needed to have a good shower every now and then. Hot water would have been very welcome in winter.

Some people may have claimed that they invented the Iroquois helicopter, but I am not one of them.

Some fake fish drying in the breeze.

Then we walked down to the lake.

It's everything you would expect a small Canadian lake to be.

Very clear water. If you click on the photo you may be able to see a small fish.

There is a boardwalk constructed around the edge of the lake for part of the way.

It's a pity we could not spend more time there and walk completely round the lake.

The side of the Visitor Center. We were intrigued by the layering of the rock.

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum

The Warplane Musem is situated on the grounds of the Hamilton Airport, not too far from Burlington. I quite enjoy going to see old planes but Marianne finds them to be as exciting as a bowl of cold porridge, so I went there alone.

In front of the Museum is a CF-104 Starfighter impaled on a big stick. Not mentioned in the blurb was the safety record of this plane. Canada lost over 50% of its Starfighters in crashes. Early models had an ejection seat that went down, not up. As Sir Humphrey would have said, very novel.

This structure was built in 1996 to house the collection, part of which was destroyed in a fire in one of the original hangers that had been used.

The display area is crowded with planes of all types. Sometimes you have to squeeze between the wings of planes to get around.

Restoration of planes is a major activity here. This side of the plane has not been restored and the other side has. There is quite a difference. I don't know why most of the planes have been painted yellow.

A nifty red fire engine.

This is a B-25 Mitchell bomber similar to those that took part in the Doolittle raid on Japan.

In the background is their Lancaster which is one of only two that can still fly.

A Lancaster engine with the cowling off.

A Tiger Moth.

The have a Spitfire in a place of honour.

And a Hurricane. Apparently the original was destroyed in the fire so they build a replica. Incidently, the easy way to tell a Spitfire from a Hurricane is to look at the shape of the fuselage below the propeller. The Spitfire has a bulge.

The Lancaster.

A PBY flying boat.

An Avro CF-100. With the black paint, it really looked fearsome. I'd never seen this plane before.

Upstairs they have a radio room filled with wireless sets used in planes. There is also a ham radio station.

They have additional planes outside.

Last year when we were in England, our friend Kathryn's father came around for dinner and was talking of his experiences in WWII operating a search light. It was really interesting especially how they powered the device and the size of the copper cables they used.

I enjoyed my visit to this museum. Considering it is a volunteer museum it is very impressive for its range of planes. While a good number of the planes are trainer models, they do have a good representation of actual war planes.