Brian Richardson

Port Stanley is a beautiful harbor town situated on the North shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of Kettle Creek. There is a draw bridge in the city’s center that crosses over the creek and has to lift up several times a day to let boats pass underneath. The town is big enough to have plenty of things to do and small enough that you can walk pretty much anywhere.

The only thing I needed to accomplish today was do a load of laundry, and this proved to be somewhat of a challenge. According to Google Maps, there is no laundromat in Port Stanley, but I asked around and found out that that is not the case. I gathered our dirty clothes and walked a half mile over to the address I was given. The “laundromat” was a shed with two washers, two dryers, and no detergent. I went down a few more blocks to an inn to ask where I could find laundry detergent within walking distance. The receptionist disappeared into the supply closet for a second and came back out with a little cup of Cascade for me (this is what I mean when I say everyone we’ve met in Canada has been nice).

Once I had my detergent, I returned to the washing machine, took out my wallet, and realized that I had no Canadian coins to pay with. I went back outside and down the block to a sandwich store to ask about where I could exchange some currency (I couldn’t go back to the inn with another silly question). The cashier was happy to trade Canadian coins for my American dollars. She asked if I wanted a toonie or two loonies. I had no idea what those words meant so I just said “yes” and took whatever she handed me. It turns out those are the names for one and two-dollar coins.

I took my loonies back to the laundry shed and started the washing machine. While waiting for the clothes, I walked down to the beach and along the pier to a lighthouse. I sat for a while and watched boats come and go under the bridge.

I transferred the clothes and then found out that the dryers only accepted American quarters, so I went back to the sandwich shop and traded my loonies back for quarters. While the clothes dried, I worked on a New York Times crossword puzzle that I borrowed from Alex in Petoskey. Crosswords are my guilty pleasure and they really make for a great break-day activity. In the afternoon, I walked around the downtown area, took a nap, and finished my book. All in all, it was a pretty good day.