Letterboxing in Stratford, Ontario

On the river in Stratford, Ontario

On a bright and beautiful Saturday, I headed out first thing in the morning to travel to Kitchener, pick up Vivian the Viking, and continue on to Stratford, Ontario for some letterboxing.

The day started out great and I managed to get out of the house nice and early in order to do some letterboxes on the way to Kitchener.  I ended up having time for two: The Butt of the Joke and A surplus of 'Riverside'.  Ms. Fiddleheads has once again done great work and has taken me to an unexplored area south of Guelph.  Very nice and I had a good chuckle.  The Valiant Zeekers took me to an area of Cambridge I had never been in before and I had my first near-a-river letterbox for the day.

 

I then picked up Ms Viking and we made off... Stopped in New Hamberg really quick to nab two of Water Lily's Mennonites of Ontario Quilt Block series - Double Wedding Ring Quilt Block and Amish Windmill Quilt Block. Vivian had already found these a few years ago, so I checked out her old sig stamp [snicker] and added mine to the rest.

Finally we made our way into Stratford and headed down to the river to visit Fiddlehead's Festival Theatre Tragedies boxes.  There were birds galore on the trail for these boxes; ducks, Canada Geese, sea gulls, and swans. Lots of swans.

On the trail to the first of these two boxes, we had a great time and chatted... mostly letterboxing gossip, really. ("I hear that so-and-so carves with SpeedyCut", *gasp* "NO!")

Coming back from the re-plant

It was a lovely day for a stroll along the river, so it was quick work.

We kept on going and saw a whole bevy of swans... but didn't notice anything weird.  We kept going and found the second box and avoided some muggles while stamping in.  Great job on both for a nice series for a day out at the theatre.

On our way back, we stopped to see a group of three swans munching away on who knows what under the water, and saw a very conceited black swan who loved to be photographed.

Look at me! Look at me!

I'll come closer for you!

Look at my gorgeous curly feathers!

Off in the car and on the road again, we headed over to find Primrose Up the Garden Path.  You know this is deep Fiddlheads territory, right? It was yet another beautiful garden and there was a concert band playing somewhere and the fun music floated in while we stamped in while sitting on the embankment of the river.

Picture sitting and stamping in here.

Some of the gorgeous Stratford architecture.

Just around the corner, we went to the local Stratford Public Library branch to find John Neville as Richard II, again by Ms Fiddleheads.  Methinks her fiddleness is an avid play-goer. John was hiding exactly where it was indicated, and the icy-cold A/C of the library was a welcome reprieve from the 35 degree weather. It was getting pretty hot, let me tell you.

I'm a big tea person, so I was really happy to make our next stop at the Tea Leaves Tea Tasting Bar to find Tastes Just Like Pu-erh!. I chatted with Karen while stamping in and sampling teas.  I bought some of my favourite jasmine tea and had a lovely time.  Now this is the type of refined, cultured letterboxing that I've been dreaming about ;)

Delicious tea nearby

Heading back out, we went to go find The Bard's History and Comedy, again by her fiddlyness.  Man, was it hot.  Out on the trail we started trying to follow the clues.  It was realllly hot. There was a lot of stopping, looking at the clues, looking around confused, looking back down at the clues, and looking back up.  Trying to follow the clues, we wandered a bit and ended up at a water treatment facility.  I don't think this was it.  It was hot and the clues weren't making sense.  In retrospect, it is possible that the clues weren't making sense because it was so hot. Just a thought.  In any event, we threw the clues up in the air and headed back to the car. We had done great work - we'd find these boxes another day.

Hot and irritated

Next, Viv followed as I tried to plant a letterbox but ended up chasing a coven of witches through a cemetery.  Very weird experience.  We made ourselves feel better by stopping into a chocolate shop.

Delicious chocolates... Shakespeare themed.

Anyways, I know I said I was going to post on both paper-based boxing compared with paperless boxing, but after all the sun I got on the Saturday, I wasn't up for more boxing on Sunday.  No worries, I will box again soon and that post will come!

Happy trails!