MANITOULIN – The Friendship Force of Toronto group had an extensive visit of much of Manitoulin Island last week.
“There are 13 of us members of the club here this week, and we’re a travel group on a mission to create peace and goodwill around the world,” Carolyn Lane-Rock, a Barrie Island resident, told the Recorder last week. “We do this by travelling to other areas and making friends with other clubs.”
Ms. Lane-Rock explained, “these clubs in other areas home-host us when we go to their country: they plan the itinerary, and then the club we visit in turn visits the club in Toronto. Because I belong to the Toronto charter club, I can’t home-host groups from other countries, so I have the members of our club come here and I host them for a week on the Island.”
On the first day of the visit, the group toured Gore Bay, with Joyce Foster providing the group members with historical information about the town. “We had lunch at Almaz’s Health Food Store and then toured Misery Bay,” said Ms. Lane-Rock. Later that evening the group had dinner at the Manitoulin Golf Club.
The next day the group toured the municipality of Central Manitoulin, visited the Perivale Art Gallery in Spring Bay, toured Providence Bay and enjoyed fish and chips at Lake Huron Fish and Chips and the beach in Providence Bay, then went on to Kagawong where they visited the Bridal Veil Falls and toured the river trail, and visited the Manitoulin Chocolate Works store. “We came back to Gore Bay that evening for dinner at the 1890 Restaurant, and while we were in Gore Bay we stopped at Split Rail Brewing, My Ol’ Blues and other town landmarks,” continued Ms. Lane-Rock.
“Today, we are touring the shore of Julia Bay and toured Barrie Island,” said Ms. Lane-Rock. From there she hosted a fish dinner at her home in Barrie Island.
The group members stayed at the McLaughlin Block Apartments for the week, said Ms. Lane-Rock, who added that on the Friday prior to the group leaving for Toronto they went to a rummage sale, visited the Gore Bay Farmers’ Market, and spent a lot of time at Robby White’s Garage Sale.
“The group had a really nice visit to Manitoulin Island, through the eyes of myself and my sister-of. We all had a great time,” said Ms. Lane-Rock, who noted as well that only one person from the previous trip to Manitoulin attended this year. “Everyone loves to visit Manitoulin Island.”
