Not too long ago, on our way back from a wedding in Montreal, we decided to do the unusual thing and get off the fastest, most boring way from point A to point B, and slow down a bit and enjoy the journey. More often than not, the opportunity to enjoy the journey is snatched away because of the incessant urgency to arrive at point B. But once in a while, life trumps everything else, particularly when it is just me and Sheewee in the car together.
So, after we had left Montreal and travelled past Cornwall, we jumped off the 401 and made our way over to historic Highway 2, which follows the shores of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Lake Ontario. Not long after getting onto Highway 2, we saw a sign for Upper Canada Village. Now I have heard about Upper Canada Village all my life, but I’ve never been to it. In fact, I didn’t even know where it was, so the discovery was one of the surprises you encounter when you make it a point to enjoy the journey.
We stopped for a while to look around. Just outside of the village is an outdoor area surrounded by walls bearing the name, “Pioneer Memorial” (see the photo). As I walked into the area, I saw that the interior of the walls were embedded with old tombstones. Old tombstones and I get along REAL well. So I spent a few minutes going through the memorial. Each wall had a different cemetery name on it and most of the gravestones went from the late 1700’s to the 1860’s and beyond.