Lighthouses of Ontario

Ontario, Canada
March 30, 2013

My wife wanted to go to Ikea to pick up some furniture to organize kid's toys in the basement. The closest Ikea to our house is in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. It had been over twelve years since we had last visited the lighthouses of Ontario. Since it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some updated pictures, I brought along the camera.

Our first stop was the Burlington Canal Front Range Lighthouse. When we visited back in 2001, I had never walked to the end of the pier, just took several photos from a distance using a telephoto lens. After walking the pier out to the end and getting several close up pictures of the lighthouse, my son and I started our walk back.

As we neared the Burlington Bridge, a tug boat was approaching. My son was excited to watch the bridge raise-up to allow the boat to pass. After that, we walked over to the Burlington Canal Lighthouse. I was able to get several pictures of the lighthouse, and then we were back to the truck to head to Ikea.

When we arrived at the parking lot at Ikea, there were very few spaces vacant. Against my better judgment, I parked my truck at the end of a row, and we went inside. Once inside, we walked through, looked over all the furniture and found what we were interested in. However, before purchasing it, we decided to eat lunch in the cafe.

After lunch, we walked through the lower floor and made our way to the area where the boxes were stored. We found the first two boxes and loaded them up. As we were looking for the last pieces, the bin where they were stored was empty. I asked the staff if they had more of the Trofast frames to hold the toy bins, of which they said no. The lady was nice enough to check the stock at the Etobicoke location and told me they had 26 on hand.

We waited in line for our turn to pay, and then left planning to make the trip up to Etobicoke to get the last few items. However, as I neared my truck in the lot, I could tell that it was hit. After going back inside Ikea and speaking to security, they followed me out to the lot to see where I was parked. Through the security cameras on the building, they could tell that a U-Haul truck had cut the corner and ran into my truck not once, but twice. After that, the driver proceeded to leave without leaving a note. Ikea security couldn't make out a license plate on the truck and advised me to call the police.

After waiting nearly thirty minutes for the police to arrive and write up a report, I was not in a mood to drive up to Etobicoke, so we started to head back towards Niagara Falls. Our first stop was in Port Dalhousie to see the Port Dalhousie Front and Rear Range Lighthouses. After that, it was nearly dinner time, so we stopped at a Kelsey's restaurant for dinner.

After leaving Kelsey's, it was off to see the Port Weller Outer Lighthouse. We parked at the Jones' Beach parking area, and walked the George Nicholson Memorial Trail the one mile to the end. This puts you directly across the canal from the light which allowed for photo opportunities. After that, we walked the mile back to the car and headed off.

By the time we made it back to the car, it was nearing dusk. The last two lighthouses were about fifteen minutes away. We arrived at the Niagara River Front and Rear Range Lights at around 8:00pm. After finding a vantage point for photos, we snapped off a few and headed for the border.

It was good to see many of the Canadian lighthouses again as it had been a long time since we had visited. Also, visiting in the off-season assured us people-free pictures, which normally isn't possible. We have plans to visit Canada again this summer as there are still more lights that we would like updated pictures for, and many more that we haven't visited.

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