Its not everyday you can spend the entire day playing tourist in your own town. We are lucky here in Stratford to have so much to do, see, eat and explore. There always seems to be something happening in this small, but mighty town of ours, with Theatre, festivals, events, activities, its hard to keep up.
We tend to use the Stratford park systems quite often, we like to check out new parks and meet friends at their local parks. Of course the kids have their favourites: Upper Queens park located in the shady area adjacent to the Festival Theatre, and the Anne Hathaway Splash pad and park located on Downie St..
Last week our air conditioner decided to stop working on us so we spent the entire weekend outside. The weather we are experiencing in September has been feeling more like mid August and it was too hot to be inside the house. We grabbed lunch at one of our favourite restaurants York Street Kitchen on Erie. Only just recently taken over by the restaurant group Windsor Hospitality that own Mercer Hall and also The Prune. This group purchased the restaurant from Susie Palach who had owned and opperated this successful business for 28 years (Way to go Susie!). We took our lunch down to a picnic table near the boat house so the kids could watch the paddle boaters and ducks.
Later that evening while waiting for our takeout order from Mone Thai (try the drunken noodles) we keep the kids busy in Stratford’s NEW Market Square, or “The squares” as my 4.5 year old calls it, which has had a recent “make over”. The kids love the interactive fountain and the events and activities that have taken over the space since opening. Some of the most recent activities have been Stratford Summer music with their show of “mobile” a drumming trapeze act from France who was lifted in the air by a large crane to perform their drumming show. And Stratford Queen of the Square Cinema presented some outdoor movies. We loved was the screening of Zootopia, with surprise quest speaker Peter Mansbridge, who in the movie is the voice of Peter Moosebridge, a Moose co-ancher for ZNN. What an experience!
The Stratford Fall Fair was in town and as always draws a large crowd. We met friends at the fair and ended back at our house with dinner al fresco. It was a perfect “fall” evening to enjoy takeout in the backyard with the kids running around.
This is a pretty typical Saturday or Sunday for me and my family, its also typical for us to run into friends while being out, the benefits of living in a small town!
-Geoff