By Michael Downing
As we drove south on York Boulevard into Hamilton, we couldn’t help but notice the magnificent Hamilton Cemetery, which runs along the right side of the road, directly across from Dundurn Castle. Neither of these sites were on my scouting radar, but it was nearing dinner time, so we made a mental note and continued directly to our Air BnB.
The two destinations I actually had in mind for Hamilton were Locke Street South and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, which is downtown. So we arose that lovely Friday morning, had breakfast, and headed to Locke Street South. Now, I don’t want to overstate this sentiment, but our time on Locke Street was like a rhapsodic, dream-like, heavenly coffee-and-browsing experience, wrapped in a maple leaf. To wit: I pulled up to the very first parking space, wide open like it had been reserved for us. The sidewalks were clean and the buildings were neat and brightly painted. There were enough people coming and going to signal healthy activity, but not so crowded that we were intimidated. The people were kind and the coffee was good. This is why we love visiting Canada.
For browsing and dining purposes, Locke Steet South features Picks and Sticks Music, Bodega Wellness, Vintage Charm Gift Shop, Artie’s Pasta Shop, Sushi Azuki, Epic Books, Democracy* Coffee Shop, and The Witch’s Fix. We went into just about all of them, but spent the most time at Vintage Charm, Epic Books, Democracy*, and The Witch’s Fix. Would recommend as an itinerary.
Then we picked up Azuki Sushi to go and headed into the second part of our day: Dundurn Castle and Hamilton Cemetery. The official name is Dundurn National Historic Site as it includes a 40-room villa built in the 1830s, The Hamilton Military Museum, and The Historic Kitchen Garden at Dundurn. Adults get in for $15.50 CAD, which is $10.70 US, (as of 1/18/25), with discounts for seniors, students, and children.
We took the tour and it was well worth it. We had some time to kill before the next tour started, so we went to the Military Museum, which is small but interesting, and the garden, which was and actual working garden with women dressed in period clothes tending the grounds. Then we browsed the gift shop until the tour began.
I was able to take quite a few photos during the tour, so I am in the process of seeking permission to publish them. That will make it a lot easier to describe the tour. I can say that we walked through room after room of restored beauty: Elegant staircases, tile floors, elaborate bedrooms and dining rooms. It also provided insight into how people of previous generations lived, the wealthy people literally lived upstairs and the working class lived downstairs. Like Downton Abbey.
Hamilton Cemetery is directly across the street from Dundurn Castle and it was incredibly beautiful. I mean, cemeteries can be beautiful places but this one was striking. The rolling hills and the architecture combined to make the cemetery into a series of paintings. We strolled for a while until Jackie needed a break and I kept walking. Quite memorable and kudos to the people that keep the place going.
DRAFT: We spent the third part of our day at the Art Gallery of Ontario in terms of size and and holdings but it was worth going and I’m glad we did so then you have pictures of Lock Street for sure and getting coffee and epic books and all that stuff so you can return to that and then you have pictures of lunch and the Military Museum and the gardens amen the castle and then art gallery of Hamilton to see if you can publish any of the photos that you took there.
After the art gallery of Hamilton we went to Flora Pizza which had a 4.9 rating on Google and tons of positive reviews so we drove the 7 minutes over there and parked in a lot parking lot and then went over and ordered a pizza and sat outside until it was done it’s hand-tossed cookie sheet rectangle pizza done just perfectly the right amount of sauce the right amount of cheese the right amount of pepperoni mushrooms black olives just delicious. One square is an adequate serving. And there are six squares feed six.
So we took the pizza back to the Airbnb and settled in for the night. I fell asleep at 9:00 and woke up at 1:00 because the dehumidifier that was in the space we were in which was a basement a nice Leaf finish basement but a basement nonetheless beeped loudly so I had to go and empty it. The dehumidifier was undersized for that space unfortunately so it had to be emptied at least once a day. Which is not entirely fair to tenants. So as I said I was up at 1:00 emptying that and I could not get back to bed. I have various techniques including listening to Alan Watts on audible, doing four deep breaths, visualizing my way into sleep, but none of them worked.
I kept hearing the song by Michael Jackson baby do you want me do you want me baby do you want me something like that and it just wouldn’t let up so I had a banana and a piece of toast and hung out for a bit and then finally Jackie got up to go to the bathroom and I said you know look here we are it’s not raining right now but they’re calling for rain and if we can get going and be out of here by 4:15 we can make some progress maybe without so much traffic and without the rain so she rallied and we got everything together and we left at 4:15 which was really good because the first part of the trip the first hour and a half or so to get down to the Border was easy and the roads the QEW is smooth and straight and really a pleasure to drive when there’s not 14 million people on it.
So I made my way down to duty free and we took a bathroom break and browsed quickly the place is pretty stinky but it has some good deals on booze and whatnot. Anyway we may then we made our way through customs and just as we were making our way on to Interstate 90 heading west the rain started to come and boy did it rain that stretch from Buffalo to Route 89 Northeast down to Union City was intense at times. The Taurus handles it well though I was glad to be in it. We got back to Union City and it was still pouring rain so we grab we needed out of the car and shut it tight.
My Writing Wanderland 