Yes. You read that right. Picture this. A grown man with a Duck Dynasty, ginger beard in shorts and a button-down plaid shirt getting David (12) to teach him how to do a dance move called the floss. This is not how our day began but was a great hilarious end to a beautiful March day. But for now, let's start at the beginning of our adventures.
Today we decided to go on a road trip to Paris, Ontario in Brant County. We discovered Paris after reading this article online entitled "10 Small Towns You Have To Visit When You Want To Get Away From The Big City". I had been to Paris once before but it was so long ago I don't have much memory of the town. It was definitely time to head over and check it out. We also figured we could search out some geocaches during our visit to Paris.
We took the backroads from Welland, Ontario that follows the Welland River for a time. Nothing beats that feeling when you break out of the bustle of the city and break out into the open green space of the countryside. After a time we reach highway 403 and passing Brantford, Ontario we come to our exit to take us into the town of Paris.
Our first goal today was to find some caches in Paris. We pulled into a small parking lot near an entrance to the Cambridge to Paris Rail Trail and began our hunt for the first cache of the day. No luck. After a 20 minute search, we still couldn't find the cache that was supposed to be next to the parking lot. We then decided to move on and search for the second cache. Again, no luck on finding it either. Walking further on down the trail we attempted to find yet another geocache supposedly hidden just off the trail. Notice I said, "attempted". Yes, that was our third unsuccessful search for geocaches today. Was it the snow? Were we cursed? Is Paris a GPS anomaly? Was a sinister geocache power at work inhibiting us from finding caches today? Who knows, but at this point, we were ready to give up searching on this trail and head into town to explore the shops and life of Paris.
We decided to head towards the downtown area and on the way stop to look for a multi-cache. A multi-cache is a geocache that will lead you more than one location. Most often you have to find the first cache, which contains coordinates to other caches. The final location is the cache you're looking for. With some effort, we were able to locate the first cache however we off our game on locating the second and third one.
We didn't find the multi-cache however we were rewarded with a beautiful find of another kind. The area we were searching was incredibly beautiful. This is where the Nith River empties into the Grand River as a railroad bridge runs overhead and the water makes a two-foot drop creating a small cascading waterfall. Across the river the backs of downtown shops and restaurants overhang the river banks creating a very European feel to this tiny Canadian town. Paris, we found, is named after the gypsum deposits found nearby used to create Plaster of Paris.
Moving on from our disappointing geocache hunting and into the downtown area of Paris we spotted a bakery, parked our car and walked down the street of this picturesque town. The Paris Bakery is a tiny shop littered with pastries, fresh baked bread, cakes and tea biscuits. We made our choice of pastry, paid and hopped back out to the street to devour our tasty find.
Not far from the bakery was a small courtyard with a pergola and a railing that overlooks the mighty Grand River. Steph checked her phone and sure enough she discovered that there was a geocache somewhere in that courtyard. We began to look, and look, and look. Frustrated with our lack of finding caches that day it was time for us to give up. As we started back toward the street I noticed something attached to the garbage can closer to the street. It was the geocache we had been searching for about 20 feet away. We were so thrilled to have finally found one cache for the day.
After finding the cache we visited a tea shop, a linen store which also double as a cute little gift shop, a thrift store, chocolate shop and market.
Now to finally come back around to Uncle Mark dancing in his living. Mark and his wife Theresa live in Brantford which is only about a twenty minute drive from downtown Paris. Earlier that day we had contacted them to see if we could drop by and say hi and see their new house. Once we finished our exploring we drove over to their house and had a visit with them that included some donuts from Donut Monster in Hamilton and Mark and I attempting to dance. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.
Paris, Ontario is a wonderful place that contains a great deal of beauty and adventure. I can't wait to return here when the trees are full of green and the weather is much warmer.