Perth, ON

Six years ago I wrote that I fell in love with Perth, ON. It is a bright, shiny town full of local shops and plenty of parking. On our return visit, though, I fell more in love with Smiths Falls, a much less shiny town, but it felt homier to me.

When making plans for the trip, I left our last day wide open. I wasn't sure if we would find something else to do, or if the forecasted storms would keep us from doing something already planned. I wasn't quite ready for the nine hour (with stops) drive back to New Jersey.

We started the day at the Railroad Museum of Eastern Ontario, a place that deserves its own blogpost. Based on what I could see as we drove past RMEO, I estimated we would spend a half an hour there, but at $10CAD it was calling my name. Across the street is the Real Deal Store and Environmental Center, a community recycling center and more. How much more? Since it was Tuesday and they are only open Wednesday through Saturday, we will have to wait until a future trip to figure that out. It did make a quick Google search of "Things to do in Smiths Falls," so it, along with finishing the historic walking tour and Heritage House are luring us back.

We returned to Perth. Don wanted a loaf of artisan bread from Basic Kneads Bakery. He also wanted to look for the book "The Bakery Dragon" from their library. The baker is planning to read the book to children in a few weeks and couldn't stop raving about it to us.

For lunch we returned to Gather, a local lunch place that opened during the pandemic. Gather uses local fresh ingredients in all of their options. Their unsweetened ice tea, a rare find in Canada, uses ice cubes made from the tea so as they melt, they do not dilute the tea. 

I fell in love with their eclectic assortment of furniture, dishes, and cutlery, the beaten up white copper wall paper, the photos of outhouses in the bathrooms, and the French music gently playing. If they were in Lawrenceville I would meet friends there all the time. Their owner, Kerri, said she and her husband, James, wanted to create a place that made people think of eating at their grandparents' house. While it did not resemble either Tata's or Grandee's homes, it matched how I would picture Gigi (my great-grandmother) decorating her home. They strive to make their customers feel like old friends, even if they have just met. I certainly left feeling that way.

Perth is also home to antique shops. Their biggest one, Gore Street Antique Market, has room upon room upon room of antiques. It was blazing hot in there as Ontario was under a heat advisory, but one of the owners was still dutifully dusting plates. I went in with a goal of finding Desert Rose bowls to add to my collection, but failed. Funny how dishes I kept seeing everywhere before I bought them are now nowhere to be found!

I googled "ice cream near me" and surprisingly I failed to find any in Perth. Stella Luna Gelato in Merrickville caught my interest. The website said the owner traveled to Italy to learn the right way to make gelato. The store is located inside a Victorian house with indoor seating -- which was welcome since after our drive, the rains finally came. Turns out they have two locations in Ottawa. I guess they were not in the same part of town we were in when we were looking for ice cream. The Merrickville location is closing at the end of the summer, but the Ottawa locations will stay open.