Today we are off to Cambridge, on the way we stop in Hamilton and visit the HMCS Oriole, as well as the HMCS Haida (built in 1943), an old World War destroyer. We take a self-guided tour and check out the Guns, Torpedo Tubes, retro interior, and Submarine Mortars (these replaced depth charges and were much more effective in killing subs) on this last of its kind Tribal Class Destroyer.

In the middle of our tour, the clouds darkened and we began to hear the sound of thunder, just as the sky opened up and torrential rains started falling. We were asked to remain on the ship, as it was the safest place to be during the thunderstorm, as the employees went around closing all the open doors and windows. Twenty minutes later the skies cleared up and we were able to continue our tour – the rains had brought a welcome relief to the oppressive heat of the day.

The next morning, after making arrangements to get our AC repaired we head out to St Jacobs County in Waterloo to visit the Farmer’s Market. During our visit, we see a couple of  Mennonites with their buggies, as well as a family, all shopping or selling at the market.

Our last stop of the day was to the Toyota Plant in Cambridge. Here we took a fun and informative tour of the plant, riding a trolley car around watching as they stamped out the frame, then they moved those pieces via human and robotic carriers to be welded together to form the unibody of the two models of vehicles they produce here – Corolla and the Lexus 350. 99% of the welds are done by robotic arms with the final 1% being done by humans using special machines and jigs. It was cool driving thru the plant and watching the sparks fly high in the sky. The tour took just over an hour and only covered a small part of the plant; unfortunately, they do not allow any electronics on the tour so no pics, but it was a great time.