Day 3 (October 5, 2025): Port Severn, Macey's Bay, Honey Harbour, Victoria Harbour, and Midland

After breakfast at the hotel, we set out just after 9AM to take in as much of Georgian Bay as we could before joining the throngs heading back to Toronto after the weekend, in order to get our 5:35PM Westjet flight home. We took in sights of Georgian Bay with its many islands and visited several small communities. We ended our touring at a very impressive and moving site that commemorates eight Canadian martyrs, who died for their faith in 1649.

Our flight left Pearson and arrived in Halifax on time, and by 9:45PM we were back home, a wonderful 56-hour trip behind us.

The Best Western Plus Mariposa Hotel in Orillia provided a good base for our tour.

Port Severn

Views of Georgian Bay from Macey's Bay

There are 30,000 islands in total in the 15,000 square kilometre Georgian Bay, making it the largest freshwater archipelago in the world. The Bay is actually part of Lake Huron. If it were a lake in its own right, it would be Canada's fourth largest lake.

Honey Harbour

Canada's smallest post office?

The old-fashioned general store in Honey Harbour has everything you could want!

This is the heart of cottage country for the Toronto city folk. So it only makes sense that artisanal pizza would be a staple for the cottagers! This automated kiosk in Honey Harbour makes quick, quality artisanal pizza.

Honey Harbour is the jumping-off point for the Georgian Bay Islands National Park, which can only be accessed by boat.

This small craft is the Daytripper -- a Parks Canada service that runs three times daily from Honey Harbour to the largest island in the national park. We had hoped to take this, but the available departure times wouldn't have enabled us to make it to Pearson in time for our flight. So we watched with envy, as the passengers boarded and left for the park.

Victoria Harbour

We made a brief stop in Victoria Harbour, which has a lovely park and marina on Georgian Bay.

More fall foliage.

Midland - Saint-Marie Among the Hurons

Sainte-Marie among the Hurons was established in 1639 by Fathers Jérôme Lalemant and Jean de Brébeuf in the land of the Wendat Indigenous people. The fortified missionary settlement acted as a center and base of operations for Jesuit missionaries on the outskirts of what is now Midland, as they worked amongst the Huron. The Jesuits preached the Christian Gospel to the Huron, often adapting the Gospel to local customs and symbols. One of the most famous examples of this was the "Huron Carol", a Christmas hymn written by Jean de Brébeuf.

The founding of the mission led to division amongst the Wendat, with conflict between those who converted to Christianity and those who maintained traditional beliefs. Infectious disease, including smallpox, increased among the Wendat, an unintended result of first contact between the Jesuits and their farm animals, which served to further the gap between the traditional Wendat and the missionaries. By 1642, the Wendat population had decreased from 25,000 to 9,500. At the same time the rivalry between the Wendat and Iroquois began to reignite. The Iroquois had gained firearms from trading with the Dutch. Things eventually led to war between the Iroquois and the Wendat, who had become quite weakened.

In the hostilities, the Iroquois tortured and killed eight priests, among whom Brébeuf and Lalemant were the strongest leaders; their hearts were eaten by the Iroquois after they were killed.

On June 16, 1649, the missionaries chose to burn the mission rather than risk it being desecrated or permanently overrun by Iroquois in further attacks.

Starting in 1964, Sainte-Marie was reconstructed as a historical site and living museum, and was completed in time for Canada's Centennial in 1967. Today, the site is an incredibly impressive recreation of the 1639 outpost. Canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930, the eight martyred missionaries are collectively known as the Canadian Martyrs.

The bark on the storage house to the left was incredibly thick. We knew, of course, that birch bark was used to make canoes and wigwams, but we had no idea that thick oak (?) bark was also used to clad buildings.

Midland - Martyrs' Shrine

A large-scale church and shrine site has been developed across the highway from Saint-Marie Among the Hurons, to commemorate the priests who were martyred in 1649.