Getting to Calgary, Alberta; Torrington, AB, and Serenity Snug

 Getting to (and from) Calgary was probably the easiest part of the planning! Our first choice, Porter, either didn't fly there or it didn't work for what ever reason. We also like WestJet and since Calgary is their main base, flights were plentiful. We could have left at 6am or 8am, and I went with 8am. We had to be there 2 hours early, and it can be an hour trip, so 6am was too early LOL. We would be gaining two hours, so our four hour flight was only 2 hours on the clock. 

Megan came into the Billy Bishop (Toronto Island) airport late the night before and we tried to go to bed early, but....so much last minute laundry, fridge emptying, plant watering. 

Head out on July 3 at 5am. We took the 407. It's now free in our section, and even though the majority of the trip is not free, it's worth it.  We parked in the Viscount Value Park lot and headed towards the Terminal Train. As we got close, someone asked if we took note of where we parked. No, just that we were near the back of the lot under the train tracks.  This would come back to haunt us when we returned!

Here, I need to add a bit of a back story that will become important through out the week. On Monday, June 23, we had the first really hot/humid day here. I went to a school graduation in the evening and noticed I had some shortness of breath, like my chest was full of fluff. On Wednesday, a cough started. Not frequent, not productive, but horrible sounding. On Friday, it was worse, so I went to the doctor. She said it was likely viral and I'll be coughing for 6-8 weeks. No chest x-ray. She didn't even check my oxygen. I was only able to say a few words at a time. Between then and when we left, the coughing got worse, and I was getting easily tired. 

As we headed to the train, my family basically took off and forgot that I was struggling! They finally noticed, LOL. This would happen often. I felt terrible that I was spoiling the fun. Made it on the train and to Terminal 3.

We had done online check in, so headed directly to security. While we were making sure we were all together and ready, a lady angrily called out she needed someone from our group. What? We all went over to this table at the side and she re-stated that she needed ONLY one person from our group. We didn't want to separate. Lucy and I were closest to the table so the lady motioned to us, we couldn't tell which one but then she told Lucy to put her suitcase up and give her her boarding pass. I had printed all 5, so it took a moment to find hers. The lady started searching her stuff and swabbing. We were like, why? She was so abrupt and unfriendly. Random additional screening. She told the rest of us to go through the line but we weren't leaving Lucy there on her own!

Finally she said Lucy could close up her suitcase and she waved us to the proper security. It was busy, but not crazy. Megan's tray with her personal bag and my tray with my raincoat and liquids bag were both pulled for hand searching. Many people had their trays pulled, and we had to wait. It's interesting to see the things people think they can bring, and how much they try to stuff into the official liquids bag. There was an older Asian couple ahead of us, and they had 8 cell phones in one tray! Just the two of them!

Finally my coat was called up. I had a liquids bag, and a medicine bag with my nasal spray and an over the counter cough syrup. He looked at it, then said it was fine. Megan's agent was taking her time trying to find something in the bag. Megan had a ice pack belt for her low back pain, and it wasn't frozen. It hadn't been an issue before but we thought maybe this time it was (it wasn't frozen). She asked the agent what she was looking for, and she said a long metal spike. What? Oh, that's Megan's eyelash separator! LOL. She also uses it as a toothpick. Megan dug it out, it was fine, and off we went. 

We boarded on time; the three kids ahead of Rob and I.  After we had sat down, an elderly man was shown to the window seat by the attendant. She told him that at the end of the flight, he should wait in his seat and they'll bring the wheelchair after everyone gets off. 

The weather predictions had not been promising leading up to the trip.

We sat on the tarmac for awhile after being loaded. They announced our flight was going to be 20min shorter than expected, but then we sat on the tarmac for 20 min. We found out once we landed that there had been multiple bomb threats called in to air traffic towers across Canada at about this time. We don't know if that was the issue or not.

Mid-flight, we got offered a single LeClerc "Celebration" cookie or a small bag of pretzels, and a drink. At one point, the elderly man showed an attendant his ticket and asked "Saskatoon? 10:20?" She looked and said yes, and told him he'd have to find out what gate after we landed. Our expected arrival time was 10:20. We thought this was really strange. 

We got to Calgary and it was a long taxi in to the gate. I let my neighbour get up, but he had to go backwards on the plane to his wife, and of course, everyone is standing in the aisle already. I do not understand why they don't make an announcement that those with connections go first! The attendants could be informed of who that is, and help make it happen. I wonder if this couple made it. I mean, the  doors didn't even open until at least 10:30!

We headed towards the exit. There was a really nice lounge area with actual lounge chairs, and space for yoga. This is in the B wing area. I've only flown domestically twice before.  Once to Calgary in 1989, so we won't count that, and from Thunder Bay back in May. It's so much nicer than having to find your way to customs. I noticed that arrivals and departures were all together. In Toronto, you're funneled out separately. 

We easily found the car rental centre and got our "mid-size SUV", a Ford Escape. We were all hungry and although I had hoped we could make it to a place called Grumpy Daddy Grill, I was informed lunch was needed immediately. We put in the directions to the closest McDonald's.  Not my choice, but we could all find something and it was reasonably quick.

Next stop--The World Famous Gopher Hole Museum in Torrington, about an hour away.

What is that? Apparently it's a small museum that was seen on the series Heartland (which I don't watch). One of the kids saw something about it, and we thought it would be a fun, easy way to kill some time without tackling the city. It's to the north-east about an hour.  Inside the museum are dioramas using taxidermized gophers! It's by donation and has a lovely gift shop.

Every business in Torrington has a diorama! They were so well done!

I was actually surprised at how small the gophers are! I thought they were like ground hogs we have here. They're like, between a chipmunk and a squirrel.

Apparently black and albino gophers are rare. 

You can see that the museum is not all that large. This picture is the left half and is mirrored on the opposite wall. In the middle are some displays you can view from all sides. 

I loved all the attention to details in each diorama.

We didn't partake in the Hydrant Hunt, but if you put Torrington into Google Maps, there's an image of one of them.

Small towns are fun!!  The kids all got something from the giftshop. It was great that they can buy their own souvenirs!

Although I don't usually like to backtrack, we kept it simple. It was a lovely trip--until someone pulled out from a side road and turned right in front of us! Rob slammed on the brakes and it was a really close call. That would have sucked so bad!!

We stopped at a Costco before going to the Air BnB. We wanted something to cook on the BBQ without having to prepare anything, like chicken kebabs. There wasn't much so we got some steak bacon wrapped medallions and a salad. Headed over to the house.

It's in a very new development. Actually, I believe the first homes were built around 2008, but there is still a lot being built. More is done than the map shows. I was worried that there was really nothing, since we were on the edge of the city. We did find a commercial area that is really close.

It looks like we're so far from the downtown. I guess we were, but the train was about 20 min away and getting around was pretty easy, in theory. It always felt like we were getting on a highway, merging, and getting off again and merging...Limited Access Highways seem to be everywhere!  

It's a semi, with a rental in the basement as well. The other half of the building does seem to be a young family, judging by the Powerwheels car in the back yard. The room at the front, with the large window, is called a flex room on the floor plan, but was shown as being a bedroom. Fine, there's a blind...however, the door is a French door with a full window and there's no blind on it. I felt bad for Hugh. At least his headphones seem to be noise cancelling.

The kitchen has good bones, but was not well equipped. No toaster, no oven safe pans except two lasagna size disposable foil pans.  We got set to BBQ, but....there was no BBQ on the small back landing.  How hard can it be to find a BBQ? Oh, it's in a box, unassembled, in the closet, with no tank!!! Maddening. No problem, we'll cook the steak on the stove. There was a large fry pan....but no oil!!! While trying to cook, the smoke detector was set off multiple times. We weren't off to a good start! I sent a message to the host telling him about the smoke detectors, in case it was going to a security system, or the neighbours complained. Apparently he had to replace the BBQ and his handyman had been busy. He offered to pick it up and assemble and get a tank in a couple hours, but we had already cooked on the stove.

After dinner, Lucy, Rob and I headed out to a Real Canadian Superstore for the actual groceries. I had been saving my points to buy the groceries. The sky sort of looked like it might rain, but we weren't sure, so I didn't take my coat or umbrella. Of course, we get there and it started pouring, the hugest rain drops we'd ever seen. 

Shopping somewhere else is always fun! However, for some reason, I couldn't redeem the points on my Optimum card. They said it was an issue with my account and they couldn't do anything. I was upset, as I had saved those points just for the trip!

Everyone went to bed fairly early as it had been an early morning after a late night, and we had to be up early again. I couldn't sleep of course. I took this picture shortly after 10pm. So crazy! These houses reminded us of our first townhouse in Orangeville. It was also a rear lane community. This Mahogany development is a mixture of many styles. 

Review of Air BnB, "Serenity Snug":

This is a very new rental, about 5 months. The house is pretty basic--not overly decorated or styled. The front lower "flex" room is equipped with a double or queen bed, but the door is basically glass with no curtain. It uses the half bath located a few steps up the stairs. 

Kitchen is not well equipped yet. No meat thermometer, toaster, oven safe pans or trays. There were only a couple spices, no oil. There were two tins of coffee, organic cane sugar (which freaked out Lucy), Splenda w/Stevia, hot chocolate, a couple types of tea. There were some Pepsi and Fuze ice tea in the fridge and that was it.   There were only 4 dishwasher pods, 1 per day. We easily used up the dishes though, so once, we just ran them though a quick hot cycle.

The supplies in the bathroom are all dollar store items but worked fine. In the primary bathroom, there was some OGX Coconut Cream Conditioner which was awesome. The huge body of body lotion was also appreciated as my body was not liking the lack of humidity! 

Water pressure was fine. The water is hard and I did have some issue with getting my hair rinsed.

Laundry was fine, there were several options for detergent and even wool dryer balls. However, we found the dryer odd. It would say done but the clothes were wet and cold. 

It would have been nice if there were a couple chairs to sit on the small decks.

Other than the lack of toaster (there is a small air fryer), and pans, the biggest complaint were the decorative curtains. They were black out curtains, but the way they had been put on the rods meant they couldn't be closed all the way--there are brackets holding up the rod.

There was no covered parking and the rental agency said most insurance companies don't cover hail damage. We were a little concerned, but what can you do? We didn't know that before we got the car!

The host, Obi, was great at responding to questions. Next time, I'll pay attention more to how long a place has been rented, and look closer at details. Over all, it was fine, but if you like to cook anything that doesn't come in it's own tray, it might be a struggle. The pots and fry pans were good though.

Family Trip 2025 Calgary & Banff

 I took a long time off to raise kids. About 12 years ago, I started working as a lunch supervisor at my kids' school, in kindergarten. One hour a day. It actually paid more than minimum wage (no longer). It wasn't much, about $50/week. Then, about 7 years ago, I started working as a supply (substitute) teacher again. At some point, I started putting 5% of all my earnings into a vacation fund. It built slowly over the years and the plan was to do a family trip once all the kids were out of post secondary education. I had originally hoped to take everyone to my parents' time-share, across the road from Walt Disney World, but the recent election and political unrest in the States made it undesirable. We thought about a cruise, but the kids didn't have passports. 

Rob has always mentioned he wanted to go to the Calgary Stampede, and to see the mountains. I went to Calgary and area, including a day in Banff, on a band trip in 1989. Megan has gotten really into Western culture and she was on board. Lucy was excited too. Hugh doesn't say much. 

I decided to go for the start of the Stampede, primarily because air fare was cheaper. I booked flights for July 3 and July 9.  We decided to start with the Calgary Stampede, which "officially" starts on the first Friday of July (July 4 this year). You actually can go to the Stampede grounds starting on the Wednesday.  We would watch the kick off parade, and then walk over to the grounds and get free admission until 1pm.  Then we'd go on Saturday to see the evening Grandstand show, which includes admission to the grounds for the day. Sunday we left open. Then Monday, we'd head out early for Canmore/Banff, but it took awhile to finalize the details. We'd go straight from there on Wednesday, to the airport. 

Megan had recently moved to Thunder Bay, so she would fly home the day before. There weren't any flights from TB to Calgary, except  for really early in the day (and what would she do?) or very late (and she'd miss whatever we did during the day). To get back home, there was a flight 45min before ours that went direct to TB, so that was great!

Finding Air BnBs was a challenge. All I knew was where the Stampede Grounds were, and that we might go to the zoo, and we were going to Banff, so I started looking close to downtown, then further out on the west sides. I thought I had found a good one in the NW but it disappeared. Eventually, we landed on a house in what seemed a very new neighbourhood in the SE section. For Canmore, it was an even bigger struggle. There are a lot of places available, but the girls didn't want to share a bed, Hugh wanted an actual room, and Rob didn't want underground parking. I I finally found one that had a room with 2 single beds, and two other rooms. Most places only had 2 bedrooms, or double/queen beds. It did have underground parking but it said a normal SUV would fit. It was also in a great location but didn't have air conditioning. 

As far as the actual activities we did, I'll give the planning info with the specific posts. 

If you are going to the Stampede, my advice, is to stay somewhere along the C Train routes, particularly the south part of the red line. The outer ends of either line is also probably good, but I don't know the parking. If you can afford it, being within walking distance would also be good, but I don't think there's a lot available because of the downtown, and the rivers. 

If you're going to Banff, and have a car, consider staying in Canmore or Harvey Flats, or even Field or Golden, BC. Otherwise, stay in Banff. 

The Calgary airport is great. There are lots of food options, car rentals were easy, and the staff are actually pleasant.

One more note--I'm not a professional travel blogger. There are some that are great at writing about Banff, so I recommend seeking them out. 

Warkworth Lilac Festival 2025

 I grew up in downtown Whitby, Ontario. There were many old homes, and many had lilac bushes. I always loved the scent and flowers. We would also drive down to the end of our street where there was an empty lot, and cut from the bushes left there after the home was demolished. 

About 13 years ago, we went to the Lindsay Lilac Festival and it was lovely! I had been hearing about the Warkworth Lilac Festival and decided it was the year to go. It was a long, cold, wet spring and some lovely flowers would help us feel like summer would eventually come.

Our first question, was where exactly is Warkworth? 

North of Colborne, which is home to two great attractions--the Big Apple, and Triple O's. Stop for a burger, then go get a pie! We didn't go for the pie, but even though it was a bit early, we did go to Triple O's for an incredible double bacon burger! 

The park it's held at is called the Millenium Trail. It starts at the green pine tree towards the lower left, on Main St, just north of Concession St East, and then follows along the creek, makes a loop just before Church St at the upper right, and then you backtrack to the start. There is also an entrance on Church St, but it's roadside parking.  The trail is not paved and was very, very muddy.

Shortly along the trail, we came across an interesting vendor, Feathered Friends. The artist, Kathleen Reid, take old crystal and glass pieces and makes bird baths, bird feeders and other garden art. Rob wanted to buy this orange one for my Mom's 80th birthday because HE likes orange. I honestly can't remember if I picked out the purple and clear one, or one with turquoise. It's boxed up and I'm not unwrapping. They held it at their spot until we returned from walking the trail. Kathleen can be reached on Facebook at Feathered Friends Studio, or Instagram at Feathered Friends Studio

I did not take a lot of photos.  It started to drizzle, and I only had my phone camera. On our trip to Thunder Bay, I went to use my actual camera and discovered that the battery was dead and when we got home, I could not find the charger! I'm pretty upset by it. However, I found I can charge it directly to a USB outlet with the right cord.  One less thing to take on our Calgary trip I guess.

Not all lilacs were labelled, unfortunately. The festival started in 2010, so many of the bushes are mature, and many are Preston lilacs, which are Canadian. I admit, I don't know much about lilac history!

This is a Shagbark Hickory. I don't think I had ever seen one before, but when we drove around the area, I think I saw a lot of them. It sounds like an interesting tree, native to Ontario.

After we left the trail, we took the birdbath to the truck and walked around the village. There was this display in one store that explained about Preston Lilacs. My inlaws are from Preston, England and Lancaster, where Isabella Preston is from, is about a 30 min drive north. Fun connections!

We went into a vintage thrift shop and had fun seeing all our childhood memories for sale

I have quite a few of these pattern booklets!  The best part was there was a jellybean candy machine, and I actually had a quarter. I even got several black jellybeans, and they weren't stale!

We also went into the chocolate store. It was very busy and the sample was delightful. However, it was outside of our budget so we didn't get anything.

I decided since we were close, we'd go up to Campbellford and the World's Finest Chocolate company and Empire Cheese. I was having trouble with cell reception and couldn't find solid answers but it seems the chocolate company shut down!  That's so sad. We used to go to Hershey's in Smith Falls, and that's been gone for a while now. Small scale chocolate is wonderful but sometimes you want nostalgia. I loved World's Finest chocolate mint and caramel squares!

Empire Cheese...wasn't what I expected. I mean, it makes sense they only sell their cheese, LOL, but I thought there'd be more unusual ones, or better prices than grocery store. We did get some cheese curds and Hawkins Cheezies. They're so good, but so salty! And we were out of water.

We headed back down to the 401 and home. We stopped at Triple O's for a blueberry milkshake. It's a limited time flavour and last time they were out of it, so it was great to get one this time. And the real whipped cream on top is awesome. It's worth the extra wait for these milkshakes!

I think we'll definitely go to this festival again, but make sure it's nice weather. Although I just bought some new boots that would have been useful. 

A Short Trip to Thunder Bay

 Long time blog readers (especially those who come here from my knitting/sewing blog), have seen my children grow up. I started the other blog when my youngest, Megan, was less than a year old! That was 18 years ago! 

Megan is a wonderful young adult. We struggled when she was little--language and speech delays, some challenging behaviours. I practiced attachment parenting/gentle parenting, basically recognizing that behaviour is communication and that needs that are met will cease to be needs.  It was hard at times. We babywore and I can remember being told she would never become independent because I held her too much (like when we were moving and she was 6 months old and there was no where to set her down LOL). 

Just recently, I was commenting on a Facebook post about when to push your demands on a child and when to recognize the issue wasn't a hill worth dieing on. It was about a shirt from the hamper that the child wanted to wear again. To me, there's more important things to fight over. One commenter responded that I should "just wait, this is going to backfire on you".

Oh yeah, this backfired on me! Big time! My adult children all have graduated higher education, gotten full time jobs, and still enjoy being with us! Other adults comment on their maturity and they had multiple job offers. 

One of those job offers has led Megan 1500km away! 

She wanted the challenge of moving away, getting a job, etc. Her boyfriend had been going to school in Thunder Bay and had no plans to return to southern Ontario. He has an aunt and uncle there too. So Megan sought out job opportunities in Northern Ontario and got a temporary position in Thunder Bay, with potential for permanency.  She had visited the city twice before, in winter and in summer. She has always enjoyed outdoor recreational activities and was looking forward to more.  She also found a room for rent in a house of a woman who rents out rooms to short term renters (students, temp employees, etc). Next step, the move.

This isn't even everything!

The plan was to leave at 5:30am, Thursday May 1. However, Lucy doesn't get up until 5:45 so she wanted us to wait. It was an emotional good bye.  They finally became friends during the early days of Covid when school and activities shut down. 

My view from the back seat! It was definitely cozy. Rob in the passenger seat means it's back as far as it could go.

It was quite warm as we headed north, and I was on the east side of the car!

First stop, Orillia, where we had a little mishap with the seedlings Megan has been tending to for the past two months.

Back in my cozy spot! We headed up highway 12 to highway 400/69. At some point we stopped for a break, at the Tim Horton's at Magnetawan First Nation, road 529, just off Highway 69.  There is a very new looking bathroom building in the parking area. It's an interesting design. A single door, then men's to the right and ladies to the left. I went in first since we didn't know if it was single stalls or what, but there's multiple stalls. However, the opening to the bathroom area is very large and the opposite way is also large, and the urinals are right there...I don't remember exactly but I think when I looked in the mirror, I could see them? Then Megan went in and when she came out she made an interesting comment. I questioned her some more and apparently she hadn't seen the signs pointing left to Women's, right to Men's....and yeah, went in the men's. Oops. It was funny. 

Our next stop was "lunch" in Sudbury, at the Big Nickel by special request. We had gone in the summer of 2007, but Megan was only 2 years, 9 months old and didn't remember it. I had made my famous roadtrip sandwiches, but we got here and it was about 2C/34F. Okay, maybe not that cold, but it certainly wasn't eat a picnic outside weather.

Plus, it was only about 10am!

No, it's not the Eiffel Tower! It's a custom built VHF tower for a cement company to communicate with its trucks! Why aren't more companies that creative? I'm not sure if it's still in use.  There are a lot of dead areas with no cell phone coverage, so maybe! 

Sudbury gave us our first taste of northern Ontario roads. Rough! They got even rougher though. At Sudbury is basically when you start heading west. It's where Highway 69 (north/south) meets Highway 17 (west/east). 

Once we had fuelled up (coffee and gas), we headed west. 

I can't where this was! We needed a post-coffee bathroom break and there aren't a lot of options. There are some provincial-run spots but everything was closed! We saw a sign and thought this place might be open--it's a small museum about an early settler. It was quaint...but not open. We didn't see any bears either. 

Rob took over driving, and I got upgraded to passenger princess. In time to see the snow. 

Shortly after leaving Blind River, the highway runs alongside the Mississagi River.  It was really high. In Iron Bridge we stopped at the Cango station for a bathroom stop. I asked the young clerk (clearly an immigrant, it amazes me that people move halfway around the world and end up in a gas station in a tiny town in northern Ontario!) about the high water and he said this was a bad year and some bridges are closed.  His friend got something like 6ft of water in his basement in less than a day. I wonder if it ever reaches the highway.

One thing that surprised me was how much farming there is between Sudbury and Sault St. Marie. I thought this section would be more "northern Ontario". There's a lot of small towns, and some interesting attractions, but they were closed, we were on a schedule, and it was COLD. As I'm looking on Google, I see we missed the giant Loonie in Echo Bay! Next trip.

We got to Sault Saint Marie ("Sue Saint Marie" or "The Soo") in mid-afternoon. The roads! Horrible!!

We picked a hotel downtown so we could walk...and it was raining so we didn't walk anywhere.

We stayed at the Days Inn on Bay Street. We were the first floor up (so, second floor) and we hadn't been there long when we heard some of The Soo's finest letting their presence be known. The desire to walk anyway was pretty much gone now LOL. The room was adequate. The mini fridge's freezer actually froze my ice pack, so that was nice. 

There was even a fireplace, in case you wanted a romantic evening with your significant other.

Megan LOVED the tiny bar of Dove soap in the bathroom. 

While we normally try to go to locally owned restaurants, it was raining, the roads sucked, and we just wanted dinner. We headed over to Montana's, where at least we had a drizzly view of the American side.  Food was good enough, people watching was fun.  After dinner, we wanted dessert and for some reason we decided on ice cream...or was it Beavertails? But why would we say Beavertails when there's not many and usually only in tourist areas? We did find one listed on Google and set off. The GPS wanted us to go into a parking lot that had a temporary wood type barricade across the entrance. It looked like a farmer's market. We parked next door and ran over in the rain. It seemed like a really cool area--The Roberta Bondar Tent and Park Pavilion. We did find the Beavertails, but it was closed. 

The waterfront area of SSM looks really nice. The rest of the city was grey...bumpy... industrial...I don't know. When you look at the satellite view, there is a very large residential area around the city, so I'm sure it must be nicer in the summer. I've wanted to go for years, particularly to do the Agawa Canyon Train trip. 

It was an early night, and a sort of earlyish morning--we had to stay long enough to get the included breakfast! Which was fine, typically hotel breakfast.

If you look at the map images again, you might notice that there's not a lot of options for travel in northern Ontario. A couple days before we left, I just happened to get a Google notification that there was a wash out on the highway.  Thankfully, the road had re-opened, it was just down to one lane. You can imagine how much this would slow traffic in the summer. Wikipedia has a good entry on Highway 17.  The two main highways, 11 and 17 are notoriously bad, especially in winter, for fatal accidents. Wildlife, road conditions, impaired driving, aggressiveness are all big factors. Truck drivers get trained in southern Ontario and then make cross Canada trips and aren't prepared. People get tired, pre-occupied with the scenery, drive too fast for the conditions. The road is in good condition (compared to the cities, it's amazing) but it's still mostly a two lane highway, with passing zones and intersections.

I got to be the passenger right from the start of the day because Megan wanted to drive the last bit--drive into Thunder Bay.  This section of the trip was much more scenic than before. It's very reminiscent of eastern Quebec and New Brunswick, with some very steep hills (I think they were steeper on our trip to Charlevoix, where 11-15% were common). 

Although it's known as the Lake Superior Circle Route, much of the 7.5 hour trip is away from the coast. It's all quite spectacular, with waterfalls, look outs, quaint stops and provincial parks. Of course, everything pretty much was closed.  I'm curious about why the road is routed the way it is from Jack Fish to Terrace Bay. Where did the old Highway 17 go? 

Long way come, long way go.

We insisted at stopping at the large Canada Goose at Wawa. You do have to get off the highway, but it's like 30 seconds. You can click on the above (or any) picture to go to the picture viewer for larger images. 

Again, the travel centre here was closed. Rob drove past the wooden sawhorse barricade anyway. The benefit of a small car. 

A picture of Rob taking a picture of us being silly. He made us stand like the goose, with arms bent like wings. I haven't seen those pictures LOL. It was so cold.

There's the little turquoise car!

Because the centre was closed and we needed a bathroom break, we headed back to the Esso on the highway.  It's kind of sad seeing gang graffiti in a tiny town in northern Ontario.  I always thought Wawa was on the shores of Lake Superior, but it's actually not!

You probably can't see it, but there was snow in the trees, and also fresh snow on the trees.  Have I mentioned it was cold?

We got to White River around 11am. There's not a lot of food options on this highway at this time of year, and we felt waiting for the next spot was too far...but we weren't quite ready to eat yet, so we went to the Winnie the Pooh attraction first.

Have I mentioned, it was cold? As excited as I was to be here, I was freezing and posed just long enough for a picture.

But then we decided to recreate one of our wedding pictures LOL.

There is an A&W in White River. This is a really popular chain in Canada, but it still felt a little weird that there's one in the middle of no where.  What seemed even weirder was that the staff were all immigrants, with not the best English. It just amazes me....I worked really hard on Spanish before our cruise trip but I don't think I could work in a fast food restaurant, especially where there's a lot of tourists with other languages. Got to give these people credit! However, we weren't too impressed with the restaurant. Teen Burgers were on sale, we wanted three burgers and one Teen Burger combo.  The woman repeated back two Teen Burgers and one combo. We corrected her, and she didn't seem to understand that 3 people wanted 4 burgers. And, one of those burgers was without bacon. However the order was correct--though it was impossible to understand them when they whispered out the orders that were ready. They should just use a number system. Then, I went to the washroom, and there was no hot water! It wasn't a case that it was chilly water. When you turned the tap to hot, no water came out!! The cold water was SO cold. 

We headed out again, admist the drizzle/flurries and headed west.

Back to the backseat I went.

Megan had been told that the Canadian Tire in Nipigon is the smallest one in Canada. We stopped in so we could stretch and shop. The place is packed to the rafters. I saw a lot of cool camping stuff I've never noticed in ours (though I don't really browse the camping section anymore). We ended up not buying anything but it was fun anyway. 

It is pretty tiny. It's crazy, this is how big the stores were when I was a kid! Now they're like Home Depot size, and overpriced. Some tried selling milk and bread, some have a Marks Work Wearhouse corner, some have a Party City corner. 

We soldiered on, past the unopen amethyst mines, and the Terry Fox monument (which is open), and straight to Megan's new abode. She's renting a furnished basement room in an older house. There's two other young students (Milton and Brampton) and the owner, a really nice lady who's renting out rooms since her daughter went to the east coast for university. It's an interesting space, and her powder room bathroom is very ....unique...but we feel good knowing there's a "real" adult in the house.

Thunder Bay seems pretty straight forward to get around, it's narrow but long and the lakefront being on the east side is weird for us (growing up in Whitby, it was easy--to the lake is south, out of town is north, Toronto is west and Kingston east). I don't know Megan's exact address but I remember seeing a few streets that started with B.

Rob and I took her car and headed to our hotel downtown Thunder Bay--The Courthouse Inn. This is the old courthouse, and it's been converted to a hotel (obviously LOL). The desk clerk even took the time to show us the room that used to be the courtroom. It's gorgeous! It's the very last image in the photos HERE.  Our room was a bit on the smaller size, with a lack of outlets, but the bathroom was very large. We had a lake view.

The land lady texted Megan a detailed list of restaurants for us to check out. Megan wanted us to go to The Prospector, which is a legendary spot. We opted for Detroit style pizza at this unique placed called "The Subdivision Tomlin".   and walked down the hill and along the main street.

We were a little confused when we went in. We thought it was a sit down restaurant and we were standing in front of an order/pick up counter and could see a dining area to the left. We asked, and the great lady at the counter explained it like a family that got divorced but kept living in the same building LOL. We ordered a pizza and went into the other half, which is the Lakehead Beer Company. I ordered the drink of the day and there wasn't a red beer like Rickard's Red, so Rob got this lager. It was really good and even though I don't often drink more than the first sip from a cold bottle, I also got one! The pizza was good, though neither of us seem to be big fans of Detroit style.  We also got a Caesar Salad which was a really nice complement to the pizza.  The place was bustling! Family groups, girl groups, guys groups, couples....there seemed to be anyone and everyone there! Don't be afraid to ask to sit at the long tables if there's people at one end. Everyone seemed friendly!

We needed to walk after, so we headed towards the waterfront, and a pedestrian bridge. As we entered the bridge portion, there was a group of men and a strong weed smell. They commented on our pizza box and seemed harmless but I'm not sure how I would have felt if I was alone. As we approached the other end, there was a woman supporting another woman as they shuffled up the ramp and they looked... impaired. The crime rate in Thunder Bay is quite high and I was beginning to doubt Megan moving here.

The waterfront area is really nice! This art instillation caught my eye.  My own ancestors have been here for over a century--some were part of the Westward Expansion to Manitoba from Ukraine. Rob's parents though, came in the late 60s from Preston, England. Although I like to travel, the thought of moving permanently is scary! 

We thought this was a great idea! Long time readers might remember my attempts at learning to sail. Someday. Though I envision it being much warmer when I finally do.

Not sure if you can read this using the Picture Viewer. I usually take photos of things like this because Rob doesn't want to wait for me to read it, and I'll never remember all the details. 

Sleeping Giant (Provincial Park). Pretty cool looking, though probably best viewed from shore? 

We kept walking around the downtown and saw this music venue with several tour buses. I looked it up later and it was some metal 80s band.  Rob and Megan were disappointed they missed it LOL.

The view from our hotel room. It was a lovely hotel, though our room was a bit small. The layout was not like a standard hotel room, so if you were to open the door, you're facing me sleeping. A bit creepy. 

The amenities in the bathroom were nice. There was even a robe! However, it was gone the after they cleaned the room on Saturday! There was also no conditioner. The "conditioning shampoo" basically had the same (harsh) ingredients as the other shampoo. On Sat. morning we had time to kill so we went across town to DollarTree to pick up some conditioner.  And a shower comb.

After we came back to the hotel, we were still wanting dessert. We decided to walk to the Freshco on the next block and see what struck our fancy. We picked up some berries and a can of whipped cream LOL. We'd had a lot of snacks in the car and I was craving some fruit. 

Saturday morning was chilly and the Sleeping Giant greeted us with an ethereal view. 

I love historic buildings and we were impressed with how the hotel had been converted but maintained so much charm. Things like railings had to be brought up to code, but it was done subtly. Even the check in desk was appropriate.

We had time to kill before meeting up with Megan, so we drove down by the waterfront, seeing the northern end. We had passed Boulevard Lake and I noticed the dam so we went back to check out the fish ladder and dam. 

Can you tell how cold it is? It was getting annoying actually. I had opted to not wear my winter boots because I thought they'd be uncomfortable in the car and plane. I regretted it though it was lovely when we got back to Toronto. 

Somehow, despite having to drive all the way across the city to Confederation College, we timed it exactly right. We picked up Megan and headed out to the Terry Fox Monument.

We got there, and the building was closed for lunch (we actually saw her out cleaning the parking lot). The sign said to use the washroom building in the parking lot. We walked all the way back there, and they were locked, with a sign saying to use the ones in the building. So we went over to the monument.

It's quite a nice monument. You can see it from the highway. They worked in close collaboration with his parents when developing the monument, centre and intentions. The guide inside was fantastic. It's also part tourist welcome centre and Megan found out about lots of new places and events to explore.

For lunch, Megan really wanted to take us to a little Mexican spot, Norteños Cantina, for their birria tacos. They were quite good. A lot of the food on the menu looked good! After, we took Megan shopping. That became a tradition when we dropped each kid off at school at the start of the school year and after winter break. We took the groceries back to her place and headed back to the college to meet up with Zack, her boyfriend. 

Zack was still finishing up a couple weeks left of his Aircraft Mechanics course, and living on campus though pretty much all his time is spent at the airport. He drove us to the hangar where he works and we met his uncle, Joel. They showed us around a couple planes, and we got to check them out inside.

It may be tiny, but the seats were more comfortable and spacious than many bigger jets!

It finally cleared up and the blue skies were gorgeous. Still a bit chilly though--I think it got to around 12C.

Origami? (the left controls)

It's cool to get to see things like this up close. Rob enjoyed seeing the mechanics of it all.  We've also done behind the scenes at the Indianapolis Zoo, and the Celebrity Equinox. We've done Doors Open tours too, when local places like theaters, city works departments, etc open up for tours. One of the coolest was the York Durham Incinerator. Oh, and one time at Oshawa Airport...

After that, we got a quick stop at Kakabeka Falls.

It always amazes me how loud waterfalls are! Even the fish ladder/dam in the morning was loud.

Putting yourself in the shoes of the Indigenous, or the early explorers/colonizers, you can only imagine the legends they believed about these great waterfalls. I felt the same thing in New Brunswick a couple years ago, at Grand Falls. We can say they didn't have science to explain things, so they used their imagination and knowledge obtained from observation and experience...which is really what science is!

After the falls, we went to Joel and Natalie's house. I'm glad to know Megan (and Zack) have adults there that can help and support them! 

Zach's not a fan of getting his picture taken, especially if there's no fish in his hands LOL.

It was a wonderful dinner of venison, potatoes, and veggies. I hadn't had venison in so long and Joel cooked it up perfectly.  

It was a late night when we headed back into the city and to the hotel. 

Sunday morning we had another hotel breakfast and waited for Megan to pick us up.  We also went on a short, cold walk. 

Megan drove us to the Thunder Bay airport. This was my first time flying out of a small airport!  I know in the US, every city seems to have an airport, but in southern Ontario, especially on the east side of Toronto, our options are limited (Toronto Pearson, or Toronto Island, or all the way over to Ottawa and Montreal!).  It was a nice change from Pearson.  We went through security and looked for the Porter Lounge we were told was upstairs. Couldn't find it. So we just sat and watched the planes and people. There's no customs, so people arriving basically arrive into the departure area. 

Sleeping Giant, off in the distance

Real glassware on Porter! The seats aren't the most comfy, and you can see my knee is almost at the seat in front of me, but it's only a 2 hour flight.

Two views of Sault Sainte Marie

It was cool to be flying low enough to get such a great look at the cities and landforms!

I imagined I was flying over the Bahama Islands, LOL. Nope, that's between the north shore of Manitoulin Island and the Lake Huron coast, known as the North Channel.

Hope, Christian, and Beckwith Islands

Wasaga Beach, the world's longest freshwater beach, on Nottawasaga Bay. 

When you look at a map, Lake Simcoe seems huge. Even when you're out on a boat, it seems huge.  Obviously, it's not as large as Lake Ontario, but flying over it, it seemed quite small!

Orillia is at the bottom of the picture, a weird way to view it!

Brooklin, with Highway 12 heading north on an angle to the bottom right.

The Williamsburg area, and the neighbourhood just to the north of us at the bottom.

And! We flew over our house!  I couldn't quite see it when we were in the plane, but when I looked at the photos after, I could spot it. Since then, we have noticed the Porter flights quite a few times!

Coming into to Billy Bishop (Island) airport!  Rob had been there before but I hadn't. Small place! Wish bigger, international, flights could use it. We got the shuttle to Union Station, had some food, and hopped on a GO Train home. So much nicer than navigating Pearson, getting to the parking, driving home!

And with that, our trip was over. Megan has settled in, and sent a picture of a humongous pike she caught on the weekend. Bittersweet. When she was a baby, I would never have predicted she'd be the first to move out! I think she was motivated by being "the baby" all her life. The past month hasn't been without some challenges for her, but she's happy and that's what parents want most for their kids.