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.
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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.
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