Thank You For The Music

Dynamic Earth (Science North at the giant Nickel) opened at 10 am and we pulled in at 10:01.  Yeah, look at us being on time on the last day of our trip!  Naturally, we had to start with the obligatory photos of the nickel.  It took some doing, but they turned out great.

We then went to play in the coolest playground ever, all themed around mining with big bull dozers and everything.  The Rangers and I had a blast checking it all out, well, that is until a day camp full of kids came running out and took over the place.  

We then travelled underground and back in time to see how the nickel mines operated in the late 1800s, 1950s and today.  It was over an hour tour and was well done.  Once again our uniforms got us some attention and the kids got to help out with demonstrations more than once.

Once we were done with our tour, we checked out the rest of the Science Centre.  It wasn’t large, but it had some cool stuff about building, digging, mining, and of course rocks/minerals.  The Rangers and I played in a few areas that were meant for younger kids, until kids showed up then we hightailed it out of there and pretended like we hadn’t been there at all (photos are not proof of this, nope, they are not).

By about 2pm we had pretty much seen all there was to see and decided to get back on the road, once again, ahead of schedule.  What are the chances?  I guess one in seven, since they managed it one day out of the seven!  

I spent the next couple of hours listening to the strangest story I think I’ve ever heard, and I really don’t think I could describe it if I tried.  Pop was reading it off her phone, something about fanfic for a game they like.  I’m not sure I followed the story much, but I did enjoy all the difference voices she used to tell it.

Our final stop was another nice dinner out.  There was budget money left, so yeah, everyone enjoyed a nice dinner, ate half of it, asked for take-home boxes and then ordered dessert.  I’d never thought about doing that before, but I think they were pretty smart.

You know you have a good travel team, when on the last half hour of a seven day road trip, the group is not sullenly silent, waiting to get out of the car, but instead singing Disney as loud as they can, and then discussing what will be the last song of the trip.  The vote was for “Thank You for the Music” (Abba) and proceeded to sing it loud and strong as they turned onto the last highway.  It didn’t quite time out right, and we all laughed as “Digga Tunnah” got the actual “last song” spot on our trip (from Lion King 1 ½).

For the third time today we arrived somewhere ahead of schedule, pulling into the driveway at 9 pm.  The car was unloaded and stories were shared with parents.  Nobody wanted to say good-bye, but good-bye’s had to happen, so we took one last group photo and called it a night!

I’m sad it’s over.  These kids were awesome and included little me in almost everything!  I would gladly travel with them again!  

Thank you for the music (and the laughs and everything else)!

Whatever!

Hokey Pokey Artichokey Jr.

The consensus last night was to skip ALL but one of the provincial parks today in favour of sleeping in.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Actually, part of this was due to really enjoying the cabin we had, and nobody wanting to leave.  We could have all spent the entire day enjoying the lake, even me.  Maybe next time.

Attempts at a group selfie were made… (notice that I’m not there)

Once the car was packed, we all walked over to the lake (that makes it sounds like it was far away, it was maybe 20 steps) and awarded Crackle with her Trailblazer Gold award (the highest award a youth can earn in Girl Guides of Canada).  For those not in the know, it involved earning 24 badges, and a 20 hour service project.  Pop received hers in June, and Snap will be finishing hers in the coming months.  Big congrats to all three of them!

The only park we all agreed to stop at today was just twenty minutes down the highway.  Potholes Provincial Park was partly chosen for its name (that amused us all), but it was a really beautiful walk through the woods, along a stream and learning all about the ice age and how the massive potholes in the rock were created.

It was hard to get a decent photo of me without dropping me into the hole itself

Sasquatch Pose

We got a signal!  Must type!

Then began the long long drive to Sudbury.  The highway wound along a large river and through the hills for hours.  Movies were watched… something called “Veggie Tales: Lord of the Beans” had me a bit more than puzzled.  Clare informs me it’s a spin off of another popular book/movie that I haven’t seen so I really wasn’t sure what was going on at any point whatsoever, but they all seemed to enjoy it, so I’ll refrain from criticism.  Ok, I can’t refrain… it was WEIRD, vegetables singing and going on about a magic bean and sharing gifts and well, just weird!  Later we watched Lion King 1 ½ and Shrek 2.  That should tell you the kind of group I’m hanging out with these days.

Somewhere around the half way point, we stopped at Aubrey Falls, where we again saw zero falls.  This was meant to be a quick lunch and bathroom break, but I was entertained by one of the most bizarre behaviours I’ve seen yet, and they all seem to think it’s funny that I don’t know what they did.  They were all standing around eating sandwiches (not wanting to sit for the brief time they didn’t have to) and Pop started humming very softly and stepped one foot forward.  She continued this unfamiliar (to me) tune, and put her foot back.  Clare and Robin soon joined in, both humming and moving their feet, which was then quickly joined by Snap and Crackle.  Just as I thought I was getting it, they all turned in a circle where they stood, with their hands up.  Then they continued humming along and doing the same actions with the other foot.  No words were spoken (or sung), and yet it was clear they all knew what was going on.  And then, after another turn-around, they started jumping forward and backwards!  After this final round, they did another circle and then all burst out laughing.  No one explained it.  Nothing.  Just back to eating sandwiches.  Very weird (but of course I had to try and join in).

 A few more hours in the car and we finally arrived at our last hotel for this trip.  Clare and Robin had given the Rangers the task of picking a sit-down restaurant to go to for dinner (as Crackle put it “one without plastic cutlery”).  They spent nearly an hour searching their phones (oh yeah, we were finally back in consistent cell-service territory by about 3 pm, very exciting for all involved), trying to find the perfect place that had something for everyone.  They finally settled on one, and it just happened to be the restaurant attached to the very hotel that we are staying at!  

A quick unload of the car, and everyone put their uniforms back on to walk over to dinner.  You would have thought they’d been back-bush camping the way they were behaving (Clare and Robin included), like they’d forgotten how to be out in public.  They apologized to their server more than once, saying it had just been a long week.  I’m not sure what she thought of us, but we did make her laugh, so I take that as a win.

Whatever!

Hey look, I made it into this one!

The Next Level of Friendship

"Doing Nails" still puzzles me, but I did have fun with the three of them last night (so much better than the so-called adults who go to bed early)! Basically we sat around and I watched them dab bits of paint on their fingers and toes and chat... about anything and everything. I learned all about a show called Bridgerton, in great detail. I do not need to watch it now. Some other topics may have been covered that seemed way over my head. I'll move on...

An attempt was made to leave by 9 this morning.  It didn’t happen.  Sigh.  We finally made it up to the Eagle Canyon Adventure Park where we paid too much money to walk across two bridges.  Ok, they were pretty cool suspension bridges high over a canyon, one of which is claimed to be the longest foot-path suspension bridge in Canada.  There were no signs or info giving the length or how deep the canyon is.  Nothing.  I guess I just have to take their word for it.  Everyone seemed to think it was worth the detour though, even the two that weren’t sure they could do it.

Our next stop was yet another Provincial Park (Rainbow Falls) for which we saw zero falls.  We ate lunch among the wasps, agreed that given all our picnics, this was the first time we had a bad spot, so we really had nothing to complain about.  We ate quick and headed back out.  Although, I can tell that my crew have lost some of their enthusiasm as the picture of the park sign was this: (taken from the car people, they barely stopped to take it)!

Yet again, our day got further and further behind.  I don’t know how this happens, but it seems a common occurrence with this gang.  I’m learning to go with it (sort of).  As a result, the other two provincial parks that had been planned for the day got dropped, and we made a beeline for our lodging just east of Wawa.  For the first time since we left Guelph, we are now on a highway Clare is not familiar with (I think she’s excited about that, but I’m not totally sure).

One of the reasons everyone decided to ditch today’s stops was because Clare described tonight as “a cabin right on the lake” and they all wanted to get here early.  Even with that goal, we still didn’t manage to get here until almost 7.  It’s baffling!  We unloaded the entire car rather quickly, and then explored the lake and the main lodge (its a hunting/fishing lodge so they found a pool table among other things inside).  I got my first try at pool - I sucked!  I’m not sure they did much better to be honest, but I’m only going by what I heard since I actually have no clue what good playing would look like.

Now it may seem like the title of this entry has nothing to do with our day, but let me tell you, I learned some interesting things about friendship, both during last night’s “doing nails” time, and this evening’s attempt to determine who’s uniform was who’s (after they both ended up in Snap’s bag somehow).  Yes, folks, they each sniffed both shirts to see if they could figure it out.  “Next level friendship” was what they called it.  Ironically, identification was eventually confirmed by a stain from the other day, and had nothing to do with the scent.  However, they were both very proud of the photo that I will end this day with.

Whatever!

I Want a Uniform Too Now!

Things I learned today - if you want this group to be in the car by 9:15, tell to be ready for 9.  I’m not quite sure why that is, but it worked so I’ll just go with it.

Our first stop was back up the highway to Panorama Amethyst Mine, which was so much fun!  It’s a family owned place and they do a great job, even gave us a discount for the group!  The tour was just long enough not to get boring, and you guys know me, that can happen pretty quickly, so it says a lot.  Then we were told to go find our own amethyst with the instructions “if you’re not standing on purple, you’re in the wrong place”.  The stuff was everywhere!  We each had a bucket to collect what you want (you pay per pound for anything you want to keep, but even there they gave us a very generous group discount).  At one point I heard Crackle cry out “I’m having an amethyst crisis!”  We look over and her bucket is half full.  Clare and Robin actually had to set a limit for what we could take back or I think they would have brought the entire mine home.  Still, it was great fun picking, washing, evaluating, discarding, and eventually deciding on what was going home.  I may not be much for souvenirs but this was cool!

From there we headed over to the Terry Fox monument.  If you don’t know who this guy is, look it up because his story is amazing, heart-warming, and heart-breaking all at the same time.  The monument stands near where his trans-Canada journey ended.

Once again Clare and/or Robin had suggested wearing uniforms to go to the monument.  This got them a completely different reaction by other tourists and the guy inside the Welcome Centre.  People asked more questions, were interested in what we did AND we got some coupons to help us out at our next stop (basically half price).  Suddenly my young companions were all about wearing the uniform to show off who they were and what they were about (oh and possible discounts of course).

Uniforms remained on as we headed into town to find “The Persian Man” bakery so that we could all try the local treat (Persians).  They are yeast-donut-like cinnamon rolls with a berry frosting.  Yum.

A short drive later we were at Fort William Historic Park, a living museum kind of like This Is The Place (from my multiple Utah trips).  Once again, uniforms got us attention, and the kids were quickly pulled into various activities/re-enactments being put on by the characters in the park.  They were loving it and eagerly explored The Fort, soaking in the fun and history.  We even got asked where our cookies were!  Thankfully I’ve been around Clare and Robin long enough now to know what this meant.  Here are a few of the best photos with captions because Clare says its just way faster than formatting around paragraphs (whatever!)

Look its Guides at a Guides House!

Filling water bottles

Chosen to be clerks -
 third girl is also in a Guide T, but not with us!

We found another goose!!

Don’t worry, it wasn’t loaded!

Due to a couple in our group not being able to do the hill at this park, we got to ride the shuttle that takes you from the w\Welcome Centre to the historic Fort.  The driver was so excited, as she’s used to driving older people who complain she drives too fast (even when she’s slow).  She took one look at us and said “I like to take corners quick, you good with that?”  They cheered as she gave us a great ride down, and then again on the way back up.  Definitely fun for all!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee……….

As we were leaving the park, we were once again asked about our trip (that uniform really does have an effect - wonder where I might pick one of those up?), and after describing our day, we were told that we HAD to stop at the Shake Shack in Kakabeka Falls as they had the best ice cream around.  This was agreed on by numerous staff standing around.  We were going to Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park next anyways, so what else were we to do but stop in the village of the same name and pick up this highly regarded ice cream (I didn’t get to try any, but I’m told it was worth the stop).  Oh and Pop taught me how to hoverboard on her phone.  I like!

We finally headed over to the actual Falls, which I’ve heard are nick-named Niagara of the North.  Not sure who says that, or where, because I haven’t seen it anywhere (Clare said she was told it back in university, but that was 30 years so, yeah).  It is also apparently higher than Niagara Falls, but nowhere near as wide.  Still impressive though.  Fun fact that matters to no-one but Clare feels like typing it anyways, so, sigh, I’ll let her… it was 30 years ago THIS week that she drove to Thunder Bay for the first time to attend Lakehead University (yup, she’s old, at least that’s what the Rangers like to tease).

A final stop at a Walmart (why do so many of my trips always include a trip inside a Walmart?) and we took our tired bodies back to the hotel, for another feast on a hotel room floor because neither room has enough seats for everyone.  This is where I learned that the kids had bought stuff to “do their nails”.  Curious, I decided that hanging with them sounded like so much more fun!  I sent boring Clare and Robin back to their room to write my blog.  I will inform you about the doing of nails tomorrow!

Whatever!

End of day view from kids room!

Tree Time

 Ok friends, it seems my scribe is a little tired today, so you might have to settle for a condensed version of the day, with a bunch of photos thrown in for good measure!  Witty commentary and formatting might take a hit.

I got my own bed this time!

We were on the road shortly after 8 am, and checking out the Winnie the Pooh statue an hour later (this is where the original bear that inspired the stories came from).  There was also a giant thermometer that used to show the coldest day on record (-72) , so naturally they had to act cold and/or frozen to death! 

Today they are Tigger, Eeyore & Piglet

Brrrr!!!

Then it was a long 4 hours to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.  Movies were watched (not by the driver, just to be clear), puzzles were solved, roads were driven, and many many beautiful views were seen.  Weather jumped between rainy, cloudy and some sun making for some moody skies against the lake.  Stunning.

Sleeping Giant is another park that takes an hour to drive through.  We headed to the Visitors Centre to get maps and shop, of course, then took a short drive to the south end, through Silver Islet and on to the Cemetery Trail, a relatively short hike (1 km each way) to an old cemetery from the mid-late 1800s.  It was very interesting, and as much as I wanted to get pictures of me on the graves, they were all too respectful of where we were to do so.  I can’t complain about that.  This is also the hike where I learned about “Tree Time” a chance for the slower folks in the group to catch up, while the quicker ones stand still in the pose of their chosen tree.  As the slower ones arrive, the trees inform us what tree they are being.  My personal favourites were “an almost dead tree” and “the tree you draw when you’re five”.

We then headed back up towards the entrance to the park to drive out to the Thunder Bay look-out.  It was a bit of a windy-twisty road, but the view when we got there was spectacular (can see the Giant’s head off to the left and barely make out the tops of the buildings of T-Bay just right of it).

This is also where the Rangers began to hijack my blog, deciding what would be written and how fun they would make it (notice they are not here now to help write it!).  Apparently I must include “Arrrr… yee haw!”  You can ask THEM if you want to know the crazy conversation about pirate cowboys.

All of this took longer than expected, and we did not pull into our hotel in Thunder Bay until 8:30.  Check-in was slow, and most take-out food was closed by this point (it is Sunday after all). Pizza was ordered and we called it a night.

Whatever

Photo Op after Photo Op

So I slept in the car last night.  Oh, don’t stress or anything, the humans all slept in a hotel, where I’m sure they were very comfy.  Snap tried to console me this morning, saying I had the whole van to myself, but I know the truth… they forgot me!  Sigh.

Our first stop of the day was less than a five minute drive from the hotel.  Holy Cow Dairy has a beautiful statue of a pile of cows that we just had to see, and take photos at, of course. Then we headed up the highway for about 40 minutes to the half-way point of the trans-Canada highway (boring info alert - trans-Canada highway is 7,821 km (4,860 miles) long, from Victoria, BC to St. John’s, NF).  The plaque was at Chippewa Falls rest stop, so naturally, we had to check out the falls (they looked very similar to Sauble Falls).  The next two stops were two different provincial parks about fifteen minutes up the road, and maybe 10 minutes from each other.  We literally parked by the signs, took the required photo and jumped back in the van to the next one.  Weird behaviour to be sure. 

The are eating pancakes, in case you’re curious!

Another fifteen minutes up the road and we finally arrived at the main focus of the day, Lake Superior Provincial Park.  The views as we drove along this route were breathtaking, and Clare was right all those years ago when she said driving in Newfoundland reminded her of Northern Ontario.  It is very similar.  We started our exploration of this massive park at the Visitors Centre, checking our their exhibits and gift shop (naturally - do I need to keep rehashing this need for trinkets every where we go?).

Five minutes further up the highway we were out of the car again and on our first hike, and for those who remember me questioning the difference between a walk and a hike earlier this month, I definitely did found out here.  We went half the distance that we covered in Earle Row park a month ago, but it took us twice as long!  It was steep!  Now, for those who have been following my journeys from the beginning, this was nothing compared to my climb up Huyana Picchu in Peru (ok ok Clare’s climb, my ride), but it was definitely a climb (down) in spots.  Why this hike then, you may ask?  Well, we had to check out the ancient pictographs on the side of the cliffs along the shores, painted hundreds of years ago.  Yup, worth the work to get down there, and then back up.

Up, up and… up!

A very sweaty team then climbed back into the van and drove another 45 minutes up the highway (still in the same park mind you) to have a picnic at the beach, and find out just how cold Lake Superior really is (feet only).  After some discussion Clare and Pop chose to stay at the beach and do puzzles while listening to the sounds of Lake Superior, while Robin, Snap and Crackle ventured off to the Nokomis Trail, touted on the website as one of the top five day hikes in Canada.  I chose team hikers!

Nokomis trail has a 620 foot elevation change.  Not quite Huyana Picchu but pretty close!  The sign at the head of the trail said to give yourself 2-3 hours to complete it.  It took us about 2 and a quarter.  Was it worth it?  Yup!  Totally amazing view from the top (and that beach you can see way down in the background, somewhere down there are Clare and Pop!)

I am often amazed by you humans and your need for your phones to connect to the world.  Granted, I need connections too or you’d never get to read my blog, but today I saw a whole new level of needed connection (Clare says “welcome to teenagers”).  They seemed genuinely stressed when we went through a number of dead-zones where there was no signal at all.  They were distressed further when they couldn’t Google the answer to a crossword they were trying to solve in the car.  Then, while at the highest point on the Nokomis Trail, they suddenly had service, and sat down to send messages.  I actually laughed at that one!

With the team all back together, we headed to our hotel, a mere 10 minutes up the highway.  There had been plans for a grocery run, but apparently that closed at 6pm, and the Tim Hortons closed at 3pm - yes - on a Saturday.  The hotel owner just smiled at Clare and said “Welcome to Wawa… Subway is open though”. Subway for dinner it is!

A quick unpacking of the van and change into official Girl Guide uniforms, and into town we went, where Snap was finally enrolled as a Ranger (usually done within the first few months of their first year, Snap held out for the last week of their third year JUST to get enrolled by the giant Canada Goose statue in Wawa.  Hey, whatever floats your boat.

“I promise…”

After yet another photo shoot at the giant Goose, we headed into Wawa only to find two more goos statues and a moose.  We stopped at every single one, jumped out looking very fancy in our matching uniforms, took photos, jumped back in and drove across the road to the next one.  This was a very odd behaviour that occurred many times today, leaving me a bit baffled and very amused.  It’s not like I don’t like a good photo op!

On a side note, if you’re still here after a somewhat less entertaining blog entry, this is quite the crew I’ve paired up with.  Puns seemed to be the game of the day… I’m not sure if it was the excitement of being on the second day of their trip, or the lack of sleep, but they were just filled with giggly quips all along the drive.  A few of my favourites…

Passing through the many bays: “they are bay-utiful”

On the Nakomis trail there were large fields of lichen: “we are likin’ the lichen”

In Wawa: “Wawa (whywhy) did the Rangers cross the road?  To get to the other goose?”

And finally, I have to share my favourite photo of the day.  Snap, Crackle and Robin were attempting to use the auto-timer on a phone to take a group shot of the three of them.  It kept going off at the wrong time, or not go off, and then one would move in to check on it, and it would take a pic.  This was my best of them, you can see Robin and Snap just loosing it in the background!

Whatever!