The sun streamed through our bedroom window at 5 a.m. on our first travel day. In winter I am not usually up before late morning, but as we approach the longest day of the year, the bright morning light coaxed me out of bed by 6 a.m., so Betty, Charlie, Gavin and I were on the road and entering province #2 – Ontario – by mid-morning.
Of course, no one from Ontario would call it anything but province #1, and if you are from Toronto, then anything outside the metropolitan area is subservient hinterland. LOL (Betty, having been born and raised in Toronto, finds that last line to be too edgy & offensive, and should be edited out. But we lived in Alberta when the National Energy Program was introduced, and the reactionary sentiment was “Let those eastern b…s freeze in the dark!”) But enough of petty provincial politics. On to our journey of discovery!
We had set the bar low for our first day of travel, and exceeded our expectations by blowing past our first scheduled stop – Kenora, Ontario – by 10:30 a.m. After passing rock, trees, and water, then trees, rock, and water, then water, trees, and rock, we arrived at the beautiful Kakabeka Falls Provincial
Park, just outside Thunder Bay, Ontario. Our large, quiet campsite is nestled nicely in more trees, and we can hear the water cascading over the rock in the background.
In the park is a dog beach, where Charlie
enjoyed his favourite game of chase the stick. I should make this paragraph longer, to accommodate all the pictures of his comings and goings, but oh well…
After the beach, we went to the mighty falls, bringing back memories of our visit here with our niece, Amy, when she was just 12 and Valerie was 2. Today Betty and Charlie are pictured on the boardwalk where Amy and Valerie were seen many years before.
Not to be left out of the action, Gavin insisted on having his picture taken at the falls, both upstream and downstream. As the water thundered over the edge, Betty & I also got in front of the lens at this most photogenic location.
It’s another bright, sunny day, and we will soon be heading out on the twisty, turny TransCanada Highway that leads up and down and around the north shore of Lake Superior – one of the GREAT Lakes, on the southern border of a GREAT province: Yours (and ours) to discover and enjoy!
Cheers!
