Photo Post: Pickering

From Ottawa, Chele and I backtracked towards the Greater Toronto Area, so that she could fly home and that I could pick up Jules. First, though, we stopped for a visit and an overnight at our friend Sarah’s in Pickering, Ontario. She brought us to a couple of scenic waterfront areas for a lovely summer evening stroll and some photo ops. I also made some geese friends.

Stop #1 was a path with a bridge that overlooked Lake Ontario and had a scenic view of the power plant. It also had a scenic view of this fallen tree.

Tree, right-side up, at magic hour

More Magic Hour at Pickering’s recreational waterfront area

Sunset in Pickering

Boat docks in Pickering at sunset

Photo Post: Ottawa

Thanks for your patience, those of you who are still with me! I’m finally back home and caught up from the first skating events of the season, so the next goal is to get caught up with this blog. I have plenty of motivation, since I’m also officially starting work on my thesis this semester.

So last time I posted, I was on my way to Ottawa. Here’s Ottawa!

Provincial flags along the Rideau Canal downtown, and plenty of Maple Leaf flags—I was there just a week before Canada Day.

The Rideau Canal. A UNESCO World Heritage Site and in the winter, it’s the world’s longest ice rink.

The Peace Tower, standing tall from the middle of the main Parliament Building

Ottawa’s ByWard Market (or Marché By, for les francophones) is its most picturesque district. Just a few blocks from Parliament.

Entrance to the main market building and a beautiful day for sightseeing

Here’s an intersection of Canada and the U.S. After President Obama was elected, he visited Ottawa and stopped at a few places in the market. There are still photos of him hung in a bunch of the stalls in the market, and at the end, he bought a couple of these cookies for his girls. The cookies were immediately christened “Obama cookies” and the bakery went from selling a couple hundred of these each week to a couple thousand. Of course, I had to be a good American, and Chele and I both bought Obama cookies. They’re not really that tasty, but they sure are pretty.

Photo Post: Central Ontario

When we left Parry Sound on the morning of June 23, the road closures in Huntsville in preparation for the G8 summit were beginning, forcing us to take a pleasant detour around Ontario’s lake country.

We stopped in Port Carling for a bit of walking, an unforgettable smoothie, and photos of a picturesque church, as shown here. This is Knox Presbyterian Church in downtown Port Carling.

Port Carling is home to the world’s largest photomosaic!

Close-up of the photomosaic, which is made up of family photographs donated by Port Carling’s residents.

Our detour took us around Lake of Bays, one of the largest lakes in the region. We stopped at a little picnic spot in a town I can no longer remember for a few photos.

And when Lee, the GPS, rebelled, we ended up on an extended detour on mostly isolated roads. It was a little creepy, but we did find this lovely 150-year-old church, Our Lady of the Angels, in Brudenell. So it wasn’t a complete waste of a trip.

Photo Post: Parry Sound

On the way to Parry Sound, we stopped at Manitoulin Island. It was raining, but I wanted proof that I went. Here’s proof.

The pride of Parry Sound is Bobby Orr #4. Here’s his Hall of Fame.

Georgian Bay at Parry Sound

Georgian bay at Parry Sound, panoramic-style.

Parry Sound

Photo Post: A Superior Shore

When Chele and I left Thunder Bay, I knew the drive around Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie would be gorgeous. The first thing that I wanted to see, though, was the Terry Fox Memorial & Lookout. For those reading who might not be familiar with him: Terry Fox had one of his legs amputated due to cancer and 3 years later, he began a journey across Canada—the Marathon of Hope—to raise awareness and money for cancer research. Starting at Cape Spear in Newfoundland (Canada’s easternmost point), he ran for 143 days until the cancer spread and he had to give up his quest east of Thunder Bay. He died the following year, and is remembered across Canada as one of its most inspirational heroes. The Memorial near Thunder Bay stands close to the spot where he ended his journey.

View of The Sleeping Giant from the Terry Fox Memorial & Lookout

Another waterfall fail: our view of Aguasabon Falls from the “lookout.”

Lake Superior at Old Woman Bay in Lake Superior Provincial Park: gorgeous view!

Me at Old Woman Bay

Munuscong Lake, behind the B&B where we stayed on St. Joseph Island (east of Sault Ste. Marie)

The beginning stages of sunset at the Sunset Bay B&B

One more view of Munuscong Lake at twilight

Photo Post: Thunder Bay

Chele and I didn’t spend too much time in Thunder Bay, but we were treated to lovely weather and the best Finnish pancakes I’ve ever had.

Arrival in Thunder Bay: take scenic photos of Lake Superior

Thunder Bay’s very own Sleeping Giant looms over the city

The Finlandia Club, where we had the best Finnish pancake breakfast ever in the restaurant in the basement, The Hoito.

Part of the Finnish neighbourhood in Thunder Bay

Photo Post: Kenora, ON

Chele and I had such a nice time in Erin’s hometown, so we took an extended lunch break there. Here are some snaps.

Kenora is on the north shore of Lake of the Woods, a large lake that is shared by both Canada and the U.S. I’ve always been kind of fascinated by it, true story.

City Hall in picturesque downtown Kenora

A pretty downtown pharmacy

Fly Kenora’s friendly skies!

Waterfront downtown

Chaos in the T.

I promised the border guard in BC that I wasn’t coming to Canada to write about the G20 Summit. I still maintain that this was not my plan, but after my weekend in Toronto coincided with the G20 and the chaos that ensued, how can I not write about it? (But I still maintain that I’m not a political writer.)

Things started calmly enough. I said bye to my Ottawa family, and Chele and I left fairly early for the Toronto area. Our first stop was Pickering, east of Toronto, where our friend Sarah played host and tour guide. After dinner, she took us to the waterfront path in Pickering so we could take some scenic photos. And so I could chase some geese on the beach. More on that if I ever upload the videos I’ve been taking.

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to Sarah and continued our backtracking route to pick up Jules in London. We were rewarded with brunch at Cora’s, my favourite breakfast restaurant in the world. No one does fruit-filled crêpes quite like Cora. London is my least favourite city in Canada, for many reasons, and our bad luck with London continued. We just wanted to add Jules to the rental car at a Hertz location, but all 3 of the London locations were closed—2 for good, and 1 for the day. So after our epic detours, we were finally on our way to Toronto.

Little did we know that Toronto had erupted into a riot that afternoon. By the time we go to Christina’s in the city, groups of protestors at the G20 had smashed windows of major businesses downtown and had already had altercations with the police. It’s a good thing that I’ve been to Toronto so many times, because I definitely did not get to see much of the city on this trip! Even if we’d wanted to brave the hammer-wielding protestors, the police had set up traffic blockades downtown and the subway wasn’t running south of Bloor.

So instead, Christina, Jules, Chele, and I picked up Jen, and the the five of us had our traditional birthday weekend. This year, it ended up just being a birthday dinner in The Beaches, a waterfront neighbourhood east of downtown, but it was fun for us all to be together for a bit, even though it wasn’t much time. We went to The Green Eggplant, and I had a delightful sandwich with chicken, mozzarella, and pesto. Thumbs up for the food, and a cute place, too.

When we flipped on the news back at Christina’s, a group of protestors were staging a sit-in on Front Street, one of the major streets downtown that runs parallel to Lake Ontario. They said that they would refuse to move until one of the major G20 leaders came out to talk to them. We really didn’t understand that logic. I mean, after you send the city into lockdown, you think someone is going to just wander outside and take your seriously? Sure, okay.

Anyway, we were all just glad to have some good birthday times while successfully avoiding the madness. We did see some smashed windows along the way, but no people with hammers or burning cars. And here’s hoping that my next trip to Toronto is on a quieter weekend.

Capital City

It felt right to visit Canada’s capital city halfway through my trip. Perhaps this was also because I have a “family” in Ottawa, so it felt right to have a place to do laundry. Clean clothes are a wonderful thing, although more effective when you don’t leave one of your pairs of jeans behind. I know this now.

My “family” in Ottawa is the Culhane family—Phil, Rhonda, and Cate. I’ve spent a lot of time with them over the past year, photographing figure skating, and it was just so nice to have a couple of days to relax in a place where I felt like I belonged. It was also nice to see Ottawa from somewhere other than the car on the way to the rink.

Of course, getting there was an adventure, as usual. First, the route from Parry Sound to Ottawa involved Huntsville, but we were travelling on Wednesday, June 23rd—the first day of highway closures for the G8 summit. So we created a detour that took us through Port Carling, a charming town and home of the world’s largest photomosaic, as well as the world’s most amazing banana-almond smoothies (Thanks, Juicery!). However, my GPS, Lee, had a hard time keeping us on paved roads to get us from Port Carling to Highway 60, far enough from Huntsville that we could get right onto the highway. After a few terrifying twisty gravel roads, we finally made it, just as an earthquake rocked the Ottawa region. Much to the surprise of all of the people texting both Chele and me, we didn’t feel a thing.

Then, after we crossed Algonquin Provincial Park on Highway 60, Lee took us off the highway again, this time for well over an hour on county roads through sparsely populated farmland—only to dump us right back on 60 again, not far from Ottawa. So weird. By that point, we were hitting Ottawa right at rush hour. Oups. But at least we made it, and not a moment too soon. As soon as we let ourselves into the Culhanes’ house, I power napped on the couch.

Despite multiple trips to Ottawa in the past few years, I hadn’t been downtown since 2006, and I was pleasantly surprised. After a fabulous sleep and an early morning trip to the rink to watch Cate and the other dancers practice, Chele and I were ready to explore the capital. Since Parliament Hill was choked with tourists and workers setting up a stage, possibly for Jazz Fest, we spent most of our time in the ByWard Market area. I’d been by the market during past trips, but I felt like I was really seeing it for the first time. I loved peeking into the little shops and I loved our food choices for the day: Beaver Tails and Planet Coffee. A winning combination, if you ask me. Phil raves about Planet Coffee on Twitter all the time, so I was so excited to try it, and it had been years since I last had a Beaver Tail. I hope it’s not years before I have another, that’s all I have to say about that.

However, the best part of the trip was certainly our quick jaunt across the border into Gatineau, Québec. We went to the Museum of Civilization, the one museum in Canada I’ve been wanting most to visit. Since we didn’t want to spend the whole day there (and I sure could have), we just stuck to the most pertinent floors for this trip: 1000 years of Canadian history on the 3rd floor and 25 Influential Canadians on the 4th floor. I’m still wondering why Terry Fox wasn’t included on the 4th floor, but other than that, I was so impressed and thrilled by the museum. The details were incredible, including complete replicas of old-fashioned stores, a Yukon restaurant, an airport lounge from the 1960s, and more. Everything was so much more ornate and interactive than I had imagined. Fantastic place, and great for both kids and adults.

We sat down for a “family dinner” with the Culhanes and Bryn, one of Phil’s colleagues, in the evening after our trip downtown, and enjoyed another relaxing night in before our last morning in Ottawa (and one more trip to the rink) before we backtracked a bit and went back to Toronto. More about that eventful weekend in the next blog!

The Carson House

I’d heard before that the drive around Georgian Bay was gorgeous, but it ended up being a bit disappointing for two reasons: 1) rain and 2) we didn’t actually see the bay while we were driving. It wasn’t like the spectacular drive through Lake Superior Provincial Park. Bummer.

But despite the weather, Chele and I decided to continue with our plans for a side trip to Manitoulin Island. We didn’t take much time there, but I really wanted to say that I’d been to the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world. It’s all about the superlatives.

I can imagine how beautiful the island must be on a nice day, but with the crummy weather, we decided not to spend the afternoon driving around it. We just crossed over into Little Current, the first town on the island over a really terrifying and ancient swing bridge (on which they were doing construction), had some ice cream at Farquhar’s, known as the best ice cream on the island, and then headed back to the drive.

Since I’m a great planner, we rolled into Parry Sound without the address of the B&B where we were staying, and it took a good 20 minutes before we found somewhere with free wi-fi. I had to register at the Parry Sound Public Library for the internet password (which was printed on a clearly visible card at the counter), and the librarian wasn’t sure that I was over 18 and could register without parent permission, so she had to ask. Just when I thought I finally looked at least 21…

The good news was that once we finally arrived at The Carson House, we were greeted by its pleasant owners, the Maddefords, who set us up in a charming room on the second floor, where I promptly passed out for a power nap. After a nap, I was ready to hit the stores for essentials—Starbucks for coffee, Sobey’s for snacks—before we turned in for an early night, hoping that the weather would clear up in the morning.

With a great sleep and breakfast and a fairly nice morning, Chele and I headed to the waterfront for scenic photography at a pilgrimage to the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame. Chele, a native Bostonian, knew she couldn’t come home without at least entering the hometown shrine of Bobby Orr #4. I admit, I was mostly in it for the photography, but it looked like a nice tribute to a legendary hockey hero.

Speaking of legendary hockey heroes, the Carson House B&B is the former home of the Carson family, which included three NHL players in the 1920’s and 30’s. All three boys that played in the NHL were Stanley Cup winners. Frank Carson, the middle brother of the three, scored the first goal ever for the Detroit Red Wings in 1932, and the Red Wings happen to be my favourite hockey team. Not a bad hockey history for a town like Parry Sound!

Though we didn’t have enough time this trip, I’d love to go back sometime and take the 30,000 Islands cruise that weaves around the islands in Georgian Bay. It sounds lovely and on a summer day with blue skies, I can only imagine how beautiful it must be. I bet it’s pretty in the fall, too. Anyone want to send me on a research trip to find out?