Go West my friend

Sault Ste Marie.

After a bit of deliberation we decided to head out of town again for 5 days. After looking at the map of Canada we figured we would head west as we had not been that way as of yet.
Instead of booking something we just drove west and figured we would find something when we got there.
The drive from Ottawa was long at just under 800km from Ottawa to Sault ste Marie.
We followed the Ottawa River up towards North Bay and then to Sudbury the home of the big nickel!!!!
Sudbury is a strange place we would have to compare it to areas in Australia, there is rocks, rocks and more rocks. Actual that is not quick true I think there is just one really big rock.
This the area Sudbury was the site of a meteorite impact millions of years ago so this is why it is now one of the biggest producers of nickel in the world.
From there we headed of towards Sault ste Marie, with Sarah being fascinated by the horse and buggies we saw going along the side of the road, but by the time she got the camera out we had passed them, we figured they must have been Mennonites as remembers someone talking about then.
We arrived in Sault ste Marie about 7.30pm and looked around for a hotel and decided to stay at the travel lodge.
The next day we had already decided to head up out of Sault ste Marie towards thunder bay, but not all the way as was 700km away a bit much for one day.
We drive up the side of Lake Superior until we got the entrance of the Lake Superior Provincial Park, went to the information centre to found out all the good spots to stop and take pictures and also the things to look out for.
The first stop was a water fall just up the road, then on to the Agawa rock paintings.
This area was on the edge of the lake and came with big warnings as the lake is know to be unpredictable at times. We walked down to the edge of the lake and decided that one of us would go for a walk and take pictures of the paintings on the rocks that we had come to see, better one wet then two.
The rocks being granite where slippery but there was a chain to hold on to for the first bit after that you were on your own. We also took lots of pictures around the rocks.
From there we carried on up the lake and stopped to look at a lake created by beavers years ago but the floating bridge was not floating that well, and I know I have not put on that much weight thanks.
We carried on driving north all the way to a place called Wawa and then turned around and headed back the way we came.
Also I forgot to mention we saw a bear on the side of the road that that was a surprise.

Back in Sault ste Marie we drove down but the locks system and had a look at them before going back to the hotel and sleep.

The next day it was raining so we figured there was no point staying here so we headed back towards Sudbury and there turned off towards Toronto with the final destination being a small town called Huntsville. It must have rained the whole rip and getting pulled over by the police did not really help things, and were we speeding no, the cop stopped us because there was a non alcohol thing on my info and had never see it before so was just curious, nice….

The next day we headed back to Ottawa through the Algonquin national park, we had herd about the park before but where rather disappointed with it, although we did not have time to go walking we decided to stop at the information centre and have a look and a coffee, but we arrived in the car park to see you had to display a parks parking permit which was $15 and since we only wanted to look and have a coffee we felt it was not worth take much, we might head back and spend more time there and them it might be worthwhile.
Once again our wonderful gps took us home the fastest way possible, pity the roads seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. But we arrived home safely so that was the main thing.

Tulips

After our last big holiday we figured we would take it easy and check out something happening around town.
We had heard about the tulip festival so on the Sunday headed into the city and wondered around parliament and looked at all the tulips in the gardens, we also went and looked at the peace keeper’s memorial and also the statue in front of the art museum.
A couple of days later we also headed down to Dow's Lake to look at the main tulip areas.
The tulip festival is the commemorate the Dutch royal family coming to Canada during WW2 when the germens invaded, and the royal family presented the government of Canada tulips in appreciation.
There were lots of people at Dow's Lake looking at all the different flowers but it was still a nice day to be out walking around.

As you can see from the pictures we also drove down to Kingston for the day to have a look as we had heard that it was very nice, we walked along the water front and also through town then found something for lunch before heading over to fort Henry on the other side of the start to the rideau waterway.
From there we drove up what is called the 1000 islands, this is the area from where the st Lawrence starts from lake Ontario and as you can guess there is lots of islands. The other reason for this drive was to scout out on doing one of the 1000 islands cruises when mum and dad get here in June.

On to Moncton and then home

From digby we had no really plans, well nothing booked to stay anyway. We headed up the coast and Stopped at Annapolis Royal and looked at the old fort there, people have been living around here since the 1600. We parked in the fort car park and looked around then i decided to look under the bonnet to try and figure out what the rattle was, a parks guys came and asked if everything was alright and we got talking and he asked if we wanted to look in the museum that was closed for the season so that was really good of him.
From there we drive most of the way to truro and stopped at the information centre to try and find out what time the tidal bore happened, but was not till 6.30pm and it was only just 12.30, so we decided to drive out and around Cape d'Or. it was a good drive and some nice looking bays, and the water went from brown back to a nice green, this area is very similar to the Kaipara river with the silt on the river banks. We decided not to drive out to the light house at cape D'or and continued on to a place called Joggins where there was a fossil centre almost in the middle of nowhere, we decided to check it out and then went for a walk along the beach and look at the rocks where lots of the fossils had come from.
From there we decided to go to Moncton for the night, the next day we went to the hopewell rocks and then start on our way home as the weather was not playing the game.
So from moncton we headed back toward the bay of fundy and the hopewell rocks, luckly we had taken our wet weather gear with us, so on it went and off we went for a walk around the rocks, the walk along the beach was good even with the small amount of rain, we walked to the other end and looked at all the different rocks and formations on the beach then turned around and walked all the way back.
Once off the beach we decided to walk the paths above the beach and check out the viewing platforms, pity the rain was getting worse.
We walked to the interpretation centre and the platform and took photos and then walked back to the car, by which time we were just a bit wet from the rain.
After cleaning ourselves up we headed back into Moncton had lunch and then headed off west for Riviere Du Loup, the fact that it was raining hard did not help and seem to make the trip go really slowly.
We again stayed in the same hotel that we stayed last time through and the next day made a run for home.

Bridgewater to Digby

With a bit of inside info from our B&B hosts we headed off for Digby around the bottom of Nova Scotia, we again drove along the coast and stopped at different beaches, some even had white sand and looked amazing, pity the wind was so cold.
AS we headed down the coast there was lots of harbours and coves, almost to many to look at.
Along the way we found a sign that said 1967 UFO incident??????
We had lunch in Yarmonth and then went and looked at the firefighters museum and got in for free as the second floor was being renovated, from there we carried on to Digby.
We decided to head down Digby neck but after 30km of not being able to see anything we turned around and headed for Digby and the B&B we were staying in.
After check in and sorting things out we ask the owner about getting a rock lobster for dinner as I figured it was about time to try one.
We walked down the road to Fundy Restaurant and had dinner, they even had the tank with lobster in it. I got the steamed lobster and Fundy scallops, and it was nice sort of like crayfish from home. It was a bit expensive at $17.95 a pound!!!!
As we had dinner we watched the tide go out and it really goes out here, in some areas of the bay of Fundy they get 15 metre tide variations.
We finished dinner and yes it was the most expensive dinner we have had.
From there we walked up the road and then walked back along the board walk along the edge of the water back to the B&B.