Happy Canada Day (Canadian Independence Day). We spent the whole day aware that it was
definitely a holiday in Canada. Low
level of traffic, many stores and restaurants were closed. And lots of people wearing bright red shirts
with maple leaves on them. We were
pleased to celebrate Canada’s 149th birthday along with the rest of
the country.
We drove and drove around Lake Superior. This is an enormous lake! Lots of really beautiful landscape. We were very pleased to see such nice
views. The Trans-Canadian Highway ran
mostly along the shore, with sometimes cutting in farther inland. Trees, water, greenness! Wow!
As we approached the town of Nipigon, which is at the
furthest northern part of Lake Superior, we started seeing signs for the
Paddle-to-the-Sea Park. Dick had to see
it. It was clearly based on the
children’s book that had been one of his favorites so many years ago. We ventured off the main highway to find the
park. It was delightful. It was set up with a variety of play spaces
for children that mimicked the adventures in the book
The story, by Holling Clancy Holling, is of a First Nation boy carving a canoe with a
figure paddling it. On the bottom of the
carving he said it was Paddle-to-the-Sea and asked anyone who found it to
return it to the water. Then he placed
the carving on a snow bank over a little stream that joined the Nipigon River
before entering Lake Superior. The story
is of the journey of this carving through all of the Great Lakes to the St.
Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean.
The book not only delighted Dick but so many others in the 1950s.
While in Nipigon looking for some of the sections of the park,
Patti found a labyrinth at a Bed-and-Breakfast.
Of course she had to walk it. It
was such a lovely setting for a brief meditation.
Early afternoon brought us to our first Canadian National
Park: Pakaskwa. This was on the
northeastern side of Lake Superior. A
lesser visited park, it was so lovely.
Parts of it went right up to the Lake Superior, and there were also lots
of other little lakes and bays. Also
great plants and trails and the sky was great.
We could not have had an prettier afternoon to spend exploring this
park.
But wait: we arrived
just in time to have birthday cake for Canada, and wait: the National Park’s costumed mascot, Parka (a
big beaver) was there to celebrate with us.
A huge cake cut into enormous pieces was enjoyed by all. We all stood and sang Oh Canada (we mumbled along the best we could, although Dick knew
most of the words. We next sang Happy Birthday to Canada. It was the country's 149th birthday. It was quite touching to sing and celebrate
with these people who were filled with pride for their country.
We also bought our National Parks’ Discovery Pass which we expect to use at many places during this trip.
We had enough time to do what we thought was a little short
hike. It turned out that the trails and
maps didn’t match up that well and we walked quite a bit further than we had
planned. But it was gorgeous. Green in all of her glories. Everywhere we
looked was something lovely. We took a
ton of photos.
And we found the first of a project Patti had read about: The Red Chairs-share the chair. This year at each national
park in Canada they have placed two bright red Adirondack chairs in some great
spot with a view symbolic of the park.
The have invited visitors to sit in the chairs and ponder about the
park, take a selfie and the photo to Twitter or FACEBOOK. We so loved this, and took our
pictures and then swapped out photos with another crew of hikers coming along
behind us. Nice. Patti is now on alert to find more
chairs. Stay tuned.
As we left the park, we spotted a bear cub that scampered
across the road behind our car. It was
so cute and disappeared down a hill in tall grass. We looked for the mother bear, who we knew
had to be close by, but never saw her.
Quickly we were back on the road.
It turned out that this sighting was quite timely since we soon stopped
at the town of White River to see a park dedicated to Winnie-the-Pooh. We learned that a small bear cub had been
rescued after its mother had died. Taken
to White River, it was seen by a an English army veterinarian, Harry Colebourn, who
was just about to board a train, starting a journey to England. He was captivated by the cub and bought it
from its rescuer. He took the cub to
England. It was a very friendly cub who
loved children. When it was too big for
the doctor to keep, Colebourn donated it to the London zoo. There it still interacted with children,
including A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin.
It was out of that experience that Winnie-the-Pooh was created. White River claims to be the original home of
the Pooh bear.
Approaching Sault Ste. Marie, Dick was reminded of the only
other time he had been in this area.
When he was five, his family took a trip to Goulais Bay where they
stayed in an old fishing camp. The family had always called it Goolie Bay, but Dick discovered the French
-->
pronunciation
of the name was very similar. He had
memories of going with his father to get ice from the ice house. The ice had been collected from Lake Superior
the previous winter and stored in large blocks in the ice house, each block
separated by saw dust. A chuck of ice
was chipped off with an ice pick and carried back to the cabin and put in the
old fashioned ice box where the milk and other perishables were kept. The ice box looked like a big cabinet with
several doors on the front. He also remembered going out on the bay in a small
boat and walking to a little store. It is interesting what memories stick from
such an early age.
Patti had made a discovery the night before, that our next
day’s activities were accidentally taking us back across the boarder to the US. We would to take a locks and lighthouse boat
tour, but it only went out of the Michigan side of Sault Ste. Marie. Ever light on our feet, and with only some
small amount of angst on Patti’s part, we cancelled our Canadian hotel for
tonight and made a reservation across the river in Michigan. Some hassle, but this meant crossing in the
evening rather than in time to get to an 8:00 am boat. Shifting, shifting….it worked. We crossed into the US with the least hassle
ever. We found our hotel back in the states, went out for dinner at an Irish
Pub, got our cell phone data coverage sorted out with some AT&T help and
watched Canada Day fireworks. This
fireworks was being hot off from a barge not far away form our new hotel. Go Canada!
And especially since we will be in Ottawa from the July 4th
holidays we still felt like we got in some Independence Day partying.
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