Thursday, June 23, 2005

Adventures in Northwestern Ontario

Last week was spent traveling around northwestern Ontario, which is somewhere I don't get to go nearly often enough. Seriously. I love Dryden, which is small and charming, and reminds me of my hometown, Fenwick. Thunder Bay is also lovely, nestled on the shores of Lake Superior (motto: "I'm not just a Great Lake, I'm Superior!")

The first few days were spent in Dryden. This is a picture of the cabin I stayed in.

Rustic cabin

I was met by a welcoming committee of spiders. They probably heard about my phobia on the "web" (hahaha! I'm so clever!). Thanks guys - not!

Spider welcoming committee
George and Charlotte

The other welcoming committee member
Stinky

My concierge
Frederich, my concierge/valet

There was no phone in the cabin, which bothered me some, since I was in the cabin furthest from the main building. But it did have funky lamps - in fact, I think my parents have one similar to this in the basement somewhere.

Owl lamp

I did get to do a little shopping, and got my Mom a birthday present (which she'll probably get when she comes to visit next weekend). I also got to see the World's Largest Moose.

Giant moose redux

And, in honour of the Yarn Harlot, here's a picture of my sock with the moose.

Moose, meet Sock

On Wednesday, I flew to Thunder Bay, where it was sunny and warm. Thanks to Marylynn, I had a list of places to check out while I was there. But because of time restraints, I made it to exactly none of them. Except the Sleeping Giant, which I did gape at for a while (it really *does* look like a giant laying down with his arms folded across his chest!) None of my pictures turned out very well, though.

Thursday after my workshop, I was getting into my car, and I saw something running towards me. I though it was a bird, but as it got closer I realized it was a chipmunk, and I was pretty sure it was going to try to get into my car!

Looking for Dale

I flew back Friday to much cooler weather in Sudbury, which was refreshing. Next week, I'm off to North Bay and Timmins, so expect more pictures and about the same number of adventures.

Well, depending on whether or not I decide to take the 144 from Timmins to Sudbury, which takes 4 hours to drive and passes through exactly two towns. The rest is wilderness, punctuated by logging camps and a sign marking the watershed line, where water ceases to flow south to the Great Lakes and flows north to Hudson's Bay and the Arctic. Coolness. (Oh, and the Giant Cow in New Liskeard. I'm bringing my sock just for that!)