Round 2 - Laurentian

If every day [of this road trip] has been a winding road, it has also been a really soggy road. We awoke this morning to heavy rain in the Soo, and it continued off and on until Sudbury.
We arrived early, and so in an attempt to kill off some time before the university tour, we stopped at the Big Nickel, which is, incidentally, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Neither A nor I could remember how old he was when we all came to Sudbury on a camping trip and went down the mine, but we're thinking it may have been 10 years ago. I seem to remember it being grey and wet then too.
Laurentian University is enormous compared with Lakehead. Our tour guide was better. He started us off by taking us to the roof of the tallest building on campus so that we could have a bird's eye view of everything. Apparently in the winter, the town zambonis a good chunk of the lake and everyone skates for free.
He focused more on student life than on academics, as the tourguide at Lakehead had. Overall, the dorms are bigger, the buildings are older and not as well outfitted, the food services sound better (read: healthier to a mom). When asked his preference / opinion comparing the 2 schools, A said it like this: one's a big SUV with nothing on it and the other is a fully loaded small car (always the automotive metaphors). Laurentian is the SUV.
He's leaning toward Lakehead, but months from now, who knows which way the final decision will go.
Long wet uneventful drive from Sudbury to home, but we did see 4 rainbows as we drove across the 407. We're both kinda road-weary, but ending with rainbows was a nice touch.

Round 1 - Lakehead

This morning, we toured Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. They have a BSc program focusing on geoarchaeology that A is interested in. Given that their open house was originally scheduled for a Tuesday (?!) in December (!!?!) (who comes all the way to Thunder Bay on a Tuesday in December?!!), we decided that summer holiday suited us better. Here's what we found out.
Pros: very community focused - curricular foci seem really current - all lecture halls have been built or modified for laptops and internet - very small class sizes - they have a paleo DNA lab that is foremost in North America
Cons: food service doesn't sound as healthy as at UVic, but maybe that was because our tour guide had a penchant for hamburgers - floors in the dorms are coed (mom's con, not A's) - double rooms are very small
Jury is only just starting to deliberate, but A liked the small class sizes and the dorm set up didn't seem to bother him.
Then, we started the drive back. From Thunder Bay to the Soo where we have stopped for the night, is about 8 hours. Add in my stops for pretty views of Lake Superior (who was not completely fogged in today), stops for bridge repairs, and stops in general, even driving with polite disregard for the speed limit, it did indeed take 8 hours. The sun came out at Agawa Bay in Lake Superior Provincial Park, so the views of the lake for the eastern part of the drive to the Soo were lovely. Boy, she's big.
Tomorrow, we have to get from here to Sudbury for Round 2 - the tour of Laurentian. That's about 4 hours, then from Sudbury to home is another 6. I should be sick of driving by now, but the roads have been clear for the most part, so it hasn't been strenuous. Wait until we reach the GTA...

Thunder in Thunder Bay

We started this morning at kilometre marker 1000. Given that we started yesterday in the high 1600s, that's kinda cool. Shortly after leaving Wawa, we saw a moose mother and baby having breakfast. Animal sightings continued with a turkey vulture, a rabbit, a deer at the Terry Fox memorial, and something black and dog-like that was either a coyote or a young wolf because it didn't make sense that it was a dog.

Not a great drive today. 5 hours from Wawa to Thunder Bay, and at least 3 hours of that was spent either in pea soup fog or inside a cloud - we haven't figured out which. The staff at the Tim Hortons in Nipigon said it was fog off Lake Superior. Needless to say, there weren't any pretty views to be seen. The Terry Fox memorial is still poignant, but it would have been nice to gaze out over the Lake from high up.

Top of the list of things to do once we got to Thunder Bay was touring Fort William. Today was a First Nations festival, Ashinawbe Keeshigun. Not only was admission free, but there were Native dancers, extra exhibits, and they fed us! We had smoked whitefish and wild rice at the wigwams outside the fort walls. We had freshly baked bread and strawberry juice in the kitchen. We had a great time wandering through the buildings and looking at the special exhibits and displays.

They'd been forecasting rain all day, and it arrived JUST as we got to the car. As we drove to Kakabeka Falls (the Niagara Falls of the North), the rain got harder. The thunder got louder. The fork lightning got brighter. By the time we got there, it was raining so hard, we didn't want to get out of the car. But get out we did, and it was wet! But the Falls were beautiful, and a few minutes later, the sun was out again.

Fingers crossed for a drier, clearer day tomorrow.

Lovely Lake Superior

Well, we made it to Wawa. I think I'd have been more surprised if we hadn't. We're staying at the Wawa Motor Inn which is fabulous! Yay me! So, we've ended well. Let's see how we began.

We began early. On the road shortly after 6am. Average speed 70mph. Great roads. Thank you Mike Harris for the terrific job you did spending my tax dollars improving the highway to Parry Sound. Too bad you stopped there. Between Parry Sound and Wawa, the TransCanada is mostly a 3 lane road, with ownership of the 3rd lane alternating regularly between left and right sides of the road. What surprised me most about today was how flat the terrain was once we got past the Soo. I thought it would all be huge rocks, but it isn't. There are large, flat valleys and 'plains'.

Thessalon doesn't look anything like I remember it. We did the math, and it was 30 years ago this summer that I worked at McCreights Junior Ranger camp, near Thessalon, for the summer. I high pruned trees, planted trees, tore down squatters' cabins, coloured maps of Crown land, and reconstructed a bridge. We had one day in the Soo, and after prowling the mall, we saw Ghostbusters. 1984. I remember parts of it really well. I've always liked rocks, and the day we tore down the squatters' cabin, I found a nice (big) piece of conglomerate or puddingstone near a waterfall near the cabin sight, which I brought home. In a box. When my parents picked me up from the Bay street bus terminal, my dad picks up the box and says, "what do you have in here - a rock?" Well, now that you mention it - yes! I still have that rock. It lives in a place of honour in the front hall of our house.

We only stopped to gaze at Lake Superior once. It was at a 'view', and we climbed down from the parking to some rocks nearer the shore. Even under grey and threatening skies, she's still magnificent.

Wawa is a player in our historical trip because it was here, on September 17th, 1960, that the TransCanada highway was completed. It took over 40 years of pleading to get a road to link the 228km from Wawa to the Soo. Initially, it took 8 hours because the road wasn't very good. Today, it took us 3 hours. There are Wawa Canada Geese all over town, including in the parking lot of the general store across the street and over the entrance to the restaurant attached to our hotel. It's been 25 years since P&I stopped at that general store to gas up on our drive across Canada. Then, there was a chipmunk who liked to run into the store to grab peanuts. We didn't see any peanuts today, but we did see a well fed squirrel outside.

Tomorrow, we have 5+ hours to get to Thunder Bay. Included in that stretch will be more views of the Lake and the Terry Fox memorial. But for now, it's time to sleep. Early start again tomorrow.

Road Trip

It's rather an iconic summer thing to do, isn't it, the road trip? Tomorrow, Sprout and I depart in the wee smalls toward Thunder Bay. If you don't know Ontario, our province is huge! It easily takes 3 full days of driving to get from one end of it to the other. GoogleMaps says Thunder Bay is only (!?) 18 hours away, and while we are road warriors and easily able to do 13 hours in a car without blinking, that is usually because P is doing the driving. This trip is just mother and son. I've never done a road trip on my own before and while Sprout can do some of the driving, this is as much a personal challenge for me, as a way of getting to Lakehead and Laurentian universities for tours.

Let's talk about the vehicle of choice for the adventure. (I'm about to sound like a Top Gear episode - move over Jeremy Clarkson). Cruising across a sunny summertime northern Ontario in a Mercedes Benz convertible sounds divine. She would be a great little car except for a few things, and that's why we have chosen instead to take the VW Jetta.
Reason 1: gas mileage - the SLK requires high octane premium gas, and she guzzles it. The Jetta is a diesel. 'Nuff said.
Reason 2: Mod cons - the SLK is a 2002. She was made before blue tooth, GPS, or satellite radio. The Jetta, on the other hand, has sat nav should we need it, and Sirius.
Reason 3: rain. Hard to drive with the top down when it's pouring. And according to the Weather Network, not only are we in for wet, we're also in for cold. The Jetta's sunroof will have to do, should the rain stop long enough to open it.

I have been told that a uniquely Canadian thing is measuring distance in time (see length of Ontario example above). Don't ask me how many miles or kilometres we'll be covering, but I can tell you estimated drive times. Tomorrow, we have 10 hours to Wawa homeoftheGoose. Sunday, there's 5-6 hours to Thunder Bay. Monday, after our morning tour of Lakehead, we have 8 hours back east to Sault Ste. Marie. Tuesday morning early, we leave the Sault for the beautiful drive alongside Lake Superior. We have to make it to Sudbury for noon, because the Laurentian tour is at 1pm. After that, we continue on home, which is another 5 hours.

All told, that looks like 34 hours of driving over 4 days, broken up by lakes, rocks, trees, the Terry Fox memorial, scenic lookouts over Lake Superior and Sleeping Giant, a trip to Fort William (I hope), and a picture in front of the Wawa Goose. And likely, lots of stops at Tim Hortons.

Look out Gitchigoomie
- here we come!

Art Deco in South Beach

Traffic in Miami is the perfect storm of awful. While our drive up from the Keys this morning was faster than it had been on the way down last Saturday, we still hit stop and stop traffic once we got to Key Largo (no Obama this time - no idea what the problem was). Making our way to the Ritz Carleton Biscayne Bay where we are enjoying the lap of luxury before heading home tomorrow night, was also relatively easy. So, in the spirit of die-hard tourists, we decided to cross the last thing off the list and head into South Beach to the famed Art Deco district in Miami.

Traffic. Stop and Stop. at 3pm. Was nothing compared to the stop and really stop traffic we experienced trying to get back to Key Biscayne at 5:30. It took an hour to go 6 blocks. Not exaggerating. It was mind-blowingly bad traffic. Again, no idea why other than lots of people not moving. Green lights and no one moves. Glad that's done.

So now that I've shared the worst of today, let's dwell on the best of today. After last night's rain and thunderstorms, today was windy but sunny. We were able to drive with the top down again. The Ritz Carleton is obscene. Clearly designed for fancier folks than us, but we're doing our best to play the part. Lunch today was at the beach side Mexican restaurant. To go with our requisite lunchtime beers (that will be hard to give up when we get home), we ordered fish tacos. Sounds pedestrian - was quite the opposite. We were each served a grilled half snapper, complete with taco fixings like jicama and pickled onion, salsa and mango puree. It was amazing. For dinner tonight, we settled in to a leather couch in the Rum Bar off the lobby where they serve many types of mojitos. While the Black and Blue which contains muddles blackberries and blueberries along with the usual mojito stuff, was good, the runaway winner was the coconut mojito. We know what I'm having tomorrow by the pool. We had sandwiches, which were pleasant enough, but, another runaway winner - their version of sticky toffee pudding, was out of this world. Homemade butterscotch sauce. There aren't words to describe!

So, South Beach. I didn't watch Miami Vice. Can't even name the main characters. I don't watch CSI Miami, but now I will just to see if I recognize anywhere. I will need to rewatch Robin Williams' The BirdCage because I think the club was on Ocean Blvd. It reminded me a lot of Nice, with the beach on one side of the street and the sidewalks on the other side taken over by bars and restaurants. Nice also has a number of Art Deco buildings. The ones here have been nicely done up (restored). We wandered into a few lobbies of the hotels on Collins Avenue, and they have done a wonderful job of restoring the time period. I was really hoping to see Esther Williams' pool at the Raleigh, but a commercial was being filmed, so no entry and so much for that. The National Hotel even had its lobby furniture copied and rebuilt to replicate the time period. 

I'm glad I had the chance to see Miami and Key West. We have had a wonderful holiday. The one challenge with going away is that there is so much tv to watch when I get home. Now, in addition to CSI Miami, I need to watch a really bad Bond movie that was set in Key West (even had a fight scene on 7 mile bridge!) As my gran used to say, it's nice to get away, but nothing tastes as good as bread and butter at the kitchen table when you get home. Here's to bread and butter.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park

We found the best beach today - at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. The fort itself dates from the 1850s, and the army actually buried it when they were done with it after WWII. Although it was never fired upon, it was very well armed. During WWII, it was used for target practice, as the air force practised bombing by dropping bags of flour on it.

Elsewhere on the property is a lovely beach and campground. There are trees for shade, and a cafe if you want snacks. You can even come and do yoga in the morning. The cruise ship lane is immediately off shore. I looked up from my book and was VERY SURPRISED to see that large a ship so close to shore!

We've had a lovely time in Key West. Apart from this beach, I love the houses. Ships carpenters built them with mortice joints, not nails, so the original houses give a little in hurricane winds the way ships do. The chickens and roosters everywhere add to the lazy Caribbean feel. Our favourite restaurants were Sarabeths, Kelly's, Blue Heaven, and Only Wood. P's favourite part of town is the Truman Annex. I like that part of town too, but I think I prefer Caroline street. 

Tomorrow, we head back to the mainland to drive up to Miami for about 36 hrs. Hopefully Obama is back in Washington so the traffic will move at the speed limit. I'm also hoping the rain ends overnight so we can drive with the top down.

We saw 2 minivans from Ontario today. We'd like to come back, although I don't think I have the wherewithall to drive all 28hrs to get here. Flying is much simpler.

History Lessons

Key West is not a big island. It's 1 1/2 miles wide and about 4 1/2 miles long. It used to be smaller. Until about 1940, the island was 1.5 X 2.5 sq miles. They expanded it when they dredged to allow better passage to the Panama Canal. We have easily walked every inch of the original island. Today's wanderings took us purposely down narrow residential streets and laneways to give us a chance to see more of the 'real' Key West.

Not all of today was quiet and calm. I thought it would be a great idea to pay the tourist bucks and do the tour on the Conch train (conk with a k, not conch with a ch). The company was very disorganized, and what should have been an easy thing (buy your ticket, get on board), was more of an ordeal. But once we were (FINALLY) aboard, we learned some new stuff about the island. Like:
• that great restaurant called Kelly's from our first night is owned by Kelly McGillis of Top Gun fame
• I knew that Ponce de Leon discovered Florida when he was looking for the fountain of youth (there are jokes in there somewhere). What I didn't know is that he didn't hit the mainland, which is what I thought - he actually hit a smaller key off Key West
• Robert Frost the poet spent time down here
• Jimmy Buffet's original Margaritaville bar is here - he financed it here too
• The last big hurricane to hit Key West was in the late 1800s. A nun built a grotto to ask God for protection from hurricanes thereafter, and you know what - Key West hasn't been hit by a major hurricane since
• the only fresh water on the island was collected rain water until the navy built a pipeline in the 1940s
• in the mid 1970s, once the military closed the base, the island went essentially bankrupt. Properties on Duval street could be bought for $1 on the condition that the property was refurbished in time for bicentennial celebrations in 1976

Today's eating wasn't noteworthy, except for the tiramisu at dinner which was honestly the best we've tasted since Alla Rampa in Rome. The beach was just as nice today as it was yesterday, though we were there in the late afternoon, so it was busier (and more the temperature of bath water).

Tomorrow is our last day in Key West before we return to the mainland. On the list of things to do is a tour of Fort Zachary Taylor, lunch back at Blue Heaven, key lime pie on a stick (they treat it like ice cream and dunk it in dark chocolate before freezing it), a Hurricane at Speakeasy rum bar. Dinner for our last night is still under negotiation, but it needs to be in one of the lovely outdoor terrace gardens that are everywhere, and it should include Key West pinks, which are the loveliest, sweetest shrimp you've ever tasted.

Sand, Sunset, Swedes, and Blue Heaven

I wasn't hallucinating.
I did hear Swedish at breakfast. In fact, the borrow-a-book shelf in the hotel lobby has 3 swedish novels on it! When P&I were at the beach, a swedish family came and settled in in front of us. (They didn't stay long, but they did think the beach was härligt)

I'm not much for just sitting on a beach anymore. Unless I have something to do, read, or am wearing a hat, I have a hard time staying put on the sand. So, I went for an explore. At the bottom of White Street, there is a very large pier, large like 4 lanes of traffic large. Looking over the side into the water, I saw little yellow and black striped fish, little pale blue fish, something iridescent that might have been a parrot fish, and a shark. Good size - 3 1/2 feet. Probably a nurse shark. 

Where we chose to set up, seemed like a great spot. Near enough to the water but out of the traffic. What we didn't factor in was the nearby tree that was shedding, and quietly divebombed us with seed pods and pineneedle-like things.

Sunset is big business here in Key West. Every day at Mallory Square, there is a sunset festival. Street entertainers set up shop, as do food and craft vendors. We had heard there was a cat show, where cats actually jumped through a flaming hoop. If it was there, we didn't find it. Closest we came was a tightrope-walking golden retriever wearing red plaid boxers (poor dear). Nice sunset. Worth the wait.

Dinner tonight was at Blue Heaven. In my research, this was the place not to miss. It's in Bahama town, near Southernmost Point, at the corner of Petronia and Thomas. It's amazing. The setting is like something out of a movie set. The drinks are really good, and the food is outstanding. Their version of key lime pie comes with meringue. Essentially, 1 1/2 inches of pie and 6 inches of meringue. 

Key West is a beautiful place to wander around. Most of the houses in Old Town date from the mid- late- 1800s. They are 2 story houses with white clapboard siding, and porches decorated with ornate gingerbreading. You hear about people who travel to places and come home with a house. For a while yesterday, I thought I could be one of those people. We found a real fixer upper, a Property Brothers special (616 Caroline street). Problem - even for a renovator's special, they are asking $1.5 million. (Mind you, it's on a large lot). The other Old Town houses on the market that have already been renovated go from $2.5 million - close to $10 million. Guess I'm not coming home with a house.

Harry Truman and Hemingway

Today's wandering led us first to the Little White House. Originally the commandant's house at the naval base in Key West, Harry S Truman was a regular guest during his presidency. He reportedly came 11 times over a 6 year period. He liked the relaxed atmosphere. The house itself is furnished with the same furniture Truman used in the 1940s. It all looked just a little too much like the stuff in my grandparents' house, but fun to see and interesting to learn all the same.

Incidentally, one of the women on our tour said that Barack Obama was in Key Largo yesterday. Whether that was the cause of our traffic delays, I sincerely doubt, but who knows?

After the Little White House, we continued south to the Southernmost Point in the USA. There is a large monument, and, like in Lands End England, people line up to have their picture standing next to it. We decided that seeing it was enough. From that point, all you can see is ocean. Cuba is only 90 miles away.

Hemingway's House was a treat. Originally built in the late 1890s, it is the only house in Key West with an actual basement. This is because the original owner, an Asa Tift, brought his slaves down from his home in Georgia so they could dig coral blocks out of the ground. The house is set upon the quarry they dug. Hemingway and Mrs #2 were given the house as a wedding present. They lived there for 11 years, during which time, he wrote all but 2 of his books. He spent his afternoons fishing and happy hours at the bar down the street. When he divorced Mrs. #2, she kept the house, and it is decorated much as she left it. For the 1930s, it had a lot of mod cons (modern conveniences) including a swimming pool, which was a very expensive novelty given that there was no running water on the island at that time.

USAir magazine did a feature on Key West dining in May 2013, and today for lunch, we tried one of their recommendations: Onlywood. Like many restaurants in Key West, it has a small indoor space, but  most of their patrons enjoy the large outdoor courtyard. (Reminds me of Revelstoke BC). The pizza was terrific. The imported Italian beer (Moretti Rosso) hit the spot. Dinner tonight was at Sarabeth's. This one I found on my own. Sarabeth's is a chain of traditional American stuff. There are 4 or 5 of them, all located in NYC (except this one of course). We had fried chicken. Neither of us had had it before, and we weren't disappointed. 

Tomorrow, we're going to check out the beach.

p.s. a note about chickens and cats - they're everywhere! Roosters and chickens wandering in the streets, cats lounging on sidewalks or fences. It's all very picturesque.

Mile 128 to Mile 0

In spite of this morning's kafuffle over airplane seats, we made it to Key West. We had a very nice pizza lunch at Miami airport before heading out in our arrest-me-red mustang convertible. 

It takes a bit to get to highway 1, but when you do, you join it at about mile 128. The drive took longer than anticipated. We were expecting 3 1/2 hours, but given that we were stuck in stop and go traffic (actually more stop than go) until mile 80 on the south end of Isla Morada (south of Key Largo), well, you can imagine the rest. 

Dinner tonight was a triumph after a day of travel (which started at 4am). We went to old town to Kelly's Caribbean bar, grill, and brewery. It is housed in the building where the original Pan Am airlines office was situated. (Pan Am started in 1927 with a flight from Key West to Havana). We sat outside in their very large courtyard, surrounded by picturesque houses and very tall trees covered in fairy lights. The beer was fabulous, the food was very good, and the setting was perfect.

Tomorrow's forecast is calling for lots of sunscreen with a chance of bathing suit. Smiles, everyone!

Déja vu all over again?

This time last year, E was in Ghana, and A,P, and I were en route to France. Our plan was to spend March Break touring the WWi and WWII sites in Normandy. There was a freak blizzard that paralyzed northern France. The main highway north from Paris to the Belgian border was clogged with cars and transport trucks for 4 days. Many people were stranded in their cars for more than 72 hours. We weathered the storm in Cruelly, where we were snowed in for 3 days. Other than watching the weather forecasts, the only other notable thing on tv was the colour of the smoke at the Vatican as they selected a new pope.

This year, E is at school in BC, A has gone to Ecuador, and P&I are supposed to be en route to Florida. I say supposed to be because when we arrived to check in, we were told that our seats had been given away. (!!!) I get very upset when someone changes my schedule without telling me first. Is this to be this year's March Break blizzard? I would really rather not spend the entire day sitting around Toronto Pearson, waiting for Air Canada to figure out that all paying ticket holders are, in fact, created equal, even on March Break, and wondering if I'll ever find my suitcase again (did it go on without us? Is it lost in Pearson purgatory?) 

Only time will tell. Shortly, we will head to the gate and see what the pretending-to-be-able-to-do-something-but-actually-not-able desk attendant will have to say. One thing I have learned through all of our travelling, is that crossing fingers is useless. The airplanes will continue to go, whether or not you're on board.