Off to Nipigon - June 25

This is definitely not a relaxing kind of vacation – we got up around 730 and started breakfast and packing up.  It was time to hit the road again.  We left Crystal Lake campground and headed out towards Nipigon.  Just as we drove into Dryden, I noticed a sign saying Busters BBQ as featured on the FoodNetwork.  For everyone who knows our little family we are foodies for sure!  We, of course, took the opportunity to turn around at the giant Inuksuk (great little photo op) and went to get a bottle of Blueberry Barbeque Sauce.  Looking forward to trying that for sure!  A lot further up the road we pulled over to see Kakabeka Falls.  The story goes that an Ojibwe Princess took the Sioux down the falls after they kidnapped her and forced her into taking her to the tribe.  The falls were amazing.  The white water was moving at quite a good pace.  We had been told we could swim in the water but even sitting the parking lot I figured there was no way the kids were getting in that water – it was moving WAY too fast!  Sure enough, we asked a park ranger and found out the beach near the area was closed due to high water levels and fast moving water.  Apparently, Ontario has had a lot of rainfall in the past many weeks and the water level in most lakes and rivers is very high.  It was still worth stopping at though as it is known as Niagara of the North.  The kids were quite enthralled with the colour of the water – a murky brown colour.  They even started calling the Falls the Coca-Cola Falls! 

We had lunch in the parking lot thanks to having our kitchen accessible – leftovers – and then we hit the road again.  Our next stop was not too far – Thunder Bay.  We needed to do a quick run in to the grocery store and the kids just had to buy sunglasses!  Then, we headed to the Terry Fox memorial.  It was amazing to see.   What a courageous young man and an inspiration to us all.  It was great for the kids to see this memorial.  Terry Fox is someone they have been learning about since kindergarten so it is great to see where he came from and drive down the Courage Highway.  From the memorial you can see Sleeping Giant Mountain but it was too bad because we didn’t know which mountain we were supposed to be looking at!   We kept driving to Nipigon and stopped at the Birchwood Campground.  So far, this was the most unpleasant experience.  The mosquitoes were so thick I thought they might actually carry us all away.  We tried to light just the propane fire and even that was awful.  Hopefully, things will be better in the morning sun......