Living With The Wild Boys…

Our first stop was to meet up with Erez’s friend Austin at the Rimrock hotel to have coffee with him before he started work. It was great to see him, even for a short visit.

We booked a shuttle to go to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. We had approximately an hour in each place. Lake Louise did not disappoint- it was truly beautiful. It was quite crowded, but we walked along the trail a little bit and were able to get away from the bulk of the crowds.

We spend a few minutes just soaking in the beauty and meditating on the landscape while listening to the sound of mini waterfalls bubbling around us. (turn sound on for this video)

After an hour we got back on the bus and went to Moraine Lake. I hate to say it, but it almost made Lake Louise look ordinary- the colour was exquisite. Our first task was to climb up something called “The Rock Pile” for great views. Worth it.

Lucky for us, we had an in for a free voucher for a canoe ride. Normally it costs about $180 for an hour rental. It was a huge highlight for me. We are so grateful to our friend Eliza for providing it for us. Paddling on that water was really a dream come true. Every meditation session where I need to picture a beautiful place where I feel at peace, will now and forevermore be the view of Moraine Lake from a canoe 🙂

On our way out we saw two different couples taking wedding pictures – one was on a ledge on the “Rock Pile”.

Nerd Alert: just a bit of trivia: Moraine Lake used to be on the back of the $20 bill. Our bus company had two encased in plastic for us to see.

Here is an internet photo with the bill and the view.

We were extremely lucky to be there in a day with perfect weather. It wasn’t smoky, the sun was shining and it wasn’t too hot.

We didn’t realize how close Lake Louise was to the BC border, and didn’t see any sign, so we slipped into BC without realizing it and without our photo with the Welcome to British Columbia sign.

Our next stop was Kicking Horse Pass. This was a fascinating stop as we learned about the development of the rail tunnels in this area.

The Spiral Tunnels in Kicking Horse Pass, British Columbia, are famous Canadian Pacific Railway engineering marvels. Opened in 1909 inside Yoho National Park, these underground loops replaced the terrifyingly steep 4.5% “Big Hill” grade—reducing it to a safer 2.2% and allowing long freight trains to cross over themselves inside the mountains.

Next stop was the “Natural Bridge” in Yoho National Park- a cool rock formation spanning a canyon that provides a natural bridge over some extremely intense rushing water.

Next was quick stop at Roger’s Pass Summit.

For more information on Roger’s Pass Historical Site click here: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/bc/rogers/decouvrir-discover/natcul1.aspx

I would love to return here at a later date.

As we approached Revelstoke it was a little bit smoky, but not too terrible. We checked into our Hotel – it was called The Grizz. Revelstoke, or “Revy” as it is called by the locals, is a charming place. We loved the vibe. There was a spot called an “allery “ which is an alley turned into an art gallery. Here are a couple of the pieces in the alley on the sides of buildings.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called the Taco Club with our friend Eliza and her partner Wade. It was so great to see them and hear about the life they are building in Revy. We did a bit of research with Eliza and Wade’s help to plan our route through BC for our final day. The wildfires were quite intense in places and we had to adjust our routes as the main highway route was closed.

All in all – a fantastic day!

In the morning, Lawrence’s Mom offered me some coffee and when I responded that I preferred tea, she was quite excited as she LOVES tea. She even has a gorgeous Chinese tea table! We had a lovely chat. I also met her husband and got a tour of their garden. They were both very warm and welcoming and fun to talk to. His Mom actually sent me home with some delicious green tea, which I was dismayed to realize that I forgot when I reached Calgary.

I didn’t actually get to see Mog in the morning.

Our first stop was in Moose Jaw. I loved it!

Mac the Moose was apparently the world’s tallest Moose sculpture for three decades until it was discovered that a new moose sculpture in Stor- Elvdal in Norway was taller. They had a friendly moose summit and the two municipalities signed a tongue-in-cheek “Mooserandum of Understanding.” Norway gracefully conceded the height title back to Canada once Mac was retrofitted with bigger antlers, while Canada agreed to call Storelgen the “shiniest and most attractive moose in the world”.

Moose Jaw had a great Visitor’s centre and also a snowbirds plane.

We also bought some beef jerky and one of the pieces looked like a bear

I was quite enthralled by the Praires. Looking around and seeing sky for as far as I could see was quite amazing and beautiful.

Our next stop was the Chaplin Nature Centre where there was a museum explaining the importance of Saskatchewan’s three salt lakes on the populations of North American migratory birds. we both learned a lot!

Our next stop was the Alberta border.

Our next stop was Medicine Hat, to play with a giant chess set and see the World’s largest chess piece. However, the pieces were nowhere to be found- only the board and the giant King piece.

We finally reached Calgary and checked into our airbnb, and made plans to catch a show at the Calgary Fringe Festival called “Duck”. We got there a bit early, so we found a place close by to grab a bit to eat, coincidentally called “ The Dirty Duck”

There were only 6 people in the audience, and we were invited to choose a costume and an instrument so we could participate. It was a shirt show – only 50 min and had a decent amount of interaction with the audience. We enjoyed it.

All in all it was another pretty amazing day full of great activities.

We started our day with a stop recommended by Erez’s friend Boaz. The location was called FortWhyte Alive.

For more information click this link : https://www.fortwhyte.org/about/

It is 660 acres of reclaimed green space that serves as a gathering place, with an education centre, trails, delicious cafe, a small Bison herd, many migrating birds, floating boardwalks – it was great – I could have spent all day there instead of the hour we had allowed for the stop. I would highly recommend for any nature lovers out there.

I would definitely love to come back. Our next stop was Brandon, Manitoba. We were recommended to take a stroll through Princess Park. It has some beautiful landscaping, but it was quite small, and we decided not to stick around for our planned lunch break as we were not that hungry yet. We picked up some lunch to go. Here is Erez next to a really cool looking set of bike racks.

Next, we finally made it to Saskatchewan and they had a sign we could take a picture of! We decided to take our lunch break there on the rickety picnic table in front of the sign. We met an interesting fellow from Sault Ste Marie who told us this crazy story about hitchhiking to Bowmanville when he was 12 to visit his brother who was at the correctional school there a long time ago.

Our next stop was Indian Head.

We arrived a bit earlier than expected as we weren’t accounting for the time change. We went to directly to Erez’s friends Lawrence’s house and met his famous cat MOG. To see this cat personality on Instagram check out this link: https://www.instagram.com/mungus.pungus?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

We went for an early dinner at East Side Marios with Lawrence. After dinner we went back to the house and hung out with Mog for a couple of hours. I stayed at Lawrence’s Mom’s house and Erez stayed with Lawrence at his Dad’s house – another very busy day.

Our first stop was Kakabeka Falls. It is also sometimes known as “The Niagara of the North”. That is a bit of an overstatement, but it is a beautiful falls.

Next stop was Ignace and White Otter Creek to stretch our legs and fuel up.

Although we did not paddle in to see it, we read here about White Otter Castle which I realized I had read about in the Canoe Museum in Peterborough. Jimmy McOuat built a 3 story log cabin mansion in the middle of the woods made entirely from trees he felled.

For the full story click here: https://northernontario.travel/sunset-country/white-otter-castle-story-hope-and-dreams

We then had a short stop in Dryden and pulled over to look at a community Mosaic project

Next Stop was Kenora. As it was a long weekend, we caught the very tail end of a community Festival. We walked around the waterfront, admired the vintage cars that hadn’t left yet, and took the requisite photo with Husky the Muskie.

Our next scheduled stop was going to be the Welcome to Manitoba sign. the only problem is, we couldn’t find one!!!

We arrived in Winnipeg around 6pm, and met up with Erez’s friend. He generously came home from his family’s cottage to host us. We had dinner at The Forks, a place where the Red River meets the Assiniboine River. Originally a meeting place for indigenous groups to trade, it has also since been a railyard. Now the space has ben transformed into a market and green space area.

On the website, it states: The Forks shall be developed as a meeting place a special and distinct, all-season gathering and recreational place at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, through a mixed-use approach including residential, historical and cultural, institutional and supportive commercial uses. Over 4 million visitors come to The Forks each year and more than 1,200 people work on this site. The Forks contributes over $235 million a year to the local economy, and is financially self-sufficient – we do not rely on government funding to operate. The Forks is governed by a board made up of representatives appointed by the civic, provincial and municipal governments.

We ate in a market building which houses many different restaurants and restaurant stalls. We had incredible Pickerel Fish and chips, as well as some great burgers from a place called Nuburger. Erez had a beef burger and I had a chickpea burger with beets and goat cheese. Delicious! One feature that was really interesting is that there some long table where you can sit next to strangers. The man sitting next to Erez noticed his “iron ring”. Turns out he is also an engineer, so they were chatting for awhile.

After Dinner I met up with Olga, whom, along with her son Ruslan, lived with us a few years ago when they first arrived from Ukraine. It was great to reconnect with her.

Erez’s friend Boaz was a gracious host. His family had three hilarious cats wth totally different personalities. Hopefully we can meet the rest of his family when I come back to Winnipeg someday. I feel like there is so much to see in this city, and would be happy to return sometime in the future.

I had heard a lot about the Northern Shore of Lake Superior, from my friend Martha – Pancake Bay in particular. We started our day with an exquisite breakfast section that we picked up at the Voyageur’s Lodge in Batchawana Bay. They are famous for their humongous apple fritters. We also bought some fresh locally caught smoked lake trout, homemade coleslaw, a cheese stuffed soft pretzel, butter tarts, and some fantastic pickles. It really was the best apple fritter I had ever tasted. as you can see below, it was a big foggy/smoky that morning.

Our next stop was the famous Pancake Bay – it did not disappoint. Really, this whole trip was a bit of a sampler platter. I got just a taste of so many great places that I would like to return to one day when I have more time.

We bought matching temporary tattoos and out them on with fresh Lake Superior Water 🙂

Next stop was Old Woman Bay

We were amazed to find out that there were 18 possible stops on the Lake Superior Circle tour. Clearly I have some things to put on my list as we fly got to a few of those stops.

Next stop was Wawa to visit the Wawa Goose:

After seeing the goose we went to Pebble Beach

Then onto Terrace Bay to see the Aguasabon Falls

A short video of the falls and gorge:

Then onto Nipigon

The most impactful stop had to be the Terry Fox Monument. Revisting his story, even though I have heard it so many times really hit me quite hard. I felt way more emotional than I expected. Seeing the small sign at the sign of the road outside of Thunder Bay commemorating where he had to abandon his quest at the 5373 km mark, was sobering.

We made it to Thunder Bay quite late, but managed to squeeze in a movie.

From Bowmanville to Vancouver in 7 days

When the opportunity came up to help Erez drive his new-to-him car (generously given to him by his Bubbie as a graduation present) I was thrilled. I have always wanted to drive across Canada, and having the chance to spend 7 full days with my Erez, who has lived so far away for 6 years, was a gift. My original plan was to have a spreadsheet with a meticulous plan of all stops, curated playlists, etc, but the time leading up to our trip was predictably chaotic and so I barely managed to book accomodation, and that was about it.

Every evening Erez and I would research the next day’s itinerary and we let Spotify take care of the curated playlist, and much of the time when were were out of cell service reach, we had to rely on the music that was already downloaded on our phones. This was when I realized that I had heaps of music saved on my phone that I was unaware of. In fact I have never even heard a third of the music that I had saved…so cleaning up that list is now definitely on my to-do list…

Day 1 – Bowmanville to Sault Ste. Marie. approx 700 km

We were aiming to leave between 9 and 10, because I couldn’t find Erez’s second car key, we left closer to noon, Spoiler alert- I had never lost the key – it was in a safe pocket of my purse that I didn’t realize it was in.

Highlights of Day 1 included…

Erez left his running shoes at our house, so we headed to the Sportchek in Sudbury to get him a new pair so he could do his running training before he competes at Nats in the next 10 days.

We got in quite late, Erez went for a run and I immediately crashed.