Metallak 2012

August 21-26, 2012

A couple days after we completed our Trans-Canada road trip, we headed out on another adventure. Each year, a group of people from Jonathan's home church go to an island in a lake in northwestern Maine for a week at the end of August. One of the reasons we had chosen to leave BC and drive to Maine when we did was so that we would be able to be at Metallak Island for at least part of the week. We finished our road trip late on Sunday night. On Monday we slept in a little bit, recovering from our many days of waking up early on our drive. Then we unpacked our things from the truck, returned the empty U-Haul trailer, and got our camping gear and food ready to go. The next morning, Tuesday, we got on our way in the morning and drove about two hours from Brunswick to Metallak Island on Richardson Lake. We enjoyed the rest of the week on the island with Jonathan's friends and fellow church members, and were glad we had been able to be there for at least part of the annual event.

- Ali

(Click to enlarge images)

Woodpecker

Birch

Greenery

David on the Cat

John on a Laser

Flare

Shoot the Moon

Milky Way

Big Dipper

Frothy morning

Mist on the lake

Morning Loons

Flame

Toasty

Twilight

Morning Glow

Solitude

Waiting for the Sun

Misty Mountains

Sunrise

Trans-Canada road trip: Sabbath in Ottawa

Trans-Canada road trip: Day 5

August 18, 2012

We got into Ottawa rather late on Friday night, and after visiting with my sister, Becky, for a few minutes, we were happy to stretch out on the air mattress she had ready for us. We had planned to make it to church the next morning, but we ended up having a really wonderful sleep and slept in too late to make it to church on Sabbath. After a relaxed morning and breakfast, we got ready for the day and headed across the Ottawa River into Gatineau, Quebec to go hiking around Pink Lake in the Gatineau hills. The lake was beautiful, and the hike was pleasant and not too intense, but gave us good exercise after sitting in a car for the past four days. After our hike, we had a late afternoon picnic before returning to Becky's house to get ready for the interesting evening we had planned.

After changing into warmer clothes, Becky drove us to downtown Ottawa where we parked and walked to the Parliament buildings, the site of the annual Ottawa Mosaika Sound and Light Show projected on the buildings. We arrived early, so we wandered around the lawns watching the large projectors being set up and tested. The show was excellent, giving viewers a history of Canada using projected images, music, narration, and interviews. I had seen a small preview of it once before when my family and I had visited Becky a few years earlier, but this was the first time I had seen the actual production. It was very well done and wonderful to be able to see and hear Canadian history portrayed in this manner.

Once the Sound and Light Show was over, we took the opportunity to walk to a few streets over to a very tasty food stand selling the always-popular Ottawa beaver tails (fried dough). This stand has a whole lot of different options for toppings, both sweet and savoury. We each got a beaver tail, and all three flavours were delicious. We munched on the treats, sharing bites between each other, as we walked back to the car, and then headed back to Becky's house for another good night of sleep before getting back on the road the next day for our final leg of our cross-Canada trip.

- Ali

Daily driving total: 60 km (37.2 mi)

Next up: Ottawa to Brunswick

Trans-Canada road trip: Nipigon to Ottawa

Trans-Canada road trip: Day 4

August 17, 2012

Click for larger image (link to map)

We didn't get the best night's sleep in Nipigon. The small inn we'd chosen the night before was right on the highway, so for most of the night we could hear large semis and other traffic barreling along the road. Another startling occurrence happened sometime in the middle of the night when our room door that led outside to the parking area at the back of the building suddenly blew open with a strong gust of wind. Since we had come into the inn through the main entrance to pay, and then had come upstairs to our room through the inside, we had never used the outside door. It must not have been totally latched from the last tenants or from the cleaning people earlier in the day. We woke up from our sleep to the very startling bang of the door hitting the wall and the chilly wind blowing in through it, but Jonathan quickly saved the day by getting up to shut it and make sure it was well latched and locked for the rest of the night. Needless to say, we didn't have much restful sleep, and we were up pretty early to start another day of driving.

Before we started our drive, we had to make a decision about which route to take. We had a goal to reach by that night, to get all the way from Northern Ontario to my older sister's house in Ottawa. One route would take us a more northerly route, staying north for longer as we traveled east and then eventually directly south to Ottawa. The other would take us southward along the lake first and then east further down in the province. Both routes were about the same distance and time. While the northern route would have taken us right through Iroquois Falls (near Timmins), where my aunt and cousins lived, we decided that since we wouldn't have time to stop and visit anyway, we might as well just keep along the shores of Lake Superior and take the more southerly route. Much of the drive in the morning and early afternoon was within sight of the deep blue water of Lake Superior as we traveled south along it's northeastern shore.

We made two quick stops in the morning, the first one when I saw signs about Winnie the Pooh as we neared White River, ON. This town is the hometown of Winnie the Pooh, where a Canadian lieutenant, on his way to England during the First World War, bought a black bear cub from a hunter and brought her across the ocean with him. He named the bear "Winnie" after his adopted hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. (More information on the historical origins of Winnie the Black Bear and Winnie the Pooh in the History/Origin section of the Winnie the Pooh entry on Wikipedia.) It was neat to stop for a few minutes in this town and snap a few pictures of the Pooh Bear statue.

Just a little bit later on our drive, we stopped in another town to grab a meal at Subway and this particular town, Wawa, just happened to have several large Canada goose statues around town. We snapped photos of these as well, and looked them up later on to find out why they were there. The main goose, overlooking the highway was built in 1960 to commemorate the town, which takes its name after the native Ojibwe word for wild goose. (More information on this northern Ontario roadside attraction in the Tourism and attractions section of the Wawa, Ontario entry on Wikipedia.)

As we continued our trip after our satisfying lunch, a little bit south of Wawa we drove around a corner and spotted a pretty bay just below. As we drove closer, we saw signs for Old Woman's Bay camping area in Lake Superior Provincial Park. We made an impromptu decision to stop in and explore the beach area for a little bit. It was a very pretty spot, and the steady wind roused up some good-sized waves for us. We enjoyed the rugged outdoor environment and the chance to stretch our legs on the empty beach. As we headed back to our truck, we spotted a quick little chipmunk and stalked him for several minutes before snapping some great photos of him when he was sitting still for a few seconds.

After that stop we knew we had to get going again and keep pressing onward in order to arrive in Ottawa that evening. We drove right though the center of Sault Ste. Marie, ON, another town that I had always been fascinated by because of that grade three socials textbook, but we didn't spend any time exploring.

As we started on the eastward part of our trip to cross the width of the province, I took over driving for the first time so far on this trip. (Every time before this I had asked Jonathan if he wanted to trade, he had said he was fine and I much prefer being the passenger, so I didn't push the idea any further after asking each time.) Soon we were in the heart of some long miles of construction somewhere between Sudbury and North Bay, which didn't make driving much fun, but we eventually got through that area. After driving for about three hours, we were ready to switch again and Jonathan drove for the rest of the day. We finally arrived at my sister's house in Ottawa long after sunset, but we were very glad to have made it. We were very much looking forward to the Sabbath and a day of rest from our travels! We were also very much looking forward to homemade meals and visiting with a family member that we hadn't seen for awhile.

- Ali

Daily driving total: 1,376 km (855 mi)

Next up: Ottawa & hiking in the Gatineau hills