We started off the morning with (no surprise here) breakfast! Today, we went to the Scandinavian House (the Scand), and, having learned my lesson about portion control from the Hoito overeating incident, I went with a half-Lumberjack meal, which was just about the right size.
After that, we all went down to the harbour to do some sightseeing there. Although the weather's been nice, there was a bit of a cool breeze coming off the water. They have some nice trails along the harbour - I'm not sure how far they go, but there were lots of joggers running along the waterfront.
I was annoyed to find my camera acting up. Curse you, camera! You're only about 3 years old. So I don't have many pics of the harbour, darn it. Bought some new batteries to see if they'd fix the problem.
Anyway, I was disappointed to hear that the Fort was closed (cause tourist season ain't started yet). And the Amethyst Mine was also closed to tourists (cause there ain't no tourists yet, apparently). To pacify my sputtering fits of rage that nothing was open, Ben & Jen had given us a map of the hiking trails in the Sleeping Giant park - we'd contemplated a few from afar, but the book described the hike to the top of the Sleeping Giant as "challenging." I think it used the word "challenging" about six times in one 50-word paragraph. Very challenging, physically challenging, only be attempted by experienced climbers with hiking boots and a first-aid kit. Okay, so not for us.
But we decided to drive out to the Cascades, and maybe the Sleeping Giant afterward. The Cascades are supposed to be a nice trail by burbling brooks just outside the city, or somewhere around there. As you can possibly tell, we never got there. The signage is a bit confusing, and we obviously missed our turnoff, and ended up heading past the Sleeping Giant park. When we finally conceded defeat and turned around, we decided just to go to the Sleeping Giant, and maybe we'd find the Cascades on our way back into town.
The road that goes into the Sleeping Giant park is very winding, with trees close on both sides. Had to drive way slower - as we kept driving, I think we saw about ten or twelve deer wandering along the sides of the road. We also saw a porcupine just sitting in the middle of the road. We stopped and stared at each other. I was going to hop out to take a picture, but Monica screamed at me not to do it, because it would throw some quills. So instead, I got Stephen to open the sunroof, and then leaped out to focus in on our friendly quill-shooting porcupine. However, at this point, it had decided we were obviously something weird, and it waddled its way off the road and hopped into the pond. No photo shoot, darn it.
Anyway, as might be expected (since there are no tourists this time of year), the park was CLOSED. What a surprise. We said, "screw you, Thunder Bay park rangers," and parked our car anyway, and went out on some hiking trails. Since there were signs saying we could get a ticket, we parked our car out of sight. Smart! This way, when we get eaten by an early spring bear who has just emerged hungry and grumpy from a long winter sleep, no one will know where we are, and it will take them several days at least to find our car. Brilliant plan!
The first illegal hike we took was the Wildlife Habitat trail. It obviously hadn't been groomed yet, with lots of fallen trees to climb over. Made it a little more interesting, actually. It was only 2.4km, and we didn't see much in the way of wildlife, possibly due to our incessant chattering about what to do if we see a bear, and how hungry do you suppose it would be?
After that, we drove to a lookout point, again walking past the locked gates - what rebels! - to see the park space and admire the lake, which shall remain nameless, cause I'm not sure which lake it was. Stephen is quite good at skipping stones. I suck. And although the park might have been closed, there was a restroom there and the door was unlocked - yay! But don't look around too much - yick!
Our last hike was the Sifting Lake, a 4km hike. I really enjoyed this one - it felt like a proper hike through the forest (whereas the nature trail was just a little too easy). However, when going on a proper hike, one should be wearing the proper gear. And while my Blundstone boots would have been fine at the Cascades, they were not so awesome on a real trail. Even runners would have been better. Oh well! We persevered, and got to the Sifting Lake, startling away a few loons. By that time, everyone was getting hungry, so we headed back into town.
We were going to eat at some local little Italian restaurant, but it's actually so little that sometimes the owners just decide not to open (probably because there's no tourists in town until the May long weekend, dammit). So instead, we went to East Side Marios, where the waitress seated us in a strange section that had a TV in every booth. WTF? Then we realized that there were many families with small children around us. So, we picked up and moved to the far side of the restaurant, where we could listen to the screaming children from afar. I couldn't finish my supper - so stuffed! - and yet for some reason, when driving back home, we stopped at the ice cream shop.
Then we went to the video store and rented Eragon. Bwahahaha! Funny, funny movie. (No, it's not supposed to be.)
After that, Monica and I watched two more episodes of Supernatural, while Stephen went upstairs to surf the wireless Internet. Oh, Internets! You are a wonderful thing.
After that, we all went down to the harbour to do some sightseeing there. Although the weather's been nice, there was a bit of a cool breeze coming off the water. They have some nice trails along the harbour - I'm not sure how far they go, but there were lots of joggers running along the waterfront.
I was annoyed to find my camera acting up. Curse you, camera! You're only about 3 years old. So I don't have many pics of the harbour, darn it. Bought some new batteries to see if they'd fix the problem.
Anyway, I was disappointed to hear that the Fort was closed (cause tourist season ain't started yet). And the Amethyst Mine was also closed to tourists (cause there ain't no tourists yet, apparently). To pacify my sputtering fits of rage that nothing was open, Ben & Jen had given us a map of the hiking trails in the Sleeping Giant park - we'd contemplated a few from afar, but the book described the hike to the top of the Sleeping Giant as "challenging." I think it used the word "challenging" about six times in one 50-word paragraph. Very challenging, physically challenging, only be attempted by experienced climbers with hiking boots and a first-aid kit. Okay, so not for us.
But we decided to drive out to the Cascades, and maybe the Sleeping Giant afterward. The Cascades are supposed to be a nice trail by burbling brooks just outside the city, or somewhere around there. As you can possibly tell, we never got there. The signage is a bit confusing, and we obviously missed our turnoff, and ended up heading past the Sleeping Giant park. When we finally conceded defeat and turned around, we decided just to go to the Sleeping Giant, and maybe we'd find the Cascades on our way back into town.
The road that goes into the Sleeping Giant park is very winding, with trees close on both sides. Had to drive way slower - as we kept driving, I think we saw about ten or twelve deer wandering along the sides of the road. We also saw a porcupine just sitting in the middle of the road. We stopped and stared at each other. I was going to hop out to take a picture, but Monica screamed at me not to do it, because it would throw some quills. So instead, I got Stephen to open the sunroof, and then leaped out to focus in on our friendly quill-shooting porcupine. However, at this point, it had decided we were obviously something weird, and it waddled its way off the road and hopped into the pond. No photo shoot, darn it.
Anyway, as might be expected (since there are no tourists this time of year), the park was CLOSED. What a surprise. We said, "screw you, Thunder Bay park rangers," and parked our car anyway, and went out on some hiking trails. Since there were signs saying we could get a ticket, we parked our car out of sight. Smart! This way, when we get eaten by an early spring bear who has just emerged hungry and grumpy from a long winter sleep, no one will know where we are, and it will take them several days at least to find our car. Brilliant plan!
The first illegal hike we took was the Wildlife Habitat trail. It obviously hadn't been groomed yet, with lots of fallen trees to climb over. Made it a little more interesting, actually. It was only 2.4km, and we didn't see much in the way of wildlife, possibly due to our incessant chattering about what to do if we see a bear, and how hungry do you suppose it would be?
After that, we drove to a lookout point, again walking past the locked gates - what rebels! - to see the park space and admire the lake, which shall remain nameless, cause I'm not sure which lake it was. Stephen is quite good at skipping stones. I suck. And although the park might have been closed, there was a restroom there and the door was unlocked - yay! But don't look around too much - yick!
Our last hike was the Sifting Lake, a 4km hike. I really enjoyed this one - it felt like a proper hike through the forest (whereas the nature trail was just a little too easy). However, when going on a proper hike, one should be wearing the proper gear. And while my Blundstone boots would have been fine at the Cascades, they were not so awesome on a real trail. Even runners would have been better. Oh well! We persevered, and got to the Sifting Lake, startling away a few loons. By that time, everyone was getting hungry, so we headed back into town.
We were going to eat at some local little Italian restaurant, but it's actually so little that sometimes the owners just decide not to open (probably because there's no tourists in town until the May long weekend, dammit). So instead, we went to East Side Marios, where the waitress seated us in a strange section that had a TV in every booth. WTF? Then we realized that there were many families with small children around us. So, we picked up and moved to the far side of the restaurant, where we could listen to the screaming children from afar. I couldn't finish my supper - so stuffed! - and yet for some reason, when driving back home, we stopped at the ice cream shop.
Then we went to the video store and rented Eragon. Bwahahaha! Funny, funny movie. (No, it's not supposed to be.)
After that, Monica and I watched two more episodes of Supernatural, while Stephen went upstairs to surf the wireless Internet. Oh, Internets! You are a wonderful thing.
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