Sault Ste. Marie to Ottawa and Everything in Between

I've lost count of the days.  It doesn't really matter anyway.  The only way to travel is to have the "we'll get there when we get there" attitude, and it's a great feeling to not really have to be anywhere.  Is it a realistic way to live?  For the short-term it is, but we'll work on the long-term.

We are currently in Ottawa, national capital of Canada and a wonderful looking city.  Before I get to Ottawa, let's backtrack on the trip here.

Leaving Sault Ste. Marie, we rolled out of bed late, almost missing our complimentary breakfast.  Liam has been going to bed quite late with the time changes and waking up later as well.  He is usually the one to wake us up in the morning and has pretty much done so for the last 3 years, but this trip we've seen him finally sleep in until a decent time.  We gobbled down our typical toast, fruit, muffin, and juice breakfast and checked out of the hotel.  I had read up on Sault Ste. Marie the previous night wondering what this city was about.  I often think "What purpose does this town or city serve" as I'm driving through it.  Well, the SSM has the Soo Locks, and is a U.S. border town.  We checked out of the hotel and strolled along their boardwalk that stretched the length of the shore of the narrows on the Canadian side.  Less than a half kilometer on the other side, our strongest neighbors and largest trading partner.  I notice right away when I'm near a larger U.S. city.  The architecture of buildings and bridges are completely different than that of their Canadian counterparts.  Larger, more complex bridges, large factories, highways built over highways, all of this could be seen on the U.S. side...most notably the large bridge spanning the waterway separating the two countries.


We left Sault Ste. Marie around noon with the original plans to head to Ottawa, but those changed after the long drive the previous night, and we both decided to stop at North Bay, ON for the night.  The drive to North Bay saw us drive past yet more immensely beautiful lakes, and again the terrain changed from low lying agricultural farmland to treed, rocky outcrops reminscent of a lunar landscape...without the trees of course.  We passed through Sudbury, Ontario on the northeastern route to Ottawa, and I couldn't get over how several tall smoke stacks dominated the horizon.  We were in Canada's nickel and copper belt, and these giant smelters took care of melting millions of tons of raw ore a year to produce the nickel and copper we use every day. 

About an hour after Sudbury, we reached North Bay, a city about the size of Medicine Hat, but it hugged the large Lake Nipissing and Trout Lake.  I'm not sure what rank this lake was for size, but it was larger than anything seen West of Lake Winnipeg, and its opposite shore seemed to blend into the horizon.  For once we didn't arrive in the dark, we booked our hotel room and made dinner plans at the White Owl, a cozy little restaurant a few hundred feet from the water's edge.  We took in a nice evening stroll to the restaurant, only a block or two away, under a sky painted in purples, oranges and pinks, by the setting sun. 

Our stay at the Best Western was complete with our 9:30 AM wake up time.  We didn't need to rush off this morning as there was no complimentary breakfast included with the room.  The in-house restaurant did meet our breakfast requirements and Liam was happy to see pancakes on the menu.  We were packed up and ready and left of North Bay, after fueling up the truck and refilling our Timmy's cups, by almost noon. 

The trip to Ottawa was non-eventful but scenic.  We traveled through towns that we have only heard on the news...Petawawa, the Canadian Forces Base that sends a lot of troops to Afghanistan, and Chalk River, known for it's now defunct reactor that produces 40% of the world's isotopes.  Of course, being a CF base and a nuclear reactor, we weren't able to see them from the highway at all, but you knew they were there, secure behind miles of brush and guarded fence lines.  I couldn't help thinking that we planned our trip a week or two too early, meaning that we are probably missing the peak time where all the deciduous trees are changing from green to their beautiful autumn colors.  Some trees were already showing signs of changing to oranges and deep reds, but I could imagine what it must look like when forest for miles in all directions have all turned those colors.  Closer to Ottawa was a rough ride, not what I expected traveling into the nation's capital.  The roads were single lane, rough and uneven, causing us to jostle about quite a bit.  This single lane road then suddenly turned into a monster 3-lane freeway, much like the Deerfoot Trail to Calgarians, where it seemed a free-for-all for space and speed.  It bothered me less now that I'm driving 7 tons of truck and trailer, but I don't really want to chance anything in an accident.  Let's just say that people in the East are just as crazy of drivers as those in the West.

Once in Ottawa, we stopped on the Western edge of the city to look for a wi-fi spot in order to book our hotel room.  Our original plans were to stay somewhere downtown, close to parliament and within walking distance of shops, museums and all the other wonderful things to see down there.  However, we could not find an available room, and immediately I thought that it must be due to all the MLA's and their entourage's being in town.  This was the only city that we had an initial problem of booking a room.  Eventually, we settled on a Travelodge about 15 minutes to downtown.  We took Liam swimming in their wave pool and he loved it.  Alaina also took her first dip in the pool ever!  We're stopped here for two nights and they upgraded us to a kids/family focused theme room.  Waiting for us were a couple of Sleepy bears (Travelodge's mascot bear) on the beds, a stocked video library which included Star Wars (I don't think we mentioned how old our kids were when we booked), and Sleepy bear bed linens, lamp shades, and window coverings.  Liam was so excited to be in this room, I hope I remembered to video tape him when he was jumping on the bed with excitement.  This was also probably the first night that Liam didn't ask to go home, or to go to Grandma's house.

Anyway, it's 1:15 AM, around my usual bedtime.  We have a busy day tomorrow, and being Shan's birthday, perhaps some birthday surprises are in order.  Hope everyone is well reading this.  Until tomorrow...