What Fun!

We saw so many cool and unique things. The scenery up and back was incredibly beautiful. We even saw a moose. We took a boat cruise through the Sault Ste. Marie locks. The Canadian set is closed due to repairs, the American set just reopened, so we cruised through their locks. It was very interesting, and not in a boring way, how the locks actually work, and how the water levels rise and what mechanisms are under the water working to achieve this.

There is a city with the same name right across the border also. The word 'sault' roughly translates from the aboriginal name tumbling water, there are rapids near the lock system. The boat cruise through the locks was amazing. Ron loved hearing about the mechanisms that are used to operate the huge gates which hold all of the water in and out.

@LadyDuck That area has quite a large French Canadian population. On our way there and back, we noticed an area where the signs on the highway said chemin, which is French for street. I love that diversity.

@Juliaacv Our friends lived in Canada and they spoke French, Canadian French. I am sure you had a wonderful cruise through the locks.

@Juliaacv That sounds, without exaggeration, absolutely divine.

@AmbiePam We clocked just over 2,000 km's on our SUV for this trip. It was alot of driving, but so much fun.

Thank you. I took this from Port Severn, Ontario, this morning from the fancy spa/inn that we stayed at. There were some huge yachts that I had to be very careful not to include in my pictures. This is where the really wealthy people in our province go to play. And then there are the really down to earth and modest income people like us. But guess what? I did see a moose, and that was something that I really wanted to see. We saw what we believed to be moose prints while on a hike one day and then yesterday while we were driving, just off in the field near the highway, there was a pond, and a momma moose taking a sip of water on a hot day. They are a beautiful colour of brown, I never imagined them to be that colour. I bought the twins each a beautiful pair of leather moccasins from the trading post. I like to support our aboriginals and I did just that while I shopped there. I also bought them each a t-shirt that had little bears on it and a message not to feed the bears. The 12 hour ride up there went by like the blink of an eye, we laughed and chatted the entire ride.

@Juliaacv You do what you have to do. Glad you had a great trip!

That's cool. There were some Americans on the lock cruise that were talking about Mackinaw island and how beautiful it is. The tunnel was probably the border crossing between Detroit and Windsor. There is that method to cross or the old fashioned way of the Ambassador bridge over the Detroit River. The couple staying in the cabin beside ours were from Delaware. They had 2 huge dogs with them, I cannot imagine being organized enough to take a relaxing vacation to another country plus with 2 dogs. She came over to see me while I was having my morning coffee a few days ago as they were getting ready to leave, and chatted for a while. She said that they both enjoyed meeting and visiting with us and they had about a 12 hour drive ahead of them, with the dogs.

@snowy22315 They were good and fun people to visit with over the days there.

@Juliaacv Angry Sun I could say !!

@psanasangma

When I took this photo we could already feel the heat and humidity that the day was offering even though it was not yet 7am.

Thanks. All was going very well yesterday, we were making excellent time on the roads going to our second destination, which was half way home, when the traffic came to a complete halt. There was an hour long detour due to a very bad accident on the road that we were on which closed it for 9 hours. We had to go so far out of our way and then to double back to get to where we needed to be was time consuming. We slept well last night, but we didn't have anything to eat from breakfast until supper because of the detour and there was literally no place to stop to eat, there was hardly a shoulder to the road as it was a B Class road. I wouldn't be surprised if the car needs a complete overhaul after driving on that crazy road.

@wolfgirl569 It was a long detour, I am thankful that he always keeps our gas tank topped up, alot of people had to turn around as they must have been getting low on fuel.

@Juliaacv That was a long detour. Sorry you couldn't find someplace to eat.

@Juliaacv Oh I did.

We had such a great time together. The fancy spa inn that we stayed at last night was the cherry on the top. We even spotted a moose on the road yesterday, it was getting a drink from a pond. I have never seen a moose and really wanted to see one. They are a much different colour than I imagined them to be. I hope that you had a good week.

It was the last day of a very wonderful vacation.

Thank you. I took this picture this morning before we checked out. This is where the really wealthy people in Ontario come to play on their huge yachts, which I had to be careful not to include in the photo. It was such a lovely spa. They had areas outside where they had massage tables for outdoor massages, they had an area for outdoor yoga, and single little saunas besides the normal beach areas and campfire pits.

Oh it was such a fun time. I even saw a moose yesterday drinking from a pond on the side of the road. Such beautiful animals. I had to renew my passport this year and it won't be here until the 18th, but if I had it we would have crossed and gone over to the US to see the city on that side of the border. The bridge spanning that river is 3 miles long, although the majority of it is over land.

@Juliaacv That's one very long bridge, even if most of it is over land.

Thank you. It was a great trip, we live in such a beautiful and incredibly diverse country. I saw so many things that I have never seen before.

@paigea We have dozen countless drives up along Lake Huron, this was a new one for me to go beyond the Georgian Bay area. On our way home, where I took this photo, we were in the Muskokas, which is such a beautiful area.

@Juliaacv it's beautiful around Lake Superior and Lake Huron. And such long drives!

Thanks, it was so much fun. The car ride, which was 12 hours on the first day, which passed like the blink of an eye, and the days up there were all so much fun. I cannot believe how quickly the time passed.

@Juliaacv I know what you mean since I used to travel on long road trips a few years ago.

Thank you, that was how we began our day yesterday. The sun was up in the sky when I rose today, no need to rush out of bed to travel since we are at home again.

I did not go swimming in the lake, it is quite deep and cold. I did go swimming in the pool at the resort on our way home.

@Juliaacv o, ok. pool sounds safer.

This lake is so very deep it has such a lovely cooling effect when you are in that vicinity. We stayed at a super quiet and fun place, they had cabins, like the ones that we rented, they had 3 streets of them, they had an RV campground and they had little huts, for the fishermen to rent.

Thank you, that area is so beautiful, we used to go up there as a family when I was growing up. We would rent a cottage for a week and another family that lived near us would do the same and we would travel together.

Thank you. I took that just before we checked out on Saturday from the inn/spa that we stayed at on our way back home. They have fancy massage beds, with curtains set up outside so that people can get a massage outside, they had yoga mats for outdoor yoga, it was so relaxing looking.

@Juliaacv having an outside massage does sound relaxing especially in such a beautiful atmosphere.

It was such a great trip, our province is so very beautiful and diverse.