On Wednesday, July 4, we (Mike, Katie, another leader from our church John, and I) decided to take a trip into Michigan to celebrate Independence Day on the American side of the St. Clair River. We thought it would be so cool to have our passports stamped on July 4, but were disappointed that the border guard flat refused to, claiming it doesn't get stamped for land crossings. The Canadian officer said the same thing, even though I know that's a lie, since I have several stamps from Canadian land borders, the most recent from a few weeks ago...
At the end of the awesome week, Katie, Mike and I decided to take the scenic route home through southern Ontario, Niagara Falls and the Adirondacks. We saw a lot of beautiful, peaceful things. Between Walpole Island and Niagara, if you take a more southern route (we took Route 3 pretty much straight across) you'll find lots of farmland, some wind turbines, apparently some vineyards (I slept through that part), more agriculture...
Peaceful.
Niagara Falls was cool. I'd been there once before with Jamie, Amanda and Katie, but having Katie with a very, very broken foot, it was difficult to explore. This time, Mike, Katie and I were able to wander all along the river. I was absolutely mesmerized by the upper river, watching all of that water pouring over the edge and noticing what little weeds had managed to root themselves and grow along the edge.
After a good dinner at a pub and some wandering around, we decided to take our tired selves back into the US for a good night's sleep in New York, at a place to be determined once Mike had domestic service for his magical smart phone. Well, we made it into New York, and then while Mike was looking down at his phone and Katie was focusing on not getting car sick and I was driving on I-190 North... right back into Ontario. There was no way to turn around before the border check, so I hung my head and told the guard how embarrassed I was to go the wrong way. Well, it's also New York's fault for not putting any sort of LAST EXIT IN THE US sign before the last exit.
So we spent another night in Canada, in Niagara Falls, before returning to the United States to search for moose in the Adirondacks. No such luck spotting any, but we did find a lot of beautiful lakes, the gorgeous Roosevelt-Marcy trail, and some great trees.
Of course, the fact that Katie and I had our passports scanned into and out of Canada four times in the month of July had me a little nervous heading back through customs at the end of JACK's recent Maritime madness, but we clearly sailed through without a problem.
Exhausting, but a very good adventure through multiple mission trips and many new places.
Showing posts with label Ontario. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ontario. Show all posts
18 August 2012
17 August 2012
multiple trips, part 1
This was totally crazy, but I did two mission trips back to back this year.
This all started because Katie, Mike and I were thinking about going to where the Sr. Highs would be and camping for a few days, visiting them on their half day off, because those all used to be our Jr. Highs and they asked us about a million times if we were going with them. If we went with them, who would go with the Jr. Highs? Well, it so happened that the organization we go on mission trips with needed volunteers for the Walpole Island, ON trip that our Sr. Highs were going on. Specifically, worship leader... and after a lot of thought, I auditioned. And got it. And talked them into taking on a few extra site coaches so I could drag my friends into this with me...
Week one: Jr. High trip to Irwin, PA. The Pennsylvania Turnpike was basically the same as always, and Irwin is a typical rust belt kind of town, just a little outside of Pittsburgh. My assignment for the week was to paint a shed and repair some porch steps and paint a porch and its ceiling for a very sweet elderly woman. My crew was super awesome and hard working, so we finished that project early and were able to talk the organization into letting us stain the neighbor's deck.
It was a good week. Our middle school group is a bunch of really good, hilarious kids. They attempted at one point to create some drama for themselves, but quit as soon as the adults called them on it. We had a lot of fun together. Our leadership team was pretty stellar, four men and then my dear friend Katie and me for the girls.
Week two: Sr. High trip to Walpole Island, Ontario. We had managed to keep it a secret from the high school group that we would be there, and really the only chance we had left of them finding out before their arrival was if their younger siblings on the Jr. High trip called/ sent a text when they got home. As the Jr. Highs prepared to depart on the bus, Katie and Mike and I did not board, explaining that Katie and I get too carsick to handle the bus, so would be riding with Mike. Didn't lie, just didn't tell the whole truth.
In fact, when they were dragging their feet getting packed up and on the bus, we started joking with them that they were being SO ridiculous, we should just drive to Canada instead. None of them noticed our jokes. It was 6 AM.
So to Canada we went. We drove through northern Ohio, stopping at a bird reserve and the Toledo Botanical Gardens, as well as a Waffle House (probably the best stop we made). Walpole Island is a First Nation Reservation just across the river from Algonac, Michigan, just a little north of Detroit. We took a short ferry ride to get there, across some very blue water.
I unfortunately didn't get out and about as much as I'd have liked, but did get to see a bit of the island and meet some of the residents. Interesting people, and a good range of people who were happy to welcome visitors and share their culture and history, and people who think that all people who are different from them are only on this planet to screw them over. It was very sad to talk to them. One of my favorite people I met was a woman who wanted to tell me about her trees. She was very proud of the Crimson King she had planted on the property before she could even afford to build a house there. Crimson Kings have very dense foliage and make wonderful shade trees. It was pretty glorious. Tree of the day, for sure.
This all started because Katie, Mike and I were thinking about going to where the Sr. Highs would be and camping for a few days, visiting them on their half day off, because those all used to be our Jr. Highs and they asked us about a million times if we were going with them. If we went with them, who would go with the Jr. Highs? Well, it so happened that the organization we go on mission trips with needed volunteers for the Walpole Island, ON trip that our Sr. Highs were going on. Specifically, worship leader... and after a lot of thought, I auditioned. And got it. And talked them into taking on a few extra site coaches so I could drag my friends into this with me...
Week one: Jr. High trip to Irwin, PA. The Pennsylvania Turnpike was basically the same as always, and Irwin is a typical rust belt kind of town, just a little outside of Pittsburgh. My assignment for the week was to paint a shed and repair some porch steps and paint a porch and its ceiling for a very sweet elderly woman. My crew was super awesome and hard working, so we finished that project early and were able to talk the organization into letting us stain the neighbor's deck.
It was a good week. Our middle school group is a bunch of really good, hilarious kids. They attempted at one point to create some drama for themselves, but quit as soon as the adults called them on it. We had a lot of fun together. Our leadership team was pretty stellar, four men and then my dear friend Katie and me for the girls.
Week two: Sr. High trip to Walpole Island, Ontario. We had managed to keep it a secret from the high school group that we would be there, and really the only chance we had left of them finding out before their arrival was if their younger siblings on the Jr. High trip called/ sent a text when they got home. As the Jr. Highs prepared to depart on the bus, Katie and Mike and I did not board, explaining that Katie and I get too carsick to handle the bus, so would be riding with Mike. Didn't lie, just didn't tell the whole truth.
In fact, when they were dragging their feet getting packed up and on the bus, we started joking with them that they were being SO ridiculous, we should just drive to Canada instead. None of them noticed our jokes. It was 6 AM.
So to Canada we went. We drove through northern Ohio, stopping at a bird reserve and the Toledo Botanical Gardens, as well as a Waffle House (probably the best stop we made). Walpole Island is a First Nation Reservation just across the river from Algonac, Michigan, just a little north of Detroit. We took a short ferry ride to get there, across some very blue water.
I unfortunately didn't get out and about as much as I'd have liked, but did get to see a bit of the island and meet some of the residents. Interesting people, and a good range of people who were happy to welcome visitors and share their culture and history, and people who think that all people who are different from them are only on this planet to screw them over. It was very sad to talk to them. One of my favorite people I met was a woman who wanted to tell me about her trees. She was very proud of the Crimson King she had planted on the property before she could even afford to build a house there. Crimson Kings have very dense foliage and make wonderful shade trees. It was pretty glorious. Tree of the day, for sure.
15 June 2008
borderline ridiculous
This update will hopefully be posted from the Marlborough Hotel, whose wireless internet is kind of misbehaving. I'm updating tonight because everyone else slept like toddlers in the car for our ridiculously long drive today. This morning we decided to change today's route a little bit, leaving Ontario for Manitoba via Northern Minnesota so we could make Fathers' Day phonecalls at domestic prices, get cheaper gas (the liter to gallon conversion leaves us around $6.50 a gallon in Canada), and check our International Falls. It looked as though it would add a little over an hour to today's trip, but since we gained an hour when changing time zones, it was negligible due to TIME TRAVEL!
International Falls is a misnomer. The Ontario side is called Fort Frances, another papermill town, and it was kind of difficult to find the bridge to Minnesota. The "falls" were, as best we could tell, some rapids running under the bitty little bridge we crossed that had natural gas pipelines and a shared lane for busses, trains, and trucks. We survived that, and then there was customs. We were sent to see the Agricultural Dude because we had a small bag of baby carrots (American), a bag of grapes that were going bad that we'd meant to get rid of (Mexican), and two oranges from the last hotel's continental breakfast... all picked up in Canada. Well, he ok'd our grapes, but we kind of didn't want them back, and he ok'd the carrots because they were American, but he claimed our oranges couldn't be transported because they weren't in a box or bag... and then he quarantined those to his jacket pocket. Snacktime for the USDA Border Patrol!
A note to any Mary Washington Geographers who may be reading-- I drove past a sign for Bemidji today! It was kind of several hours out of the way and I already felt bad enough for talking my friends into driving through Minnesota and adding time to our trip... but I pulled over and got a photo. AMAZING. This photo and others will probably not be up till tomorrow because the internet is not sure if it wants to keep working or not this evening.
I drove from lunchtime onward, crossing us back into Canada. We'd gotten rid of our carrots so passed through customs without a problem. The lady asked why we were driving through Canada, and I told her because we thought it was awesome, and she said we were absolutely right. Welcome to Manitoba! It is REALLY flat! And there is roughly nothing within several dozen kilometers of the border. I enjoyed the drive. Everyone else fell asleep till we were pretty much into the city. So far in Winnipeg, we're impressed with the size of the city but how not crowded it feels. Then again, it was Sunday evening when we arrived. We're in a sweet hotel and all rather tired since we feel like it's an hour later than it is.
And now that this is besously long, I'd like to add a post script: Congratulations to our friends Becky and David, who became parents for the first time this weekend! Welcome to the world, Samuel!
International Falls is a misnomer. The Ontario side is called Fort Frances, another papermill town, and it was kind of difficult to find the bridge to Minnesota. The "falls" were, as best we could tell, some rapids running under the bitty little bridge we crossed that had natural gas pipelines and a shared lane for busses, trains, and trucks. We survived that, and then there was customs. We were sent to see the Agricultural Dude because we had a small bag of baby carrots (American), a bag of grapes that were going bad that we'd meant to get rid of (Mexican), and two oranges from the last hotel's continental breakfast... all picked up in Canada. Well, he ok'd our grapes, but we kind of didn't want them back, and he ok'd the carrots because they were American, but he claimed our oranges couldn't be transported because they weren't in a box or bag... and then he quarantined those to his jacket pocket. Snacktime for the USDA Border Patrol!
A note to any Mary Washington Geographers who may be reading-- I drove past a sign for Bemidji today! It was kind of several hours out of the way and I already felt bad enough for talking my friends into driving through Minnesota and adding time to our trip... but I pulled over and got a photo. AMAZING. This photo and others will probably not be up till tomorrow because the internet is not sure if it wants to keep working or not this evening.
I drove from lunchtime onward, crossing us back into Canada. We'd gotten rid of our carrots so passed through customs without a problem. The lady asked why we were driving through Canada, and I told her because we thought it was awesome, and she said we were absolutely right. Welcome to Manitoba! It is REALLY flat! And there is roughly nothing within several dozen kilometers of the border. I enjoyed the drive. Everyone else fell asleep till we were pretty much into the city. So far in Winnipeg, we're impressed with the size of the city but how not crowded it feels. Then again, it was Sunday evening when we arrived. We're in a sweet hotel and all rather tired since we feel like it's an hour later than it is.
And now that this is besously long, I'd like to add a post script: Congratulations to our friends Becky and David, who became parents for the first time this weekend! Welcome to the world, Samuel!
14 June 2008
Happy Fathers Day, Dad! (And Cliffie, and Mr. Paton, and the AG!)
Thunder Bay is cool (awesome AND less warm). Tomorrow we leave Ontario behind for new places that none of us are remotely familiar with. We're pretty excited!
Tree of the day: Eastern Hemlock, the lookout platform at the gorge was surrounded by them
Also, Amanda and I continue to try new domestic beers. Tonight's was Kokanee, a brew from British Columbia. Not bad!
Thunder Bay is cool (awesome AND less warm). Tomorrow we leave Ontario behind for new places that none of us are remotely familiar with. We're pretty excited!
Tree of the day: Eastern Hemlock, the lookout platform at the gorge was surrounded by them
Also, Amanda and I continue to try new domestic beers. Tonight's was Kokanee, a brew from British Columbia. Not bad!
13 June 2008
Soo-per!
Sault Saint Marie (also called "The Soo", yes, spelled like that) is easily my favorite city so far. I knew a lot about it before we got here because it was featured in the Eastern North America class I took as a geography major at Mary Washington. It was just really cool to see everything the professor talked about (even though I took the class two years ago).
There's one on the Ontario side as well as the Michigan side, and we visited both. The Ontario side is a papermill city, but both sides have extensive canal systems, which we were fascinated by. We checked out a sweet little museum on the Canadian side and ate dinner (in a boat-shaped restaurant!) and watched ships go through the locks on the American side. We actually drove to Rudyard, Michigan to pick up American cell phone signals to catch up with our families at domestic rates. We ended up pulling over at a playground to make the calls, which must have been strange looking to anyone passing by. It was just a really interesting and chill day!
Tree of the day: paper birch. Those things were everywhere on the gorgeous drive up here.
PS- Just wanted to share the hilarity of the evening. We all headed down to the pool/gym area. Amanda and I decided to exercise a little bit to offset the sitting in a car for such long stretches. She took the stationary bike, I took the treadmill. Somehow, we blew a fuse and I about faceplanted on the thing. It was probably really funny to watch. It's also probably really funny to imagine.
There's one on the Ontario side as well as the Michigan side, and we visited both. The Ontario side is a papermill city, but both sides have extensive canal systems, which we were fascinated by. We checked out a sweet little museum on the Canadian side and ate dinner (in a boat-shaped restaurant!) and watched ships go through the locks on the American side. We actually drove to Rudyard, Michigan to pick up American cell phone signals to catch up with our families at domestic rates. We ended up pulling over at a playground to make the calls, which must have been strange looking to anyone passing by. It was just a really interesting and chill day!
Tree of the day: paper birch. Those things were everywhere on the gorgeous drive up here.
PS- Just wanted to share the hilarity of the evening. We all headed down to the pool/gym area. Amanda and I decided to exercise a little bit to offset the sitting in a car for such long stretches. She took the stationary bike, I took the treadmill. Somehow, we blew a fuse and I about faceplanted on the thing. It was probably really funny to watch. It's also probably really funny to imagine.
12 June 2008
Toronto, day two!
Highlights of the day:
Colleen: the man playing norwegian wood on the sitar in the subway
Jamie: having Moose Head beer at the comedy show tonight
Amanda: the huge stack of pancakes from breakfast covered in chocolate and powered sugar
Katie: sitting out on the patio out on the 5th floor of the hostel in the beautiful weather
Beer of the day: Moose Head at Betty's
Tree of the day: Red Pine
Colleen: the man playing norwegian wood on the sitar in the subway
Jamie: having Moose Head beer at the comedy show tonight
Amanda: the huge stack of pancakes from breakfast covered in chocolate and powered sugar
Katie: sitting out on the patio out on the 5th floor of the hostel in the beautiful weather
Beer of the day: Moose Head at Betty's
Tree of the day: Red Pine
JACK and Jill went up a hill... to Sudbury!
Hello from Sudbury! We have arrived safely and are staying in a totally sweet Howard Johnson. We think we've recovered from our technical difficulties, so here I am updating from Amanda's computer. However, the photobucket website is currently having its own issues, so we'll try updating that later or in the morning. So sorry for the delay!
We left Toronto this morning, heading north toward Sudbury via Sutton West, where Sibbald Point Provincial Park is located. My grandmother's maiden name is Sibbald and that's the area our ancestor people are from, so I was pretty excited to see the place even though Grandma told me a few weeks ago that she doubts our relation to these Sibbalds in particular, claiming the last name is kinda common. Grandma, I beg to differ, because now that I think about it, it was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find our tartan when I was in Scotland. I decided it would be necessary to reclaim the land for my family.
We arrived at the park, and oh my gosh, it was gorgeous! The waterfront area was so peaceful and pretty, sitting on Lake Simcoe. We wandered back up to Eildon Hall, the house which Susan Sibbald named for her family home in Scotland after she immigrated to Ontario. Lovely home, but it was not yet open for summer so I didn't get to see the inside. Amanda and I went on to check out the church that Susan's son had built in her honor. It's a lovely little gothic building that is home to St. George's Anglican Church and a small family cemetary. My alleged ancestors sure chose a beautiful place to take their eternal nap... I'll get photos up soon! Now that I think about it, our Sibbalds are Scottish and this Sibbald is from Cornwall, England... but wait, the original Eildon Hall is in Scotland... I suppose I have to do some homework when I get home! Regardless of my relation or not, it was a really nice park. I'll just go ahead and claim it as my own!
The drive up to Sudbury was really pretty, too. Lots of trees and cool rock formations, very little in the way of development besides the road itself. We made a pit stop in Ojibway territory, where we met some nice shop owners who warned us about seeing moose. Warning?! We're hoping to see moose on this journey!
This is getting long, so here are some final notes I'll leave you on:
We left Toronto this morning, heading north toward Sudbury via Sutton West, where Sibbald Point Provincial Park is located. My grandmother's maiden name is Sibbald and that's the area our ancestor people are from, so I was pretty excited to see the place even though Grandma told me a few weeks ago that she doubts our relation to these Sibbalds in particular, claiming the last name is kinda common. Grandma, I beg to differ, because now that I think about it, it was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to find our tartan when I was in Scotland. I decided it would be necessary to reclaim the land for my family.
We arrived at the park, and oh my gosh, it was gorgeous! The waterfront area was so peaceful and pretty, sitting on Lake Simcoe. We wandered back up to Eildon Hall, the house which Susan Sibbald named for her family home in Scotland after she immigrated to Ontario. Lovely home, but it was not yet open for summer so I didn't get to see the inside. Amanda and I went on to check out the church that Susan's son had built in her honor. It's a lovely little gothic building that is home to St. George's Anglican Church and a small family cemetary. My alleged ancestors sure chose a beautiful place to take their eternal nap... I'll get photos up soon! Now that I think about it, our Sibbalds are Scottish and this Sibbald is from Cornwall, England... but wait, the original Eildon Hall is in Scotland... I suppose I have to do some homework when I get home! Regardless of my relation or not, it was a really nice park. I'll just go ahead and claim it as my own!
The drive up to Sudbury was really pretty, too. Lots of trees and cool rock formations, very little in the way of development besides the road itself. We made a pit stop in Ojibway territory, where we met some nice shop owners who warned us about seeing moose. Warning?! We're hoping to see moose on this journey!
This is getting long, so here are some final notes I'll leave you on:
- trees of the day (bonus trees because they were all identified in MY park!)
- silver maple
- black willow
- American elm
- We named the car Jill. JACK and Jill, duh!
- I thoroughly enjoyed driving 100 on the highways today!
- We're getting used to the metric system.
10 June 2008
HI Toronto
We've made it to lovely Toronto, Ontario! We'll be staying at another HI (Hostelling International) place for the next two nights. We farfed around Niagara Falls for a bit this morning, seeing an enormous, gorgeous whirlpool, some glass blowing, and of course, the falls themselves in daylight before heading up here.
So far in Toronto, we've done a little walking around the vicinity. Jamie and Katie headed back to the hostel to give Katie's foot a rest and Amanda and I tromped all over the place a while longer. At one point, we met a really nice couple and their friends, who we walked with for a few blocks while they told us about cool stuff to see in the area. Just like everyone else we've talked to, they were blown away that we're driving across the country, but were excited for us and wished us well. Everyone has been really nice. We found a lot of neat restaurants that we're excited to eat at tomorrow, and walked right up under the tower/needle. Click here to check out some of today's photos
!
On a side note, our car continues to amaze us. We were concerned that its tragic flaw was the fact that the speedometer only read in mph (look in your car at home, does it have mph AND km/h?! I feel like most do!). Since Canada is one of those completely sane nations that relies on the metric system, we went so far as to create a cheat sheet of some standard speed limits and tape it to the dashboard. Eventually, I decided to fiddle with some of the buttons on the dash (this is a 2008-- basically a computer on wheels) and found a metric setting. The odometer and thermometer were reading in metrics, but it took us a while to understand that the speedometer was also registering in metric measurement, so we spent a few minutes driving waaaay under the speed limit (consider that 50km/h converts to about 30mph... and we were in a 30km/h zone...) before Amanda was clever enough to figure out this FABULOUS feature. Life is good!
So far in Toronto, we've done a little walking around the vicinity. Jamie and Katie headed back to the hostel to give Katie's foot a rest and Amanda and I tromped all over the place a while longer. At one point, we met a really nice couple and their friends, who we walked with for a few blocks while they told us about cool stuff to see in the area. Just like everyone else we've talked to, they were blown away that we're driving across the country, but were excited for us and wished us well. Everyone has been really nice. We found a lot of neat restaurants that we're excited to eat at tomorrow, and walked right up under the tower/needle. Click here to check out some of today's photos
!On a side note, our car continues to amaze us. We were concerned that its tragic flaw was the fact that the speedometer only read in mph (look in your car at home, does it have mph AND km/h?! I feel like most do!). Since Canada is one of those completely sane nations that relies on the metric system, we went so far as to create a cheat sheet of some standard speed limits and tape it to the dashboard. Eventually, I decided to fiddle with some of the buttons on the dash (this is a 2008-- basically a computer on wheels) and found a metric setting. The odometer and thermometer were reading in metrics, but it took us a while to understand that the speedometer was also registering in metric measurement, so we spent a few minutes driving waaaay under the speed limit (consider that 50km/h converts to about 30mph... and we were in a 30km/h zone...) before Amanda was clever enough to figure out this FABULOUS feature. Life is good!
09 June 2008
Welcome to Canada, it's the maple leaf state!
Today was the big day! It seemed a bit surreal as I was driving to the grocery store at 7AM to pick up a few last minute things. My mom kindly drove us to pick up the car, and we were on our way. It was an easy drive through NJ, PA and NY, only to met with our first big adventure: getting through customs at Niagara Falls. While the person in the booth checked out our passports, she asked questions like, where we were from, where we were going, where we worked... and how we knew each other, since all of those answers varied a bit. The response? "From church." Apparently that's not a good answered, because we were asked to pull over into customs and have the entire car searched... down to the photos on my camera (I hope the officer enjoyed the few shots of us picking up the car this morning). Amanda actually had to go into customs to surrender the pepper spray her mom sent along... oops. The officers recommended bear spray though, which is legal in Canada, and stronger. Interesting.
We went down to the falls just to get a sneak peak and have dinner. Pretty sweet, can't wait to see them during the day! But we're back at the hostel now, getting ready for bed and enjoying the sweet thunderstorm.
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/kk14/JackCanada/day%201/
And, to all of my friend people back in Virginia reading this, you will see in photos that our very, very sweet 2008 Chevy Impala has VA license plates!
We went down to the falls just to get a sneak peak and have dinner. Pretty sweet, can't wait to see them during the day! But we're back at the hostel now, getting ready for bed and enjoying the sweet thunderstorm.
http://s276.photobucket.com/albums/k
And, to all of my friend people back in Virginia reading this, you will see in photos that our very, very sweet 2008 Chevy Impala has VA license plates!
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