As I write, we are back in the US of A, having exchanged all of our Canadian monopoly money and crossed the bridge to the UP of Michigan. Eli has not been napping terribly well, which makes life interesting all around.

We failed to realize that this is Labor Day weekend. I'm excited for everyone that has time off of work--I hope you get to relax a bit. We managed to get the last camp site in the Soo Locks Campground, so we are grateful for that. We are going to head up to Picture Rock National Lakeshore tomorrow--hopefully there will be room to camp out there.

We rolled into Thunder Bay, ON, a few days ago after a long drive from Winnipeg. The next day, we discovered a delicacy called a Persian that is only made in Thunder Bay. It's a cinnamon roll type of pastry, but it isn't gooey, it's more the consistency of a plain donut. But it is rolled up and then has strawberry icing on top. Quite good. There are some pics in there somewhere.

That same day, we visited historic Fort William, where actors shared with us what is was like to be in the fur trade business in Thunder Bay in the mid-1800s. It was very interesting and educational. They would not trade a bear fur for Eli.

The next day, we hit the road toward Obatanga Provincial Park after acquiring more Persians. The 500+ mile drive around Lake Superior is just beautiful. We enjoyed the park and were awoken by a terrible rain storm. So we packed up a wet camper this morning and made for Sault Ste Marie. We weren't sure if we were going to stay on the Ontario side or the Michigan side, but ended up crossing the border after touring the historic lock on the Ontario side, which is under construction, so you can actually see to the bottom of the lock.

We crossed back into the US at about 4 PM or so, and made our way to the campground where we did some laundry and ate leftovers. Now we're off to a UP tour, then to Mackinac Island, then on toward Mo-town.

Mike

We arrived in Winnipeg in the evening after leaving Riding Mountain National Park. We parked the camper after doing a driving tour of the city. On Day 16, which was August 28, we hit up the Forks, which is a National Historic site as well as a market. We walked around the Historic Site, and then across the Red River to St. Boniface Cathedral and Cemetery. It was Sunday, and they were having mass, but that didn't stop us from poking around. Beautiful old cathedral and cemetery, which is obviously still used today. After that, we walked back across the river to the Forks Market.

They have a lot of interesting foods at the Market. We sampled a few of the booths and went to grab some coffee and give Eli some food. What occurred next will forever be known as The Second (and greater) Coffee Incident of 2010. This was when Eli decided it would be a good idea to grab Char's steaming hot decaf single-shot 12-oz caramel latte (extra sugar) and dump it all over himself and Char, creating clever patterns with the stains.

If you don't like screaming babies, I wouldn't recommend dumping coffee on one. Boy, Eli went nuts. As it turned out, no one was burned, everyone was OK, Eli had a change of clothes, and Char likes wearing wet jeans. (Well, that's all true except the part about Char and the wet jeans.) So, we browsed around the mall a little bit more, and then went home.

That evening, we had a great dinner at Earl's, where pints of beer are 17 oz! That's what I call a pint! Eli had fun there, and we all enjoyed what they call their "Pan Bread", which is like a ciabatta, but cooked in a pan--good stuff.

The next day, we spent a good deal of time at the Manitoba Museum. It is a very well done museum, and includes a life-sized replica of the Nonsuch, the ship that sailed from England to the Hudson Bay to trade furs that eventually started the Hudson Bay Company. The Hudson Bay Company had the ship built in 1968 as part of their 300 year anniversary celebration. It sailed for four summers in the Hudson, Atlantic, and Pacific before they donated it to the museum. Very cool.

We left out of Winnipeg this morning, and after a loooong drive, ended up in Thunder Bay late this evening. We're going to explore Thunder Bay tomorrow and leave here on Thursday.

I write this driving from Winnipeg east toward Ontario. It's been a while since an update, so I will try to catch everyone up chronologically as best I can. We spent a few days in Edmonton, and on the drive between Edmonton and Winnipeg, we stopped at Riding Mountain National Park. We've been having a wonderful trip, but have had limited internet access. Should be some new pictures up soon, though.

Edmonton

After a delicious breakfast, we spent Carol's birthday at the Fringe Theatre Festival in Edmonton. At the Fringe Theatre Festival, we saw some exciting street performers, ate some chocolate covered bananas, and went to play at the kids' area. Eli liked the sandbox. On the way home, we stopped by the Edmonton science museum, which had several interesting exhibits, including a cool exhibit that allowed you to use forensic evidence to try to find a criminal. We visited the planetarium, where Eli freaked out, then ate (and spilled) Indian food and cheesecake for Carol's birthday dinner.

The next day in Edmonton, we went to Fort Edmonton, which we thought would be a small fort. Once we entered the site, we found that it turned out to be an entire city over many acres, with actors and all types of 1890s - 1920s era pieces. The main feature is the entire Fort Edmonton, reconstructed from notes and maps. Fort Edmonton was a fur trading post that was central to Edmonton's development. We spent a lot longer at the Fort than we had anticipated because we were having a great time.

The following day, Day 11, we took Carol to the airport and said goodbye, and spent the day catching up with a lot of things that we had neglected--some shopping, an oil change, and fixing a small problem with our hitch.

Riding Mountain National Park

We had a good day at Riding Mountain National Park, where we discovered the beach. It had been a very hot day, but about 10 minutes before we got to the beach, the sun went behind a cloud and the wind picked up. This made our brief dip in Clear Lake a little bit colder than we had anticipated.

The next day, we wanted to see the Visitor's Center, but got our directions mixed up and ended up missing it. We saw the Wishing Well, which was a natural spring and had a nice garden. We took the East exit from the park. We saw a black bear yearling on the way.

To be continued ...

Day 7 started us in Lake Charlie, BC and led us through our second time zone change across the Alberta border. After a decent, but rainy, travel day, we landed in Fox Creek, AB, where the rain had pretty much subsided. Since we had yet to have a proper campfire, we decided that since this joint offered us free firewood, and we landed pretty early for the day, that now would be a good time to get that going.

We lit the fire and roasted our Lil' Smokies (thanks, Chad), and enjoyed a beer while tossing around the frisbee in a game of beersbee. Char and Carol kept goaltending, which was frustrating my awesome frisbee tosses. Anyway, we keep the necessary supplies for beersbee in the camper so that we're ready at a moment's notice.

I don't think I've yet talked about our (and the rest of Canada's) unhealthy obsession with Tim Horton's. This donut and coffee shop has good coffee and delicious donuts and muffins. We've probably seen 15 locations since we've been here, and we've yet to see one, at any time of day, without a line around the building. Anyway, we like their coffee and have frequented a few times at various hours.

All that to say that Fox Creek doesn't have a Tim Horton's, so we ended up getting some (not bad) gas station coffee and heading for Edmonton the next morning. Somehow, it turns out, that during the Coffee Incident of 2010, we lost a crucial part of the coffee maker (thrown in the trash??) and have been having to stop for coffee ever since. Not a bad venture, except for the roadhouse in Toad River, where the coffee was about as strong as tap water.

Anyhow, as I have mentioned, we made it into Edmonton safely yesterday (Day 8) and had a fun time poking around the city. Today, we went out for breakfast (Happy Birthday Carol!!) at an amazing place (voted #2 for Best Breakfast in Edmonton 2009) called "Barb & Ernie's", owned by a German couple who came to Edmonton in the mid-1970s. We all had amazing breakfasts that consisted, in one way or another, of German bacon pancakes, crepes, schnitzel, eggs benedict, and Eli had the kid's plate of dollar pancakes. Ernie greeted every woman who came into the restaurant in the manner of, "Hallloo Gorgeeous! How Meeany?" all in a thick German accent. Wonderful!

So I will probably update you again with an Edmonton recap in a couple of days. We're dropping Carol at the airport on Tuesday and we will either depart after that or stay one more night. --Mike

Ernie told me I could only put this picture on the internet if I informed everyone that this is "The Sexiest Man in Edmonton!" -- there you have it!

Well, after a couple of good travel days, we made it into Edmonton this afternoon. It is certainly a large and very diverse city. We took a little driving tour of the city and tried to find a Poutine restaurant that has apparently closed. We ended up going to the West Edmonton Mall (largest mall in North America, by the way) to grab some food, and boy did we make a good discovery. Delux Burger here not only has delicious poutine, but good burgers and a good beer list as well. In addition to the Yukon Brewing Company beers that I have had, I can now add Alleycat Aprikat (quite nice) and Tree Brewing Company's Thirsty Beaver Amber (delicious).

I'll post some more pictures and a more detailed trip log and pictures soon.

--Mike