Tobermoury and Ferry to Manatoulin

We camped at 'Land's End Campground' in Tobermoury Ontario. It was a nice campground, $35p/night. It was nicely wooded and well groomed but the showers were sceevy...so we all smell (aren't you glad you're not here : )! ).


By the time we got to the campground and set up the tent and made dinner it was 9pm. We were tired but had a hard time winding down. I went into the tent to read, Karl came in to bother me and Clara and Grandma stayed out by the campfire and chatted for a while. We probably weren't able to get to sleep until about 11:30 or 12:00. Then up at 6 just because. Sue was up first and looked around town for a little bit. She was looking for some donuts for the kids....there was nothing to be found. When she came back to the campsite I got up and we went out together to get a few supplies in the store and came back for a nice breakfast of oatmeal (for me) bacon, eggs and toast. yum!

We are still in the rainy pattern that we were in in CT and as we were breaking down camp it again started to rain. : ( not too bad but just enough to get everything wet...^%$#!!!

We didn't have time to look around Tobermoury since by the time we got to the ferry to check out the schedule we had 10 minutes to pay and board. It seems like an interesting place. People are nice but keep to themselves. It is the scooba diving capital of Canada and there about 5,000 year round and there are plenty of motels and campgrounds so it must be a destination for Canadians/Americans.

Wherever we go up here there are these rock sculptures (for a lack of a better word). They are called 'Inukshuks' and they are a greeting of sorts. It means 'you are on the right path' or 'someone was here'. This morning I went on a walk off the beaten path and there was an Inukshuk...down by Lake Huron by a trailor that hadden't been inhabited for a long, long time. It brought a smile to my face...: )

The ferry ride to Manatoulin Island was nice and smooth. The ferry is huge. Large enough to carry about 10 to 15 tractor trailors or so. It has a cafeteria, bar, gift shop, heads, information counter and plenty of places to sit both inside and out. It was even sunny when we were on it! Remember that is that large bright orb in the sky that throws some heat and light...: )

We drove for a while on Manatoulin before we both got tired enough to stop at Lakeview Inn at Blind River Ontario. It is a nice no-tell Motel...we will stay the night take showers and leave early to get to Souix Ste. Marie and then into the U.S.

The pictures are a little messed up but some are from the ferry, campground and the inukshuk.

Monday, June 29

First of all Happy Anniversary Honey!!!!! 18 year's of hard labor today...; ) We love you and miss you...

Last night we had a big thunder storm. We were watching the lightening from our room. No fireworks. : (

Our room has a fantastic jacuzzi tub which the kids used the night before...as you can see... So tonight I decided I was going to take a nice warm relaxing bath to get a good nights sleep. . . ahhhhh very nice! All relaxed and in bed playing solitaire on the lap top when we here a huge BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! they did have the fireworks and we missed them!!!!!! crap! We have a great view of horseshoe falls on the Canadian side but no view of the American falls which is where the display happens...we ended up watching it in the reflection of the hotel next to us. To be honest I wouldn't have gone out to watch them in the thunderstorm anyway and Clara was trying to hide in the room because of the storm, Grandma was sleeping already and Karl was being Karl.

Okay so today is check out day. We will be leaving around 11 or so and heading to Tobermoury. We will not be taking and interstate for a couple of days so we are looking forward to some beautiful scenery at a managable speed. We think we are going to camp in Tobermoury however the forcast for tonight is you guessed it rain. The farther we go west the better we are hoping the weather will be.

Niagara Falls!

After a yummy breakfast at Aggies Village Restaurant we headed off to Niagara Falls. Stopping at least 4 times along the way for food, drink, potty or to stretch our butts we finally arrived at 7:30 p.m. Yes it seemed to take a long time to get here but we also got lost...imagine that. It took about 1 hour to get through the border and then we ended up driving right past Niagara! There were no signs on the American side but when we turned around to get back to Niagara there were a ton of signs on the Canadian side!

Get to the hotel, valet parking and bell boys! Yippee! : ) Register and up to our room on the 28th floor. The view is amazing! Directly over horseshoe falls! Wholly crap ! We got lucky with this one!!! The room smelled like cig. smoke but was supposed to be a non-smoking room...I did make a complaint and they were supposed to fix it with an ionizer or two but they never showed up...maybe some cash back for that ... we hope : )

So today, Sunday we went on a great tour which included the Imax movie, The Fury which is a 4d movie realism thing. (stand in a room with surround movie screen in raincoats as they explain how the falls were carved over the years.) Behind the falls and finally The Maid of the Mist. That in itself was worth the price of admission right there!!!!!! Wholly crap! We got so incredibly close to the falls we could feel the power. It was amazing. The best thing we have done yet!

Tonight we will see fireworks over the falls then it is to bed. We will be leaving tomorrow for Tobermory and possibly camp there before taking the ferry and heading to Souix St Marie.

: )

The kids are done with school. Now this trip becomes reality!!!!!

Made reservations for hotel in Niagara Falls. No turning back now!

We will be leaving on the 27th of June, 26 days from today. Our first stop will be at Niagra Falls and we will figure out the rest from there. We are all started to get excited. The kids finish school on the 23rd. They have 4 days to get it together then we will leave...woo hoo