Explore Ontario Archives - Operation Relocation: West 2 East Coast, Canada

Day 16: To the outskirts of Ontario…

We had to say Good-Bye to Niagara Falls this morning. But I think we all leave feeling more relaxed having 2 days in the same place again. And having had a good time just really exploring. So we grabbed breaky on the go and set off.

Our day today was just driving. Time to get into the next province…almost. We took the 401 and drove over 5 and a half hours today to get to Cornwall, Ontario. This puts us 1 hour outside of Montreal!

As we left Niagara Falls we passed St. Catharines…for those of you who don’t know, Alexisonfire is Chris’s favourite band. Well, Alexisonfire was formed in St. Catharines. Chris has seen his favoutite band a couple of times in concert and City and Colour, aka Dallas Green, one of the singers of Alexis multiple times with me. He was very excited to fill us all in about the members of the band and where it all began.

S0, travelling Vancouver Island to Ontario. What’s the navigation trick? For us, we have used the navigation app Waze for our entire trip. It not only navigates your trip in real time, but other drivers can flag obstructions in the roadway: fog, construction, police, accidents and more. Waze saved Chris from driving into a pressure cooker on his solo trip in the Camaro, since he was alerted ahead and was watching for it!

OK guys…Toll Roads! We ended up on a toll road on our way out of Niagara Falls…BUT you can add that as a setting or choice in Waze to avoid those. Just an FYI should you need, just download the app to your phone and away you go.

One major red flag I noticed as a passenger in Ontario particularly, was veering Semi Trucks…not all, but a lot. And when I looked into the cabs as we drove past guess what I saw…cellphones. This subgroup of ‘professional’ drivers were messing with their phones while hauling on 2-4 lane highways. All the while causing other drivers to move out of their way onto shoulders. Where is your ‘due care and attention’…not on the road. Do better guys. Other guys, keep it up 🙂

Ontario by the way, has some of the best rest stops along the 400 and 401. You don’t have to pull into town, or some scary outhouse. They are called On Routes, which have gas stations for cars and semi trucks. But also; nice indoor washrooms, showers for truckers, a few restaurants, and a convenience store all in one. With indoor and outdoor seating for a nice break from driving. We utilized these a couple of times.

Our drive was happily uneventful. Chris drove while I watched the world go by. So many of the bridges we passed under have beautiful etchings into the concrete. Horses running across the bottom, in squares; turtles and dreamcatchers on another. Simple things that make the travel more enjoyable.

I watched license plates from Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick go by. But also Maryland, Vermont, Maine and New York. I watched the glowing, colourful trees and sudden flashes of purple from the thistles compliment the gorgeous farmland, all with ease. We even had rain…real rain for more than an hour of our drive. It was refreshing to see and hear, plus it made the colours really pop with the dark clouds above.

That is all the excitement today…

Cheers Mel xo

Day 15: What can you do with a day at Niagara Falls?…

How do you start off the day in Niagara Falls…head over to IHOP for pancakes! We had the sweetest waitress who had only been there for 4 days. She met us with a friendly greeting, engaged with our table and sent us off ready and willing to explore. Below IHOP is a huge arcade, straight out of an 80’s kids dream, but with modern games. Chris killed Aliens, Mason played Guitar Hero and Chloe, Dance Dance Revolution.

From there we headed down Clifton Hill to the falls. Today we weren’t just looking at them, we were experiencing them…right close up. We put on the cool plastic poncho’s and boarded a boat that was going right into them! Our boat was a double decker full of happy and excited tourists. We all shared the experience with smiles and offers to take pictures for one and other. Now, I knew we would get wet…but I really didn’t think HOW WET! As we drove close to the “American Side” (the first set of falls, 3 in total located in Niagara County, New York) the mist from the falls was really fun and we took lots of pictures, everyone shuffled around a fair bit to get ‘the picture’. The boat pushes on to the “Canadian Side”, the Horseshoe Falls. While we drove towards this set of falls, the mist becomes greater. Near everyone on the boat began pulling their plastic hoods over their heads. I tucked my camera under my poncho and actually spun around, as my bum and legs got soaked. The mist turned into a torrential downpour, all the while we are laughing, mainly because I think it was so much greater and more powerful than we expected! We stayed in this hilarious sopping wet position for a few minutes and then the boat spun around. Allowing the super mist to move from our side to the other and for me to take ‘the picture’ with the Horseshoe Falls. Bowie and Mason were sopping wet, but grinning ear to ear. Moose had made some new buddies he was helping with pictures and chatting with. Chris and I were elated. We experienced Niagara Falls…and we shared this unforgettable day with our kids.

Since we were soaking wet and had the convenience of a hotel less than 10 minutes away, we went back and changed. Quickly heading back out and straight to the Zombie Attack…a 6D zombie thrill ride. We get strapped into the weirdest chair wearing 3D glasses and I made sure to have my gun ready! The game starts and so did my chair, jostling us around to mimic the movements of our character…including crashing through trees and zombies and careening off a cliff…all the while hitting zombies with our car or shooting them with our gun. Not everyone’s cup of tea I know, but Chris…he loves his zombies. So, we had a good time. Plus Moose and Chris had the top 2 kills of the theatre.

After that was Ripley’s Believe It or Not gallery…there was some pretty strange things here from: shrunken heads, bone necklaces, 2 headed animals and vampire killing kits. But also: the worlds largest man, fattest man, shadow art, candy art, and megalodon jaws. There is something for everyone here….and somethings that are just to weird for others. Near the end is a grated walkway with a spacey coloured spinning tunnel…can you walk straight across? None of us can, the spinning tunnel messes with your equilibrium tricking your brain that you are losing your balance.

We stopped at a few shops to browse and pick up souvenirs on our way up to Louis Tussaud’s Wax Works. OK, the wax works…how to begin. These are interesting sculptures, these pieces of art. Using the likeness of celebrities, politicians and historical figures seems to be a welcomed challenge, as there are wax museums all over the world. I find them…a wee bit scary. I continuously felt like there were people all around me as I entered new rooms. Some scultpures had a very close likeness to their intended, while others…not so much. But that’s all in the fun of it I guess. We ran into Marty McFly and the Delorean, Jimmy Fallon, Brittany Spears, Tom Hanks and The Rock. Delving further into the gallery we were transported to Star Wars, Hogwarts, into the Hall of Horror and skipped down the Yellow Brick Road right into the Marvel Universe.

We continued to explore Clifton Hill and grabbed a quick lunch at Starbucks and grabbed some Vintage Candy before heading back to the hotel again for laundry and a nap…5 hours goes by fast!

We ran into a fellow in the laundry room who was from Abbotsford, BC. He and his wife have been travelling for the past 2 months from Abbotsford to Newfoundland/Labrador and were now making their way back! What a cool coincidence. They had visited Nova Scotia already and said we would love it and that three of their friends have made the same move that we’re making. Silver Linings all along the way.

Once everyone was chillaxed and rested we headed out for evening part of Niagara Falls. Everything is all lit up. Most of Clifton Hill stays open until midnight, so we wanted to take some of that energy in. First things first…race cars! Moose and Bowie suited up and hoped into their Go Karts. The track is HUGE! and they send out about 20 people at a time, so Bowie was scared. But she went for it after a couple minutes.

Next up, Wizards Golf…mini golf in a psychedelic setting. Fantasy fun for 18 holes complete with dragons, magic spells and mythical creatures. We continued to stroll the streets until we stopped for dinner, beside the Karaoke. I tried to convince Moose to sing even though he’s underage…why not haha, but he didn’t go for it. Next up was The House of Frankenstein, where Bowie was screaming as they rode the roller coaster, which goes in and out of the building!

We grabbed some Ice Cream and headed back to the hotel around 10:30pm.

Fantastic day had by all.

xo Mel

Day 12: Today we drive, and drive and drive…

We checked out early from Valahalla Hotel and Conference Centre. Not because we didn’t enjoy our stay, we truly did. But, because today was the longest planned driving day we’ve done yet without any ‘stops’. Ontario is a very large province, it is HUGE. Actually it’s Canada’s second largest province “covering more than 1 million square kilometres (415,000 square miles) – an area larger than France and Spain combined.” If you’ve never looked at it, check out a map…She’s a big one!

We needed to make up some good time for 2 reasons. 1. Moose’s Birthday is tomorrow and we don’t want to spend the day driving for him, that’s a lame bday. 2. We’re on Day 12 guys…we’re ready to get some km’s in and get closer to Nova Scotia.

We are covering Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie, which is 699.6km and with no stops should take 7 and a half hours. So, of course, we stopped…25 minutes in. A worth while stop at The Terry Fox Memorial built to commemorate his Marathon of Hope. The park is a tranquil setting, you could bring a lunch and sit at the tables surrounded by trees and flowers. The Memorial itself is quite striking. It is Terry Fox mid-run, high upon a large concrete platform with each provinces coat of arms across the front. The impact the memorial had on the kids was quite immediate, having participated in Terry Fox runs since kindergarten. We took our time reading, walking about and looking out at Lake Superior.

As we continued on our way I’ll share a couple Ontario funny ‘road’ trip facts for you:

a) The road…is SPARKLY. Yes, at first I thought it was just glass. But…the sparkles went on…forever. So pretty!

b) The highway number road signs are in the shape of a crown! One of my favourite little things to watch for.

c) The roads…are in great condition! First time I’ve said that! Not to many bumps and grooves. And if there is, it’s already under construction on it.

As we continued on our way I kept hoping we’d pass a moose somewhere along the way, but alas, I’ll have to keep an eye out. Though we did passed these incredible Red Mountains along the way. The road construction even had pink/red crush all around the road from blasting. The drive along Lake Superior Provincial Park is so relaxing. Looking out at the trees with continuous changing colours and all the lakes, I, again fell asleep. A testament to Chris’s smooth driving and a real indicator that the 3 hour time difference in 12 days with constant travel was wearing me down. We took another pit stop, this time a detour down a side road.

Here, Moose took off his sandals and put his feet in Lake Superior, “Bowie was here” was etched in the sand and I walked the beach and combed for treasure. We returned to the jeep and at this point it was my turn to drive for a bit. The whole stretch of todays journey was alongside Lake Superior, just not always in direct view. Can you name all of the Great Lakes? We got 4 out of 5…its been a while. But we should see all but one on the rest of the trip.

We made 2 more stops…I know 7.5 hours is getting a lot longer now…but Ontario is so beautiful. We stopped in White River, ON. Did you know that is where Harry Colebourn bought the real bear, Winnie the Pooh? Me either! Winnie was later donated to the London Zoo which is where A.A. Milne was inspired to write the stories we all know. Our last spontaneous stop was a white sandy beach called Old Woman Bay, named for the shape of a woman’s face displayed in the cliffs along the south shore (which I could not see).

We finally reached Sault Ste. Marie…a little later than we planned and after dinner. We all headed straight up to the room with our luggage. Moose headed out to the sitting area (near our room, don’t worry Mom) for some calls to friends, as tomorrow is his birthday. We ordered dinner from the hotel and settled in for the night.

Long day done for now. Xo Mel