The Great Lakes

Over the last few days we've been experiencing more of Canada's stunning lakeside parks. At Pukaskwa the dense woodland of boreal forest gave way to the perfect white sand beaches of Lake Superior. The sands were scattered with thousands of trees stripped and bleached white by the waves and sun. We enjoyed clambering over the logs so much we went back later for a sunset scramble.

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20130817-164247.jpg The girls hiking abilities are gradually improving, Alisha is already a good walker but Lucy is still working on her "long walking without moaning" badge, as her sister puts in. Considering she is not yet 5, she is excellent walker. However, we have discovered that the rougher the path with the biggest rocks, the better she is. She positively skips along paths that have massive boulders to scramble over, leaving the rest of us behind. Steve has rekindled his childhood passion for fishing, something he has hardly had time for over the last 30years. The girls, especially Alisha, are keen to join him. They tried out their new equipment that afternoon. Unfortunately they weren't rewarded on their first afternoon but still enjoyed it. The park also gave the chance for the girls to explore a copy of a First Nation camp, which fits nicely with their first schooling topic.

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20130817-164439.jpg The only catch of the day. We then headed further west to Sandbar provincial park, another lakeside gem. Lucy was particularly entranced by the inquisitive chipmunks and squirrel at the site. The girls were thrilled to meet a couple of girls staying in the campsite. Lucy and I spent the afternoon playing on the beach with their family and friends, while Steve and Alisha were out on the lake. This time they successfully caught a pickerel (walleye) which they mistakenly threw back thinking they couldn't eat it. We tried some later cooked by our new friends and it was delicious. The girls meanwhile learnt about s'mores, a delicious combination of a marshmallow melted on a fire with chocolate, sandwiched between 2 biscuits. Unsurprisingly it was huge hit.

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On to the Great Lakes

We left 6 Mile Island Provincial Park and drove onto Killarney Provincial Park. Unfortunately the campground was full so we drove to a campsite in the village of Killarney. That afternoon we went canoeing around the edge of the lake.

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20130812-085515.jpg And we stopped off on some rocky islands which the girls loved running and jumping on.

20130812-085616.jpg All the paddling ultimately took its toll on one of the crew.

20130812-085703.jpg The next morning we drove into the National Park to do some hiking. It was spectacular wilderness and the girls did great with their walking without complaining.

20130812-085825.jpg We then drove onto Sudbury to stock up on provisions. As it was late afternoon and we were shopping at Walmart we decided to camp in the car park for the night with the other RVs. We bought a hot roast chicken and the kids had another movie night. After the fishing success of the other day, Steve popped back to Walmart to buy fishing gear for the girls (or perhaps himself !).

20130812-090123.jpg The next day we drove to Lake Superior Provincial park and were lucky enough to get a campsite on the beach.

20130812-090231.jpg We decided here was a good place for the children to start home schooling. So Gilly set up the classroom for the first day at school.

20130812-090350.jpg The rest of the day was spent relaxing around the beach. It finished with a lovely camp fire and a wonderful sunset. Exactly how we imagined our days would finish when we began planning this trip.

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Friends, Falls and Fishing

A long drive from Montreal to Toronto took us to the home of our good friends from Prague, the Meech-Tatics, and the wonderful extended Meech family. Alisha and Lucy were thrilled to catch up with Rade and made great friends with his cousins. Nan and I enjoyed resuming our walks with lots of gossip thrown in. We had a great couple of days with them and seeing their "other" (non-Prague) life and lovely family was a lot of fun. Steve also went to visit one of his partners from work who has a home in Toronto and was on holiday there at the time.

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20130807-205327.jpg 20130807-210112.jpg Sadly waving goodbye, we headed south-east to see Niagara Falls. The town was far less tacky than we remembered from our separate visits 20 plus years ago. But the Falls themselves were no less awesome. We decided to get a real soaking on the classic Maid of the Mist boat trip, taking us right up to the bottom of the falls.

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