Thunder Bay was one of the most spontaneous trips of my life. It was 3 years ago and it was my first time in Canada. The whole thing really was a spur of the moment, “Let’s go to Canada!” Lucky for us, we live fairly close to the Canadian border. From our small town of Moose Lake to Thunder Bay it was about a 4 1/2 hour drive. So, to Canada we went, driving up the North Shore. It really is a beautiful scenic drive. The North Shore is full of amazing views of Lake Superior, green covered hills, and cute little towns. Then after about 3 1/2 hours we hit the border. It wasn’t much. It was just a little building that said Canada on it. Honestly it wasn’t very busy either. It kind of surprised me.
Then, on the other side, there were Canadian flags. At that point you are officially in Canada.
I really enjoyed the drive to Canada, but the downside to driving to Canada is that you don’t get your passport stamped. I like collecting passport stamps, but it was ok though, because I was in Canada. No longer was I in Minnesota, but in a new country with people who weren’t American. It was Canada!
Once we were in Canada, it was about another hour to get from the border to Thunder Bay. It was an even more beautiful drive then our one to the border.
As we drove into Canada, specifically Ontario, the hills grew. As the hills grew, so did the trees. We were surrounded by only nature, no cities or people. It was just rolling hills, wide rivers, lots and lots of pine trees, and yellow wildflowers.
We arrived in Thunder Bay on a Saturday night. We were only going to spend one night there and then we would spend the rest of the next day exploring. The first thing we did when we got to the city was check out a grocery store. We bought a whole lot of Canadian snacks. Pretty much we bought anything we thought looked good. Of course we also bought Kinder Eggs, because for some odd reason they are banned in the United States, but you can buy them in Canada, so when you are in Canada you have to buy them.
The Canadian grocery store was actually pretty cool. We found a lot of stuff you could find in the United States, but we also found stuff that was European and stuff that was purely Canadian. The part we found most interesting though, was the fact that everything was in English and French. One side of a cereal box would be in English and then the other side in French.
After out grocery store adventures we headed to our hotel. We were pretty lazy, so we turned on the TV. We watched Canadian television while eating our Canadian snacks. Our favorite Canadian snack was a cheesy snack mix.
After our night of sleep it was time to actually explore the city of Thunder Bay. We started with a trip to Kakabeka Falls. It was a bit of drive from the actual city, but totally worth it. Kakabeka is an Ojibwe word that means ‘waterfall over a cliff’, which it is. It is a beautiful waterfall that flows over some amazing cliffs.
I think this may have been my favorite thing that we did here, but really we did a lot of cool things. From the waterfall we went to Mount McKay. Mount McKay is located on a Native American Reservation and has been used for religious ceremonies. There are also hiking trails, but we only went for the history and view. It had a really great view of Thunder Bay and Lake Superior.
After we took in the view and the reality that we were in Canada we went for lunch. There wasn’t really any kind of food or restaurants there that were completely Canadian. There was Tim Hortons, but we had that for breakfast, so when we came across a Finnish restaurant we decided to try it. We had never had Finnish food before, so it was interesting. We didn’t know what any of the stuff on the menu was, but the waitress was really nice and helped us out a lot. I ended up ordering Karkalanpiirakka.
Karkalanpiirakka is a rye bread filled with rice porridge. It is then topped with egg butter. I actually really liked it. It is different from anything I had ever had before. Afterwards we walked to the Marina and dipped our toes in the water of Lake Superior. I have been in Lake Superior before, but never from the Canadian side.
This was our last real stop in Thunder Bay. After this we left the city, but we stopped at an Amethyst Mine on our way back. It was really cool and I highly recommend stopping at one if you have the chance in Ontario. Sadly I don’t have any pictures, but just imagine a farm. At this farm there is a back yard full of rocks. Located within those rocks are a bunch of amethysts of many shapes and sizes. I love the look of these gems, so I really enjoyed this. This was also our last adventure in Canada, until the next summer. We would be back in Canada, but in a different part. We would be entering a whole new world. Look for my posts about my time in Quebec.
Anyway, I hope this inspired you to take a spontaneous day trip or maybe decide to take a trip to Canada. Either way, get outside, eat a lot of food, and watch the local television.
The Journal of Wanderlust 