Alberta to Ontario Road Trip
I have just arrived in Ontario after a four province road trip with my mom and the girls. We joined my mom for the return portion of a much longer trip; she drove from Orillia to Victoria and back (with a stop in Banff for my nephew’s graduation – just in time to check out all of the flood damage.)
The girls and I have driven across the country a few times, but they were so young they don’t remember it so I was excited about doing the drive with them now that they will be able to remember it.
We left on Monday July 8th, driving from our house in Edmonton Alberta to Battleford Saskatchewan, where we had lunch with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Jean in a nice restaurant in a converted old railway station. We stopped for a photo of the girls with the giant mountie in North Battleford, and then drove on to Moose Jaw where we stopped for the night.
We had hopped to tour the tunnels of Moose Jaw in the morning, before continuing on but they don’t open until 10 am, and we had some visiting to do in Weyburn so we skipped the tour. We were packed up and on the road by 8:30, heading south to Weyburn. We stopped for some photos of the Dog River set in Rouleau, where Ruby’s Cafe is now open as a cafe but we didn’t stop in.
We arrived in Weyburn in late morning and headed over to visit my grandma, who was busy painting. Next month will be her 98th birthday, and she is remarkably healthy. Her body does have some health issues but her memory is fantastic, her kids still consult her when they can’t remember details.
We had lunch and a visit with my Aunt Sherry and Uncle Garry and then had time for another visit with grandma and my cousin Jana.
After we left grandma we drove until we reached Brandon Manitoba where we stayed overnight.
Wednesday was a short driving day. We only drove as far as Kenora Ontario, where we stopped early and the girls swam in Lake of the Woods and played on the water slide at the hotel.
The next day when the girls saw Lake Superior, they thought we must be at the ocean because it was so big. Paris studied the great lakes in school this year and I am glad that has a chance to see some of them for herself this summer.
We stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial outside Thunder Bay and then continued on to Terrace Bay where we stopped for the night.
Friday was our last day of driving and it was the longest, we drove from Terrace Bay to Orillia, where my mom lives, arriving just before midnight. We were all tired of driving and the hot weather, but we stooped long enough to get a photo of the girls with one of the giant geese in Wawa
and at the giant loonie in Echo Bay which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the loonie.
We are now spending time with my sister and her family in Barrie, my mom in Orilla and my dad in Collingwood.