Superior

It's been about 20 years since I've been anywhere near Lake Superior, so it was fun to drive up that way to re-enter Canada after my long weekend with the fam. This time, friend SR (there will be a different friend S -- SH -- joining me later in the summer, so let's start distinguishing) was again in tow for the trek up and across my home state to the bustling metropolis of Duluth, MN. I've actually heard good things about Duluth but unfortunately did not get to stay long enough to confirm or deny the positive rumors. In foggy, drizzly, chilly weather, we continued across the border ("I'm back for more, eh!") and on up to Thunder Bay, which is such a great thing to name a city.

Before crossing back into Canada, we watched all the stymied Superior vacationers at Grand Marais trying to find something water-related to do despite the intermittent rain.

We took our final U.S. break at The Grand Portage, a National Historic Site preserving the place where a key port of the fur trade was located in the heyday of the North West Company. At this spot on the edge of Lake Superior, aboriginal Americans and European explorers worked together to bring all the furs trapped northwest of Grand Portage down to this trading post, while the Montréal-based traders organized goods from Europe to send on to Grand Portage for trading for furs. Yet another NHS that meant nothing to me when I saw it on the map, but which was quite interesting and completely worth the stop, if only to see the mammoth canoes they used for transport.

When we finally arrived in Thunder Bay, we took advice we'd received from multiple quarters and stopped for a meal at the HOITO, a relic of the Finnish immigrants who came here for work and needed an affordable place to eat. The current management is committed to preserving the HOITO's original mission, and a plate of Finnish pancakes (similar to crèpes) with eggs and sausage was less than $10. How do you say "YUM" in Finnish?

Though our plan to take a hike in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park was dampened by the rain and the town of Silver Islet wasn't nearly as weird as promised by my guidebook, we did stop to see the impressive Kakabeka Falls on our way away from Lake Superior, prairie-bound....