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Our incredible urge for pasties temporarily blinded us on the way to Sault (pronounced Soo) Ste Marie and we ended up taking the southern scenic route from Marquette. After filling up with a beef pasty, we started over the bridge to the Canadian Soo ready for a quick border crossing to make up for lost time. Apparently the Thule box, Georgia plates, and Chris’s statement that he had been to Canada while on a Scouting trip to the Boundary Waters 20 years ago set off the silent alarm. We were told to go to the immigration window where we waited while they ran a criminal background check on us. Fortunately they found us suitable for Canadian soil and we ventured on, determined to make it to the Quebec border.
After another 6 hours or so of driving we had made it to Greater Sudbury and decided it was time to set up camp. We saw Fairbank Provincial Park on our map and made our way up a long gravel road, not knowing what we would find on the other end. What we got was a campsite steps away from the water, biffs with hot water showers and ceramic tiles, and cheap canoes for rent. Triple score! We decided we’d wake up early and take a canoe ride at daybreak the next morning, before heading off to Montreal.
Our campsite from Fairbank Lake
We set the alarm for 6am and drifted off to bed with the whooping loons, and surprisingly woke to the sound of raindrops on the tent. So much for canoing! But it was a good excuse to sleep in and by the time we crawled out of our sleeping bags at 9am the rain had slowed to a trickle. We decided to go ahead and paddle, even though it would mean getting to Montreal later that evening.
Paddling around the old meteorite crater
After putting up the canoe, grabbing a quick shower, and breaking down camp, we chugged back along Trans Canada 17. We chugged and chugged and chugged and 9 hours later we were on the outskirts of Montreal, looking for the hostel we’d found online and caught in Montreal’s version of Saturday night fever. By the time we checked in and parked (a feat in itself) it was close to 11:30 and way past our bedtime. We spent the next morning wandering around a completely dead Latin Quarter, practicing our French and munching on crepes.
Pittoresques maisons victoriennes de Montreal
Canadian graffiti
Now this is some window art!
We soon headed out of Montreal and worked our way down to Vermont (with a much smoother border crossing, thank goodness). The international portion of our trip proved to be entirely too short-lived, but we’ll certainly make our way back to Montreal in the not-too-distant future for a faux-European fix.
Halfway between Sioux Falls and Minneapolis, we noticed that the front right tire was running low. Although we filled it back up, we had a sinking feeling that this was the start of another car issue. We arrived at the grandparents’ ready for our daily medicine and the delicious dinner that was waiting for us. The medicine that day was a cold beer and the dinner was like a gourmet picnic, complete with light-as-clouds Waldorf chicken salad, deviled eggs, baby dills, and crescent rolls. We walked off our feast with a stroll around Lake Harriet at dusk, basking in the balmy weather that had followed us from South Dakota.
The next morning was supposed to be a sightseeing tour for Chris, who had never been to Minneapolis. We dropped off the Focus for an oil change and a tire check and heard the bad news that all the tires would have to be replaced. After some shopping around we found a place, but weren’t able to see much of the city outside of the tire shops in uptown. Once the car was fixed up, Liz took off to see her super cool sis Madalyn in Rogers, while Chris checked out a kung fu studio in the city. Maddy and Liz headed back to the city later that night to pick up Chris and go to Bryant-Lake Bowl, a funky hipster bowling alley … pretty much the awesomest place we could have taken a 15-year-old for a hot night on the town. Maddy’s cousin Suzanne joined in on the fun before we headed back to the burbs for some shut-eye.
With the sis, post-bowl
The next day, after lunch with Maddy, we headed back into Minneapolis to spend the afternoon chillin’ with the grands. It was a welcome break to all the running around we’d been doing and, of course, our stomachs were very happy with the multiple heaping servings of Kemp’s Java Chunk ice cream …. mmmmmmm ….
On Wednesday morning, armed with multiple tourist magazines, maps, and a rough itinerary, we headed up to Duluth and then through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We stopped at an RV park in some unincorporated town in Michigan for the night, and after setting up camp we headed toward the pier at sunset. Lake Superior is ginormous!!!
A Superior sunset
We continued the UPie tour the next day with a visit to The Porkies (Porcupine Mountain State Park), which the grandparents had suggested we check out. We looked out over Lake of the Clouds and then headed on a 4-mile hike on which we encountered a wee black bear scurrying out of a tree (no mama, thank goodness).
Snuggling in the clouds
But we still had a lot of ground to cover so we blasted on out in the afternoon, ending up in Marquette for a night before crossing the border to Canada. And let’s just say, if you’re looking for a couple nights’ vacation in a picturesque town on the water and don’t want to spend much dough, look into Marquette. We awoke the next morning refreshed and ready to make our trip an international sensation!
A postcard from Marquette
