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Published: March 21st 2010
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I am now over in North West Ontario in Thunder Bay. This week I have stayed with Pauline (my school teacher from year 4!) and her partner Jayne. They have been brilliant hosts and they have looked after me ever so well all week so a massive thank you must go to them. I have had great home cooked food, a lot of sleep and some brilliant days out. After a busy 10 days over in Alberta this is exactly what I needed! Just before I left Calgary, I went to a yoga class with Madison which simply proved I am not as flexible as I once thought but it was still an awesome workout and good fun. That night went ordered a load of pizza, made cookies and watched a film...great end to a great week. Tuesday morning I then headed out to Calgary airport for my flight to take me over to the East of Canada. The plane stopped off in Winnipeg, eventually getting into Thunder Bay at 3pm. It was great to see Pauline again after so many years! We headed back to the house where I met Jayne, Alfie the dog and Muffy and Casey the cats. Thunder Bay is quite an industrial city, small by city standards but it had a good vibe to it and there seems to be a lot going on there, especially with the university in town. There was not as much snow out here as there usually would have been this time of year and it was even +16 on Thursday but this weekend it plummeted to -15 at night and only +2 during the day. I have made full use of their hot tub as well...I need to get one of those! Mid week we went to Cafe Hoito ( a Finnish cafe) and had a mountain of pancakes, bacon and eggs. I then headed over to the University where Jayne works and had a workout in the gym there. Later that day we took a drive out to the Terry Fox memorial (a chap who ran a marathon a day until ill health forced him to stop in Thunder Bay). From up at the memorial sight you could see the "sleeping Giant' an island just of the coast in lake Superior that looks a lot like...well...a sleeping giant, lying down on the water. It was interesting to learn about the city's name as well...in 1971 there was a debate and a vote on what the name should be; 'The Lakehead', 'Lakehead' or 'Thunder Bay'...with the latter eventually winning. On Thursday Pauline and I went out to take a look at the Kakabeka Falls...there was lots of ice over the falls but the water was still flowing. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and it was odd to see lumps of ice fly over the falls as they broke off the ice slabs up stream. The valley and gorge below were stunning and it was good to see a totally commercialised area of natural beauty...there was a small information centre and that was it. On Friday I headed to the gym for another session and then in the evening we met up with some of Pauline and Jayne's friends for dinner. We went to a cool restaurant in the mall and the food was great...and we even caught a glimpse of the city's talent show...lets just say some of the acts were "interesting". Saturday, Pauline and I headed south, across the US border and into Minnesota. The drive down was amazing...the road goes all the way along the coast of Lake Superior and the sun was out and the photos I managed to take came out brilliantly. We stopped for breakfast (another mountain of bacon and eggs) at grand Portage and we then drove down to Grand Marais for a look around. The water in the shallow parts of the lake was all frozen still over so there were big slabs of ice lapping up against the shore line. It was bitterly cold, about -1 and then wind chill on top of that! We had a look round a few good shops, bought some fudge (awesome) and had soup in the cafe on the waterfront (perfect way to warm up). We then took a leisurely drive back to the border and back into Canada. It was a great day out and all week here has been brilliant, all thanks to Pauline and Jayne. I have sampled a lot of Canadian produce (including wild blue berries and strawberries), lots of delicious home cooked food (including Jayne's legendary pancakes) and squares...one of my new favorite desserts! I also had the pleasure of using an electric heated sleeping blanket...it actually made me not want to get out of bed at all...hence why my days never really started here until at least midday! So I am now perfectly refreshed for the busy week ahead. Thank you again to Pauline and Jayne for being such great hosts this week and thank you again for having me to stay. Next stop...Toronto.
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