Arriving in Hudson and mostly Ottawa

July 15, warm and sunny

We arrived at our campsite, Camping D'Aoust, near Hudson, QC early afternoon as the drive from Golden Lake, ON was not too far. Our GPS guided us excellently... I mention this as a couple of times addresses we had, we were unable to enter into it. I could, however, find them on the Google maps on my phone.🤔
The campsite was in a lovely forest and the area for non-seasonal campers wasn't full at all. This campsite turned out to be in a very convenient location for us. Minutes to Hudson, a short walk to the golf course and easy access to Montreal.
Hudson is where John's cousin Monique lives and where the get together with some other cousins would take place on the weekend.
Meanwhile we needed to replenish our groceries and get the lay of the land. Hudson is the most lovely little town you can imagine. The houses and yards are all so beautiful! It sits along the banks of the Ottawa River where the Hudson Yacht Club is located. This is where the reunion was held.
There are quite a few small towns in this vicinity and also larger suburbs of Montreal.

July 17, 18 warm and mostly sunny

Heading off to visit Ottawa for 2 nights. We booked a hotel through Hotwire.com, on the recommendation of our sister in law, Denise, and it worked out just great. We left the campsite early and drove the 1.5 hours back to Ottawa. The navigation system in our truck unfortunately doesn't know about construction, it seems, and Elgin, a main street in Ottawa was nearly all dug up. We finally did enough sidetracking until we found our hotel. I popped in to the hotel to see if we could park the truck in their parking lot even though check in wasn't until after 3pm. It was 9:30am...
The fellow at the front desk said "no problem and since breakfast is still on, why don't you go and get a coffee and a bite to eat". Mighty nice after our somewhat zigzag approach to the hotel.
After breakfast we headed by foot toward the Parliament buildings and sights to see in Ottawa. We decided since we were just going to be two days in the Capital we would take the Hop on, Hop off bus and a river cruise to see the sights. We really enjoyed both tours and the fact that Ottawa is an extremely walkable city.
We returned to our hotel around 5pm and checked in. We got to our room, which was described on the website as: room with queen bed, only to find that the fellow at the front desk in the morning had upgraded us to a 2 bedroom suite! It had a full kitchen, living room with a dining table and an extremely large tv. One bedroom had a lovely king bed with a walk-in closet. It was more like an apartment than a hotel room. Very comfortable.
That evening we had dinner at a little pub across the street.
There were so many choices for dining in the area and really any amenities you may need.
The next day we had plans to have dinner at my younger brother Chris'. He lives in Kanata which is just west of Ottawa. In the morning we walked to the ByWard Market to see what it was all about. The produce was fabulous, picked up some fresh strawberries for dessert, and there were lots of touristy shops as well. There were also many eateries of all sorts.
We had some noodle bowls at a Taiwanese restaurant for lunch and headed back to the hotel for a rest before heading to Chris' for supper.
We left at around 3:30pm and unfortunately encountered Ottawa rush hour traffic. An approximately 35 minute drive turned into an hour, but we arrived safely.
It was a very nice visit with Chris and we met his youngest, Eric, who is now 14. Chris made us an excellent supper and we visited until dark. Back to Ottawa on the, now, not so busy highway and to our sweet suite.
The hotel, The Business Inn, included complimentary breakfast, laundry, gym and at the breakfast room you could help yourself to a bag with a bottle of water, a package of cookies and a granola bar to take with you. How thoughtful.
We decided that Ottawa needs another visit so we can go to the museums and galleries that we would like to see. It really is a great city to visit.

One of many beautiful old houses in Ottawa

City Hall

Old and new City Hall

The War Memorial

Some of the Parliament buildings

Top level of the hop on hop off bus

One of the Houses of Parliament

Notre Dame Cathedral Basillica 

A creepy freeking spider sculpture called "Maman"

Pretty flowers planted along the streets

Opening the lock

Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, QC

Louis de Champlain

Rideau Falls

24 Sussex Drive

The Parliamentary Library

Aboriginal Veterans Memorial

A statue of one of my favourite jazz musicians, Oscar Peterson

Lovely fresh local produce at the ByWard Market

The living room of our sweet suite

A very large television 

Ottawa rush hour traffic

A Pileated Woodpecker at the campsite

The next leg...

Hello!
It's been just over 2 weeks since the first entry in the cross Canada blog and we've traveled across Ontario and are now at a campground near Hudson, QC.

July 4, Sunny and warm

After we left Manitoba we entered Ontario and the beautiful Canadian Shield became very apparent. I love rocks so this was very nice to see. It reminds me of driving through the mountains except there are no mountains in the background.
There was smoke in the air due to wildfires burning north of Kenora. The smoke came and went, depending on the wind and it was rather like the last two summers back in Alberta.
We had a campsite booked just past Kenora as we had been invited to my cousin Mary and her husband Derek's place in Keewatin, on Lake of the Woods. We had not seen Mary and Derek for many, many years.
What a lovely place Mary and Derek have! A beautiful new home with a super boat dock, complete with a touring boat and an anglers dream fishing boat.
Mary and I watched a fish filleting demonstration on the fish that were caught the second day. I'm unsure whether Mary and I would be jumping at the chance to try our hands at it. Derek did a darned good job on his first go.
We enjoyed two evenings, being wined and dined, at their lake home. We enjoyed meeting several of Derek's family members, including his lovely mother, Shirley. We had a fun time playing the card game Wizard after dinner.
It was so nice reconnecting with Mary and Derek.

July 8, Sunny and hot

Hit the road with Thunder Bay as our next destination. Just an overnight stay.
The speed limit on this portion of the Trans Canada highway is 90km/h. The highway is only 2 lane, which was quite a surprise to us. It is also windy, hilly and very beautiful with many lakes nestled amongst the rocks and trees.
Thunder Bay is a fairly large centre on the shore of Lake Superior. There are several massive grain terminals there.
We had supper at a little burger place with great homemade burgers and fries. (Beefcakes Burger Factory). I bought some locally made habanero hot sauce there too.

July 9, Sunny and hot

Pulled up stakes and headed down the Trans Canada following the north shore of Lake Superior. More beautiful scenery than you can shake a stick at. Our destination today was Wawa.
Along the way we stopped at Neys Provincial Park for a picnic. The young fellow at the gate allowed us to go in without paying as we were just having lunch. Mighty kind of him! Really nice picnic area with a sandy beach. The area was a popular stop for the Canadian painters, The Group of Seven, .
We booked a campsite just outside of Wawa for three of nights. We had laundry to do and wanted to check out the area a bit before leaving Lake Superior.
Very nicely treed campsite.
The next day we got our laundry done and then headed into Wawa to pick up supplies. It's a nice little town with all the amenities we needed.
We stopped at the tourist info place on our way out of town to see the giant goose statue. There were also placards around the info centre with historic photos and stories of the people who helped build Wawa. Very interesting!
We thought we would golf the next day but I saw on the map that the Lake Superior Provincial Park was nearby and I thought it might be nice to go hiking instead. Good choice! What a lovely park. Very beautiful with loads of hikes. We chose the Sand River falls hike and had a picnic at Katherine Cove. Very nice beach there.
That night there was an incredible thunderstorm. The lightning flashes followed immediately by the loudest  thunder claps. One right after another. It was a little unsettling  and thankfully no trees were struck near by.

July 12, sunny and warm

Woke up to a nice sunny morning. The next stretch we felt we needed to get some kms made as John had the campsite in Hudson booked for July 15th and with the slow highway speeds and the size of Northern Ontario, it takes quite a bit longer to get anywhere.
We passed through Sault Ste. Marie where we fuelled up and had a quick lunch.
Lake Huron starts as you head east from "the Soo".
The terrain changed to farmland along the north shore of Lake Huron.
We overnighted at a truck stop in Nairn Centre. Not too bad for a truck stop.

July 13, sunny and warm

The terrain changes back to shield heading towards North Bay and Sudbury where we could see signs for mines and stacks from smelters.
 We booked what turned out to be a nicely treed campground west of Pembroke on Golden Lake.
Stayed there 3 nights. We drove out to check out the local golf course, The Homestead at Wolf Ridge, and hit a bucket of balls at their driving range. We booked a tee time for the next morning. Then we just had to go to the Town of Killaloe, the home of Beavertails. In case you don't know, these Beavertails are a deep fried piece of wholewheat dough the size and shape of a beaver's tail, coated in cinnamon and sugar. Delicious!
The next morning it was a bit overcast which was actually a blessing as it had been hot and sunny the day before. We had a very fun time golfing at the very hilly Wolf Ridge course.

July 15, sunny and hot

Packed up and headed towards Ottawa, through Ottawa and down to Camping D'Aoust, just outside of Hudson, QC.
Our plan was to set up camp, get some laundry done the next day and then backtrack to Ottawa for two days.

July 17 & 18, sunny and hot (but not as hot as it's going to get...)

Thanks to a recommendation by our sister-in-law Denise to use Hotwire.com, we found a really reasonable hotel within walking distance to all the stuff you want to see there. We arrived around 9:30 am and were welcomed by a very nice fellow (Mark) at the front desk. Being way too early to check in he still gave us our parking pass and invited us to have breakfast in the breakfast room as it was still open. Very nice! (Mark also upgraded us to a large 2 bedroom suite) 😃
Then we headed towards Parliament Hill and the sights to see. We got tickets for the Hop on, Hop off bus and the river cruise, both gave a good overall tour of Ottawa. We have decided that Ottawa needs to be a trip unto its own as there are just too many things to see in a couple of days.
We had plans the next evening to have dinner at my brother Chris' house. We spent the morning at the ByWard market where we bought a few things and stopped for lunch at a noodle house.
After returning to the hotel we freshened up and headed over to Kanata where Chris lives. Normally about a 20 minute or so drive, but we left at around 3:30pm and encountered rush hour traffic....
We arrived around 4:30 and had a very nice visit with Chris and his ex-wife Denise and their son Eric. Chris made a fabulous dinner which included a wonderful Mediterranean quinoa salad, roasted corn, and cedar planked salmon.
Before long it was time to head back to Ottawa and our sweet suite.

July 19 & 20, sunny and HOT! 29C feels like 41C with humidex

Back to the campsite where we had to use the a/c for the first time this trip. Usually the fan we have is sufficient but not now. I'm not sure how people without a/c can survive. The heatwave is supposed to last over the weekend but appears to cool off by Monday. Phew!
Drove into Hudson, which is a very pretty village on the Ottawa river. We bought some groceries, including steaks to BBQ at the cousins get together tomorrow afternoon at the Hudson Yacht Club. John's brother Art is flying in from Nova Scotia to attend. It should be trés drôle.

A pretty lake

The Shield rocks!

More Canadian Sheild

Refreshment and crib at the campsite near Kenora, ON

Ash from the wildfires nearby.

The view of Keewatin bridge from Mary and Derke's lake home.

M & D's dock on Lake of the Woods

The guys fishing not far from the dock

A smoky view of the tour boat from Kenora

The catch. Three little walleye.

Derek trying his hand at filleting.

Mary taking mental notes on the finer techniques of filleting.

Derek and his brother, Clark, prepping for the grill.

My cousin Mary and husband Derek, John and me.

Still a little smoky

The Nipigon river bridge.

A very nice Provincial Park along Lake Superior

Lovely beach for our picnic.

A really nice sculpture of a Lake Trout

The other side.

The artist.

The ditches full of lupines along the way!

Pretty lake nestled amongst the rocks and forest.

The Wawa Goose sculpture.

Overlooking the last part of the Trans Canada Highway to be completed in 1963

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Bad times on Lake Superior!

Katherine Cove where we had a shore picnic

Bunchberry flowers

A rock pool at Lake Superior PP

Picnic!

Wild Lily of the Valley

Sand River Falls hike

A Pink Lady's Slipper

A misty start.

Mist off Lake Superior

The forest thins out after Sault Ste. Marie

And becomes farmland.

Many large old barns in this area.

We presumed an Amish woman driving her buggy.

A lone sailboat on Lake Huron

The Barrick gold mild tailings pile along Lake Huron. From agricultural land back into Shield.

Lake Huron

The beach at Golden Lake

After a little rainstorm.

The Bonnechere River flows into Golden Lake

Named after Killaloe in County Clare, Rep. of Ireland

The official birthplace of BeaverTails. Delicious!

The power generating weir on the Bonnechere river in Killaloe.

At the Homestead on Wolf Ridge golf course.

Rolling fairways.

9th green

Some holes we very links like.

It was a fun course. 

White Milkweed

Pink Milkweed

These popped up after the rainstorm!

Little wild strawberries everywhere.

Blue statice growing in the ditch.

Interesting old houses in pretty little towns dotting the countryside.

Heading to larger centres.

Large dairy farms between Ottawa and Hudson, QC

The view from our campsite at Camping D'Aoust, Hudson, QC

One of the many, many old homes in Ottawa

Stopping for a refreshment in Ottawa

Watching boats go up the Rideau Canal locks.

The library building on Parliament Hill

Tribute to First Nations Veterans

The living room of our sweet suite in Ottawa.

A super tribute to one of my jazz faves, Oscar Peterson

At the ByWard Market in Ottawa

Wonderful fresh, local produce!

Many eating options!

Rush hour in Ottawa..... :(