// April 14th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // life
Allen and I are back from our week long vacation, which included 4 days of driving and 4 days of visiting family & friends in my hometown of Dryden, Ontario.
We left last Sunday and drove to Terrace Bay where we spent the night at a motel. On the way, we stopped to take in some sights, including a walk on the frozen beach of Lake Superior. Allen snapped this beautiful photo showing the icy shore and open water.
The drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay is the most beautiful stretch on Ontario. If you’ve never driven it, take a day (a long day) and do it.
Day 1 of driving, the conditions were beautiful. It was +10 and we were out in t-shirts. When we woke up the next morning in Terrace Bay though, it was snowing and there was ice on the car. We hit a major snow storm at Thunder Bay which lasted until about 40 km past Ignace. The snow piled up so quickly that it was hard to tell where the middle of the road was. Here’s a photo of the Trans-Canada Highway during the storm.
Shortly after traveling through that, they closed the highway behind us.
Once we were in Dryden, we struggled with having limited time to visit everyone we wanted to visit and do everything we wanted to do. We managed to watch a game of hockey that my nephew Jeremy was playing in. Here’s a photo of him on the ice.
And we spent hours & hours kiting with 4 others on a perfect day on Wabigoon Lake. Allen snowkited for his first time. He’s flown the kite plenty before, but had never strapped his snowboard on and got going. He finally did and he was a natural.
Friday was the big day of our vacation. It was my dad’s 80th birthday and the reason we made the trip. He had two parties: a daytime tea that saw about 60 people come & celebrate and an evening dinner with the family. The Lodge where the event was hosted told us that it was the largest birthday party they’d ever hosted. My dad was delighted at all the people who came to wish him a happy birthday. The family dinner was a much smaller event at only 20 people or so. 
Here’s a photo of my mom & dad just after dad blew out the candles on his 80th birthday cake.
We had an amazing time.
