Northshore Adventures!

Wow!  What an amazing time we had together on the Northshore.  The waterfalls were majestic and the view of Lake Superior along scenic 61 was breathtakingly beautiful.  We started our day at 4am and ended the first day around 10pm.  Whew!  We packed about as much adventure into two days as is humanly possible! 

Gooseberry Falls was Miracle's favorite.  We counted 9 "official" stops plus a few added extras along the way.  But we spent a good 2-3 hours here.  The weather our first day was record breaking hot at 94!  So this cool water was welcomed by all!

 There were so many places around the falls to climb and see up close.  It was incredible!

But here we found this "little" ledge that led right behind the waterfall!  It was tricky to get back there but just look at her!  How many times does a girl get to climb behind a waterfall?  She loved the feel and sound of the water crashing down all around her.  I have to admit...that's totally something I would have done at her age! 

 Just goofing around in the little caves!  LOL

 Playing in the river.  Just look at how high she jumped! 

 It was SO hot!  This was miracle's idea of how to cool off!  lol 

The girls have never seen the ocean.  So this was an eye opener for them.  They suddenly understood much better why they used to think the world was flat and that they could fall off the edge of the world! 

They were throwing rocks and counting how many seconds it took to hit the bottom.  That was a LONG drop!  Then they were just seeing who could throw the farthest. 

 Palisade Heads had these great boulders to climb around on.  So much fun!!

Tettegouche turned out to be quite a trek....but it was worth it when we finally arrived!  We had to cross this old metal bridge, it's a good thing none of us has any fears here!  It swayed and bounced with every step.

This is what we found at the end of the very long hike!  We stayed here and swam at the bottom of the falls for a good hour.  So much fun!!  The rocks were really sharp though and Rosebud sliced her toe open.  Ouch!

This large boulder was right in the middle of the river surrounded by pretty strong currents.  She was determined to climb up there.  She was so proud!

 So everyone else had to do it too!  Love it!!

 See the determination in her face?  The water wasn't real deep but the currents were strong!!

Day #2 brought us lots and lots and lots of rain with much cooler temps around 68.  We started off the day by driving across the Canadian border.  I had hoped to get Rosebud a stamp in her passport like the rest of us have, but alas....they only scanned them....no stamps.  Bummer!  But what we did find out is that Thunder Bay, about 45 minutes in, had a WALMART!  We could buy rain ponchos!! There were no such stores anywhere on the northshore. We discovered all kinds of fun facts along the way.  Ontario is on Eastern standard time, not central.  They use the metric system so it's kph, not mph.  It is illegal to use any kind of non-hands free device while driving.  They speak french so most signs are in French and English.  We heard a rap song in french on the radio!  Very funny!  And the maple leaf is everywhere!  We also found out that the dollar menu doesn't exist here.  The McChicken sandwiches on our dollar menu are $5+ there! 

After our Walmart excursion, we headed back to the border where we stopped at Pigeon River....on the Canadian side.  The river is the border so you can see the falls from both countries.  Our original plan was to do just that.  But we ended up taking much longer than planned on the Canadian side.  :-)  There paths were clearly marked in that we always knew we were on a path.  But where we were heading???  Ya, not so much.  There weren't many maps directing you.  It was quite an adventure.  Then you add the fact that it was raining in that thick forest of mud and slime and bugs....we had a BLAST!!!  Parts of the path were nice and wide, some even had wooden walkways.  We could walk side by side and admire the flowers and wildlife.  Other parts were just barely wide enough for one foot at a time and all the tall grasses surrounding us gave our minds temptation to imagine slimy creatures slithering out!  Eeek!  I couldn't take many pics due to the rain, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip! 

These are the high falls from the Canadian side.  They were magnificent!  They were HUGE!  Totally worth the trek to get there.

On the way home we stopped at a few more rivers and falls.  This one had all this spongy foam stuff.  Gross!

 Simply beautiful. 

 What is it about climbing around on big rocks that makes it so much fun?

I took close to 200 pics over these 2 days!  And much to my delight many many of them are GREAT!  The girls were very willing subjects.  I guess it's not hard to take great pics when they're having so much fun.  I had wanted a great family pic, but it never worked out the first day and then we were soaked the second day.  Oh well!  And just so that "I" don't ever forget....mental note to self....don't ever stay at the Aspen Inn again.  Worst hotel experience ever!!!  But I guess that's what makes for great memories.  If everything goes as expected....how boring would that be!