Rewind day 7: My new favourite restaurant is in Sudbury

Wait, what? I know, I know, but let’s stick to a linear narrative for now.

We woke up at my favourite campground.

It was so pretty I looked up real estate prices and leaned that you can buy a cabin around here for $ 70,000. Just saying.

The light is so pretty.

Then we drove on, stopping for dinner in Sudbury. On this trip we ate in Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Calgary. But my favourite meal of the whole trip was at Ripe Restaurant in Sudbury.

The kids menu had homemade gnocchi. I ate wild mushroom and fontina gnocchi. It was so good I forgot to photograph it. All you get is vanilla crème brûlée. Sorry!

We got to the next campground, on the Ottawa River, after dark, got the kids to bed and lit a fire.

I may have stolen my kids’ last juice box to mix a drink.

You could see the last shooting stars from the Perseids and every single star in the sky.

Some stats:

• Brown herons: 2
• Eagle: 1
• Hawk: 1
• Chipmunk: 1
• Total distance: 11,105 km

Day 2: Howareyanow, goodnyou, notsobad

In Central Ontario everyone has the Letterkenny accent, pertnear.

We woke up at Driftwood Bay Provincial Park. It’s right on the Ottawa River just at the Quebec-Ontario border.

I guess that makes us “big city slams”.

The park ranger had the accent. The staff at Timmy’s had the accent.

A lot of the kids I went to high school with would be right at home at Modeans (the fictional Letterkenny bar), drinking brews with the boys of Letterkenny.

But, they don’t have the accent.

Ottawa River

Driftwood Bay

Next, we headed upcountry. Letterkenny is filmed in Sudbury, but we didn’t have time to stop there. We just saw the smokestacks.

Sudbury smokestack – one of the smaller ones.

Local menu: Buffet breakfast weekends holidays and tournaments

It’s important to get yer priorities straight. Those are some good central Ontario priorities right there.

Canola Fields in Central Ontario

We ate a picnic lunch near Matawa. Pit toilets with 5-year-olds. Yay!

And we arrived in Sault-Sainte-Marie for dinner, and at Lake Superior just after.

I was here. Lake Superior.

We stayed at Pancake Bay Provincial Park. It was very kid-friendly and our campsite was right across from the water and beside the playground.

Sunset on Lake Superior

Sunset on Lake Superior

We arrived just in time for a sunset. I gots’ta say, that’s what I appreciates abouts ya, Ontario. Then stars.

After the kids went to sleep

Our campsite was about 10m from the water so we could hear the waves as we fell asleep.

Tomorrow, Northern Ontario. Pitter patter.

Some stats:

• Pit mines: 1
• Super tall smoke stacks: 3
• Amish horse-drawn carriages: 3
• Total km: 1174