On the way back to the Island

Once again, we hit the open road...

passing by the town of Sturgeon Falls, home of the Step Dance and Fiddle Festival, the sign which was last seen during on our way to Ottawa earlier that week...

President's Choice

I admit I went a little overboard at Walmart buying all those snacks and candies.

 Right when I thought we were going to leave, C had her husband stop the minivan and park so we could check out this Canadian supermarket, President's Choice...

Shopping at North Bay - Walmart

It's already 2014 and I am still not done with my Canada 2012 trip posts...

(Somewhere in western Ontario)

I resolve to tie up any loose end and finish those posts this year, haha.

We'd been on quite the journey, traveling out from Ottawa that very morning and then making a few pit stops along the way. This was another one of those much needed breaks before heading back to the Island...

Return to Mattawa (another drive by)

Ya down with OPP?

"Yeah, you know me!"  - In this case, the OPP stands for the Ontario Provincial Police!

C and I had a larf whenever we passed by those yellow signs...

Canadian Tire

We were glad that the good Samaritan dude from Tim Hortons stopped us as we were backing out. He noticed the brakelight wasn't working and of course, that was quite worrisome for FarmerJohn.

He learned from the same man that there was a Canadian Tire store just down the highway. C was telling us, this is totally Canadian and that we had to go there!

The road back to Manitoulin - Tim Hortons at Deep River

With our breakfast of Montreal style bagels from Kettleman's fortifying us, we set off on the long road back to the Island.  We headed out of Ottawa in C and FJ's trusty minivan and headed west to Ontario...

where we passed miles and miles of farm land, forests, and...

bales of rolled up hay. For us SoCal's, it was quite the contrast from the sandy beaches, palm trees and the Pacific Ocean...

The trip back was quite lengthy but of course we had to make a pit stop...

Canada Day 9 - back to Ottawa: Kettleman's Bagels

We slept as well as we could knowing that we would have to get up early the next day to make the long drive back to the Island...but before that, C's friend's husband (whom I shall refer to as "J") took us on another quick tour of Ottawa...

in the neighborhood known as The Glebe and where we would also pick up some breakfast...

Canada Trip - Day 9 Highlights

C's friends were gracious enough to let us stay at their place again before we headed back to the Island. Before we left, the husband took us on yet another quick tour of Ottawa.

One of the original uses of this ornate building was housing farm animals for exhibits (circa mid to late 1850's)...

And because we weren't able to stop at C's favorite bagel place in Montreal, her friend's husband took us to a local place that did it "Montreal style"...