Peterborough, Ontario - It's snowing harder!

Lots and lots of big puffy things falling from the sky!

It started really coming down! It's hard to capture how much there actually was because of the light conditions, but in the area around the street lamps it's easier to see. I never knew snowflakes looked quite like this, and that they could get so huge! They were about the size of quarters, and then there were long narrow ones over an inch long. I always thought they were just hexagonal, but actually it looked more like popcorn.

Peterborough, Ontario - It's snowing!

It's the first snow of the season. It's all sparkly and makes graceful swirls as it comes down. It's so beautiful!

This is our first snow since moving to our new home. We looked out the window and hugged and giggled like little girls. We know we're living in Canada now, of course, but gazing outside and watching the snow fall in lazy swoops with each breeze somehow cemented the fact that yes, we're really here!

I've seen it snow in the daytime a couple of times but I've never seen it snow at night before. It looks totally different. This is also the first time I've had the opportunity to really enjoy it and take it all in, in my own time. This time, I wasn't expected somewhere else; no one was ahead of me expecting me to keep up; no one was waiting for me. I was free to devote my full attention to savouring this moment. So I stopped everything and went outside. The air was so crisp and refreshing that I silently wished it would stay like this forever. I walked out on our balcony and reached out to feel the snow on my hands. Each flake makes a little pat into your hand, then melts. Pat, melt. Pat, melt. Some of the snowflakes landed on my sleeves and didn't melt right away. I studied them closely, holding them up against the streetlamps below... and for the first time in my life, I saw what people mean when they say that the crystals are different in each snowflake. Tiny, impossibly intricate lattices and fractal patterns glistened back at me, revealing still more detail even as they slowly, slowly began melting away. It's amazing! I feel like a little kid, all awestruck and full of wonder.

Peterborough, Ontario

We made it!!!

We arrived around 2:00 p.m. local time, hooked up with a buddy of ours up here and tooled around town and the surrounding areas for a few hours. It is just breathtakingly gorgeous and it quickly became apparent that we've made the right choice. The population is around 74,000, and everything you need is right in town, but conspicuously absent is the "strip malls and condos" look that's become all too common these days... it looks very small town even though it's not. There are trees everywhere, lakes and rivers all around, beautiful old architecture, clean streets, and really delicious food. The Trent-Severn Waterway runs right through town. There are tons of cabins and cottages right on its shores. Many houses and apartments are tucked away so you'd never know there were homes back there, except for a mailbox in front or a small break in the trees revealing a gorgeous tree-lined dirt road leading back to somewhere, and frequently they too are on the shore of the waterway or one of the lakes.

This place is so amazing! It's like a storybook fantasy. Honestly, I didn't know places like this existed anywhere other than books. When our friend told me about this place, a part of me wondered if he might be a little biased, or remembering things a bit better than they were. This is not the case. We were astounded by the sheer beauty of this place. It felt surreal to drive around and take it all in... our immigration process complete, our long drive at its end, and marveling at this place that was well worth every penny, every mile, and every moment of time expended to get here.

Tonight was the last night of the Peterborough Festival of Lights, a series of free outdoor concerts followed by fireworks, held twice a week all summer long. After dropping off our friend, passing the park on the way to our hotel, we heard the strains of "O Canada" for the first time since crossing the border... and knew that we were home.

Sudbury, Ontario

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

This is right at the Canada-U.S. border and there is also a Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan across the river. The two cities are connected by the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge. The name comes from archaic French for "Saint Mary's Falls," but the pronunciation has been anglicised to "Sue sent Marie."

BACKPOSTING POINT

This is the start of some backposting, the point where I left off when I started feeling too sick to sort and post the rest of the photos. We've been sick for over a year now but are slowly recovering. It is now Oct 2008 and I hope to get everything caught up. I'll leave this message here as a reference point for you to know roughly where the old old pics end and the new old pics begin.

Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario - Trapper's Trail

When we got here there were two rangers from Parks Canada hacking at a beaver dam with axes. I got curious and asked them why. They informed me that they normally leave them alone, but this particular dam had caused some flooding on a trail back there. It was only after 10 minutes of heading down a trail in a different direction, as it got slushier and slushier, that I realized that this trail and that trail were one and the same. (It follows the shore of Rustle Lake.) Oooops.

This dam thing is broken


A dam shame


Rustle Lake






More of Rustle Lake


This is about how the trail looked when we decided, hmm, maybe we'd better turn back.

Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario - Old Woman Bay

Two chipmunks chased each other in circles all around the parking lot, then found a sandwich and took off with it. I managed to snap this before they disappeared. (lower right corner)




The cliffs that give Old Woman Bay its name