Days 1 and 2

So the trip starts outside of Bancroft, where my family had rented a cottage to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. Good times were had by all, too innumberable to recount. Went swimming with Jackson, tried to swim across a lake, retrieved two fishing lures from the lake, enjoyed good company around the fire, learned some new card games, laughed at JC freaking out in a canoe, etc etc etc. I learned a new sport from PD called "beersby" which combines both frisbee and beer. If you know me well at all, you can understand why this is now my new favourite sport on earth. We also did some gunnel-bobbing; everyone won:

Oz and Hus came to stay a night, then we departed on our cross country trip. First stop of note: the big nickel.

...oh yeah, Oz and his brother brought pirate patches from a pirate-themed adventure they had (whole other story he can fill you in on), and we thought it would be funny to take pictures in front of all the "world's biggest" things that we passed with them on.

Hus then had an idea to take a detour to Canada's (the world's?) southern-most polar bear reserve in Cochrane. This is a place where retired polar bears from zoos, and/or "problem bears" are housed. The main selling feature of this day-long detour was that for an extra $5 you get to go swimming with the bear. It's going to be that kind of trip.

Unfortunately for us, there was a glass barrier between us and the bear, which prevented us from petting and/or attempting to riding the furry tractor. Also funny was the fact that there were more employees at this reserve (6) than there were tourists (3 - us). Was still pretty neat to be able to watch the bear walk and swim about. Interesting fact about polar bears: they are one of the few animals on earth know to actively hunt humans.

...well, that's it for now. Stay tuned for news of the Shania Twain museum, the giant Wawa goose, and the rest of our passage through ON.