By John Lilies & Lana Carbon
August 19TH, 2019
Day 3: May 20, 2019 – Sault Ste Marie, Ontario
Well I have to say that for as much as I try not allowing the weather to dictate my plans, the rain we'd had thus far was not making it easy to carry out what we'd hoped. So, when we discovered on this great Monday that the rain had stopped in the early morning, we were quite happy and grateful.
[Lana] SUNNY DAY!
[John] This was our final full day in The Soo, so we wanted to make it the best we possibly could.
The night before, we had considered going down to the hotel restaurant, the Soo Blaster Arcade, to play pool for a while but we decided to just stay in our room and watch TV and rest. We figured we would begin the next day with a morning game of pool before going out. We checked the hours of the games room to make sure we would arrive just when it opened, to maximize our time. It was Victoria Day but it's the hotel restaurant and bar, so it should be open, yes? Yeah... nope. Definitely closed. It is us, after all; misadventures are our specialty.
The Soo Blaster Arcade, Days Inn & Suites, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario
[Lana] That's okay. John didn't want none of this pool shark action, anyway.
[John] I'm perfectly fine with losing to you. My game skills are less than stellar on a good day. Gosh... when last did I play pool, anyway? I'm good at losing. It's a strength.
[Lana] You really need to learn how to talk smack.
[John] I lost my edge somewhere in French River. The exposure to nature made me too zen.
So, with no pool shark action occurring, after spending the morning just chilling out and relaxing, we finally made our way out to explore and enjoy the rest of the day.
Though we’d considered all sorts of events for our time here, such as the Art Gallery of Algoma (closed Sundays and Mondays), the Museum Ship of Norgoma (closed until June), the Mill Market (only open on Saturdays), the Sault Ste Marie Museum (only open Tuesdays through Saturdays), the Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site (closed at the time), we clearly needed to refocus our attention on some other attractions. We had considered going to the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre but by the time we had gone through the list of all the attractions that were not open, we had exhausted our desire to look at the planes. So, we excitedly looked towards the other places we wanted to check out.
We first went to the Ontario Travel Centre to pick up some pamphlets for the remainder of our roadtrip. While there, we bought the required magnet, postcard, and of course a Sault Ste Marie baseball cap.
After the Travel Centre, we went to the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site and we walked around for a while. We walked through part of South St. Mary's Island and around most of Whitefish Island Indian Reserve, a territory of the Batchewana First Nation.
[John] We enjoyed a beautiful, quiet walk through the land, watching a great blue heron fly around, chipmunks run around, and minnows swim in the marshes. We had a wonderful view across the water and also saw just how busy the International Bridge was, with the lineup to come back into Canada. We assumed everyone was returning home from the long weekend and it made us grateful we were not in the line.
[John] There were a number of people out fishing and I have to say it was not a warm day; cold enough to see my breath and windy, too. This was the nature moment I had been needing and I was so grateful for it. I could feel all of my stress disappear and it really just felt so nice to breathe among the trees. After this little walk, we returned to the canal/locks and wandered around there for a bit, taking in the views. It may seem small, but we don't often have this opportunity and space to just be. We need to make it a priority but on this day it felt so nice to have the ability to walk in a nature reserve instead of a concrete neighbourhood. We enjoyed the experience so much in fact, that we did not pay attention to the time passing by.
[John] After enjoying our time at the canal, we drove a short way to Roberta Bondar Park , looking for the statue of Three Bears Fishing, which was one of our roadside attraction goals on the trip. Apparently, the statue has been removed (we looked everywhere but did not find it and looking exactly where our research had shown us it should be, there were no bears) but we did get to see a Canadian Coast Guard ship and the Norgoma (as mentioned earlier, this was one of the activities we wanted to take in but in true Carbon Lilies style, it wasn't open for tours until June).
We believe this is where the Three Bears Fishing should have been and this fish is all that might be left.
The Canadian Coast Guard
[Lana] And, why would it be open for tours before June, while we’re here? It's only a supposedly haunted ship, afterall.
[John] True enough. We didn't exactly hit the mark much that weekend, did we? However, let's focus on the positives, in true John style.
It was still a lovely walk, though fairly windy, and I wasn't sad about the plans not working out entirely. Those moments together, even if we didn't manage to execute the planned activities, were wonderful and enjoyable and special for us. I'm more than okay with that.
After our walk around the park, we finally moved on to the Lock City Dairies Ice Cream shop to see the Three Cows statue.
[Lana] The Three Cows were awesome. It was the best three-cow statue I'd ever seen. It isn't often that you see three cows climbing over each other to be immortalized in statuesque form, in all their comical glory.
[John] Wow. I've got nothing.
From the ice cream shop (at which we somehow and for some reason restrained ourselves and did not have any ice cream), we went to the Soo Minor Baseball Fields to see the World's Largest Baseball. It's a big baseball, on the edge of the field.
It appears as though The Soo is not the only city laying claim to having the World's Largest Baseball on display and I do tend to wonder who is confirming these facts for marketing. At least two cities in the U.S. also claim to have the World's Largest Baseball, and it makes me think of how it's similar to when a company claims their product is "the best in the universe". Have they communicated with the rest of the universe to determine this? Have they conducted the broader-scale market research and surveying to ensure that their product truly is "the best in the universe"?
[Lana] Yeah, you never hear anyone from Alpha Centauri claiming that their product is the best in the universe, now do you?
[John] Well, I certainly haven't heard anyone from Alpha Centauri say anything at all. How often are you in touch with Alpha Centauri, anyway? Do those beings complain about our earthly corporate claims to have the best products in the universe? I feel like I should really know more about your connection to Alpha Centauri; we have been married for a while now, you know.
[Lana] Well, Yondu does think he's Mary Poppins. But, that has nothing to do with being the best in the universe.
Yondu meme courtesy of knowyourmeme.com. Rights to the character belong to Marvel.
[John] So... a totally random fact. Okay. (“Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest height…”)
[Lana] Well, Yondu IS Alpha Centaurian. (Don't mess with a comic geek.)
[John] So, a not so totally random fact then. Okay.
[Lana] I'm never random.
[John] Ha! Oh, sorry... were you being serious?
[Lana] I'm always serious.
[John] Ha! You definitely are funny.
[Lana] By the way, what does Guinness have to say about this whole World's Largest Baseball fiasco?
[John] Honestly, I haven't been able to find any supporting evidence that any of those places is a Guinness World Record-holder for the World's Largest Baseball.
[Lana] So, if I roll up a big ball of tin foil in our apartment, can I say that we have the World's Largest Baseball?
[John] Well, these cities at least have large monuments that look like actual, for-real baseballs. Not balls of tin foil. But, with a large ball of tin foil, you could potentially make a lot of hats to block out the alien systems to locate humans.
[Lana] First of all, I would paint it white with red threading so that it looks like a real baseball.
Secondly, I want to talk to the Alpha Centaurians.
[John] Someone, please help us (and by us, I mean me). Please. Please?
From the baseball, we headed to the Chippewa Trading Post shopping plaza - there is not much to see there but Lana was wanting a picture of one of the statues they had when we were there last time, but alas it was also gone.
[Lana] Alpha Centaurians? (It's all coming together now...)
[John] So...
After that, as we were needing some food and rest and we wanted to get ourselves organized for the next leg of our journey, we went back to the hotel and called it a day.
[Lana] It's amazing how tiring it can be to go around looking for things that aren't there. Possibly, even moreso than actually finding them.
[John] Truly.
These were really some great days in The Soo and I'm so happy that we enjoyed the experience despite our plans not working out as we had originally hoped. Sometimes you just have to roll with it and have fun no matter what the ride is.
[Lana] We are so used to just rolling with whatever life brings us that if our plans ever did work out as expected, we probably wouldn’t have as much fun.
[John] So true…
Well friends, thanks again for being great company. We shall see you all again as we head out of The Soo. As always, if you have any stories to share or any comments for us, please contact us through the usual bat channels. Happy misadventures!
