My
Vacation Time in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
September
28 – October 4, 2017
DAY
1 – Thursday September 28, 2017:
A brand new experience I had today was taking the
“Union Pearson Express” train to Toronto Pearson Airport. I had never taken this train before and I
wanted to find out what it was like.
It’s a nice, smooth ride that takes 25 minutes from Union Station and
drops its passengers off at Terminal 1 of the airport. Only problem was that I left home too late
and it took me an hour just to get to the train at Union Station. I will have to plan my interim travelling
time better next time.
As planned, I had booked and paid for my air fare on
Air Canada online one month previously.
I wanted to find out if I liked travelling by air to Sault Ste. Marie
this year even though I’d already been taking the Greyhound bus up here for
years. Turns out it was a great
idea! Only problem was that I’d completely
forgot what my departure time was and, because of that, I was too late to take
the 12:30 pm flight I’d booked. That meant
I had to change my air fare ticket so that I could take the next flight out –
and that change cost me an extra $150.00!
Also, since I’d booked my air fare through Expedia, I did not
automatically get a “free” bag to check in.
And that cost me an extra $75.00!
So, the flight that I thought I was getting so cheaply (at $234.18) was actually
going to cost me over $400.00! Still, it
was a learning experience for me and you can never put a price on that!
The flight itself was on a turbo-prop (propeller)
airplane, a commuter plane I’m told. I’d
never been on such a small plane. It
held maybe 40-50 people maximum and was a powerful machine. The takeoff was smooth with very little
runway needed. And, when we landed at
the Sault Ste. Marie Airport an hour and a half later, the landing was very
smooth but short, as well. I’d been used
to jumbo jets that take a relatively long time to get off the ground during
takeoff and take an equally long time to bring to a stop after landing. This plane was clearly not a jumbo jet. Besides, jumbo jets hold hundreds of people
instead just a few dozen, so this plane was a relative lightweight in that
respect.
As a result of flying to Sault Ste. Marie versus suffering
that arduous 10-hour bus ride (one way) on Greyhound, I landed in the “The Soo”
at about 3:50 pm. We’d left Toronto at
2:20 pm. After collecting my bag from
the plane, which I was able to do right away, I took a taxi with another couple
and we were dropped off at our respective hotels. It only cost me $35.00 for the taxi ride into
the city. The plan to fly here gave me
an extra 8 hours of vacation time, which I would not have had if I’d been on
the bus. That was a terrific bonus for
me all by itself.
I unpacked at my favourite hotel, the Holiday Inn
Express on Bay Street, after which I plugged in my Notebook computer and my
brand new DVD player so that I could play some movies later on. The hotel room I’d reserved was pricey at
$230.00 / night, but for that price, I got a very nice king-bed suite, not just
a room. Then, I went across the street to
the Station Mall, bought myself a dinner of KFC chicken and ate it in the food
court, After that, I took a walk over to
the other side of the mall and took a brief look at the water – the St. Mary’s
River, which connects Lake Huron to Lake Superior. It looked really beautiful in the afternoon
sunshine. I only stayed a few minutes
though. I wanted to come back and watch
some TV and a DVD movie or two.
This evening, I watched an A&E TV show called
“The Murder of Laci Peterson”, about the trial of Scott Peterson, Laci’s
husband, who was accused of murdering her.
Before that show was finished, the DVD player was charged up and ready
to use, so I first watched “The Zookeeper’s Wife”, a brand new DVD movie I’d
just bought at Amazon. Then, I watched
an old favourite of mine, “Obsessed”.
During that movie run, I got ready for bed, took my meds and then got
into bed and tried to get some sleep.
After a couple of hours of pure restlessness, I got up and put on the
first disk of “Planet Earth II” and played that till it was time to get up for
breakfast. The hotel offers its guests
breakfast from 6:30 am till 9:30 am weekdays and 7:00 am till 10:00 am weekends.
DAY
2 – Friday September 29, 2017:
Today, my plan is to have breakfast downstairs early
and then go over to the Agawa Canyon Tour box office to see if I can get a
ticket for a ride on the train tomorrow.
This tour is definitely worth doing!
I did it a few years ago and it was breathtaking. So, I decided that if it wasn’t overly busy,
and they could fit me in, I would buy myself a ticket. It happens to be very busy this time of year. It’s a day-long excursion on a Canadian
National Railway train, the kind previously used as passenger trains in
Canada. There’s a dining car and snacks
and beverages available on the train throughout the day. I am really looking forward to this trip.
Other than that, I am planning on watching more DVD
movies today and, when I go for dinner later on, taking another short walk over
to the water. It’s not as nice out today
as it was yesterday, so I’ll have to see how I feel then. I hope to do some reading this week or listen
to some music DVDs I also brought with me.
So, after breakfast and having booked my ticket on
the Agawa Canyon Tour for tomorrow, I put on another DVD, a brand new movie
called “The Judge” and, while I was watching the early part of it, fell asleep. I’m not surprised that I fell asleep though because
this is something that happens to me fairly often after a night of
sleeplessness. However, I did manage to
see a major part of the movie, enough to convince myself to see it again.
Later on, after eating dinner and then having a
much-needed bath, I settled down once again to watch an HD movie on TV called
“Liar, Liar”, one of my old favourites. Then,
I watched two thriller DVD movies, also favourites of mine – “The Hand that Rocks
the Cradle” and “Consenting Adults”. I
was feeling tired and was somewhat cranky due to an upset stomach, but it was
still too early to go to bed for the night, so I just lounged around in my
pajamas, did my meds as usual, and then got as comfortable as possible for the
evening.
Tomorrow morning, I have to get up at 6:00 am so I
can get some breakfast downstairs, take some food with me for the train, and
then spend the entire day on the Agawa Canyon Tour. I am really looking forward to it because the
scenery throughout the trip is spectacular.
It’ll be an all-day trip and we won’t return back to “The Soo” until close
to 7:00 pm. Some people my age think
it’s a long day, but I like it. You
don’t get to go on a tour like this very often, if at all. I went on this tour once already a few years
ago and it is definitely worth repeating.
DAY
3 – Saturday September 30. 2017:
The Agawa Canyon Train Tour was outstanding, as I
knew it would be. The leaves on the
trees are just starting to turn colour and the scenery is wonderful. The whole trip is 114 miles long due north one
way, winding through some pretty mountainous and bushy terrain, sometimes
climbing and sometimes descending. At
the end, we stopped for an hour and half, got off the train and spent time in
the Agawa Canyon, walking around, taking pictures, and eating food we’d brought
with us. Then, at about 2:00 pm, we
started back on the return leg. The tour,
altogether, was 10 hours. We’d left “The
Soo” at 8:00 am and returned at 6:00 pm, making for a long day, but a day well
worth spending. Today’s trip was my
second time round, and I may even do a third time down the road in a few years.
On Saturday evenings, there aren’t many places open from
which to select food for dinner (because the mall closes at 6:00 pm), so I
stopped at the movie theatre in the mall for a hotdog, fries and soft
drink. It wasn’t very satisfying, but it
was better than eating nothing. I wasn’t
really hungry anyway. I just wanted to
go back to my hotel and watch some TV and DVD movies. I started out watching a bit of the TV movie
called “Die Hard with a Vengeance”, but soon decided I’d rather watch one of my
favourite DVD movies “Shall We Dance?” followed by another favourite “Point of
No Return”. Both are excellent movies,
but by the time I’d watched them both, I was pooped enough to sleep for the
night. I’d done my meds earlier, but
didn’t need to bother with my usual sleep meds tonight.
DAY
4 – Sunday October 1, 2017:
I think I’m going to take it easy today. I went for an early breakfast because I
didn’t want to miss it by sleeping in.
Then, I came back up to my room to update my journal blog during the day,
watch a DVD movie or two, do some reading, or maybe listen to some music DVDs
of mine. I also thought I might go
swimming this afternoon since there’s an indoor pool in this hotel and it
probably won’t be full of kids at this time of year.
I only have three full days left before I have to go
home. I have an early flight on
Wednesday morning (10:10 am) and I have to be at the airport by 8:30 am latest to
make sure I get checked in and get through security on time. That should not be a problem here. It’s a small airport; still, it could be busy
then with outgoing flights. As of today,
I plan on making the most of the time I have left here.
After breakfast, I came back up to my room and lay
in bed watching a brand new DVD movie called “Passengers”, and, of course, fell
asleep for part of it. When I woke up, I
realized I had to make a couple of phone calls home – one to my Shoppers Drug
Mart home store to request a renewal of my Tylenol # 3 prescription from Dr.
Ching, and one to Amazon Visa card services to find out whether and when I’ll
get my new Visa card since the old one has expired. Well, as it happened today, I wasn’t able to
talk to Amazon Visa’s credit department to find what happened to my new card,
so I was asked to call back Monday during the day because, on Sunday, the
credit department is closed.
After making these two calls, I finished watching my
movie and then decided to go out to the water’s edge on the boardwalk and continue
reading my book “A Stranger in the Mirror”, which I’d read before, but wanted
to read again. I started it a couple of
days ago and made it to Chapter 5 today.
It’s a beautiful day out today – warm and sunny – and I really enjoyed
sitting by the water’s edge reading and sipping my cup of coffee from Timmy’s.
When I came back to the hotel, I wasn’t sure where I
was going for dinner tonight, so I asked Penny at the front desk if she could
suggest a nice family restaurant for me.
She suggested Muio’s, which I could access by cutting in between this
hotel and the Days Inn & Suites next door and then walking along Queen
Street behind these hotels a block or two.
She also suggested that tomorrow (Monday) night, I could also go to
another place for dinner called Solo’s, which isn’t open today. Going to the
food court for dinner is just something I’m not keen on right now. These two restaurants will help make my
dining experiences in “The Soo” much more pleasant this time round and in the
future.
For the rest of the afternoon, I lay in bed watching
two of my most recently purchased DVD shows:
“Amazing Caves” and “Planet Earth II (Disk Two)”. I’d only seen these DVDs once before so they
were still new to me.
So, at just after 5:00 pm, I left to walk over to
Muio’s. I thought it was a restaurant
I’d been to already a few years ago, but I wasn’t sure. As it happened, it was the same place. I ordered a New York striploin steak
(medium), with sautéed onions and mushrooms, a baked potato with butter and
sour cream, cooked-from-frozen vegetables, and a side-Caesar salad. The waitress also provided me with some white
bread, but I didn’t eat it then – I took it with me after I’d finished
eating. That was a terrific meal! I also had a 6 oz. glass of white wine. This meal was definitely out of the ordinary
for me, so it was an ideal meal to have on my vacation here. I like to eat food that I don’t normally eat
except on vacation.
After dinner, I watched “Planet Earth II (Disk Two)”
again and then watched “Miss Congeniality II” before going to sleep for the
night.
DAY
5 – Monday October 2, 2017:
Today, I’m taking it easy again. After a hearty breakfast of pancakes at the
hotel, I went back to my room and watched one of my favourite DVD movies “Green
Card” while trying to snooze. Then, I
remembered that I had to call Amazon Visa card services again today because I
still don’t have a new card renewal and have no idea why. After my call was completed and they’d gotten
their questions answered and done a quick credit check on me, they were still satisfied
that I deserve a new card without changes to be made to my credit and cash
limits, so everything is okay again. I
will be receiving a new card in the next 7 to 10 days in the mail.
I don’t have much motivation to do anything right
now except maybe read my book or do some swimming this afternoon. It hasn’t been very sunny today. I’m still planning to go to dinner at Solo’s
tonight because it’s different and new to me.
I only have two full days left in my vacation, but I’ve been enjoying it
a lot, doing some new things and watching some new DVD movies that I haven’t
seen before. After all, that’s what
vacations are supposed to be all about – doing new and different things that I
don’t normally do. Otherwise, what would
be the point in going anywhere on vacation?
The sun finally seems to be coming out and now, I’m
contemplating going over to the boardwalk to do some reading again this
afternoon. So, that’s what I did, and I
got almost to the end of Chapter 8 while I sat at the boardwalk with my coffee
from Timmy’s.
For dinner, I went to Solo’s (a.k.a. Solo’s Trattoria) and ordered an entrée called
Wild Mushroom Chicken, which is cooked in a marsala mushroom sauce. This meal came with mashed potatoes, cooked-from-fresh
vegetables, and a side-Caesar salad. I
also ordered a glass of white Pino Grigio wine with dinner. It was a really terrific dinner, which I
enjoyed enormously. There was also bread
provided, but I took that back with me to the hotel.
After dinner, I came back to my room and continued
watching a brand new DVD TV series called “Ice Road Truckers (Season 7)” that
I’d started to watch this afternoon.
Before dinner, I’d gotten most of the way through Disk 1 and now, I am
into Disk 2. I’ll probably end up
watching Disk 3 tomorrow or back at home next week.
I had another restless night tonight. So, instead of trying to sleep, which was not
working, I played my 3 music CDs: Enya,
Dirty Dancing, and Adele, and tried to relax.
It was one of my first times listening to Adele. She is a mesmerizing singer to hear and I
will probably be buying some more of her music.
DAY
6 – Tuesday October 3, 2017:
Today is my last full day of vacation here in “The
Soo”. It’s been great fun, as
always. Hopefully, I can come back again
next year. I’ve learned my lesson about
the best time of day at which to book my departure air fare (late in the day)
and how much time to give myself to get to the airport, get checked in, and go
through security (at least two hours, depending on whether I’m travelling in
Canada or abroad). I had to do
everything myself this year, including getting myself to the airport. Maybe next year, I can get a ride from
someone instead, or take a taxi, or maybe I could stay at a hotel close to
Pearson Airport the night before leaving.
This morning, after breakfast, I went back to my
room, lay in bed, and started to watch one of my favourite DVD movies “Employee
of the Month”, but, again, fell asleep during the movie. I may end up watching this one again, since
all I did was listen to it.
After a while, I got up and got myself ready to go
out to the mall and the water’s edge.
This time, I wanted to get some photos of myself done at the photo booth
in the mall, then get a coffee from Timmy’s, and go out to the boardwalk one
last time to do some reading. I am now
up to Chapter 10. Then, I got a slice of
pizza for lunch and ate it at the mall.
Finally, I came back to my room.
I still might go swimming this afternoon even though I haven’t been
swimming in the hotel pool yet this week.
I guess I’ll make it up at home instead.
After all, by this time tomorrow (1:45 pm), I’ll be back at home in
Toronto again.
I’ve phoned the taxi cab company, SYC, to please
pick me at 7:30 am tomorrow morning so that I will make it to the airport in
“The Soo” with time to spare this time.
I’ve also asked the front desk for a wakeup call at 6:00 am so that I
can get myself dressed, packed up completely, and then have a light breakfast
before being picked up by my taxi.
DAY
7 – Wednesday October 4, 2017:
Just as I’d planned, I woke up at the appointed
time, 6:00am, got washed and dressed and packed up the last of my stuff. Then, I went downstairs for breakfast for the
last time at about 6:30 am and then waited for my taxi to appear at 7:30
am.
The trip home was smooth and seamless. I checked in at the Sault Ste. Marie
Airport’s Air Canada counter at around 8:30 am since no one was manning the
counter until then. I then put my
checked bag onto the conveyer belt that would take it to my plane, and I only
had to pay $25.00 plus tax this time to check one bag in. We boarded the plane at 9:40 am, after going
through security smoothly, and took off on time at 10:10 am. This time, my check-in and security checks
were both seamless with no problems. The
trip took an hour and a half and was very pleasant.
When my plane arrived at Pearson International
Airport in Toronto at 11:40 am, I was easily able to locate and obtain my
checked bag again, then to locate and board the Union Pearson Express train
that I’d taken previously to the airport.
Now, it would return me back to Union Station. After that, I took the subway from Union
Station to my home at Yonge and Davisville.
Now, I know that I love flying to “The Soo” because it’s so much nicer
than riding a bus for 10 hours one way.
So, I’ll probably be doing my trip to “The Soo” this way from now on.
The only difference
from my first trip was that my plane was bigger. This plane was similar to the first one (it
was turbo-prop), except that it was big enough to hold up to 80 people instead
of just 40, and, today it was a full flight.
Other than that, it was pretty much the same. I
enjoyed every moment of my trip up to “The Soo”, the time I spent there, and my
trip back home. This vacation has always
been enjoyable for me, which is the primary reason I keep returning to this
part of Northern Ontario. “The Soo” is
truly My Heavenly Place, and always
will be. The next time I hope to go up
there will be any time between August and October 2018.
Thanksgiving
2017 – October 8 & 9:
This year, we did not have our usual extended family
get-together. So, Brent suggested that
only he, James and I spend it together at his place in Janetville. On Sunday October 8, with my weekend bag in
hand, I took the subway down to Union Station and then boarded the GO Train
bound for Oshawa, only I would get off at Whitby GO Station and wait for Brent
to come down, pick me up there, and take me to his place.
On the way, we went to do some much-needed grocery
shopping, which Brent did while I stayed in the car and wrote down the Proline
football games scheduled for later today and the spreads (point differential
for each game). I got this football data
from the Proline web site on Brent’s cell phone. Brent and James were going to place their bets
(James would place his bet via Brent) and Brent would then have to submit their
Proline cards at the store before the games could begin.
After doing the grocery shopping in Port Perry, we
went to pick up James at his mom’s place.
Brent does this every other week – picking James up on Sunday and
dropping him off the next Sunday. We
would all spend today and tomorrow together having Brent’s Thanksgiving dinner,
watching football all afternoon, and then watching a PPV (pay-per-view) WWF
event on TV. While I’m not crazy about
either football or WWF, I watched these shows with my two boys because the idea
was to spend time together.
On Sunday night, I went to bed at about midnight,
hoping I would sleep through the night, but unfortunately, that did not happen. In fact, I didn’t fall asleep until almost
5:00 am and then slept till maybe 10:00 am (not counting the 3 times I got up
to go to the bathroom!). Anyway, I finally
got up at about 10:30 am on the Holiday Monday, got washed and dressed and went
downstairs to see what Brent and James were doing. They were playing Fantasy Baseball on the TV
(on Playstation) and they were in the playoffs.
I watched them play for a while, had cereal for my breakfast, and then
went outside to sit by the lakeshore and continue to read my book “A Stranger
in the Mirror”, which I’d started last week in “The Soo”. I am now into Book Two of that novel.
I spent a pretty lazy day on my own until we decided
that we were going to go out for the birthday dinner that we had promised
ourselves in August. James had his 13th
birthday on September 2nd and we have been determined to celebrate
it among ourselves. So, Brent called
Dave because I’d been unable to reach him on his cell phone and we arranged to
pick him up in Whitby at his home. We
would then go to Eastside Mario’s for dinner in North Whitby.
After dinner, Brent would drop me off at the Whitby
GO Station, then drop Dave off at his home nearby in South Whitby, and finally,
return home with James to Janetville. It
was a really nice dinner (my treat this time).
Dave gave me my cell phone back that I’d accidently left at his house
just before my holidays in “The Soo”.
Fortunately, I had another cell phone that I could use in the
meantime. Finally, I got back on the GO Train
at 8:17 pm, 20 minutes after being dropped off at the Whitby GO Station, and
arrived back at my home at Yonge and Davisville just before 10:00 pm.
All in all, it certainly wasn’t the usual way we
spend our Thanksgiving Day together, but it was outstanding, nevertheless. Brent and James are my core family members
and Dave has been part of my family for at least 26 years. I’ve known Dave and his kids that long. If that doesn’t make him and his family part
of my own family, I don’t know what does.
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
copyright 2017 - Anne Shier
No comments:
Post a Comment