Life North of the Falls

This Labor Day weekend has been dedicated to catching up. The first item on the catch up list was to take a drive north of International Falls into Northwest Ontario. Neither my wife nor I have been further north in Ontario than Fort Frances. We have both been to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Victoria, British Columbia. I have been an hour to the west of Fort Frances and at least four hours to the east of it. So, we packed into the car with our dog and went north.

On Friday our destination was Kenora, Ontario. The town of Kenora originally went by the name of Rat Portage and was a part of Manitoba. However, England later decided the town was a part of Ontario. The town's name was changed to Kenora in 1905 after the Maple Leaf Flour Company made a huge ruckus over having to print the word "rat" on their bagged flour products. Kenora is a beautiful town that is located on the northern edge of Lake of the Woods, with a rough population of 16500. For my previous reflections on Lake of the Woods in Minnesota, please see my earlier post titled The County Next Door. But I digress . . .

After checking into our hotel room, we scouted the town a bit in search of food. While driving through Kenora we witnessed several standard Canadian retail and food outlets: Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, A & W. We decided to eat at a place called Boston Pizza because it was familiar to my wife and me from our days in Grand Forks, North Dakota. My wife had a ham (canadian bacon) pizza and I had a tropical chicken pizza. Overall, the food and entire meal experience was first rate.

Saturday morning we got up and about. We explored some of the Kenora's hot spots, including trails along Lake of the Woods and the Winnipeg River. We even took an opportunity to say hello to "Husky the Muskie," a giant fish that stands over 40 feet tall. We also made it up to the trail along Rabbit Lake. The cool thing about Kenora is all of the murals painted on the side of the buildings in the downtown district. We also explored south of Kenora, running into a golf country club and a charitable casino. Take my word on the following: the non-charitable casinos here in the States are much more aesthetically pleasing.

Next, we packed back into the car and made our way east to the town of Dryden, Ontario. The first 3/4 of the drive was awe inspiring. Every corner we turned led us out of highways surrounded by rock to surroundings of beautiful, cold, blue, island-filled lakes. The only thing interrupting the beauty of the outdoors were the large quantities of yellow signs reminding motorists to be aware of moose. But the lake country abruptly ended near Vermillion, Ontario, and changed to farming scenery with hay and alfalfa fields. This in turn brought us to the industrial town of Dryden.

We spent just under 2 hours in Dryden. The smell of the local Domtar factory was a little too strong for us. Domtar produces and distributes wood products. The stench created in Dryden was eerily similar to the pungent aroma of the Abitibi factory in Fort Frances. We had lunch at the Patricia Inn, both having a burger and fries. However, I had gravy on top of my fries- which is absolutely delicious! I understand why the Canadians like it so much now!

The drive home was not as breathtaking as the morning drive or the drive to Kenora from International Falls the night before. There were fewer lakes and views to be seen from the car window. But overall it was a terrific trip that we took one just one tank of gas, two meals and a hotel room!