Unraveled Wednesday: Soo

I’m joining Kat & the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday! 

KNITTING

I wasn’t sure how much knitting I’d get done while we were away for our long weekend in Sault Ste Marie — I so often do no knitting at all on vacation! I brought Maddy’s blanket panel, but only the colors that would take me for a while.

Turns out, I did a lot of knitting! If I’d brought just one more color, I’d have been able to knit several more weeks worth. Alas… as it is, we’re into September and you can see the cooler colors returning!

That was my spot over there on the couch.

Rusty sat across when we was painting, sprawled on the adjacent sofa when reading. 😉

Though I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have for leisurely pursuits, you know that I brought along other projects — supplies for a cowl, the crocheted hexagon blanket, quite a few mending projects, my “good” camera — but most of those never even made it out of the car. The cowl (portable) was in the basket with Maddy’s stuff, and I sat in the car & cast on the cowl while Rusty roamed a beach, but I didn’t get much further than that.

READING

I finished The Devil’s Cloth: A History of Stripes and Washing Lines: A Collection Of Poetry (yes, poetry!). And for vacation, I finally started The Princess Bride!

MORE VACATION

We had dinner at Mo’s Pub in Escanaba on Friday night (I recommend the house-smoked pulled pork sandwich), stayed at a cute little motel called Sunset Lodge (perfect for our needs — updated & super clean), had breakfast at The Family Inn Restaurant next door on Saturday, and then hit the road for Canada. We drove across the International Bridge right around noon and went right down to the Sault Ste Marie Canal Historic Site. The Visitor Centre wasn’t open yet, and the weather was a bit cool & breezy, so we didn’t spend a lot of time there, but we walked along the canal. We were fascinated by the Emergency Swing Bridge Dam and its story. We were hungry, too, so found lunch at The Boiler Room — one of a few establishments at The Machine Shop in the Canal District, and then headed out to our Airbnb, which was a half-hour west, with stops for provisions on the way.

I chose our weekend accommodation because of its location… right on the St. Mary River.

That’s a screen shot from the Marine Traffic app showing activity along the canal (and all over the world!). We were at the end of the point that the “boat” on the right is pointing to — with a great view of ships going to-and-fro. Just as we arrived, there were two ships passing each other right out front. We were busy talking to our hosts, though, so no pics! Rusty saw that happen one other time, but I did not. I did see one at night, though.

We were happy to just sit and knit/paint/read/watch boats go by on Sunday, and I wish we’d had one more day to do that again before heading home!

On Monday, we drove up to Wawa. We weren’t originally thinking that we’d go that far, but so much was still closed for the season — including the Provincial Parks — that what else were we going to do? The up-side to the off-season travel is that we were often the only vehicle on the highway! We did find some spots that were “less closed” than others, so it wasn’t a total bust.

We were pretty far north, and there were quite a few iced-over small lakes and plenty of snow to be seen.

The Wawa Goose — old & new.

A lot of places in Wawa were still closed for the season, too, and it was looking like Subway or Tim Horton’s were our only choices for lunch. We were headed for the latter when we spotted Philly Wawa Hoagie — thank goodness! I was drawn in by falafel, ended up having gyros & baba ganoush (with baklava to-go for later), and fascinated by some of the other “fusion” options on the menu…

…particularly some of the poutine dishes. Personally, I find regular old poutine to be, let’s say unappealing… and these mash-ups — Philly Cheesesteak Poutine, Shawarma Poutine — aren’t making it any better! haha.

I tried to stop at a yarn shop on our way home on Tuesday — it was practically at the foot of the bridge — but not open on the weekend so Monday was my only shot, and they were closed. I really, really, really don’t need to buy any yarn but, y’know, I thought if they had something special… I might also have stopped at the Shetland sheep farm we passed (twice) on the highway in Michigan but the T*u*p sign on the barn did its job & warned me off.

We had to stop by The Family Inn on our way back home because I’d left my credit card behind when we had breakfast on Saturday, and it was perfect timing for lunch.

I spotted this flyer in the vestibule… thought you might get a kick out of it, too!