Maritimes - Day 3

This evening, Bradley told me that he wanted to write the blog post for today.  So, here it is:

"Everything sucked.  Then I went to the pool and it was awesome."

He really didn't have fun today, since spending the day outside in the heat touring an old trading fort isn't what he looks forward to.  As you may have guessed, the hotel pool, even a small, cold hotel pool, is what he loves.

The rest of us had a good time today, as we spent the day at Fort William, which is a historical trading fort and park.  The fort was full of actors playing the part of period specific jobs and they would tell you what took place in each part of the fort.

Unfortunately, the warm weather arrived today, as it was no longer cool.  The forecast was for 25C and thunderstorms, but it hit 30C before lunch and there were hardly any clouds in the sky, so it was pretty hot when you were outside walking around the fort.  That made it rough on Bradley, and I dressed in pants, based on the cool wind yesterday and the forecast, so I was pretty hot by the time we left in the mid-afternoon.

Anyway, I liked the fort and actually learned a lot of the fur trade history that differs quite a bit from what happened out in Saskatchewan.  The fort and trade here was run by a different company - the North West Company out of Scotland, and they competed with the Hudson's Bay Company up until their skirmishes frustrated the British, who forced them to to get along and they formed one company under the Hudson's Bay name.  Of course, it was a bit one-sided, but the North West Company felt strongly that their way of trade and relationships with the indigenous people was superior.  In fact, one of the actors spit after saying Hudson's Bay Company, much like Corner Gas.

There were a number of demonstrations of things during the day, some of which we missed, as the park was really not busy, so there wasn't a crowd of people to follow to the demonstration.  We did get to do some axe throwing, which was pretty fun, even if only Jonathan managed to get one of the axes to stick into the log.  (Also, Bradley was too young to participate in that, despite wanting to, which contributed to his unhappiness.)  After that, one of the actors asked Evan if he wanted to do a job for him and took him around the corner of a building - he was playing the role of the blacksmith and he had some metal trinkets that he wanted delivered to a girl working in the farm.  We found her and Evan delivered the small metal objects, which were sown into a necklace or anklet to make a noise as you moved and scare off bears.  I figure Evan should have kept them so we could make him a necklace that scares off bears!

After we left the park, we drove down to a park near the harbour and walked around and looked out over the lake.  Everyone was fairly hot and exhausted this point, but it was nice to see Lake Superior for the first time.  Then we headed back to the hotel to rest and cool off.  After supper, Bradley, Evan and I went to the pool, where Bradley spent the time doing polar dips by sitting in the hot tub for a few minutes and then jumping into the cold pool.  Obviously he had a lot of fun.

Tomorrow is another long driving day, as we loop around Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie.