Maritimes - Day 33

We got up super early this morning so that we would make it to Thunder Bay (or more accurately, an amethyst mine outside Thunder Bay) around 3:00pm.  The kids, especially the younger two, were super excited about the mine, so it wasn't even hard to get them out of bed and onto the road.

The drive was nice and scenic, though just outside Sault Ste. Marie we almost lost the van to a row of geese that decided to cross the road in front of us.  I slammed on the brakes and tried to steer towards the back of the row, wondering how much damage hitting a goose would do.  We just missed three of them, with one of them flapping his wings to take flight as he cleared the front windshield.

The amethyst mine was a bit of a scary drive - gravel roads, steep grade, but once there, it was actually pretty fun.  One of the workers gave a bit of a tour and geology lesson, after which you went over to an area where they dumped rocks from the mine and you sorted through the rocks with a pail looking for interesting ones to buy ($4 per pound).  Bradley and Jonathan were the most eager, but Evan and even Alex ended up with a few rocks that they purchased, as did I.  For a tourist trap, it was strangely fun.

The kids had wanted to go to the mine because they had been told about it by Aunt Cindy, and as we were leaving, they were just arriving, on their way out to Nova Scotia for their holiday.  Sandra had been texting them all day to try and figure out where we would pass each other, and it more or less worked out for us to meet at the mine.  We spent a short time visiting and then headed into Thunder Bay to stop for the night.  Tomorrow is another very long travel day, but we'll finally be back on the prairies.