Programming Note: On Vacation

Gina is in Hong Kong and I'm on a cross-Canada road trip

There’s still some ice in Batchawana Bay, on the north shore of Lake Superior in northern Ontario, as my daughter Alex and I enjoy our cross-Canada road trip. (photo by Lisa Hrabluk)

Hi Everyone,

I’m writing this as a steel gray morning sky greets me in Thunder Bay, ON, the start of Day 3 of my epic cross-Canada road trip.

My daughter Alex is working this summer in Vancouver, and so we opted to see the country on an eight-day road trip, rather than send her packing on a half-day plane ride. I’ll be back in the Maritimes just ahead of the Victoria Day weekend.

We started yesterday in Algoma country, Sault Ste. Marie, a city that owes much to Bathurst, NB-born James Dunn, founder of Algoma Steel. There’s a plaque commemorating him next to Wawa, ON.’s famous Canada Goose statue, which overlooks the TransCanada Highway, about five hours northwest of the Soo. We’re in mining country up here, where the air is crisp, and the water of Lake Superior is clear and cold.

Here in Thunder Bay, we’re not far from the old grain towers that line this port city’s waterfront.

Dinner near The Forks in Winnipeg tonight, with a short side trip into Kenora, ON, where I worked as a young journalist one summer back in the late 90s. Photo in front of Husky the Muskie at the shores of Lake of the Woods is on today’s to-do list.

Gina is on the other side of the world, in Hong Kong, on a working vacation. She’s the co-owner of the Lamma 500, a large dragon boat race, which was held on Sunday. I suspect she is deservedly taking it easy today. She’ll be back in about 10 days.

Our friend, Michelle Robichaud from the Atlantica Centre for Energy, has also been travelling, and tomorrow we’ll publish her reflections on participating in New Brunswick’s recent trade mission to Antwerp-Bruges, Belgium.

Then…we’ll see. I’ve been taking notes and thinking as Alex and I dipsey-doodle through northern Ontario, and Gina wrote me a few days ago with some thoughts from HK, so the ideas are bubbling away. Maybe I’ll write something while I have a few days in Vancouver and Gina relaxes on her beloved Lamma Island, or maybe it’ll all come together once we’re back in New Brunswick.

It’s that kind of vacation.

Enjoy spring, wherever you are, and we’ll see you soon.