Sudbury, Ontario - The Big Nickel

According to the current Greater Sudbury Tourism Guide, Sudbury has "one of the largest concentrations of nickel-copper sulphides sulphides in the world" along with other great stuff to mine. A scary thing I learned reading this guide is that "there are 5,000 km of mining tunnels under the Sudbury area and placed end-to-end, you could drive to from Sudbury to Vancouver underground." Yikes!

So, here is The Big Nickel, a landmark honouring the mining industry in Sudbury (which I used to see every day from my bedroom window). It was freshly polished for the arrival of my friends and I!

After the nickel has been taken from the rock it is poured out at the temperature of molten lava.

Here is a pot being dumped. This is what we would actually see from our house at night.

This is slag that has cooled.

Killarney, Ontario

We didn't go into Killarney Provincial Park but we went into town. This description from the Provincial Park website gives a good overview of this area on Georgian Bay.

"Considered one of Ontario Parks’ crown jewels, this majestic, mountainous wilderness of sapphire lakes and jack pine ridges so captivated artists – including The Group of Seven’s A.Y. Jackson – that they persuaded the Ontario government to make it a park. Once higher than the Rocky Mountains, La Cloche’s white quartzite cliffs gleam like snowy peaks from afar. Where paddlers, hikers, skiers and snowshoers now journey through in this craggy, imposing landscape, there is evidence that others passed thousands of years before." Description taken from here.

We ate our fresh fish and chips here.

The French River, Ontario

We stopped in the French River. I used to view the river from the shore but now there is a green bridge so you can cross it.

Overlooking the French River.

If you look closely, you can see the trees growing along the waterline.

This is the Highway 69 bridge.

British Columbia

For two weeks in August I was in British Columbia. I spent five days on Vancouver Island, four days on Denman Island and eight days in Vancouver. Here are 27 or 28 pictures from the over 600 I took over the course of the trip. I'm not a great photographer but I tried to pick more of the scenic ones. I hope you enjoy them! (Don't miss the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge Picture...you may have to use the link from the list on the right to see it.)

Victoria, BC

This is me standing at the top of Mount Tolmie, the highest mountain in the city of Victoria. I 'd just arrived in BC a couple of hours earlier.


The Empress Hotel and part of the inner harbour in downtown Victoria.




I went to Butchart Gardens (north of Victoria) on a Saturday but it was relatively quiet considering the number of people there. It's a large place made up of smaller, themed gardens.

This is the sunken garden.


This is from the Japanese Garden. I loved all the green!


Mom, check out the hanging baskets!

Juan de Fuca Provincial Park

Juan de Fuca Provincial Park (east of Sooke, BC) has a 47 km wilderness trail along the western shoreline of southern Vancouver Island and many beaches. The area is known for how the rainforest meets the sea.

This is the rainforest on the way to China Beach.


I also hiked to Mystic Beach. Steps were carved out of this log (much longer than it looks).


There was a small waterfall trickling off the rockface and small caves are slowly forming from the tides (see the people?).


This was the view from the beach.

Duncan, BC

Duncan is part of the Cowichan Valley which is rich with the history of the Quw'utsun' (Cowichan) Native People. Approximately 70 totem poles decorate the city. I had a tour of the Quw'utsun' Cultural & Conference Centre and learned about the history of the Cowichan people in the Duncan area.



Duncan is overlooked by Malahat Mountain. Here are two pictures taken from the top of the Malahat.