#travel // Day Hiking Ontario, Canada

Our days in the vacant, rural side of Canada were winding down as we continued on the highway that would lead us into Toronto. Before hitting the big city, we had a couple final days hiking with the crisp, fresh air. While we had a grand ole time exploring hidden gems of rural Canada, we were getting ready to be back in civilization! 

 In case you're new here, this is part of a seemingly never-ending series about my autumn road trip, going around all five great lakes with my German boyfriend, Torsten. You can view pasts posts by clicking here! 

All these photos are a mash-up of all the random breaks taken during the long drive to stretch our legs, enjoy the views and hear the waves crash on shore. It's incredible to think our only other company on these walks were chipmunks and hawks. Even though the nights could be near freezing, we lucked out with having great, sunny weather for nearly all of our time in Canada. 

One of our final, longer hikes was to these falls (blanking on the name right nowl). Somehow we managed to veer off the official trail early on and were surprised how rugged it was, only to meetup with the actual trail three quarters into it. We didn't care so much as we had a squirrel accompany us for awhile and we had fun climbing around large, lichen covered rocks. I like to think we took the scenic route!

In the photos, the falls don't look like much, but between the width and ferocity of the water rushing through, they were actually pretty impressive. The day was sunny and warm enough where relaxing next to the falls was practically mandatory before heading back for another few hours in the van. 

As usual, we had to have one more secluded sunset before making our way into Toronto. From here on out our road trip exclusively led us through cites. Keep an eye our for Toronto, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis and St. Louis! Like I said, this series is never ending! 

Cheers!

#TimeTravel // October 2013 // Minneapolis & Major Decisions

At this point in the trip, Torsten and I had made out way through Chicago, Milwaukee and my humble abode in North East Wisconsin. Our trip was, so far, going according to plan. Now I'm not sure if you remember, but in October we were burden with the threat of a government shutdown. Our original route, meticulously planned for months on roadtrippers.com and a Google-drive doc, would being incredibly severed considering we planned to go out west after Minneapolis, where our major destinations were national parks and monuments.

In near perfect timing, we heard all national parks and monuments would officially be closed for an indefinite amount of time. We were in Minneapolis when we heard the news and would decided by the end of the night where our new, and more spontaneous, route would take us. But first, we had one of my all-time favorite cities to run around! We drove in along the river, you know, the big huge one that goes all the way down to the gulf? It's kind of a big deal. Anyway, we marveled the bridges and old mills before rolling the van up into my old hood. 

That's right, Minneapolis was home to my first taste of adult freedom as I spent the first three semesters of my college education at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), where only the finest hipsters of the city are born.  We took a quick tour of my old educational institute then crossed the lawn over to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), a free art museum you could get lost in for hours and not mind one bit.

A few blocks west of MCAD and the MIA is "eat street". South of downtown, along Nicolet Street is basically nothing but an assortment of the most amazing, local restaurants and markets. We stopped at one of my favorite cheap eats, Jasmine Deli, where I had my dearly missed mock duck sandwich and was enjoying it too much to even care what Torsten got. After Lunch we jumped back in the van and drove over to the Walker Sculpture Garden. Within the garden is one of Minneapolis' biggest icons, the spoonbridge and cherry along with a heap of other sculptures that are fun to pose and play around with.

From the sculpture garden we walked across the bridge, through a park and into the downtown. What makes Minneapolis' downtown so unique is how almost every major building is connect through a labyrinth of sky walks. Work in the downtown and you may never have to step outside to bear the elements. ever. I remember the first time I went exploring through them I wasn't really keeping track of my direction and legitimately became lost somewhere in the buildings. I did randomly come across the illustrator behind The Yellow Submarine, Heinz Edelmann, selling prints of his work for charity not even a year before he ended up passing away. I never had much reason to venture into the downtown during my few semesters at MCAD, but when I did there was always an entertaining story afterwards.

This was my first time back in Minneapolis where I could legally drink. So when Torsten asked for suggestions of somewhere nearby we could grab a drink, I really had no idea besides 18+ clubs, which I was very okay with not revisiting.  We found ourselves inside the most pub-like establishment we could find; The Local. We sat and envisioned ourselves with our old Sydney gang hanging out here in true How I Met Your Mother fashion. As we threw back some drinks we discussed our road trip route dilemma and decided that, come the morrow, we would go up and around all the great lakes with little-to-no idea of what exactly our new route would entail. Within the first few hours of our new route we stumbled upon a gorgeous pit-stop. But more on that later.

Cheers!

#GreatLakeRoadTrip

Oh hey there!

Just thought I'd grace you all with a road trip update.

If you follow my Facebook page you know already that since Chicago we have explored a bit of the Lake Michigan shoreline of Wisconsin, also known as my hood. While meeting my family and visiting my favorite local places, it was around the time we heard word of the possibility of a national shutdown. We pretty much ignored the threat until it became official that it was happening. 

Having made plans for months to drive out west with all the main stops being National Parks and Monuments, we knew if nothing became resolved we would have to change our plans. Fortunately we had a few days planned in Minneapolis before having to make any major decisions, hoping the shutdown would end just in time to be able to continue on as scheduled and see the Badlands, Yellowstone, Rushmore, Arches and whatnots.

No luck.

As of right now we are in Canada. 

We decided to head up north from Minneapolis and make a Great Lakes tour instead. So far there have been some gorgeous surprises along the way with stopping in Bayfield for Applefest and crazy weather going on as we arrived in Duluth. 

It will definitely be a more spontaneous trip than originally planned with going out west, but I have good feelings about what is too come!

Cheers!

#Fallplans

Oh hey there July, can you ever not be a jerk and go by so quickly? 

How is there only a few days left of of this month? 

Honestly though, right now I'm finding it hard to really care all that much with some highly anticipated autumn plans coming up. Don't get me wrong, my summer in Bayfield is easily one of the best decisions I've made and a super amazing experience I never imagined having.

bbbuuuuuuuuttt...

knowing there is this guy on the way it's hard to focus on anything else. Towards the end of September I get to drive to Chicago O'Hare Airport, spend way too much on coffee and probably pace manically in front of the arrivals board as I wait to greet him into the U.S.

I have been planning a pretty epic road-trip route complete with the best of the Midwest & Rocky Mountains. I think I'd be lost without roadtrippers.com and my Lonely Planet Guide. It will be his first time ever coming to the States so of course I'm planning hardcore to make it awesome, but nothing too crazy.

So far I'm thinking fireworks, shooting ranges and meals consisting of hot dogs and s'mores. 

Yup.
That should do.
Only 2 more months!

Cheers!