Thursday, March 3, 2011

Road Trip


Over the past week I have been on a road trip through Northern Ontario. I began my adventure in Burlington, Ont. with the final destination of Sudbury, Ont. programmed into my G.P.S.

While I was driving I started talking to myself, “I really don’t know much about the province of Ontario. I mean I’ve grown up here, but never really learned about my surrounding.” It was a long drive.

After some digging, these are the most interesting tidbits of information I have found:
  • Ontario is the second largest province in Eastern Canada, only Quebec is larger. If Ontario could be its own country it would be larger than France and Spain combined.
  • Some cities in Ontario are actually south of places in the United States. As a Canada I have always thought of Canada as North of the U.S., even if I can clearly see on a map that Toronto and much of the Niagara Region is south of Seattle, North Dakota and parts of Maine, I never really put that much thought into it.
  • This summer, if you haven’t already been, take a trip out to the world’s largest freshwater beach, Wasaga Beach. Along Georgian Bay you can enjoy 14 km of sand and sun.

#500 locomotive on preserve.
  • In Gananoque, Ont. (north, east of Kingston, Ont.) used to have North American’s shortest running railway: The Thousand Island Railway was only 5.43 km long. The service ran for 111 years from 1884 to 1995, and in October 1997 the rails were removed. Today you can visit the unique locomotive #500 preserved at Sculpture Park, where King Street crosses the Gananoque River and go for a hike along the old track.

At my final destination, Greater Sudbury, I was able to visit the world’s largest coin: the Big Nickel, a giant reproduction of a 1951 Canadian Nickel, measuring 30ft in diameter.

As you have travelled across Ontario, short or long distances, is there anything interesting you have learned about Ontario?




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5 comments:

  1. I think that I've seen a lot of Ontario. You mentioned Wasaga Beach: that's one of my favourite places to go. There are so many great spots up north as well. So many people forget that Ontario and Canada have so many interesting spots to visit. We are overshadowed, however, by luxurious vacation places in Europe and down south, that we dismiss Ontario all together.

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  2. Ironically, I have done more travelling outside of Ontario than I had actually realized until now. I have never really traveled outside of Southern part of out province with the exeption of Thunderbay and even when I did that I flew. I am however going on a roadtrip this summer back to Thunder Bay and now will appriciate the scenery much more than I would have before reading this post.

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  3. I have to admit, I am the same as you Kait I have barely travelled around Ontario and even Canada. But there is one destination I would like to see, a friend of mine is from Wawa, Ont (4 hours north of Sudbury) and there is the worlds largest goose there, I think it would be an interesting thing to visit!

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  4. I never realized how big Ontario was in relation to European countries. Great post.

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  5. I really need to travel this country more instead of leaving for the US and Mexico. Good post

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