Sultry days in Sudbury

18-21 September
Our 3 nights/3 day stay with Isobel & Robin was relaxing; so familial especially as we have hosted them in NZ a few times over recent years that it feels very comfortable to be in their company.

 

I hadn't been to Sudbury since Dad & I visited in 1989. I didn't really remember much except their old home, the smoke stacks of the mines, The Big Nickel & Science North so this time it felt like I was discovering it anew.

Our first full day was a chance to have a familiarisation walk around the area their condo and old home is located in before heading to Science North while Isobel & Robin hosted a couple of people keen to look at the apartment before they put it on the market. Caroline & I had lots of fun trying out a number of the exhibits especially the strenth & endurance ones .... she did better than me on all tasks. Younger than me, you see!! I also loved the animals - I had no idea that porcupines could climb trees as well as they do while the beaver and the skunk (de-stinked!) were just damn cute. We also watched a bat flying session and learnt about what Canadian wildlife officers ar doing to raise awareness, and appreciation, of bats.

The place closed at 4pm so we called Isobel to tell her that we would walk back seeing it was such a lovely warm afternoon. I am so pleased we did as a car accident at  the centre's corner had snarled up the road - Isobel would never have been able to reach us within an hour! Ambulance & fire service were in attendance - nasty.
I still had my cold so we popped into the pharmacy (Shoppers Drugmart!) for more tissues, headache tabs & Echinacea as I'd run out of the stuff I brought from good old NZ. Had to ask the pharmacist which tablets were equal to Panadol as such a range of pain killers for all sorts of aches I couldn't work lout which to choose!

Back at the apartment it was time for pre-dinner drinks & nibbles over-looking the lake - very relaxing. Isobel had prepared a lovely nut loaf to accompany the quinoa and lettuces salads. Delicious. I thought her nut loaf tasted better than the one I usually make at Xmas. For dessert she had prepared a cheesecake - again totally yummy. The rest of the evening was wiled away talking politics (local to global), family stuff, updating blogs and reading the paper.

As it was another warm night I was pleased for the breeze we had coming into the bedroom but the 'beep, beep' noise of a digger early in the morning was less welcome! As Isobel said, "there are two seasons in Ontario - winter and roadworks!" Very definitely roadwork season in Sudbury with cones lining most roads & workmen looking forlornly down deep holes they had dug.

Anyway, on Wednesday we completed onward bookings online while I & R went to exercise class down in the condo basement. From what Isobel said on her return I can imagine that if she were to run the classes people would be working a lot harder and as a consequence be moving more easily! I think I could have done with attending as a week off the bike & sitting on buses has made me rather stiff!

After a cuppa we went by car to Laurentian University, where Robin used to work, so he could pick up something and, while he was doing that Isobel showed us round the campus & also the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area, If we'd had more time & it hadn't been so hot we would have enjoyed exploring the area in some depth. Once we picked Robin up we moved on to the Living with Lakes centre to read up on what the uni does at the centre and in what ways the building was able to gain a green/sustainable building award. Certainly was a lovely building in a perfect situation AND anyone living in Ontario efinitely needs to understand & appreciate the importance of living WITH lakes as everywhere one looks there's a water body of some size or shape.
                                         

We then went on, through midday rush-hour traffic to the Greyhound Bus Station to pick up our tickets - a little more complex getting them printed than I imagined but finally had them in my hot little hand! To recover from all the touristy things we had lunch at a Thai place in the New Sudbury Mall - very tasty but a huge serving for each of us! To walk a few calories off we strolled around the mall & into Walmart (we'd never visited one but had seen the movie Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price & thought them bad news). Walmart seemed like an over-large & rather tacky Warehouse. Amazed by the large range of Hallowen paraphenalia that was on sale, so much of it no doubt ending up in the trash the day after.

Onward then to 'Downtown Sudbury' - the traditional centre of town but it really is so hard to define a true heart of Sudbury as it sprawls & is full of big box retail outlets in suburban malls. To me it seems to be an unplanned city but that's mainly because I'm a small city, small country type of gal! The city is actually called Greater Sudbury composed of urban, rural, lake & forest land areas, and certainly has plenty to offer people in terms of recreational and cultural activities.

In downtown we visited the School of Architecture, a couple of craft stores on Elgin and also took in a few of the mural sites. There's some lovely older buildings and elegant churches in town that recall the heyday of the early city.

Sudbury used to be a heavily polluted mining town but since the 1970s it has been under going a process of cleaning up & re-greening. Very interesting to contrast what Sudbury has been doing and what the Ruhr region of Germany has been doing to clean up since the end of coal mining.  Here's some information on the re-greening of Sudbury:
Time-lapse photos
Greater Sudbury Council
Active History
Expertise-into-actual-green

Then drove up a hill to walk the St Peters Labyrinth (550 steps) at the Lourdes Grotto - great views and an interesting range of inter-denominational sculptures. By the time we got back to the condo the heat was getting to us all - perfect time for a swim. Whilst it was hard to get in as the water felt cold, once in we didn't want to get out. Just delightfully refreshing - can fully undestand why people loove living beside clean freshwater lakes.
 
That evening Isobel made spaghetti squash for the first time using the microwave to cook the squash. We were having our pre-dinner drinks & nibbles while it cook when we heard an loud 'Keblump' - and you can see the result in the picture below! Still, we all had a good laugh about it & managed to rescue enough to make a delicious squash & tomato sauce meal. :-)  Isobel had bought a truly OTT chocolate caramel, brownie cheesecake for dessert - stretched out over two nights as it was sooooo rich!

How not to cook Spaghetti squash

smoke stacks at sunset

The island they look over.

Our last day with the Patchetts was a slower one - we were kind of sad already to be leaving.  Isobel was packing up some ornaments in preparation for their open home so we helped carry some boxes down to the basement then took a tour of the condo's activity & community rooms. It's certainly well serviced & in a great location.
Next we went across to Big Tiger & the local mall (most shops vacant & those open barely drawing in customers - sad, though two did get our custom) with the aim of buying another large wheely bag for Caroline as lugging half our gear round in a handle-less stripped bag was becoming a p-in-the-a! Found a suitable one for her.

Back up for a cuppa then a drive out to visit the Big Nickel & see the site of Dynamic Earth The last place we managed to visit was the totally amazing Kivi Park - an outdoor wonderland, particularly for winter sports.

Managed to Skype Alan & Joy for a chat but missed out on connecting with Des & Heather before we (Isobel, Caroline & I) headed down to the lake for a final swim, waving up to Robin on the 11th floor. The swims made me feel a lot better - chased away most of the cold....... Another hot day ended perfectly.

A bit of last minute packing, an early dinner of scrummy vege burgers with salad, and Isobel & Robin drove us to the Greyhound bus station to catch our 7.30pm bus to Thunder Bay ..... an 15 hour overnight journey. Bid Isobel & Robin farewell - felt quite teary..... and boarded the bus. It was a full service so we were lucky to get seats together.

Thanks Patchetts all for hosting us so warmly & generously in Ontario and for ordering up perfect summer weather.