Niagara Falls..

Wow!  The last Ontario project of the year and I was lucky enough to draw St Catherines. Not only was it a part of the province I had never spent much time in, but it turns out the closest corporately approved hotel was the Crowne Plaza in Niagara Falls, right across from the falls and only a 20 minute drive from the worksite.

I drove in the night before my first meeting and was pleased to get an upgraded room with a Falls view but although I had a great view the room was ridiculously small with no work space or even a cupboard to hang my clothes. I considered asking for a room change but decided to suck it up and check out the town ab it as I headed for a Mexican restaurant that I remembered from years ago for dinner. Walking up Clifton Hill the streets were packed with tourists and families and slightly clad Europeans, with bells and whistles and lights and music was quite a change from the excruciating  lack of- well, anything that I had experienced the week before in Timmins.

I sat at the bar at Taco n Tequila and ordered a pint of Buzz beer, a hemp based beer that was one of two organic selections and a stuffed myself with beans and bread and  tortilla and salsa and cheese to help the pints go down. During the course of the next couple of hours I got to know a cool pair who sat had down next to me at the bar, Al and Lisa were karate trainers, soccer players, motorcycle riders and among other things, outlaws. Both made references to their inability to cross the border and Al got visibly defensive when I pushed him on the subject. It turns out Lisa has connections to a Chinese cultural center just steps from my home in Toronto and suggested I stop in next time I was in town. Mentioning her name would evidently get me in to see the head instructor who would, if he chose, instruct me in karate and tai chi. Tai chi has interested me for a long time and the two talked about karate I got excited to perhaps start to learn both.

Early the next morning, I was up early and set to go for a run along the path overlooking the Falls.

For the first time in my life my body has started to pay attention to the horrible things I have been doing to it for a couple of decades now. Countless nights of copious amounts of liquor and food, both fine and fast, have until recently left my figure slim and trim with inconsistent or complete lack of effort on my part. Three months shy of my 40th I find myself with a developing beer belly, a greying beard, and creaking joints. Time for action..

The air was cool and the path was empty of the throngs of tourists that would later make the way almost impassable at any speed faster than a worm. I ran, with neither speed nor style, for about a kilometer between the American and the Canadian Falls and then back along the same way. Not a marathon but enough to feel good about the way I had started the day. When I returned to my room to get ready for work I could barely breathe in the room, the a/c was pumping out waves of heat and wouldn't shut off. Already hot and sweaty from my run, I needed to have a quick shower and get ready for work. When I stepped out of the shower a few minutes later it was jungle humid and hot in the room now. I was still close to soaking wet when I headed to the front desk and get the a/c fixed and then to work. WhenI returned that afternoon the room was still baking and the clerk at the desk gave me a sweet upgrade that would eventually include free breakfast and a bottle of red wine. Cool

By the third evening in the middle of the tourist district in Niagara falls I was ready for a change of scenery so I decided to drive out to Port Delhousie, a town a half hour up the coast of Lake Ontario that was rumoured to offer some of the best sunsets in the province. A sucker for both a good sunset and a good picture taking opportunity I took off for the beach and was settled on a patio with a pint about 6. It was a popular spot and I struck up a conversation easily with a group of locals. I sat in the sun and soaked up the atmosphere until I got hungry then walked to an Indian restaurant just around the corner.  The restaurant had only a small patio with plastic chairs, no indoor seating area and was open at the side giving me a view into the kitchen. I watched the elderly Indian man cook my food and my mouth watered as the breeze brought the smell to my table.  I sat in the sun and opened the stiff clean pages of the novel that I had just bought. The words of JKerouac kept me company for the next hour and a half as I ate the most amazing meal of jasmin rice, da'al chick peas, lentils and na'an. I devoured the food and the words with equal fervour as the time passed and got up as the dusk set in completely satisfied and ready for a sunset on the beach.

I wandered along the sandy beach for awhile looking for a good spot to record the setting sun. It was a gorgeous evening with a clear sky and I could see my home city Toronto waving ghostly across Lake Ontario 80 kms away.

The sun was low in the sky and I started taking pictures. As it slowly slid below the horizon it turned orange and captured the distorted silhouette of a sailboat in the distance it was a magical moment and certainly did nothing to diminish the reputation of the area. With the moment passed I headed back to my car and drove back to Niagara slowly, then spent the rest of evening in my hotel room looking at the pics from the day.

By the fifth morning I think I had forgot the falls were even there until I jogged around the corner on my third morning run of the week. The amazing view that I had been giddy about when I had first looked out my hotel room window had lost its novelty and the crowds of tourists and the noise of Clifton Hill began to frustrate me each morning and afternoon as I commuted to work each day.  It was relieving to get out of the city to the calmness of  the suburbs of St Catherines every day. Although I had some great food and great times in the Falls during the evenings of the workweek, I began to feel like I was living in a circus. The lights and noise and crowds were omnipresent and grating and by the end of the week I was quite ready to leave it behind except..

I had decided to extend the stay for an extra night as a good friend had arranged to spend a day in the Falls. The town took on a completely different flavour now that I was on my own time and as I enjoyed it with company, Niagara Falls totally regained it's awesomeness. The buzz of Clifton Hill was energizing and we ate great food on a patio that featured incredibly talented wait staff that sangbetween serving the tables and then later wandered and stopped to listen to music where ever we heard it. The next day we rode the ferris wheel and then walked down along the Falls The natural power and beauty of the place was inspiring and we took pictures like all the other tourists as we marvelled. It was so great to end the trip on such a high note and though eager to get home for a couple of days I was sad to leave.

I will be home just long enough to see the kid, pay the rent, throw a Frisbee, unpack, do laundry, repack and head back to the airport for a trip to Edmonton, Alberta. Edmonton.. they have a mall there I think. I hear it may have a roller coaster.

That may be fun..

Cedar Meadows, Timmins, Ontario

There's not much point in writing about Timmins. It's shitty. Blunt, but true. There's nothing interesting there, I tried but failed, completely, to find anything to do there.. for six days. Justin Beiber was in town, even that didn't help. I saw a lot of french fry/poutine/hamburger stands, a bar advertising 'amateur stripper' night and a street festival comprising a few plastic patio tables and a 'Heart and Stroke Foundation' booth. I ate at generic chain restaurants and drank at generic sports bars.

That's it.

I did stay at an interesting, although second rate, spa/resort called Cedar Meadows. The hotel sits on a bunch of acres (really.. what the hell is an acre?) of wildlife preserve. The property houses a herd of deer, a trio of clydesdale work horses, a dozen moose and four buffalo along with ducks swans and all the usual bird suspects. Deer and horses 'pen up' in yards within sight of the hotel and I spent several evenings sitting on a plastic chair on the small patio outside my room watching them. Mosquitoes the size of flying rats feasted on me as I tried to enjoy the animals, the big sky, and the beautiful setting.

The horses especially were friendly and would run right to the fence between us as soon as I approached. The deer were less sociable and retreated with their young fawns to the farthest corners of their field.

Luckily I was kept busy at work and had my full team to keep me company during downtimes as well as a surprise encounter with a former colleague who joined me for a horrible dinner at a local all you can eat steakhouse run by a friendly, but completely daft, Sri Lankin fellow who said he specialized in Jamaican food, of which their was none on the 26 page menu. Usually you can rely on the locals to recommend some interesting and decent quality places to eat.. this time they wrong.

With the team scattering across country on the fourth day, I was left alone for 80 hours in Timmins with little to occupy my time outside of my four hour work days. The spa at the motel which offered massages, steamrooms, hottubs and sauna's was open funny hours and needed appointments in advance so that didn't work out and all though there was a beautiful open air courtyard with a hammock that I longed for, but I couldn't quite rationalize the $35 fee if I couldn't take advantage of any of the other facilities.

At least Timmins has some very nice walking paths, one that followed a 3km loop around the Mattigami River. It was a pleasant path that would've most likely encouraged me to actually start the daily jogging regimen that I have being trying to psych myself into for the last month or so. Unfortunately (depending on the perspective) I had no shoes for jogging. In fact I had neglected to bring any shoes other than my flip flops and Chuck Taylor classic hi-tops. This oversight resulted in a franctic drive around town before the first day of work to try to find something appropriate for work. (I ended up buying the only pair of black mens shoes in town, an ugly pair of mesh covered slip ons that I'm sure I will never wear again!) The only problem with the paths was the existence of bear warnings every 100 meters or so, leaving one to be on constant alert for hungry bears.

The only activity I had an interest in was a 90 minute wagon ride, courtesy of the Clydesdales, into and through the reserve to watch the animals in their more natural environment. With camera in hand I was excited for the experience until I saw the wagon and about a dozen kids and a few odd parental figures waiting on the crowded wagon. N'uh uh.. I said discouragedly. The quiet horse drawn drive through the thick woods to see bison and moose would not pan out the way I envisioned and I decided not to go. As I sat with a can of beer outside my room a half hour later, the bird-sized mosquitoes attacked me in swarms and I imagined the young delicate skin of the dozen children on the wagon being eaten alive as the moose hid behind trees and laughed.

Driving down the highway on my way to and from work I had caught glimpses of the moose and buffalo in the dense forests and on the last evening in town I went for a drive around the perimeter of the resort to see if there was a way to sneak in to take some pictures. I pulled off the side of the highway but was disappointed by a high bard wired fence that rang in both directions as far I could see. I guess I shouldn't have been suprised as any opening would've exposed the animals to the traffic. The moose that I had seen grazing in the fields earlier in the week were nowhere to be seen but a pair of buffalo ambled around the property tearing chunks of grass from the ground as the shuffled slowly. I had never seen buffalo before and I crouched in the mud for a long time watching the huge cratures eat.

Checking out of the hotel at the end of the long week in Timmins I realized that this would be my last trip to Northern Ontario and I had mixed feelings about it. I consider myself remarkably lucky to have had the opportunities to work in all the Northern communities that I have visited over the last four years. I have stories to tell about Rainy River, Dryden, Kenora, Thunder Bay, North Bay Sudbury, Kapaskasing Sault Ste Marie, Timmins.. the list seems endless. I have seen crazy things in these towns, things weird and wonderful, amusing and confusing. and experienced incredible highs and lows as I worked in and explored the towns and cities of Northern Ontario.

One final trip in Southern-West Ontario to  Niagara Falls represents the final stop in Ontario before I start spending extended periods in Western Canada. I'll be travelling to places like Humbolt, Alberta and Grand River, SASK in the coming weeks. But first I will spend a week at the Crowne Plaza  in Niagara Falls on the company dime.

...I can't think of a much better send-off.