Lake Superior Circle Tour: Last Days in Thunder Bay

The Sleeping Giant
Wearing a ship for socks ;)
Lake Superior is COLD!

So after 29 degrees and sunny, the next day was only like 8 deg when we got up?!?!  And drizzly.   Complete reversal from the day before so we took that as a good day to go to the Panorama Amethyst Mine and learn about Amethyst mining history and geology.  The route to get there was a little dodgy at times - we were pretty sure we were going the right way, but what seems to be a very obvious tourist location, quickly feels like it's really hidden in the background.  Then there's a very steep hill with some switchback turns that was... more intense than expected.   So I laughed when we saw this at the top:

Someone had a sense of humour

It was a family owned mine and the woman telling us about it was very passionate.

The owner during the history and geology lesson

It was interesting and I definitely learned things.  I'm glad of my habit of reading signs or I would've missed my favourite part - they mythology lesson!

I enjoyed this

There were very few people in our group, but the parking lot was huge - my guess is both school buses and tour busses visit (I also assume this cause part way up the hill there was a sign that busses should not go any farther ;).  But once again, timing win, as there were very few people there when we went. 

The mine

Neither Mum nor I were super into digging for Amythysts ourselves though and we were being partially eaten alive, so once the tour was over we explored super briefly, stopped in the shop, and then headed out.  Some great views and pics on the way back - weather was thinking about clearing :).  But still chilly so we mostly just spent the rest of the day relaxing.  

The drive up the hill was steep,
but the view before you go back down was worth it!

The sun came back the next day so we went down to Prince Arthur’s Landing.  

The whole walk was super pretty

I really enjoyed it; there were various different types of gardens, some art exhibits, it was fairly gorgeous out, we walked the full length and then sat and enjoyed the park for a bit.  

The trail was as accessible as they come :)

Later had a lazy afternoon involving a book in the sunshine :)

We spent some of that lazy afternoon chilling in the park instead of the hotel

The hindsight gremlin probably would've put one fewer day in Thunder Bay and one more on the trip home, but we had originally planned for roughly one thing per day and wanted an extra day in case we got rained out.  It's just that we squished many of those things into the first two days!

Random extra photo with part of the garden, the Sleeping Giant, AND a sailboat :)
Just a perfectly lovely day - temp, weather, activity, and company.