May 19th. North Shore to Thunder Bay, Canada

Headed up the North Shore into Canada today.  Went 37 miles to Thunder Bay, Ontario to see the sights.  110,000 pop.  The Fort William historical park wasn't open yet, coudn't find the amethyste jewelry shop so just burned up fuel driving around.  It was 83 degrees.  90 Km = 55 MPH.  25 Km over speed limit = $10,000 Canadian dollars minimum fine!  Moose crossing signs all say "night danger".  I thought they usually bedded down then.  They call gas stations gas bars.  We saw Pelletier's Auto Body (friends' name).  I have never seen so many dandelions in my life as we've seen in no. Minn and up here.  We drove to a hill above town to see the lake and town.  As we came around a corner, mama and her 3 black bear cubs were almost across the road.  The 3 shimmied up the closest birch so fast we couldn't believe it.  Mama must have realized we weren't going to get out of the truck and they soon shimmied down and went further into the woods with her.  You should be able to zoom in on this to see the last one coming down.  By the way, some days we aren't able to upload pics. We didn't drive an hour further to walk on Canada's longest susp bridge-600' and 152' from canyon floor or its 1/2 mile zip line.
Stopped back at Grand Marais, Mn. - cute shops.  Ben Franklin dime store was the strangest one we've ever seen.  In the '50's-60's in Iowa they were the pre-K-Mart type nickel and dime store.  In recent yrs the ones we've seen have been craft stores and we have seen 2 empty ones of those on this trip.  This one had camping stuff, 1/3rd of store was clothing and everything else imaginable.  Good deal since few shopping options there. We've seen lots of Scandanavian names - yeah, sure, you betcha (that's northern Minnesotan talk).  But we couldn't pass up going to Sven and Ole's pizza and pickled herring bar.  We passed on the wild rice pizza.  Ad for Minnesota tourism:  Want silence?  Find some farmland.  Had picture of waterfall.