I finally have a halfway decent internet connection. Yes, I am behind a few days in the blog. After I tell you about the first day of camping, I will have to leave you hanging for the rest as we need to get out of the hotel room soon. 

Driving to Thunder Bay was a very long day. We didn't really take into account the amount of time needed to get there when we decided to drive straight through, stopping to eat, time changes between time zones, etc. We arrived around 1 am. Needless to say we were exhausted and stayed at a hotel that night.

From there we chose to stay at Trowbridge Campgrounds right outside Thunder Bay. It is a beautiful area with a park attached to it. It's situated right on a river and has hiking trails throughout. We knew we chose the right spot when, on turning into the campground, we were greeted by a doe and her fawn. They only ran about 3 feet away as we turned in, stopped and watched us drive through. Then when we were at the office checking in, they showed up again and watched us. It was truly a sight!

There were many sites available so we chose a spot that was semi-private and still close to the road and washroom. It felt secluded despite there being people in the sites next to us.

Next comes setting up the tent. We really wish we had a video of that! It's our kids tent and neither of us had set it up before although Bob had watched Peter do it once. Of course there weren't any instructions! We tried to put those polls together every which way but Sunday. Nothing worked. I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have to sleep on a flat tent with a tarp thrown over us for protection. Then Bob had his ah ha! moment and we figured out how to bend the poles to put it up properly. An hour to figure it out and 5 minutes to actually put it up. We had a good laugh about it afterwards.

We went into town for lunch when we were done and wouldn't you know it, this being Monday, nothing was open. We didn't know about dark Monday. Since we don't relish the idea of fast food, we drove around until we finally found a barbecue place that was open. The food was decent and we were hungry. We stopped at a grocery store after that to pick up some lunch meat, brie cheese and salad for dinner at the campsite later.

It was still early when we got back to camp so we went for a hike on one of the trails. I can handle some easy hikes now. We crossed the small bridge over the river and started off. The first trail we walked on had some ups and downs so we didn't stay on it long as my leg was starting to ache a bit. Just as we decided to turn around we hit a cross trail. There, standing on the trail just a few feet away was another doe. She didn't move so we stood very still and watched her eat. She would eye us, eat, eye us again and so on and so forth. We very quietly went back down the trail with her still eating and not worrying about us. It was awesome!

The next trail we chose was flatter and easier for me. After that we had dinner and Bob made a fire. The wind was pretty strong so building the fire was difficult but not impossible. It burned through pretty quickly as well. Off to bed then for an early start the next day.