Happyland and Kenora
Leaving Wawa we had one stop on the Saturday night on our way to Kenora. Last year we had stayed at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, and while we were there, on our drives into Thunder Bay, we would go past Happy Land Campground. So, when planning for this year, we decided we needed to give it a try for one night.
I must confess, I am now the owner of a Happy Land t-shirt. When buying the shirt, I was transfixed by the board on the wall that the owner was using to update the reservations.
When I asked her if I could take a picture she laughed and said: “Of course… best part is it still works when the power goes out.”
We went into Thunder Bay for a wander and a yummy dinner at El Tres, and the next morning we hit the road for Kenora. We had stopped in Kenora twice last year (1,2), and we stopped for a week again this year. We stayed at the same campground, Anicinabe Park. It’s practically in the town of Kenora so it’s a nice walk in to get groceries or go for a coffee. Same as last year, there were deer all over the place, both in the campground and walking down the sidewalk in town.
The deer wander through people’s yard munching on whatever is within their reach so residents have all kinds of contraptions covering their gardens and trees to try and protect them.
We discovered that Kenora has a nice 9-hole Disc Golf course in Garrow Park. It starts in the beach on the south shore of Rabbit Lake, and then winds its way across the road and through the woods.
The night before we left, I went for a walk to the garbage and recycling, and as I crested the hill, I was surprised to see over a hundred people in the park, with the setting sun glinting off of many of them. I quickly realized it was grad night, and they had all gone to the park for photos. So, so many sequinned dresses!
On our last morning we went to the Hungry Pug Cafe for breakfast, in downtown Kenora. It is a place we had discovered last year when we were there. Having learnt our lesson from last time, we got there as soon as they opened to avoid the inevitable line-up that we knew would happen. After breakfast I got my un-iced cinnamon bun to go and we grabbed one last coffee from the lovely Iron and Clay coffee shop before we hit the road for the short drive to Winnipeg.
I will end this post with a photo of a series of three signs they had posted in various places in the Anicinabe Campground, which seem like sage general advice: Just. Slow. Down.
