This part of the road is one of Canada's famous scenic drives. So make sure your phone is charged, your gas tank full, and you are ready for constant awwws and ooohs!

Again, we spent a week on a road trip over there before as there are really a lot of really cool places along Lake Superior.

So this time we only stopped to take pictures at:

• Wawa Goose - yes, it's a large goose, but apparently, it's also one of the most photographed landmarks. It's just by the road, so stop & snap a pic, or it didn't happen.
• Winnie-the-Pooh statue in White River - another chance for a selfie as it's where the real bear cub that inspired A. A. Milne was from. It's a 5 min stop so you may as well do it.
• Highway Lookouts - keep an eye out for them as some of them are really worth stopping to snap a picture.
• Terry Fox Monument - it's not only a heritage site with a statue honoring one of Canada’s most beloved heroes, but also it's overlooking Lake Superior. There's also a nice picnic area right there.

If you're not in a hurry, here are the highlights that are more time consuming, but totally worth visiting along the way:

• Agawa Rock Pictographs trail - this one is a bit extreme for my taste but totally worth it. It leads to one of the few pictograph sites in Ontario accessible by foot. Mind you, it's accessible only when the weather is good, and the lake is calm. It's a short trail, but part of it you have to walk on a tiny path along the slippery rock holding a rope so you won't fall into the lake. So here's where we learned what "accessible" means in Canadian 🙂 But once you're done with it, the sense of accomplishment is enormous! (This stop will add about 1 hour to the trip)
• Sleeping Giant Provincial Park’s Thunder Bay Lookout. It's a bit of a detour - 1-hour drive from the highway. But you can combine it with camping at the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park which is amazing (campsites by the water kind of amazing). The lookout is great as long as you're not afraid of the hight. Why? Because it's a cantilevered platform extending from the cliff edge situated almost 140 meters above the water. The views are stunning, though.
• Fort William Historical Park: if you want to understand Canada history, all the things about trading posts & fur trade - this is a place to be! It's super cool. Make sure you catch a guided tour as this place is huge (over 250 acres). And you need a couple of hours to spend there. 
• Kakabeka Falls - they're called the ‘Niagara of the North’ and are pretty awesome. If you skip the hike, you can snap a few pictures from both sides of the falls and be back in the car within 1 hour.
• Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park - an easy 1.8 km loop trail with panoramic views of the canyon. The views are really great, but you'll need at least 1 hour to do it.

The third day was all about the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. I've heard a lot of good things about it. So we woke up really early and just drove straight from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

We only stopped to snap a picture at the CST time zone change board (still in Ontario) - because you've got to celebrate gaining one hour to your day! (tip: keep your eye out for it as it's on the left side of the road when driving West). And then at the Manitoba border some 6 hours later. Fun fact: it took us 2 full days just to leave one province because Ontario is huge, and you need to go around the great lakes.

Other than that, we only took quick washroom and lunch breaks as we wanted to have as much time as possible in the museum. 

We've arrived in Winnipeg around 2 PM,  quickly checked into the hotel and went straight to the museum. And it didn't disappoint. It really is a must see! Mind you, it's emotionally intense. They even have a place called Garden of Contemplation where you can stop and process it all. But it is good! It makes you think about what being a human really means. It shows you how new we are to the whole human rights idea and how many mistakes we've made on the way. It is a humbling experience. And the building itself is a masterpiece complementing the exhibitions really well. So I totally recommend spending at least a couple of hours there.

Then we went to the Forks Market (which is just next to the museum) to grab a bite. And it's an excellent place to see how vibrant Winnipeg is. It's a farmer's market style shopping & dining hall with a lot of food & beer options for everyone. Really cool! So make sure to check it out. 

Besides that, we only walked back to our hotel, passing numerous loft-style heritage buildings that give the city a distinctive look and feel. 

On the fourth day, we braved the Canadian Prairies. This is the part of the road that most people hate because the land is flat as a pancake and there's not much to see according to many. On the other hand, people praise the Big Skies of Canadian Prairies. So we were kind of excited to see how it's really like.

Here's the thing: there are two ways you can take your trip from Winnipeg:

• Yellowhead Highway from Winnipeg to Saskatoon, and then west to Edmonton or Calgary (it's said to be a bit more scenic, but also a lower quality road)
• or continue on Highway 1 to Regina, and then to Calgary (the fastest).

So we considered taking the more scenic route through Saskatoon, but the weather was really unpredictable. There was snow in Calgary, flurries in Winnipeg, and we didn't want to get stuck somewhere on the way. So we just chose the fastest route. This meant it was one of the shortest drives of the whole trip - not even 600 km.

We obviously stopped at the Saskatchewan border to take a picture. But other than that we just drove straight to Regina. 

And honestly, it wasn't boring at all. There may not be much to see, but that's the whole point of nothing blocking the views. We really enjoyed Saskatchewan Skies. It felt like being inside of a huge snow globe. 

We also gained 1 more hour by crossing time zones. Yay!

When we arrived in Regina, we finally felt how tired we were. So we just drove around town, grabbed a vegan burger in one of the restaurants, checked in to the hotel, and fell asleep. What is life without adventure, right?

Day five had a few fun stops along the way.

We stopped at Moose Jaw to take a picture with the giant moose sculpture. Obvi! Then at the Alberta border. And then in Medicine Hat to see the world's largest tepee. All of those were 5 - 10 minutes stops that make the 8-hour driving a bit more interesting. The rest of the time, we enjoyed the Big Sky of the Canadian Prairies. 

We reached Calgary in the early afternoon and changed out road-trip-mode to moving-places-mode. Which meant that instead of visiting the city, we visited the last IKEA we had on our way before reaching our new home town. Well, honestly, we just knew we would be visiting Calgary soon as we move to this part of Canada permanently. And we really needed that mattress 🙂 So don't judge!

On the last day, we started driving at 6 AM, as we needed to pick up the keys to our new place. And we were actually glad we did have a head start because it was the prettiest, but also the trickiest part of the trip. 

It was May, 1st and there was snow, -4C /24F, and we passed 2 trucks that slipped off the road. So make sure you have the winter driving skills when you decide to take that road. 

But I have to admit that the views are breathtaking! 

We stopped for a few minutes in Banff, which is the cutest little town you've ever seen. We tried to drive up to Lake Louise, but there was too much snow to risk it, so we turned back. We need to visit it in the summer time for sure. If it's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip for you, make sure to reserve more time for Banff National Park and seeing the beautiful lakes it's famous for.

We took a picture with the last province border crossing to British Columbia. 

And a few hundred km later we felt like we crossed season borders too because it was 20C sunny spring weather in the Okanagan Region. And this reminded us why we wanted to move to Kelowna in the first place!