Our first stop in downtown Thunder Bay was at Sleeping Giant Antiques. We had a nice time just walking around and looking at all the unique things for sale. Deborah and I are both suckers for a good antique store ;)
The building was so interesting! It was shaped like an octagon and was several stories.
After that we walked to a few more shops that were within walking distance, including an entire store filled with amethyst jewelry, spoiler alert, it was much too pricey for us ;p
So we headed back up town close to where we had stopped and grabbed some coffee earlier that morning, about a mile up the road from our hotel. Across the street from the coffee shop were lots of cute little stores we wanted to check out.
We had a nice time walking around and checking out all the stores and boutiques, some where better than others, but all of them really helped us tap into the culture and gain a better understanding of the local community. After a while it started to rain and so we went back to the car and just decided to drive around town and see if anything sparked our interest.
Both of us wanted to see if we could find a way to get down closer to the shoreline and get some pictures of the water. After a while we came across this Spirit Garden and decided to check it out.
It was exactly what we were hoping for! We were surprised to see that most of the water was still totally frozen!
It was so serene and quiet, the water that was thawed was absolutely still.
Here's a video of the crackling ice along the shoreline.
We drove a little ways further up the shore to Prince Arthur Landing.
From here we were able to see the frozen marina and lighthouse out on the bay.
We walked across the street to this Arts Centre to see what it was all about, and seek a little warmth! There was some beautiful art and little homemade crafts and so forth, but we didn't linger there for long.
These guys were skateboarding around the sidewalk by these gorgeous historical buildings, seemed liked quite an odd mixture of worlds.
We were worn out and hungry, so retreated back to the hotel to have some food and rejuvenate our tired selves.
After filling our tummies Deborah found this interesting looking Bulk Food store not too far from the hotel, and since it was only around 6pm we decided we were up for one more little adventure ;)
It was amazing! We had such a blast walking around in The Bulk Zone, filled floor to ceiling with every kind of ethnic ingredient in existence!
Their soda assortment was incredible!
I'm telling you this places has everything, Deborah even found this dashing man there! ;)
We stayed till they were ready to close, and we finally decided to call it a night.
Once we got back to the hotel we curled up in bed and watched some Gilmore Girls. It was a terrific day exploring a new city, and making some awesome memories :)
