Sault Ste Marie, ON, CA
Will wanted to go the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center on the Canadian side of the St Mary’s River in Sault Ste Marie, Canada and that we could see from the US side marina. Well, there was nothing doing. A round trip taxi ride was triple digits, there was no way for a bicycle to get across the I-75 bridge and no ferry. So, we decided to take the boat as there is a beautiful marina, named after Dr. Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian female astronaut who flew on the Space Shuttle, over on the Canadian side.
Couldn’t be that easy though. Why just go the 0.4 miles across the river to the marina? We’re at the famous Soo Locks, so why not go through the locks, drive about eight miles up the river to we can at least SEE the waters of Lake Superior and THEN go to the Bondar marina? Why not, and that’s what we did.
We waited for another boat to come down and then went through the Macarthur Lock on the US side with four other boats, including a 120-foot yacht. It’s not a big lift, only 21 feet, but it seemed like it took a half hour to go the length of the lock. It was an easy cruise down to the Round Island light and then we turned around. Back at the locks, we went through the Canadian lock, which serves recreational boats only, and then to the marina.
The Bushplane center was very interesting, where they had bush planes from the 20’s through to the present which, of course, also includes fire fighting aircraft (that also come to the US to fight fires on the south side of the border).
We ended the day at a great Filipino asian restaurant where the food was outstanding, and even better the next day as leftovers. One night on the Canadian side and we returned to the US side.
