Later that morning, feeling rested, we toured Thunder Bay visiting the Amethyst Workshop. The Panorama Amethyst Mine just outside of Thunder Bay has the largest amethyst deposit in Canada. Amethyst just happens to be Jan's birthstone. Dennis surprised Jan with an amethyst as a momento of the trip and a 28th Anniversary present.
Next a tour of Fort William: an actual working replica of an old fur trading post from the 1800s. Our guide dressed in period costume gave us a narrative escort of the Fort; tasted smoked fish, canoeing on the river and did you know the canoes had to be recaulked every night so they wouldn't leak, horse drawn wagons, a fur press so that more furs could be packed into a 'Montreal' canoe (eight paddlers required), the voyageurs' bunkhouses, an old fire truck, and even a live deer in the woods.
Our day of rest turned out to be a delightful break from the roadtrip.
