Sudbury

The trains stops in Capreol and I head out the door. For this stop I am meeting my great Uncle Jacob who I have never met. He's my grandmas brother on my dad's side if you're wondering. The only thing I've heard about him is that he has a mustache that leaves an impression. I spot him as soon as I get off the train. I shake his hand and see who I assume is my Aunty Fran and give her a hug. That's what I love about Ukrainians; they are such welcoming people. All they know about me is that I'm the son of one of their nephews and they have opened up their home to me.

I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do here, but like Aunty Ann, they had things all lined up for me. After a quick lunch in Capreol we headed down to their home in Val Caran in his Buick Le Sabre. I quickly drop off my gear and Uncle Jacob takes me out to the city.

John at work warned me about Sudbury. I believe his comparison of the town was that it looks like the surface of the moon. Not far off at all... We go passed an old open pit mine that's been filled with water to make a lake. The eye capturing landmark is the giant chimney of a smelter that's nearby. I see mountains of rubble, to which I'm informed that it's called "slag". The slag seems to go on forever. Our destination is a little bit around the mountains of slag call Dynamic Earth. Here I go on a tour of a mine just 65 feet below ground.

Let me describe Uncle Jacob to set the tone. That part of the family is where us Mucs got our sense of humour. I see the sign for Sudbury and mention that we are now in Sudbury. He holds up his hand and says "No, not in Sudbury". A few seconds pass and now we pass the sign. "Now we are in Sudbury" and he laughs. I ask if it is Monday, and he says no. I ask what day it is and he says that it's 2/3 of the way through so it's not a whole Monday, it's just partial day. It was awesome... he was a non stop talker. Any sort of comment or jest would instigate a tangent of conversation from him. After a rare silent moment I pointed out a for sale sign on a house to which his reply was: "Yeah, you could move ther. Get a job, find a wife, have some kids, then grow old and have grandkids and retire!". Woah... I started to watch what I said after that. I wish I could have had a microphone on him during the whole trip. The conversations were priceless.

Aunty Fran is the perfect match for Uncle Jacob. She's easing going and loves to poke fun as well. She likes to point out Jacobs tendency to eye the younger ladies, but it's all in jest. You could tell that they love each others company, and I guess so since they've been married for over 50 years.

After getting back from the first tour we headed back to the house for supper. I have to take this moment to apologize to my mom. Apparently dinner and supper are two separate things to some people. Dinner to my aunt and uncle is lunch. Supper is... well dinner? I don't know, but I gave my mom a hard time for being confused about my dinner arrangement with her. Yes, I meant supper mom! Sorry for the mix up it won't happen again.

Supper was some salad, homemade bread with butter, and perogies with loads of butter and onions on them. I ate way too much, but the perogies were too good. We drank some coffee and played some cribbage and pinochle. I got roasted in both games.

At 9AM I get up the next morning and as soon as I am at the table I have a plate with perogies, eggs, ham, toast, and a large cup of coffee. These family meals are going to start hitting the waistline pretty soon. Uncle Jacob has another city tour lined up for me so he said I needed to eat up.

The first spot of todays tour was a memorial for the miners of Sudbury. It's situated on a pretty lake surrounded by Bell Park. I have to say that Sudbury is a pretty town even though that's not reflected in the pictures I've taken. I just don't see industry on such a scale like that so my picture taking is drawn to those sites. The reason for all the mining in this area is that a large meteorite hit this land and exposed and deposited the rich minerals in the surrounding area.

We then headed to a place called Science North. This place makes me embarrassed of Science World. Science North is extremely well done and magnitudes better than Science World. My favourite part was the butterfly collection. You enter a room that is full of all sorts of butterflies. There's a mirror on the wall to make sure you don't leave the room with any that have landed on you. It was hard not to spend all day there but Uncle Jacob was waiting in the cafe and I didn't want him to wait too long. He didn't join me because of all the walking and he said he's seen it all before. Then he spent 10 minutes explaining to me why it was stupid to pay another $15 to see something over again. I agreed with him 30 seconds into his explanation but that didn't stop him.

On the way back to the house I noticed a lot of Tim Horton's on the way. I made the mistake of mentioning to Uncle Jacob. He thinks it's ridiculous that people would pay money for coffee that could be made at home for a nickel. In a way he has a point but it goes further than that. He thinks Tim Hortons will bankrupt the average Canadian because he thinks there's something added to the coffee that makes it more addictive. Why else would people constantly drop $500-$600 a year just for a cup of coffee once a day?

After another massive meal of steak, meatballs, cabbage rolls, bread, strawberries, poppyseed cakes, and coffee we end the night by playing some cards. I'm happy to say that I won two games of pinochle in a row! My favourite part of the game was when they would try to outbid each other in the beginning rounds of the game. I think some Ukrainian curses were uttered but I didn't understand any of it.

My last morning with the Bzdels involved another massive breakfast and a surprise visit to a cousin (granddaughter of Uncle Jacob) I never knew I had. Her name is Tara and is currently going to Laurentian University in Sudbury. I'm so used to meeting cousins that are 20 years older or 15 years younger than me that having one near my age was refreshing. Too bad she's so far away that we can't hang out.

Uncle Jacob and I make it to the train terminal and find out that the train is going to be 2 hours late. We grab a quick bite to eat at a Capreol cafe and say are goodbyes. He offers me some collectible coins from the Canadian Mint to remember him by. As if I would forget him and Aunty Fran!