It is Annual Meeting time again in the United Church of Canada.  This means the regional migration of personnel to meeting sites in various areas of the country.  Last year's meeting took us to Sudbury, ON.

And I wrote this:

I have this dream trip~ it centers around visiting all the Big Things of Canada.
I might have to go alone.
I just can't seem to convey to others the wonder of the Nackawic Axe, the Bloomfield Guitar, The Woodstock Cow (Springbank Snow Countess, thank you very much) or the other wonders flung, hugely,across our nation.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned my familiarity with the giant fiddleheads and today I made it to that mecca of Canadian giant objects... The Big Nickel! Woohoo! And I think I said "world's biggest coin" and "look at the size of King George's head" enough times and with enough enthusiasm to really convey the significance of this moment to my daughter.

There it was, glinting in the early morning sun.
So... big.
And silvery. Well, nickel-y, I suppose.

Enjoy this poor quality cell phone picture of the great moment:

This year? Well this year we travelled north~ further north than I have ever been, although in the grand scope of Ontario, not so very North!  We met in Kirkland Lake at the Hockey Heritage North Museum.

And we stayed at very affordable cottages (read: cheap, no hot water, but you can't beat the view!) near the little northern town of Swastika.

Yep. Swastika.
A little gold mining town that refused to change its name during the provincial government's World War Two campaign to change any town names that seemed politically incorrect (ie. Berlin became Kitchener).  Story has it that every time the government would replace the highway sign for Swastika with one bearing their new name 'Winston' (as in Churchill), residents would take it down and re-erect the Swastika sign.
Why? Because they had it first.
Before Hitler.
And they clung to its ancient meaning of well-being and luck, refusing to allow Nazism to take it away.
Good on them!

But I digress.
I really wanted to talk about Big Things!
I was so excited on the drive up North to see not only a big fish, but a giant Bison!
A little research told us that it is Manitou the Bison and we planned our drive home to include a visit with the big guy in Earlton, ON.


Except that we didn't know he was in Earlton.
Our plan was to keep a lookout for him.
After all, he is 19' tall, 27' long, weighs 9 tons, is covered in Christmas lights and stands amidst a vast RV trailer dealership.
How could we miss him?

But we did.
Somehow we drove past a 9 ton giant Bison at the side of the road.

I could have cried.
My only consolation was that we still had the big fish ahead of us.
And we did not miss him! 
We stopped to marvel at the 21' pickerel in Marten River.
Yes, we did.
When Rowan and I arrived home and my husband heard my sad tale about the missed bison he tried to cheer me up with the promise of a visit to Dunnville, ON this summer to see their newly erected 50' long Muddy the Catfish.
Isn't that romantic?♥♥

What is your favourite big thing?!