Don’t Forget Your Pic-A-Nic Basket Boo Boo

Posing with Yogi

Have you ever wanted to take a vacation in one of your favourite cartoons?  Try this on for size.

We spent two nights at Frankenmuth Jellystone Park, which is part of the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp Resorts chain.  This was the first experience I’ve had with this chain of parks.  Actually, it was the first I’ve heard of this chain of parks.  There are more than 70 Jellystone Park locations but only 5 of them are in Canada, the rest are in the U.S.  I guess that’s why I was so clueless.

At $55 a night, it was a little pricey for a campground but, in exchange for the extra ten bucks, you’re getting a great location.  Jellystone is right across the road from the world’s largest Christmas store and is, literally, walking distance to downtown Frankenmuth.  You don’t get that kind of convenience at most campgrounds.

I’m not going to lie to you; taken at face value, the campsites are very small.  Had the park been full, I think the sites would have been untenably small.  As it was, however, even on a weekend at the height of camping season, the staff was able to space the campers out with two or three sites between them and never backed one pop-up directly behind another.  This gave everyone plenty of space.  I’m actually getting used to the fact that most vacation parks have smaller campsites than government parks.  As long as everyone respects each other, it works out fine.

The park has a variety of amenities including a fantastic mini-golf course, a playground, free wi-fi, and a fantastic store with all sorts of cool souvenirs.  There’s a snack bar serving hot food and ice cream.  The park shows Yogi Bear cartoons in the morning and family friendly movies in the evening.  There’s a recreation hall where there are crafts and activities planned everyday.  Yogi himself can be spotted in the park at different times through the day and there are Yogi statues scattered around, just begging to be posed with.

Liam loved the indoor pool and declared that he “can swim now”.  His father and I disagree.  I’d call it floating around in a PFD holding onto Daddy for dear life.  He’s obviously becoming more comfortable with the water, though.  He’s doing just fine for a two year old.

Look! You're Floating!

Here’s a heads up about an unusual rule.  There’s a Frankenmuth city ordinance that requires a campsite fire be contained in a fireplace that is one foot off the ground.  The flames cannot exceed two feet high.  If you don’t have a fireplace and you’d still like a fire, there are community fire pits, in the park, that can be shared among the campers.  Fires must be extinguished by 11:00 p.m.

There really isn’t much I can criticize about Frankenmuth Jellystone Park.  The staff made sure we had a good time.  I can’t say enough about how friendly and welcoming they were at Jellystone.  There’s no shortage of things to do without ever leaving the park and when it’s time to go site seeing you’re a hop, skip and a jump away from everything Frankenmuth has to offer.

Now that I know about the Jellystone chain I’ll be on the lookout for them.

THE SOO

It turns out that there’s plenty to do in THE SOO and we had no trouble filling our day there.

Whitefish Bay

We started our day off by taking a drive because I had never seen Lake Superior.  We knew that the Edmund Fitzgerald would have “made Whitefish Bay if they’d put 15 more miles behind her” so we decided that was as good a place as any to stop and have a look.  As it happens the legend does indeed live “on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee”.  There, I’m done impressing you with my vast knowledge of Gordon Lightfoot ballads.

After a quick lunch at THE SOO mall we headed off to the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre.  It’s a nice little museum with lots of different planes and interactive displays.  We got to see one of the planes Uncle Ian flies.  Liam loves all modes of transportation, so he loved this museum.  It was a bit too exciting in fact and he ended up taking over many of the interactive displays by force.  He behaved rather badly all-in-all and put a bit of a damper on things for us.

We went to THE SOO locks because so many people had told us that it’s the thing to do when you go to THE SOO.  We watched the big tour boat go through.  Duncan found it interesting, but Liam and I lost interest.  Is it possible that I have the attention span of a two year old?

Trading Post in THE SOO

A must see for me was the Trading Post.  I just love trading posts; they’re so quirky and weird.  I didn’t find anything to buy…oh wait, that’s a lie.  I got ice cream.  I was allowed.  I was on vacation and you’re not going to make me feel guilty about it!  It was worth the stop if for no other reason than a photo op with the angry moose.

That's One Angry Moose

We had Italian food for dinner.  Duncan doesn’t like Italian food because he doesn’t like tomatoes, or pasta and that all but rules out the cuisine completely.  The reason we decided to have Italian food was that there isn’t really any other kind of food in THE SOO.  Unless you want a chain restaurant you will find that you’re pretty well limited to Italian eateries.  I didn’t mind.  I love Italian food and very rarely get to have it because of the above mentioned preferences of my darling husband.  I don’t remember the name of the place we ended up going, but apparently you can land a helicopter in the parking lot.  They know because it’s happened.

The conclusion I have drawn, from my one full day in Sault Sainte Marie, is that it’s a neat little city with plenty of things to see and do.  There’s more to do there if we pass that way again. I’d love to take the Agawa Canyon Tour Train in the autumn.  I’m sure we’ll be back again sometime.

Introducing François-The Road trip Coureur Des Bois

It’s August 1st and we’re wearing long pants and sweaters!  What’s up with this?

The drive to Sault Sainte Marie was decent.  The weather was good.  We didn’t get caught in any significant traffic.  Liam became impatient on occasion, but wasn’t too bad.  I brought a few new toys along, to entertain him on the drive.  At Nicole’s suggestion, I gift wrapped them to make it a bigger deal.  I took it a step further though, and invented the legendary character François-The Road Trip Coureur Des Bois who comes with presents for little children that are well behaved on long car rides.  Liam bought into it hook, line and sinker.  Why wouldn’t he?  There are so many other outlandish characters that come under cover of darkness, sneak into the house and leave him toys and candy.  To him it seems plausible that there is a dishevelled French Canadian fur trader, monitoring his behaviour and rewarding his patience.

Bonjour Liam! Je m appelle François. Es tu un bon petit garçon?

In spite of all our attempts, though, by the time we were passing through Ironbridge Liam had, had enough.  We stopped to let him stretch his legs at the Visitors Centre where there was a huge wood carving of Paul Bunyan.  We told Liam it was François-The Road Trip Coureur Des Bois and that he says to smarten up or no more road trip presents.  He now has a face to put with the name.

We’re in THE SOO now, staying at the KOA.  I like this campground.  It’s very friendly and welcoming, with lots of activities.  I’ll get into it in further detail later.  Right now I’m off to explore THE SOO.  See you all later!

Hands Up, Who’s Been to THE SOO?

I was told I took a trip down Boring Lane with the last post.  Sorry about that.

This week we’re preparing for a big trip.  We’re leaving on Friday for a week, heading up to Sault Sainte Marie (THE SOO) then over to Michigan and back home via Frankenmuth and Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland.

We’re getting organized.  We have our passports; even the dog has her paperwork in order.  My concerns for the trip are all clustered into the first couple of days.  It’s a 10 hour car ride to THE SOO and we have to keep Liam happy during the journey.  The dog will be fine.  She’s an amazing traveller.  Once we’re in THE SOO we have to entertain ourselves for two days.  What is there to do in THE SOO?  I’m trying to convince Duncan that we should go bear spotting at the garbage dump, but so far he’s not going for it.  If there’s anybody out there in the blogosphere who’s been to Sault Sainte Marie and has suggestions for family friendly fun, I’m totally open.

I also need advice from parents.  How do I entertain a two year old on a ten hour car trip?  I need some ammunition to throw at him when he starts to melt down.

OK everybody, it’s over to you.  Your advice could make or break this trip.  Come on, help a Mutha out!

Lafontaine Resort Park

What a month.  I think we’ve been camping as much as we’ve been home.  I’m not complaining.  It’s been great!  This week we stayed in Lafontaine Resort Park, which is a Castle Vacation Parks property.

Lafontaine Resort Park, near Penetanguishene Ontario, is conveniently located for day trips to attractions like Wasaga Beach, the Wye Marsh, Ste. Marie Among the Hurons, Discovery Harbour and the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre (in case you’re interested).

This RV's Plate Dates Back to 1971

When we first arrived, at the park, I was a little unnerved.  Our site was a bit on the small side and many of the sites we passed, on the way in, seemed run down and dishevelled.  Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that the park itself is well maintained.  Most of the sites are rented on a seasonal basis and many of them have been home to the same trailer for years, even decades.  The dishevelled appearance, of some of the individual sites, is the product of years of use and accumulated eccentricity.  It actually speaks very well of the park that so many people have stayed for so many years.  One RV was still plated with an annual license plate from 1971.

I am a very big fan of the eccentric and outlandish and this park was a treasure trove.  I think it was our first, full strength, no punches pulled trailer park experience.  I’m tempted to do a separate post of pictures I took of trailers in this park.  In fact, I think I will.  Stay tuned.

As I mentioned, our site was a little smaller then I like, but we only had neighbours on one side and they were only there in the late evening, so it wasn’t problem.  The other issue I had with the park was the distance to the bathrooms.  During the day the distance wasn’t a big deal, it was an opportunity to rubberneck at the funny trailers.  At night, on the other hand, it was a long, dark, lonely hike.  Duncan got lost on the way back from the bathroom the first night and ended up going for a ‘Dunc Walk’ from one side of the park to the other. (Note: a Dunc Walk is a long meandering odyssey that results from or in getting lost.)  He got to see a lot of solar lights.

The playground at Lafontaine was fantastic.  In addition to the usual climbers, swings and slides, they had a set of tire swings that were made to look like horses and cows and a big wooden train to climb around, on and through.  Liam was disappointed that the train didn’t go anywhere, but you can’t have everything.

There's a Train in the Playground!

Tuesday night we went for a wagon ride with a bunch of the other kids in the park.  There were only a couple of other parents on the ride.  We went with Liam because he’s too little to go alone.  It was a lot of fun.  I love things like that; I’m a bit of a kid myself.  The wagon, which was pulled by an old International tractor, (Go International!) took us through the woods to areas of the property we would not otherwise have seen.  At one point Duncan and I had to admit that we didn’t know where we were.  It was a nice way to spend the evening and it killed the time between supper and bed.

Sainte Marie Among The Hurons

From the park, we took trips to Wasaga Beach and Ste. Marie Among the Hurons.  We actually got a discount off our admission to Ste. Marie because we were staying in Lafontaine.  I’ll talk about Ste. Marie in greater detail later on.  I love it there so much I think it deserves a little post of it’s own.

Wasaga was fun.  It’s such a lively place!  Liam got dressed up in his little swim trunks and PFD and took a dip in the lake.  He was nervous of the water and didn’t want to go in too deep.  He had more fun playing in the sand with Daddy.  It looks like Liam may be a land-lover like me.  There’s a great splash pad, right across the road from the beach.  We took Liam over there, on our way back to the car, to clean off some of the sand.  He played there until he was shivering and exhausted.  Then we bundled him in a towel, took him back to the car and went in search of Chinese food.

All in all this was a great trip, possibly our best so far.  We’re quite settled into our cottage on wheels now.  It’s really becoming a comfortable home-away-from-home for us, with most of the comforts and amenities.  We just need a maid service to follow us around.  The park grew on me over the course of our stay.  I would probably stay there again, if we decide to do another trip to the area.  I’d still like to take Liam to the Wye Marsh and Discovery Harbour, so there may be some further exploration of the area later on.

Make Way for Jayco

A week and a half ago we got a Facebook message from our friends Geoff and Nicki.  They were suddenly desperate to go camping and wanted to go to Darlington Provincial Park, which is about five minutes from their house.  We were suspicious.  I turned to Duncan, “Do you think they have something to show us?”   “Ya”, he said. “I was wondering that too.”  Sure enough, they rolled into Darlington late that Monday afternoon hauling a monster Jayco trailer.  They’ve joined the club.  It’s a nice one, with a bump out dinette, indoor/outdoor speaker system and air-conditioning.

Excited to Play With Their New Toy

The funny thing about Darlington Provincial Park is; it’s so close to us, we’ve never been there.  There are some beautiful sites by the lake but, because none of us knew much about the park, we ended up in a pair of sites in the Hilltop campground where we were stuck listening to a 24 hour rendition of Ode to the 401 with frequent interjections of freight train.  Oh well, we’ll know better next time.  The size of the campsite was fantastic!  Ours was possibly the biggest campsite we’ve had yet.  It was grassy and sunny and surrounded by trees, which gave us privacy and room to play.

Ninja Nathan

Liam was glad to have Geoff and Nicki’s son Nathan to play with.  This was their first of what will be many childhood camping trips together.  On this first adventure they played tag and hide-and-seek, had sword fights with sticks, went for walks, played at the playground, wrestled like baby bears in the woods and learned to use nature’s toilet.

Learning to Use Nature's Toilet - Liam was Unsuccessful

Tuesday afternoon Duncan had to leave the park for a doctor’s appointment and Geoff and Nicki went shopping for trailer supplies.  That left me and Liam to entertain ourselves.  I decided to take him to the Log Cabin

Naturalist Giving Presentation on Foxes

Information Centre to Meet the Naturalist and Roxy Foxy.  A young naturalist gave a presentation on foxes and answered questions.  She showed us pictures of foxes and let us see and feel a fox pelt.  Liam and I learned quite a bit from the presentation.  It turns out that I didn’t know very much about foxes at all.  The log cabin was interesting to see too.  It’s full of a combination of animal exhibits and pioneer artifacts.  The home originated in Sunderland, ON and was moved to the park in 1967.

Log Cabin Information Centre

The Publican House Brewery "Growler"

We had a lot of fun around the campfire on this trip; chatting, toasting marshmallows and having a few drinks.  Duncan has just discovered The Publican House Brewery from Peterborough and gave all the adults a taste from his “growler” of their Square Nail Pale Ale.  Duncan enjoyed it but it was a bit too strong tasting for the rest of us.

Liam Taking Matters Into His Own Hands

At one point on Tuesday evening, Liam became frustrated with waiting for a toasted marshmallow and decided to take matters into his own hands.  He found a giant tree branch, which was meant to be broken down for the fire, stuck a marshmallow on the end and, under supervision of course, lowered it into the fire.  Nathan thought it was absolutely the most ridiculous thing he’d ever seen and he’s been kicking around for nearly five years.

We got a lot of good pictures on this trip, thanks to the posing of Rocky the Raccoon.  He invaded our space both nights looking for food.  The first night we were a little unnerved by him, but the second night we turned into paparazzi.  Adorable isn’t he?

Rocky the Raccoon

I really feel wild animals are usually better off when people leave them alone.  I’m not a fan of feeding wild animals…and here’s why.

Rocky's One Gutsy Raccoon

Rocky’s so used to being fed, or finding food on campsites, that the brazen hussy strolled right out of the woods and pretty much put his hand out and asked for chips.

It was a good camping trip.  We all had a lot of fun and, apart from a noisy campsite, nothing went wrong.  It’s fun to camp with friends and share the cooking and the campfires.  I’ll update the Campfire Cookin’ link as soon as I can.  We made something interesting for lunch on Tuesday and I’m excited to tell you all about it.  Check back soon!

This Weather Sucks!

Pleasure Park, Graham Lake, outside Brockville ON

July 2, 2009,

11:15 pm

Maybe I’m just in a bad mood because of the rain, but this place is a total disappointment to me so far.  First of all, with a name like Pleasure Park, I assumed everyone would be naked and they’re not.  Second, I have never stayed in a campground where the sites were so close together.  It’s like we’re in a giant trailer filing cabinet.  There’s no privacy or sense of personal space, and there’s no room to spread out.  As a result, I hate the people next to us.  They haven’t done anything wrong; I just can’t stand having people so close to me.  I have a very large personal bubble – deal wit’ it.

Five campsites in one photo

So far, we haven’t been able to bring in any TV stations with the antenna.  Yet another reason the Pleasure Park holds no pleasure.  Maybe I’ll like it better after a good night’s sleep.  Walking with the dog in the dark I did see some very promising trailer decor.  I’ll have a better look in the morning.

July 3, 2009

12:37 pm

It’s been raining off and on all day so far.  The park is sodden.

We made coffee and Pillsbury cinnamon buns for breakfast.  They were delicious and smelled amazing while they were baking.  I’m fairly confident the other campers were jealous; maybe even the ones with bacon.

Peggy, the dog, has done her best to behave so far but is having a bit of stage fright trying to go to the bathroom.  I wish she would just go already; it’s not healthy to hold it like this.  She has decided that she prefers to be under the trailer and keeps emerging from her hideout covered in a funky combination of grease and mud.

Liam has been really happy so far this trip and hasn’t had a single tantrum.  We were briefly able to watch PBS from the States, but for the most part, he’s been playing with toys and games and occupying himself without the TV.  He’s truly roughing it.

I took Liam for a walk around the campground during a rain-free window this morning.  He got to see the playground, but it was pretty wet and muddy so he couldn’t do much.  We watched some older kids fishing in the lake.

Trailer Chic! N.B. the use of a kitchen sink as a planter. Lovin' it!

The swimming area off the beach is outfitted with a water trampoline and several water slides.  On a hot summer day, this would be a pretty happening place.  I must admit that this park is well maintained.  The camp sites are kept neat and tidy.  The picnic tables and fire rings are all in good condition and the bathrooms are clean and well stocked.  The campers with seasonal sites have put a lot of effort into their decor and, in some cases, some money too.

4:30 p.m.

We had everything we needed to make lunch, but with more clouds looming and more rain coming we got a case of cabin fever and decided to go out.  We went into Brockville and grabbed some lunch at A&W, which is always a winner in my book.  While we were out we decided to go shopping for books, movies and Jiffy Pop, so we can entertain ourselves while we’re stuck inside the trailer.  The rain has shown no signs of letting up.

We had a rainy afternoon to fill so I decided it was time to bring out the ice cream ball.  The ice cream ball is a nifty little item my sister and brother-in-law (Auntie Caroline and Uncle Neil) bought us for the trailer.  I’ve saved it for just such a rainy occasion.  You fill one side of the ball with the ingredients to make ice cream and you fill the other side with ice and salt.  Shake and toss the ball around and after a while you end up with soft-serve ice cream.  Honestly, I didn’t expect it to work, but we actually made some really tasty vanilla chocolate chip ice cream.  Duncan sarcastically noted that it tasted a lot like ‘real ice cream’ just before he chomped down on a shard of plastic spoon that I’d accidently served him.  Ooops, I’m glad Liam didn’t get that bowl.  Anyway, the three of us agreed that the experiment was a success and we’ll look forward to making ice cream again the next time it rains.

11:15 p.m.

Tortilla Making Machine

We went into Brockville again at dinner time and ended up at a restaurant called Santa Fe where they served us up some fantastic South West style food.  Liam got a kick out of watching the tortillas being made in the tortilla making machine.  They had a big decorative mask hanging on the wall and Duncan told Liam that the mask was saying “Eat your supper Liam”.  The next thing you know, Liam was freaking out every time he heard a rumbling noise ‘cause he thought the mask was yelling at him.  His imagination is much too vivid.

The adults in the restaurant were more concerned with the giant funnel cloud outside.  The picture doesn’t do it justice because it doesn’t capture the rotating, menacing, ominousness of it all.  All we saw was the funnel cloud stage, but it did, apparently, touch-down in a fit of tornadic mischief by the river.  It knocked over some trees and caused a bit of damage, but it didn’t hurt anybody.

Funnel Cloud in Brockville

We got back to the campsite to find that it’s even more claustrophobic and noisy than last night, and it’s still raining, of course.

July 4, 2009

And what a chilly July 4^th it was.  It was 16ºC that morning, but remarkably, it didn’t rain much at all.  This day was occupied by a barbecue with Duncan’s coworkers.  We had a really nice time, but Bob’s barbecue doesn’t really have anything to do with camping and involves a lot of people who may, or may not want to be in a blog; so we’ll skip over that part.

July 5, 2009

Time to go!  The sun was actually out this morning, which made the task of packing up much more pleasant.  All my organizational efforts before the trip made things pretty easy.  We just had to put everything away, clean up and then prepare the trailer for the trip home.  It went really smoothly and everyone was far less frustrated than last time.

I left the park with a sense of satisfaction.  The weather had been about as bad as we were ever likely to camp in.  The campground had been as overcrowded as we were ever likely to tolerate.  Yet, in spite of the adversity, we’d had a successful camping trip.  We’d had fun, Liam had been happy the whole time and we’d found ways to entertain ourselves through some very inclement weather.  It gave me hope.  If we could enjoy this trip, just imagine how much fun we’ll have when everything goes well!

Our Weekend @ Presqu’ile

We’re back from our weekend at Presqu’ile Provincial Park.  Basil the bear lives on and so do I; but it was exhausting.  I don’t know why camping is so tiring.   It feels like I ran a marathon.

I’ll start by posting a journal I kept over the weekend.   Later I’ll have a post on a special event we attended at the park and another post on things we’d like to change for next time.   We learned a lot this weekend and discovered some kinks that need worked out.

June 13th
High Bluff Campground, Presqu’ile Provincial Park

4:30 pm
Liam is asleep.  He is still not well.  He has a low fever but has not vomited since bedtime last night.   He claims, against all available evidence, that he is not sick.  We’re encouraging him to laze the day away in bed and hope that he’s better by tomorrow.   We have some activities planned that I think he’ll enjoy.

Duncan has forgotten to bring a jacket or sweater; he is going to be cold. Ha!

We’ve got things all set up and have converted an empty campsite to our home.  The awning is up, the solar patio lights are strung and the pink daisy table cloth is on the picnic table.  Duncan is fiddling with the t.v. antenna.  It’s not a chore for him, antenna fiddling is his hobby.

10:45pm
I’m in my jammies.  Liam is 100% better and is sleeping soundly.  We’re watching reruns of CSI off the antenna and Dunc is listening to the scanner.  A lot of good that thing does.  The scanner didn’t give us any warning earlier when the park police dropped by to have a discussion with us about the tree Dunc had put in the fireplace.  Apparently, they would prefer that we not burn the better part of a pine tree, vertically out of our fireplace, but they were laughing while they were telling us off…they thought it was funny too.

Taken before our visit from the 'Park Police'.

Dinner was good, though we made too many skewers and forgot to bring a pair of tongs for the barbecue, which made things difficult.  The stove top worked perfectly and I made some lovely rice.  We finally figured out how to work the fridge and got it down to a safe temperature.   We’re sorting it all out.

We noticed when we arrived that there was a distant cacophony of bird squawking.  There had to be an absolutely insane number of birds somewhere in the park.   We had to find the source, so after dinner we went for a walk and discovered the aptly named Gull Island just off Owen Point.  There must have been thousands of birds swarming the island.  It was the sort of thing that could really freak a person out.  If you were on the island you’d be guaranteed to be pooped on at the very least.

We discovered, however, that there were at least as many mosquitoes on Owen Point as there were birds on Gull Island.  I returned from our walk with welts so big I could actually see my own cheek.

Shortly after our return, we heard a ruckus on Gull Island.  The sound of thousands of birds freaking out at the disappearance of the sun.  I’ve always found it odd that birds freak out when the sun goes down and absolutely rejoice when it comes back again. You’d think the novelty would wear off, but it never does.

We toasted marshmallows over the campfire.   Liam was so goopy with marshmallow, he actually got his face stuck to his coat.  It was icky and he needed a really good wash.

June 14th

Breakfast was freshly brewed coffee, bacon off the grill, toast from the toaster oven and yogourt out of the fridge.  Not exactly roughing it.

Liam woke up happy and said that he’d had a good sleep, but something about having his breakfast outside set him off and he had an inconsolable temper tantrum.  I ended up taking him for a walk along the lakefront campsites to see the ritzy motor homes.  A bunch of people were out walking small dogs and one person was walking a cockatoo.  That was different.  We returned from our walk much happier.

Our morning activity was a trip to the Presqu’ile lighthouse, one of the oldest lighthouses in Ontario.  Liam, somehow, got it into his head that the lighthouse was haunted and was quite upset for a while.  Once he saw the lighthouse itself, he realized there was nothing to be afraid of.  He really liked skipping stones on the beach with his Daddy.  I was disappointed we couldn’t go into the light house, but we enjoyed seeing it from the outside.  It’s in a very pretty location.  There is an interpretive centre at the site which explains the history of the lighthouse and the area.  The lighthouse keeper’s cottage is a beautiful little house which is currently being used as an art gallery.

The gift shop sells very yummy fudge, but they didn’t have Presqu’ile bumper stickers.  That was another disappointment for me.  I want to smother the trailer in as many destination stickers as possible.

Back at the campsite we made some lunch.   It was toasted bagels with homemade salsa, salad and veggies and dip. Liam ate nothing and had another tantrum, sigh.

5:00 pm
We just got back from our afternoon activities.

We spent the afternoon in the park.   The Friends of Presqu’ile held the grand opening ceremony for the rebuilt boardwalk.  I’ll tell you all about that in my next post.

When we were finished walking the boardwalk, we took Liam to the beach for a bit.  It wasn’t really warm enough to be a beach day.  We didn’t even get changed.  Liam played in the sand with his toys and chased some  seagulls.

On the way back to the campsite we got the highlight of the day.  A turtle (I’m not sure what kind) came out of the marsh and onto the road.  We stopped and let Liam have a look.  It was his very first turtle.  It caused a traffic jam, good times.

11:00pm
We’ve turned in for the night.  The dog and the boy are asleep in their beds and Duncan is at the comfort station having a shower.   I’m in my jammies using the computer and watching CBC.

We cooked hot dogs over an open fire tonight.  We toasted marshmallows after, though I am the only one who toasts marshmallows now, the others eat them plain…less sticky that way.

At one point in the evening, a group of seagulls were fighting in the air-space above our campsite.  Suddenly a sausage on a bun fell from the sky.  The dog ate it.  She now thinks sky sausages are the best sausages of all.

We got our solar patio lights working, finally.  I turned them on.  That solved everything.  The solar lights weren’t the only light show though; we also had fireflies.   They were cool.

I went for a walk around the campground to see how other people have their sites set up.  We’re off to a good start with our patio lights and wind catcher thing, but we’re going to have to up our game to compete with the decore on the other sites.  I’m pretty sure we’re going to need a wooden sign and maybe a garden statue and more lights.  A lot of people have their names on their signs, but I want something different. We’ll have to think about that for a while.

June 15th

We woke up, in the middle of the night, to a tremendous thunderstorm. There were several very loud cracks of thunder and flashes of lightning within a kilometre of us.  The rain was loud on the roof of the trailer.  Liam slept right through it.

We got up to a wet muddy mess and since we were on a wooded site, we did not get the benefit of the morning sun to dry things off. We made breakfast and started to pack things up.   Liam had a massive temper tantrum because he didn’t have the patience for the boring messy task of tearing down the camp site.   We did the best we could to put things away, but everything was wet and dirty and we were very disorganized.  It took forever!

When we got home we set the trailer up again to dry everything out and clean it all off.  The trailer is still set up in the driveway.  I’m going to try to organize it  and streamline things so that the set up and tear down isn’t such an ordeal.  I’ll get into the tweeks and reorganization in a future post.

Blogging In Advance Of Our First Camping Trip

Leave it to a two year old to puke his guts up right at bedtime the night before we leave on our first camping trip. These things tend to be short lived and given that he’s been sleeping peacefully, puke free and without a fever for the past four hours, I’m operating under the assumption that we’re still leaving in the morning.

The destination for our very first camping trip is Presqu’ile Provincial Park in Brighton, ON. We’re very excited because this is a park we’ve wanted to visit for some time.

This afternoon I was out buying supplies for the trip and as I placed a package of Lazy Maple bacon in my cart, it occurred to me that there are certain foods and items that become must-haves on a camping trip. In our family, a camping trip must involve Lazy Maple bacon and pistachios. A camping trip without these items is like a Christmas without presents. It just doesn’t happen.

This is the first time we’ve packed for a camping trip with our son. It’s been interesting trying to figure out what items to bring for him, especially for his entertainment. Bubbles are always a favourite, as are cars and we’re bringing a bunch of sand toys on this trip because Presqu’ile has a nice beach.

So my question for you is, what are your camping / cottaging must-haves, and to those of you who are experienced at traveling with kids, what are the must-haves for your children? I’m interested to know, and may steal some ideas.

I’ll be sure to let you know how we make out this weekend. I’ll include pictures of the fun and let you know what we learned about camping in a tent trailer and about camping with a young child. It should be a fun adventure.

Camping After Kids?

The last time my husband and I went ‘tent camping’ I was six months pregnant.  It was an annual camping excursion with friends and our only time out with the tent that year.  We packed our Mazda Protege with camping equipment, food, and the supply of pillows I had started using to sleep comfortably.  The car was stuffed to the gills and I turned to my husband with a realization, “next year we’re going to have to fit a baby in there somewhere”.

Our trusty tent had done well for us.  It was the only one we’d ever owned and it had helped us travel on-the-cheap throughout much of Eastern Canada, the US and parts of Europe.   On this occasion, though, we unfolded it to realize  it was still wet from being packed up in the rain the year before.  Smelling, moldy and ripped, we knew our old Zellers tent was on its last legs, but we got it set up and made due one last time.

Ready to relax, my husband set his camp chair by the fire, but it was old and the canvas gave out as soon as he sat in it.  Great!

At the end of  a long first day we went to bed.  In the middle of the night I awoke amid a familiar air mattress hiss as my butt sank to the ground.  I used the extra pillows I had brought as a make-shift mattress and struggled through the rest of the night.

By the end of the weekend we’d had enough…all done.  We took our ponging tent, our useless chair and our deflated air mattress and chucked them all in the dumpster on the way out of the campground.  It was the end of an era.

So with a baby on the way, no tent, and a realization that we were never really ‘hard core’ anyway it became clear that it was time to shift gears.  It was time for an upgrade, if you will.  We started investigating pop-up camper trailers and realized that, with a little planning, we could make it happen.  That was an exciting prospect!  An exciting prospect that was nearly three years in the making.

We purchased our new camper this winter and will pick it up next month.  Our son is now two years old and we are psyched to set out on a whirl-wind of family fun and adventure.  I’ll keep you posted.