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.
Cottage On Wheels 