On Beaches Travel Journal

The rain fell on and off throughout the night. In the morning, we got a little more. And the raccoon that we’d seen the night before had returned while we slept. The bagels that were in the cooler were out and the bag was opened. Scary what an animal with an opposable thumb can do. So there we were, with wet tents, a camp site that was getting a little muddy, and our food picked over by a hungry little critter. My daughter had been promised one of those cinnamon-raisin bagels for breakfast. Life away from home was starting to take it’s toll on us.

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This morning was a hot one. My sister and her boyfriend drove up from Toronto to see us. Thankfully they brought lots of ice-cold bottled water. We showed them around our little home in the wild. The kitchen, the dining room, two bedrooms, laundry room, the family room and of course the en suite bathrooms. They must’ve thought we’d been out in the woods too long.

On the way in to town, we stopped at a laundromat. For around $10 they washed and dried up to 10 pounds (about 5kg) of clothes and bedding. This was a real help given the size of our group. It means that we can get away with packing a little bit less clothing and still have something fresh to wear every day. The place we went (Baywash Laundromat) is in a little plaza with a Chinese restaurant called Canton Buffet. We ended up having dinner there on the way back.

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Our second day of camping and already we were sleeping in. Breakfast dragged on as kids and grown-ups alike rose late and wandered out of tents in pyjamas. Some outhouse trips were arranged, first one has to go then another decides that they’d better run and catch up. As trivial as it sounds, it’s a good idea to arrange some kind of protocol for the morning call if you’re camping with kids. In outdoor trips I took before, with a camper van or trailer, there was generally a building with shared community washrooms within visible distance of the camp site. Wasaga Dunes (where we stayed) definitely has adequate clean facilities, but they’re a couple minutes walk from the wilderness tenting site we stayed in.

I guess there’s a trade-off that’s inherent in choosing a spot like we did. The great thing about the site was that it’s less crowded and has much more of a feel that you’re in the woods. I’ve got plenty of pictures that attest to the real, natural outdoors that surrounded us, so it was a success in that respect. (There’s lot’s more to read - click more to read on) (more…)

Saturday morning we broke out the cereal and soy milk and had breakfast together. The kids were excited to head out to the beach. They took a break reading books while the grown-ups packed the cooler for lunch. We planned to have fresh food that we packed ahead of time and brought with us for the first couple of days. This turned out to be a great idea. Fresh healthy food that your family is used to is a great way to bring something familiar along to an unfamiliar location. Our lunch included some foods that are versatile and keep well, here are some examples:

• humus, peanut butter, almond butter and other spreads
• flat breads like pita and tortilla as well as bagels and the usual sandwich bread
• precut veggies like baby carrots, broccolli and snow peas
• non-lethal snacks like corn chips and dried peas

Think of things that will work well for a couple of different meals. Don’t forget to pack the vitamins to help make up for the inevitable times when meals just don’t work out as planned. (There’s lot’s more to read - click more to read on) (more…)

This year driving up to Wasaga Beach we decided to eschew the inevitable traffic on the 401 and instead found a route to take us closer to the water. Lake Huron flows down in to the St. Clair River which empties in to Lake St. Clair. We met up with the coast of Lake Huron east of Sarnia, somewhere around Ipperwash Provincial Park.
The roads are a little slower than the highway, but the scenery is fresh and different. Since we left early in the morning, it was easy to arrange to have a lunchtime picnic on one of the many easily accessible beaches that dot the coastline. We drove past the Pinery and through Grand Bend. We finally settled down to picnic on the beach at Kettle Point. In a small town like this you can drive right down to the beach. As a matter of fact, while we sat there we saw a tractor drive in to the water to launch a boat. (There’s lot’s more to read - click more to read on) (more…)