It’s Sunday night, I’m tired, and I don’t feel like writing. However, writing has been on my mind for a week and I keep pushing it off. It’s time to find the time so I can quit getting mad at myself for not doing what my mind tells me to. I want to write about our 4th of July trip to Canada.
The Chrysler Pacifica rolled out of the driveway just before 7am on the 4th. Destination = Tobermory, Ontario. J took his travel medicine (aka: Dramamine) even though it tends to make him a total dick. We’ve had to clean up so much hurl on these long car rides that I’ll take the Jekyll version of my son over the stanky puke encrusted version. Since this trip I’ve invested in motion sickness wristbands and ginger root chewables. We will see how those work on our drive to upstate NY in a couple weeks.
The drive went well. No trouble at the border and only a couple quick pee stops. If you cross over at Port Huron and hug the Canadian coast of Lake Huron headed north, you’ll run out of real estate when you hit Tobermory. We were there for the glass bottom boat tour of the shipwrecks and a closer look at Flowerpot Island. The water was clear and the views were sweeping. The boys loved being able to look down and see the boats preserved in time under the water. They also offer snorkeling and scuba diving for a closer look, something to think about when the boys get bigger. After looking at the shipwrecks the boat took us on a fifteen minute ride to Flowerpot Island. Both boys fell asleep on the ride over. It looked like a great place to explore, it’s part of the Fathom Five National Marine Park. Most people got off the boat to do some hiking, but the boys are still too small for much distance. So we stayed on the boat and got a few pics of the perimeter. The whole tour was about an hour. Our motel was right across the street from the boat launch.
After checking in we went to a place called Coconut Joe’s for dinner. I forgot to mention we had lunch at a pirate themed fish n chips place called Shipwreck Lee’s. Despite popping a Xanax before dinner, it still ended up being stressful on account of terrible behavior from the boys. It took a while to get a seat and the waiting area was out by the docks / pier that borders the harbor town. H kept walking out near the water. Then when we got seated J kept throwing matchbox cars around the restaurant. They had a giant tortoise sculpture that they both kept trying to ride. They wouldn’t eat and they wouldn’t sit still, what else is new. End result was that mom canceled the boys ice cream privileges for the night. The six hour drive and the Dramamine for J had the boys all out of whack.
After dinner we went back to the motel and caught a beautiful sunset over the water. Then we spent an hour trying to get the boys to calm down. I think by the end of the night I had H hog tied and pinned to the bed to try to get him to chill out. As I reflect now it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I know at the time Mom and I were really pulling our hair out.
We woke up on July 5th in Tobermory at the Bruce Motel. Then we loaded the boys in the stroller and headed in to town for breakfast at a coffee shop overlooking the town harbor. It would have been better if the boys would’ve sat down and not whined about their muffins. There was a small part of me that wished we hadn’t gone on vacation at all and just went to the lake at Mimi and Poppa’s. It would’ve been a lot easier, but we would’ve missed out on all the super awesome memories we were making. Gotta have the memories.
We left mid-morning and headed down the lake to Sauble Beach. Nice little beach and town. We spent about an hour and a half at the beach. Enough time to skip some stones, build a cool sand and stone fortress, pee in a porta potty and read 7 pages of my book (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter). We were all feeling really good. We got some pizza at a place by the beach and even got a nice family pic in front of the Sauble Beach sign.
After lunch we got back in the car and continued southbound. The boys fell asleep for a while and we cruised through a bunch of quaint little towns like Bayfield, Goderich, and Port Elgin on the way to our final destination of the Oakwood Resort in Grand Bend.
The Family Record 