Ellie wanted to go to a lake house. We looked at lakes in a variety of states; many close to Hershey area. However, Ellie was finding the cost of the lodging restrictive. So, we changed our search a bit to the Lake Erie area. She didn’t want to really be in Ohio though because it felt like we weren't really going anywhere. We decided to look on the north side of Lake Erie in Canada. And she found a cute little place. It is hard to nail down exactly where we were headed in Canada. It was Essex county in Ontario, Canada. I think the address was Harrow, but we seemed closer to the town of Colchester, and our real big day was at Point Pelee National Park.
When we told people we were going, they kept asking, Do they girls need passports? And it would freak me out every. single. time. Even though I had looked on both Canadian and American government websites that said children accompanied by both legal parents and under 16 just needed a birth certificate. Thankfully, this was proven correct at the border….
Where I also officially learned that because I was born in Canada, I was an actual Canadian citizen!!! I am planning to look into that.
Our first hiccup in a foreign country was the loss of cell phone signal. This caused two problems: 1) Our GPS on our phone struggled to show us the turns ahead, and 2) I couldn't look up the information on how to get into the VRBO once we got there. We pulled over at a little outdoor shopping center and found a customer service person that printed directions off for us, and our phones had enough time to sync and be able to at least help with navigation. So, we rolled on.
The house was just as cute as in the pictures on VRBO. While it was on the smaller side inside, it had really nice outdoor spaces.
After checking in, we headed back out to get some groceries and pick up pizza the Original Guys Pizza Shop – a shop claimed to have won Best Pizza in the World in 2018. It was a lot of pizza, and it was pretty good.
After supper, the girls and I took the bikes at the house out for a ride around the community. Jeremy sat on the Adirondack chairs and watched to ships passing in the night.
After cinnamon rolls and eggs, we headed out to Pelee National Park. Ellie decided that it would be fun to try some water activities since we were at the lake. So, we rented two tandem kayaks in the park for as long as we would need them. The day started cool, but warmed up as we kayaked through the marsh, across the pond, and landed at a beach with Lake Erie on the other side. Jeremy likes to say that, geographically, we kayaked across Canada… and if you look at the map, he is right! We even saw a bald eagle take flight as we kayaked which was pretty epic!
We pulled up the kayaks and enjoyed lunch on the beach of Lake Erie and rested for awhile. It was a beautiful day – light breeze, blue skies, calm waters.
We headed back sticking closer to the shoreline for a different route back to the dock.
We finished the side dishes to our lunch when we were done boating.
Then, we headed up the tower they had for viewing and also watched some of the birds.
Then, we took the shuttle to the Tip.
It is also a very dangerous place to swim or even wade with all the rip currents and undertows. There were a lot of people crammed out on the tip, but it was still possible to explore a bit.
We headed back out of the park, missing a lot of cool things that would have been fun to do had we planned more time – some hiking trails, a historic building hike, some dunes, a beach, and more! We barbequed hamburgers that night for supper and enjoyed eating al fresco.
The next day, the weather was not forecasted to be good – lots of rain! So, we decided a day of lazy-ing around the house would be okay. I made baked oatmeal for breakfast which we had when everyone rolled out of bed. We were going to watch Fixer Upper: The Lake House while we were at a lake house, but you can’t get YouTube TV in Canada, so that didn’t work. Instead, we just watched a movie on Netflix.
In the late afternoon, it seemed to clear up, so we took off to another activity Ellie wanted to do – miniature golfing! That was a good time – everyone, but me, got a hole in 1, and Jeremy won the hole thing by 5 strokes. There were a few tough holes mixed in with some pretty basic ones.
From there, we went to check out Colchester Beach on Lake Erie. It was a little rough due to the storms that were happening across the lake. But the girls got their feet wet.
We ended the night with a tasty meal at The Wreck – shrimp tacos, fish tacos, and a fish dinner… and a chicken wrap ;) They even had live music while we were there. And there is always room for ice cream if there is a stand nearby … and there was!
We ventured out to King St Bakery and Tim Horton’s for some donut variety the next morning. We ate them sitting on the chairs overlooking the lake.
Ellie’s final farewell.
And the pretty flowerbox.
We pulled out and headed home about 11am. We failed to get a magnet (our family souvenir when we travel) in Canada – didn’t love the ones that we saw at Pelee, but then we never saw any other shops. We stopped one place in attempt of find one. We found other things (we didn’t want), but no magnet.
Ellie learned she was probably a little under budget (because it is $0.73 CAD to $1 US… so it is like saving 25% on everything!), so she wanted to splurge by eating at Panera on the way home. We got home about 7pm, unpacked, and did NOT repack. It is good to be home.
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