Prince Edward County Day 2 - Galleries, Farms, the Beach, and Good Company

The second day of our journey to the east began with free breakfast at the Comfort Inn.  To be honest, that's why I chose to stay there.  And I got yelled at by the girls because the hotel looked "sketchy", according to them.  The wifi was down, the room was small, there was an old bar of soap in the shower stall, and there was no safe.  For M2, the most important thing about a hotel is that there has to be a safe, even though she doesn't use it.

After breakfast the plan was to go to a place called Caddy Shack mini golf.  M1 googled it and found out that it was closed on Wednesdays.  Again, I got in trouble because half the things I planned so far were closed.  We went to the next places on my list: a couple of art galleries.  The first was the Oeno Gallery which was indoor and outdoor.  There were pictures inside and sculptures outside.  The pictures were nice but I enjoyed the sculptures more because they were different from what I was expecting at an art gallery.  For example, there was a sculpture of a giant drain plug.  We didn't know what it was at first and it was M3 who solved the mystery.

The second gallery was the Andara Gallery - so named for the co-founders, Andrew and Tara.  Andrew paints with melted beeswax and Tara specializes in photography.  I didn't like the beeswax paintings as they seemed quite messy to me and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference from some kindergarten finger painting.  The photographs were very nice, though, and I bought a colourful photograph of flowers.  It was mounted on a glass frame such that when the sun shines on the back of it, the photograph appears to radiate the colours (kind of like a stained glass window).  They assured me that the photograph was chemically treated so that the colours would not fade from the sun's rays.  Let's see if that's true in a few years.

Next we went to Laundry Farm for strawberry picking and we got to ride in a tractor to get to the strawberry field.  There were only two seats so the girls rode in the back without seatbelts - it was like a pick-up truck.  It was our first time strawberry picking and I think the girls enjoyed it.  M2 took the longest to fill her basket because she said only the perfect strawberries make the cut.  We also bought a jar of strawberry jam and a jar of blueberry jam for Grandma, who likes to have that on her toast at breakfast.

Lunch was at a diner called Vic's Social.  M2 and M3 didn't think it was very good but M1 and I got the lobster roll, which was very good.  Afterwards, we headed to Sandbanks Provincial Park and specifically the Dunes Beach.  This was the main attraction for our trip.  But not being an outdoorsy person, the only things I brought were a blanket and a couple of frisbees.  In hindsight, maybe a raft or some kind of floatie thing would have been nice because the water was very clear.  It was also very cool and refreshing on this hot day.  We only waded in the water but there were many people swimming.  M2 commented, "Look at all those people getting bacterial infections."  See, we're not outdoor people.  M3 tried to build a sand castle, but with only frisbees as tools, you really had to use your imagination to see the castle.  We did end up throwing the frisbee around for a bit.  We spent two hours at the beach, which I thought was pretty good, for our family.

On the way home, we stopped by the Big Apple to pick up an apple pie, apple cider, and various types of apple snacks.  This was a very short trip, filled with activities we weren't sure we would enjoy - hiking, strawberry picking, trying to develop an appreciation for nature, art galleries, the beach.  While not all the activities were enjoyable, I feel my girls had a good time.  We got to spend time together, make jokes, and just relax without worrying about work or school.  So sometimes you don't need a really long and extravagant vacation to enjoy it, just good company.

Big Oh

Prince Edward County Trip Day 1 - Birdhouse City

This summer, M1 has a summer internship at Pepsi, M2 is taking a course in summer school to lighten her load during the regular year, and M3 has a couple of volunteer opportunities at the City of Markham and another camp.  This means it will be difficult to plan a long vacation.  So we decided to take a short trip out east to Prince Edward County.

Prior to going, I had googled the top places to visit in or near Prince Edward County.  M1 found a nice restaurant called The Inn at Lake on the Mountain.  I'm not sure if that was the name or just a description of the place.  Anyhow, we decided that would be our nice meal of the trip.  So I drafted an itinerary visiting places near that restaurant.

Another activity during the planning stage was the creation of a Spotify playlist for the 2.5 hour drive (one way).  I had commented to my girls that my English songs playlist is mostly songs from the 80s - Air Supply and Chicago.  After years of my girls dancing, I now know some new songs and it's probably time for a new playlist.  This thought was inspired by my current #1 song - Pink Pony Club.  So M2 started a "Road Tripping" playlist and the girls added 33 songs.  I added 57.  I got yelled at for trying to take over the playlist.

M3's last exam was on Tuesday, June 24 and we left shortly after she got home around noon.  We stopped in Oshawa for lunch at Baxter's Landing.  The food was just okay and the service was slow so that delayed our arrival time.

My first scheduled stop was the Picton Town Hall Farmers Market.  M1 googled it and found that it is only open on Sundays.  She wanted to pick strawberries so we stopped by the Hagerman Farms, which was a back up on my itinerary.  But they didn't have any strawberries for picking.  They did have pre-picked strawberries, though, so we bought a small box.

We then proceeded to the Macaulay Mountain Conservation.  I wanted my girls to experience the outdoors because we never did a lot of that as they were growing up.  We ventured along a hiking trail but it was extremely hot that day, 40 degrees with the humidex.  The terrain was uneven and there were lots of bugs.  We were all bitten by mosquitoes and M2 is particularly sensitive to bites so we turned around after 15 minutes and went back to the entrance.  (This is why we don't like the outdoors!)

There was a pleasant surprise at the entrance - a section called Birdhouse City.  There were about 50 birdhouses and they were constructed like buildings or landmarks, such as a castle, Parliament buildings, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  It was just strange to see so many birdhouses with such cool designs.

Next we went to the main street of Picton where I had selected several stores to visit, including an art gallery and an antiques shop.  But they close at 5:00!  We got there shortly after 5:00 so we just went to a Giant Tiger store to buy some bite cream for M2.  There was an ice cream store still open so we got a treat to help cool down from the heat.

For dinner, we went to The Inn I mentioned earlier, which was on top of a hill overlooking a body of water - not sure if it was big enough to be called a lake.  Many people were having dinner on the patio so that they could enjoy the view during their meal.  But we wanted to be inside, safe from the bugs and the heat.  I ordered the toutiere, M1 got rosti potatoes, M2 got braised beef ribs, and M3 got a pasta dish.  Every dish was delicious!  So the main attraction of the day was not a disappointment (unlike the hike in the conservation area and all the closed venues.)

After dinner, we checked in at the Comfort Inn in Belleville and took a much needed shower.  The girls called Grandma, as we always do when we are away.  We were tired and wanted to sleep early but M1 was woken by a Face-Time call from Grandma's iPad close to midnight.  She was trying to check her lottery numbers but ended up dialing M1 by accident.

Big Oh

Karaoke Surprise

Today is YC's and my 26-year wedding anniversary and I have another memory to share.  This one can be captioned with a quote from Optimus Prime in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  He said, "Our worlds have met before," referring to the fact that the Transformers had come to Earth long before the first movie.

YC and I started hanging out in the same group of friends in our first year of university and started dating in our second year.  Back in the day, high school was five years but YC fast-tracked and graduated in four.  So while I was one year older, we entered university the same year.  YC always thought that we had met during our university years but I told her we had met before...

You see, when I was in grade 12 and YC was in grade 11 (two years before university) we had gone to a Karaoke bar together with a group of friends.  It was in a private room with maybe 20+ people.  I think we got charged one rate for the room so we tried to jam as much people in there as possible.  YC and I even sang three songs together - all Cantonese songs.  They were chosen by her and I just grabbed the second mike because I happened to know the lyrics.

Of course YC had no recollection of this outing.  When we started dating, I mentioned this to her and she didn't remember me at all!  I started naming other friends who were there and she claimed she can't be sure if that event even occurred.  She suggested that perhaps I mis-remembered - maybe I was with another group of friends and she wasn't there.

The funny/weird thing is that one of my friends recorded various people singing that night, using his Walkman - remember those?  Then one day when I was cleaning my room, I found that tape!  So I played it for YC and sure enough, there was the evidence that we went to Karaoke together and sang together.  YC was very surprised and very amused - amused that 1) we actually did meet before, 2) we went to Karaoke together, 3) we actually sang together, 4) she has no memory of the event, 5) someone actually recorded us singing together, 6) I kept the tape.

So we talk about this every once in a while and have a good chuckle about it.  YC, my love, I hope you are laughing at this funny memory again today.  Happy Anniversary.

Big Oh