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
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