I got to spend an entire week camping with my bestie, Olivia!

He said

After spending an entire week at the trailer, we have pretty much decided we did the best possible thing we could have for our camping lives this summer. While Provincial Parks have just now started reopening, the reality is the offering is much more limited than what we had grown to love, and we have already spent more nights in the trailer than we did all of last season. And the best part is we’re getting way more time when we are there because there is no loading up the trailer, hauling it to where we’re going, and then landing it and unpacking when we get there. When we arrive, basically the site is ready to go. When we left for our week away last Thursday afternoon, an hour later we were at the trailer and in relax mode.

It doesn’t hurt at all that our next door neighbours at the campground are The Sherwood’s – a family that we came to know through our daughters becoming gymnastics buddies who we quickly learned loved camping like we do. We’ve spent at least a trip a summer with them the last few years, so this made the idea of a seasonal a lot more palatable for Emelia who – like us – tends to prefer visiting different places. This week they happened to be off and at their trailer for the week with us so it was great to have a family who are part of our bubble to spend the week with. Add to that, other friends of ours took a seasonal site there as well and it’s really starting to feel like our community there. There’s already talk of us being us there again next year.

One of the things I love about the campground is that I can bring the bike there and there’s plenty of trails and rides where I can get out on the bike for my exercise to Close The Rings which I did this week. But, there was also enough other things around to do that helped with that. Tuesday we picked up some deck boards so that I could remove and replace the bench seats for the table that came with our deck on the site that were starting to rot. That turned to a 2-½ hr job on one of the hottest days there. Many a sweat drop was left and right after the job was done I was straight into the river to cool down.

One of our favourite things to do daily was get in the inner tubes and take a float down the river, which most days we got in a couple of runs and depending on who you ask (nod to: Olivia), we might even be overusing the river. But, it is quickly becoming one of our favourite things to do at the campground—I mean who could argue with a thirty minute lazy float down a river that includes a couple of patches of light rapids to speed things up. And the best part is the end of the run literally stops one site beyond our trailer location so it is perfect.

The only bummer on the week was part way through the week I started having problems with freebie bike Danielle found on the Buy Nothing group on Facebook to replace my beloved GT Mountain Bike that was stolen last year. The bike has grip shifts which I hate as a rule, which had started to fall apart and I have been able to moderately keep them together for the last few weeks. Well, this week at the trailer, the front derailleur grip shift fell apart to the point where parts started breaking and coming off. So, I am off the bike and in search of a better replacement. I may have found one but it’s going to be about a week or so before I can get it. For now, that means I am back to the rower for Closing the Rings, unless I can somehow squeeze a few more kilometres of use out of it.

We came back from the trailer last night, after one hell of a week – totally relaxed and full of memories from one great camping trip. There was everything we could hope for in a week at the trailer—especially compelling when it looked like camping might never be a thing this season. And when you consider we went from a place of getting a reservation at Bon Echo again this year after getting blocked out last year, to the place of willingly cancelling that trip because we’ve found something that suited us better this year, that shows just how happy we are with what we have found. And, why we are already considering doing this again, next year!

She said

What a week! The last few weeks have been stressful and busy so being able to finally have a real vacation together as a family was exactly what we needed. It was the strangest start of summer ever, normally we book this week off each year as a transition for Emelia from school being over before she is home with me and the daycare kids for the summer. We normally we head north to my sister’s place and spend a week in the Muskoka’s at Arrowhead Provincial Park, we normally spend Canada Day with my sister and her family in Bracebridge watching the fireworks over the falls. Normally… this year has been far from normal.

So school is now officially out for the summer, we had stopped some of Emelia’s home schooling at the suggestion of school as she had completed all the required work and was doing well grade wise that with the support of her support teacher and homeroom teacher we felt it was best for her to finish school as it was causing a lot of stress and anxiety for her. So we have been done for a few weeks but it wasn’t until this week that we found out how she had done grade wise. See not only have we had Covid-19 this year we had revolving strike actions with the administrative and teaching staff this year.

What that meant was not only a lot of missed school but it meant we hadn’t seen a report card at all for Emelia all year, we had no real idea how she had been doing grade-wise other than some tests coming home. We are beyond thrilled that she had a great year, she got almost all As and some Bs, it was hands down the strongest and most consistent grades she had ever received. She had glowing remarks on her report card. We are so proud of her, she worked so hard this year on every aspect of school, she worked hard to find a learning system that worked for her and with the support of her incredible teacher she left grade 7 with the most confidence she has ever had in school.

With school officially done we could move on to our summer vacation. With Covid we had cancelled all our camping trips and have been spending as much time as possible at our seasonal site. This week was no exception. Once John was wrapped up work on Thursday we finished the last of our packing and then we’re off for 9 days as a family. The weather was hot and sunny the entire week, we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

The week was incredible, so many hours on the river, in the pool, playing games with friends and hours around the campfire. It was a week we won’t forget for sure. I never in a million years would have imagined we would love seasonal camping so much but we really have. We love the ease of it, we love the community and the friendships we have there. We have been so fortunate to be camping beside some of our closest friends and one of Emelia’s best friends. There is already talk with both families about signing up again next year for another seasonal year. It certainly has made a very stressful year a lot more enjoyable.

After a long and stressful week prior with all the huge changes in life I was so happy to have this week as a family doing what we love more than anything, being outside, in nature with amazing friends. We couldn’t have asked for a better week!