Our Favourite Canoeing Moments

June 12, 2015August 12, 2016 / Oleksandra Budna / 4 Comments

This week is National Paddling Week in Canada so I thought I’d dedicate to this post to canoeing. I have to admit that, while I enjoy all outdoor activities, canoeing is definitely my favourite. In many ways it reflects the life itself. It teaches you to keep your balance, to work together with your partner to move in the right direction. Sometimes you have to brave the waves making sure you don’t capsize. And at times it’s about staying still, going with the flow and enjoying the world around.

So here are some of our most memorable paddling moments.

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Happy Birthday to Algonquin, land of beauty, memories and adventures!

May 27, 2015August 12, 2016 / Oleksandra Budna / 3 Comments

So Algonquin Park is turning 122 today! Established in 1983, Algonquin is the oldest provincial park in Canada and it’s becoming even more beautiful and attractive with every passing year.

I couldn’t miss such an important occasion since it’s the place of so many favourite memories: our first trip into the interior, our first four-day canoe trip, our first winter camping adventure in a tent. Beautiful sunny skies, stormy weather, rainbows, fall colours, spring flowers and moose sightings, incredible sunsets and loon calls at night. We’ve visited Algonquin in all seasons, experienced it in every type of weather, explored it on foot, in a canoe and on a bike and it is always beautiful and exciting.

Lake of Two Rivers in the spring

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Camping in Canada’s “deep south”: Wheatley Provincial Park, Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island

May 20, 2015February 13, 2018 / Oleksandra Budna / 3 Comments

May long weekend camping is always a gamble. Will it be cold? Will it rain? Will the temperature drop down to freezing at night? Where to go? Which park to book? This year, we decided to go to Wheatley Provincial Park with the intention to also visit Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island located nearby. When we arrived in the park late Friday night, the trip didn’t look very promising. The weather forecast showed high chance of rain and thunderstorms for the next couple of days. Our campsite was soggy and wet. On top of it, our neighbours turned out to be Top 40 fans (not my type of music, especially in the woods, where I want to listen to birds not Taylor Swift). On the plus side, the weather gods waited patiently till we finished setting up (it started to rain the exact moment I zipped up the tent door behind me) and the sound of rain drowned out our neighbours’ music.

The next morning, we woke up to a drizzle that would occasionally intensify to a medium strength rain. After finishing our breakfast under the umbrellas and playing a dice game (I lost), we started wondering whether we should put up a tarp to get some protection from the rain. Miraculously, it stopped raining sometime around noon and the rest of our stay was rain-free. I am even happier to report that our neighbours didn’t turn on their music after that first night. The mud on our campsite never went away, though. In fact, the ground seemed to be getting soggier and muddier the more we walked on it and we brought back a good deal of Wheatley mud caked onto our boots and tents. But then you can’t have everything. Continue reading →

Easter Weekend Camping in Pinery Provincial Park

April 7, 2015October 5, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / 10 Comments

Easter weekend camping is a relatively new tradition. This is our second year, to be exact. Last year, we started pondering over the meaning of Easter and it being the symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth. So we decided that there was no better place to celebrate it than in nature where the magic of rebirth happens every spring. Plus kids love Easter egg hunt in the actual forest even though they have long outgrown the age of believing in Easter bunny.

This year we chose Pinery Provincial Park as our camping destination for a number of reasons. There was more chance that it would be snow free compared to, say, Algonquin or Killarney. The route to Pinery conveniently lies through Waterloo where we could pick up our older son and then drop him off on the way back. We were also hoping to catch tundra swans taking a break on their way north. Finally, it is always fun to see some of our favourite parks during a different season. So far Pinery has been the destination for many enjoyable summer trips and one memorable New Year celebration. This was a chance to see it on the cusp of season change.

We left late Thursday night and with a stop at Waterloo, we arrived at the park close to one in the morning to find our yurt locked. In the hindsight, we should have called the park to warn them about our late arrival but on previous late arrivals at other parks we would find the yurt open with the key left inside or alternately locked but with the key left in an envelope near the registration office. We spent an hour driving around the park trying to locate someone to open the yurt for us, found an emergency phone, alerted the guard, woke up the ranger on duty. In short, it was quite an adventurous start to our trip.

Needless to say, we slept in the next morning. When we finally got outside, it was a nice and warm day. The park was surprisingly busy with almost all yurts occupied, and trailers and a few tents visible on the surrounding campsites.

We spent the first half of the day biking around the park. In the summer, riding the 14-kilometre Savannah trail and finishing with ice-cream is a long established tradition. But since the ice-cream counter and the store were closed for the season, our younger son proclaimed that riding the trail would be pointless. We biked along park roads instead, explored the Old Ausable River Channel, which was still frozen on one side of the bridge and completely ice-free on the other. We even saw a lonely canoeist on the water and felt quite jealous of him but canoes were chained for the season as well.

We then biked over to the beach. Lake Huron looked strikingly different from its usually cheerful summer self. Covered in ice and dusted with sand with a narrow strip of turquoise water in the distance and clouds overhead, it was eerily beautiful.

By then, the wind picked up and it was quite chilly, so we rode back to the campsite. Right on time too. Because the moment we finished cooking the soup, it started to rain and we retreated inside the yurt. With a bowl of hearty soup inside our bellies and the patter of rain on the yurt roof, we enjoyed restful time reading and napping. Once it cleared up, we ate veggie burgers around the campfire and then back inside played our favourite game, Settlers of Catan, well into the night.

Day 2 was gorgeous, all beautiful spring sunshine and blue skies. We rode over to the visitor centre to watch all sorts of birds twittering and chirping around the bird feeders.

We then hiked Cedar Trail, which is only 2.3 km long and starts right near the visitor centre. It has a great lookout platform over the channel, where we spotted an otter in the water (or at least we think it was an otter since it was pretty far away).

There is also a trail extension that leads to the beach. That day, the beach looked brighter with the sunlight against the blue sky. The ice cover alternated between sand dusted frozen waves, long stretches of white and then ice chunks as far as the eye could see. One brave, or maybe just stupid, kid actually rode a fat bike over the lake.

That day we also drove to the field behind the Lambton Museum to see tundra swans. Yes, they were still there! Because the winter was so cold, they arrived later than usual this year (so cold winters do have their bright sides). I was really excited to see them, something I wanted to do ever since I read about tundra swans on the Friends of Pinery website. It was quite a sight and a noisy one too. At night, we could hear them honking overhead while the guy at the next campsite played drums. Those were much better sounds to fall asleep to than the humming of cars back home.

On Easter Sunday, winter staged a short comeback as we woke up to a snow cover outside.

It didn’t stop us from having an Easter egg hunt. In fact, it was quite fun.

As always, we didn’t want to leave. After we packed, we decided to do another hike, this time on the Nipissing Trail, which took us to the top of the oldest and highest dune ridge and also provided great views of the park with a bit of Lake Huron in the distance.

We stopped at Denny’s Drive-in, our favourite fish and chips place at Grand Bend. We were happy to see that they were already open for 2015 season. We brought our blankets and enjoyed our meal outside.

Good-bye, Pinery, till Labour Day!

Winter in Algonquin: Camping in a Tent

March 19, 2015October 1, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / 11 Comments

We really love winter camping with its frozen beauty, fun activities in the snow and smaller crowds (add absence of bugs for my husband and our younger son). Usually we stay in a yurt or a cabin, which still sounds extreme to some people. At the beginning of this winter though, we decided to take it to the next level and try camping in a tent. But as the winter was progressing with temperatures dropping lower and lower, we were close to giving up on the idea with the usual ‘maybe next year.’ And then this past weekend, we decided that there was no better time than now, packed all our stuff Saturday morning and headed to Algonquin Provincial Park.

Algonquin’s Mew Lake campground is open year round with seven yurts, which need to be reserved in advance online or over the phone, as well as electrical and non-electrical campsites available on the first come first serve basis. Campsite permits can be purchased at the West or East Gate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. After four, there is a self-serve registration kiosk at the entrance to the Mew Lake Campground.

The weather didn’t look very promising on Saturday. It was grey and drizzling but at least not too cold. Luckily, there was still a lot of snow left at Algonquin, otherwise it wouldn’t be much of a winter camping. We arrived at the campground around 5. Quite a few campsites boasted all sorts of tents, some with chimneys sticking out, others just regular ones. We snatched a waterfront site with a view of the lake, frozen and beautiful.

We don’t have a winter tent and, after reading all about it, I decided we could get away with our three-season one. There was no heavy snowfall in the forecast so we didn’t have to worry whether the frame would hold. The tent has a fly that extends all the way to the ground so it provides pretty good protection from the wind. We also added a tarp on top of it for some extra protection ensuring there was a good flow of fresh air. We added a tarp under the tent as well, plus two layers of sleeping pads for additional insulation from the ground. We also brought two sets of sleeping bags for everyone for extra warmth. And we did bring our small electrical heater so it wasn’t nearly as extreme as it sounds. In the end, no one was cold, although it was a bit chilly around dawn. The hardest part was getting out of the tent in the morning but with nature calling (pun intended) and a promise of coffee it was doable.

Cooking also presented a bit of a challenge without roofed accommodations to do food prep. So anything that could be just dumped into the pot, mixed with water and cooked quickly worked best. We made our favourite minestrone soup with the soup mix from Bulk Barn: we cut the recommended dose of the mix in half to reduce the salt content and add red lentils and dehydrated vegetables from Bulk Barn as well. We also made veggie burgers the second night and cooked eggs with beans in the morning.

On Sunday, the weather improved considerably. It was sunny and crisp with a hint of spring.

We decided to hike the Bat Lake Trail since it was very close to the Mew Lake Campground. That way we didn’t have to drive anywhere. It’s a perfect trail for a winter hike with frozen waterfalls (our son called them Elsa’s castle), a beautiful lookout point and a few lakes along the way.

Along the trail, our son kept practicing his hide mode technique, which consisted of jumping sideways and disappearing into the snow banks.

Upon our return, we headed to the skating rink and played a game of shinny. It was my first hockey game, if you can call it that since I didn’t even have skates on. But it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

The highlight of the trip was the blue jays that visited our campsite.

We took our time packing Monday morning, watching the last logs burn, savouring the last moments of our trip. On the way home, we stopped at Westside Fish and Chips in Huntsville, which has become our favourite food stop whenever we go to Arrowhead or Algonquin. After a three-hour drive, we were back in snowless Toronto.

Overall, the trip was a great success and we are definitely coming back next year. All my doubts regarding dragging my family into the cold of the winter to sleep on the ground dissipated one morning when our son mused that he couldn’t understand why some people thought that staying in a hotel was better than camping. That warmed me better than the hot tea I was sipping.

Winter at its Best: Family Day Weekend at Allegany State Park

February 18, 2015November 7, 2017 / Oleksandra Budna / 3 Comments

I love Family Day weekend camping. Yes, it’s cold (or even frigid cold as it was this past weekend) and a simple trip to the bathroom requires major preparations and lots of layers. But none of those things matter when you are greeted every morning by beautiful views of the snow-wrapped forest and clear crisp air that makes your whole body vibrate in tune with the singing snow under your feet.

This year, we spent the Family Day weekend at Allegany State Park. Located in the Enchanted Mountains region in western New York, it’s less than a three-hour drive from Toronto. With over 150 winterized cabins, it’s easy to book last minute roofed accommodations. We stayed at one of the cabins at the Congdon Loop. The cabin was pretty spacious with two bunk beds and a kitchenette area that had a fridge and a gas stove. There was a gas heater and electricity so it was warm (well, relatively warm when the temperatures dropped to -25C on Sunday) and light. The comfort station (very warm and comfortable) was about two minutes away. It also had showers (although not sure who would want to use them in the weather like this) and a utility sink, very convenient for washing dishes.

The park itself offers a lot to do. The Art Roscoe Nordic Ski Centre boasts over 20 miles of cross-country ski trails of various difficulty levels and also has gear rentals and a warming hut. Allegany is very popular with snowmobilers. We could hear them whizzing by from time to time. We also spotted a few fishing huts on the Red House Lake. And, of course, there are great tobogganing hills for the kid in all of us.

We arrived at the park late on Friday. Our cabin was up on a hill and there was no way to get the car up there with all the snow so we had to carry our gear and supplies. Nothing makes you move faster than freezing temperatures so between the four of us we were done in a record short time. After having a nice cup of tea and deciding who’d take the upper bunks, we were all in bed dreaming of a great day ahead.

We started the next morning with our favourite breakfast and a nice cup of coffee. We then headed to the Art Roscoe Ski Centre where we rented gear and spent the day skiing. It was snowing lightly when we started and the forest looked magical. It’s amazing how winter manages to create the most enchanting works of art with only one colour at its disposal.

Somewhere halfway through the trail, a snow squall blew in reducing visibility to almost zero. Luckily it passed quickly but our younger son continued to shake snow off the tree branches with his ski poles so by the time we were done we looked like snowmen and, well, one snowwoman.

After our skiing adventures, we drove to the neighbouring town of Salamanca (about 10 minutes away) to buy some food and wood and spent the evening cooking boys’ favourite minestrone soup with garlic toast, building a campfire near the cabin and then playing the game of Life back inside.

The next morning, we woke up to refreshing 25 below zero outside and lots of sun.

After delicious oatmeal with fruit and some warm drinks, we finally plucked up the courage to go outside.

We decide to test our new snow tube on one of the hills. It was fun while it lasted, which wasn’t very long. About halfway down the first run, the tube ripped sending the kids tumbling down. There was a bit of complaining about scratched cheeks and cold snow but nothing a nice hot cup of chocolate wouldn’t fix.

We spent the rest of the day around the cabin, our younger son breaking off icicles, the rest of us warming by the fire. By then, our improvised fire pit (the real one was hidden somewhere under the snow) got wider and deeper allowing us to actually sit around the edge right by the fire. In the end the combination of fire and snow created a perfectly round crater, its walls covered in ice spikes.

Once we went through all of our wood, we retreated inside, made some fish with baked potatoes and roasted corn (yum) and played our favourite board game, Settlers of Catan.

On Monday, it was time to leave. As always, it felt the trip hadn’t been long enough. Two beautiful does came to say good-bye.

Our Road Trip to Florida: Part III – Camping at Everglades

January 21, 2015October 21, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / 10 Comments

So finally the best part of our trip – Everglades.

Our last stop before entering Everglades was Robert Is Here Fruit Market, a feast of colours and tastes. We packed our car with fresh produce, exotic dragon and star fruit, and locally grown mangoes and avocados and set out on the last leg of our journey.

By the time we reached Flamingo Campground, it was already dark. The registration booth was empty so it took us a while to figure out how to get to the walk-in area where we had a site reserved. When I was booking a site, I was seduced by the walk-in’s proximity to the ocean. Drive-in and trailer campsites are not too far away but you can’t really see the water from there. I knew that the walk-in area was a big open field with an occasional palm tree. What I couldn’t know from the pictures was the fact that the area was pretty swampy with about a quarter of the sites covered ankle deep in water, something we discovered pretty quickly as we tried to pick a site by the flashlight. Another thing we weren’t prepared for were the mosquitoes. I did read other people’s accounts of practically ‘being eaten alive’ but I thought: how bad can it be, we’ve been camping a lot, we are not afraid of some mosquitoes. Well, I was wrong because there are mosquitoes and then there are mosquitoes at Everglades or rather, as we later found out, in the Flamingo area. But I’ll get to the bugs later, now back to our campsite.

We quickly realized that we would not be able to choose a proper site in the dark. Plus carrying all the gear from the car would take a while and all we wanted at that point was to get inside our tent. So we ended up setting camp right by the side of the road next to our car. I kept repeating, more to myself than others, that things would be better the next day. Yet, even in the morning I had my doubts. I must confess that for the first time in our camping history, I was contemplating leaving and looking for alternative arrangements. I am glad I decided to stay because we all ended up loving the park, bugs and all.

The next morning after an unsuccessful attempt to move to the drive-in area, which looked more shaded and cozy, we finally picked a walk-in site and moved all our gear there. I will not go into details but apparently the park uses a very ‘sophisticated’ manual site registration system and the staff don’t really know how many sites will be available until ‘the lady’ comes around midday to check all the sites and put up ‘reserved’ notes. After they told us to come back later for the third time, we gave up. It all worked out in the end. Our neighbours moved out that same night and we managed to occupy a site with a tree, a luxury at the walk-in campground. The tree provided shade, particularly useful in the morning if you want to sleep a little longer, but it also gave an illusion of privacy and was excellent for climbing, too. And that proximity to the ocean that made me book this site in the first place? It gave us a front-row view of incredible sunsets and sunrises.

For more pictures of sunsets and sunrises, check out my Random|Pix blog.

Everglades National Park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States, the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi River and is visited on average by one million people each year. Most of those people come during the day and they usually stick to the Anhinga Trail and boat cruises. Anhinga Trail is a prime location for watching famous crocodiles and alligators as well as numerous species of birds. From the safety of a boardwalk, you can see crocs and gators everywhere, sunning, swimming, sleeping or maybe just pretending to be sleeping while constantly watching you from under their half-closed lids. It was exciting to see these prehistoric looking creatures but because of the sheer number of these reptiles and most importantly people the whole experience felt almost staged. Coming across an alligator during our canoe trip or riding past a gator family on our bikes felt more authentic, probably because there was no boardwalk to separate us from the animals. The birds were also a lot of fun to watch as were the manatees down by the Flamingo marina. Since the marina was only a ten minute bike ride from the campground, petting manatees was a daily must for our kids.

For more pictures of alligators, manatees and birds, visit my Random|Pix blog.

Another attraction at the Flamingo marina is a narrated boat cruise either into the backcountry or around the Florida Bay. We decided to skip it and get a full-day canoe rental instead (for the price of one boat ride ticket). For part of our expedition, we actually followed the boat and could hear the guide talk about the differences between crocodiles and alligators and different kinds of mangroves but then the boat sped away and we were left to explore on our own. Other than an occasional gator sunning on the bank and mangroves lining the shores, canoeing into the Everglades backcountry didn’t look or feel any different than canoeing in Canada.

When we tell people that we camped at Everglades, the first thing they ask us about is alligators and sometimes pythons. Somehow everyone has this idea that the park is crawling with these reptiles. Well, here is good news: while alligators are abundant around marshes and lakes, they don’t come to the campsites. There are lots of birds in the campground and every morning we would wake up to a flock of ibises grazing nearby or a pack of vultures trying to get to our food. As for pythons, they are very hard to find even if you go looking for them (as we learned during a ranger-led talk) so there is no danger of them falling on you from a tree. Our son did have a lizard fall on him on one of our bike rides, but no pythons were in sight.

I still maintain that when it comes to ‘wildlife’ in Everglades, mosquitoes were the most menacing. I would like to say that it got better on day two but there were still as many of them. Plus they were joined by the so-called no-see-ums, tiny insects that you can’t see, as the name implies, but can definitely feel as soon as they bite. We were prepared though. By the time the sun set, we had finished our dinner, washed the dishes, packed all our food, put on pants and long-sleeve shirts, ready to retreat into the tent should it become unbearable. We even joked that we felt as if we were in a zombie/vampire movie waiting for the creature of the night to appear as soon as the last ray of sun fades away. Forced inside our tent so early in the evening, we played card games and Settlers of Catan listening to the buzzing outside. And early bedtime made us all into early risers, feeling rested and energized for the day ahead. We survived as do numerous people that go camping at Everglades every year (more than survived, actually, we really enjoyed it and are now considering doing some backcountry camping there), even though my husband did look like he had a severe case of measles by the time we were leaving.

I am happy to report, too, that in a few days the temperatures cooled down a bit in the evening and it even rained on New Year’s Eve reducing bug levels to bearable. We could spend our evenings outside and we were able to ring in the New Year by the campfire. Since we forgot to bring sparklers, our attempt to write 2015 with sticks and marshmallows failed miserably. It was a fun celebration nonetheless. We cooked an eclectic fusion of Japanese miso soup, Mexican guacamole and Italian gnocchi. Then, at twelve (or at least twelve according to our clock because not everyone seemed to agree on the time), we joined a growing chorus of Happy New Year across the campground.

Unfortunately, vacations always come to an end. On our way out, we made another stop at Robert Is Here market for the most delicious fruit shakes (that was our breakfast) and to stock up on more fruit. The fruit salad that I made on my lap in the moving car at the end of day one and the ugli fruit that we enjoyed somewhere around Pittsburgh felt like an extension of the holidays.

Our Road Trip to Florida: Part II – Florida Keys

January 16, 2015October 21, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / 3 Comments

After a long drive from Tampa and a stop for groceries, we finally crossed the bridge to the Keys just as the sun was about to set down. We stopped for dinner at the aptly named Sundowners restaurant in Key Largo. More yummy seafood plus beautiful views.

Camping at Sugarloaf Key

Our destination was a KOA campground down at the Sugarloaf Key. My original plan was to book a site at Bahia Honda or any other state park in Florida Keys. Unfortunately, since campsite reservations for Florida parks open eleven months in advance, there were no campsites left by the time we started planning our trip. After some research, I found a KOA campground not far from Key West. During our road trips, we often book cabins at various KOAs for one- or two-night stops. It is less expensive than a hotel room and doesn’t interfere with the whole camping vibe of the trips. We weren’t sure about tenting, though, since the tent sites we’d seen at different KOAs varied significantly – from decent-size wooded lots to small pebble-covered patches tucked in between RVs. The site we got at this KOA exceeded our expectations by a lot: it was further away from the RVs, and had lots of shade and space (enough space to even play soccer). We then discovered that there were other tent areas, with the green one (where we stayed) and the yellow one being the best. All the others were across from the RV area, which looked more like a parking lot than a campground and made me claustrophobic every time I had to walk through it.

The campground as a whole was far from the wilderness camping experience we are used to and reminded more of a resort with its own bar, café, tiki huts and inflated bouncing and climbing structures in the beach area. It had some nice features, though, like kayak, canoe and boat rentals, and was a good base for exploring the Keys and visiting Key West (plus we had lots of wilderness waiting for us over at Everglades). We stayed there for three days going on bike rides, kayaking, soaking up the sun and watching pelicans and iguanas. Pelicans were abundant, especially around the fish cleaning station waiting for occasional fish remains or lining up on the fishing bridge seemingly oblivious of the people right next to them. Dozens of iguanas were sunning in the mangroves, their striped tails hanging among the branches. It was a fun game to see who could find the most of those masters of disguise. Sometimes, they would scatter around the campsite or play hide-and-seek around the car. (For more pictures of pelicans and iguanas, go to my Random|Pix blog.)

The best part of the trip, of course, was getting to spend time with my family, my brother and his wife. In the evening, we would have long conversations around the fire or listen to our friendly neighbour Roger play his guitar.

Key West

We dedicated one day to exploring Key West since it was only 20 miles away from the campground. Instead of driving there, we decided to take public transit. There is a bus running all the way through the Lower Keys and it only costs $4 for adults and $2 for kids. Biking would be another green transportation option since there is a bike lane along most of Highway 1 that runs from Key Largo to Key West. The bus does take some time, though, since it makes frequent stops and circles a bit around Stock island and Key West but then you don’t have to worry about finding parking, not an easy task in a town as busy as Key West.

Key West is a pretty, lively town at the very south of Florida Keys so almost everything has ‘Sounthernmost’ in its name, like “Southermost Hotel’ or ‘Southernmost Beach.’ The southernmost point in continental USA actually features a huge buoy with the ’90 miles to Cuba’ marker, a very popular destination with a huge lineup of people wishing to take a picture in front of it. I guess this fascination can be explained by the fact that for now Americans can’t get any closer to Cuba. ’90 miles to Cuba’ is another popular sign you’ll see around the city.

Key West, just like the rest of the Keys, has a bit of a Caribbean vibe. Beautiful houses, tropical plants, roosters wandering in the streets, lots of restaurants and cafes, delicious seafood (again), yummy ice-cream and famous Key Lime pie, music and dancing everywhere. And, of course, the sunset celebration at Mallory Square with flaming skies and street performers.

We had great time exploring the city and taking silly pictures, like looking over the fence of Hemingway’s House or pretending to be taking a selfie with a statue at the Museum of Art and History.

For more pictures of Key West, check out my Random|Pix blog.

Before long, it was time to leave Florida Keys. As always, it felt that there was so much we hadn’t done. We had plans to stop at Bahia Honda Park on the way back since it has the best beach in all of the Keys. Unfortunately, the day use area was packed so we had to readjust our plans. We ended up at Sombrero Beach, a lovely public park in Marathon. It felt surreal to be swimming in the ocean at the end of December and the water was the warmest we’d experienced in 2014 (yes, much warmer than the lakes in Canada were this past summer). After a few hours on the beach and a grocery shopping trip, we headed for Everglades, with a beautiful Florida sunset in our rear-view mirror.

Off to Everglades…

Our Road Trip to Florida: Part I – On the Road

January 14, 2015October 21, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / Leave a comment

We like long road trips. Every summer we hit the road to explore parks around Canada and the United States. This summer, though, we weren’t able to take time off so we decided to make up for it with a winter camping trip to Florida.

On the road

The drive from Toronto down to Florida usually takes about two days (depending how far south you want to go) but it’s a fun trip in the winter. As the temperatures outside go up, the amount of clothing you have to wear goes down. You shed coats, sweaters and boots like trees shedding leaves in the fall and after two days emerge on the other side of the weather spectrum: hot, humid and sunny.

Our trip was pleasantly uneventful. Even border crossing was surprisingly quick. We really enjoyed driving through both Virginias: beautiful mountain vistas with clouds grazing the tops. I was trying to imagine those peaks dressed up in summer greens and already planning a trip there once it gets warmer.

Savannah

We decided to break up our drive a bit and make a stop at Savannah. Ever since reading and watching “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” I wanted to visit the city– it seemed so mysterious and charming. It didn’t disappoint and delivered every ounce of promised charm and mystery. Unfortunately, it also delivered copious amounts of rain. Light drizzle on the first day added to the charm and we had fun taking pictures with an umbrella. However, the drizzle turned into a downpour on day two, plus our younger son decided it was a good time to come down with a fever so we had to cut our explorations short. We did manage to see some of the old city and enjoy a delicious dinner at the Shrimp Factory down on River Street.

For more pictures of Savannah, check out my Random|Pix blog.

Another highlight of the trip was our cabin at the KOA campground. We arrived late at night and at a first glance it seemed no different from any other KOA we’d stayed at before. Then we noticed big white spots all over the lake by our cabin. In the morning, it turned out they were swans. The birds were everywhere – gliding, flying, cleaning their feathers and quite often fighting. There were also ducks, cormorants, Canada geese and wood storks. Quite a site to wake up to in the morning.

I posted more pictures of swans on my Random|Pix blog.

Tampa

When we left Savannah, we headed south to Tampa, Florida, to visit my brother. Since our son was still sick and needed time to rest, we didn’t see much of the city. All we could squeeze in was a short walk along the waterfront and more delicious seafood. Oh, and an epic game of Settlers of Catan. The combination of rest, sun and family fun did the trick and our son was back to normal the next day. So we set out for the Keys.

Check back for more…

The Best of 2014

December 17, 2014August 5, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / Leave a comment

With 2014 almost done, I went through my photos and put together my top 10 camping moments of the year. It was a bit hard to rank them since it was such a great year for camping but I am pretty confident about my number 1 picks (yes, there are two of them).

10. Thanksgiving Weekend at Grundy Lake Provincial Park

Lots to be thankful for: Gorgeous fall colours, picturesque trails, great friends, roaring campfires in the evening and a hearty thanksgiving meal. What else can you wish for on a beautiful fall day?

9. Early flowers and happy moose at Algonquin

Victoria Day weekend was a bit chilly this year (temperatures were around freezing most nights). It didn’t stop us from enjoying dainty spring flowers and a great bike ride from Mew Lake to Rock Lake. We even came across a very happy-looking moose on our way back.

8. Easter at MacGregor Point Provincial Park

Since Easter is all about nature awakening and rejuvenation, we decided to head for the woods to celebrate it. It was the first time we did it and it is bound to become one of our favourite family traditions. Kids got to do an Easter egg hunt in the actual forest and we did lots of hiking even though there were still heaps of snow around.

7. Sunsets at Pinery

Sunsets at Pinery Provincial Park are always gorgeous whether you watch them on the beach or over the Old Ausable Channel.

6. Family Day weekend at Arrowhead Provincial Park

Arrowhead is often called the best kept secret in Ontario. Well, I think the secret is out as this February we had to spend over an hour in a car lineup to get to the park entrance. It’s easy to see why the park is so popular in the winter: with hiking, snowshoeing, tubing, skiing and skating around the torch-lit loop, you never run out of things to do.

5. Backpacking at Bon Echo Provincial Park

It was our first backpacking trip and in spite of hordes of mosquitoes and a sprained ankle, we are planning more and longer hiking trips.

4. Canoeing at Kawartha Highlands

Canoeing is probably my favourite outdoor activity. Remoteness, beauty, loons at night, tranquility – all of these make any canoe trip irresistible, especially in a beautiful park like Kawartha Highlands.

3. Stars at Bruce Peninsula

Bruce Peninsula is beautiful any time of the day, but at night under the star strewn skies, it is spectacular.

2. Celebrating New Year at Allegany State Park

What can be a better way to ring in the New Year than in the woods, around a campfire with your family.

1. Foggy morning paddle with my younger son

During our canoe trip this year, my younger son woke me up early so we could go for a paddle. As we cut through the thick morning fog, it felt like we were the only people in the world.

1. University send-off party for our older son

Our son going to University and moving out was the biggest family event of the year. Since camping has always been such a big part of our lives, it seemed appropriate to celebrate this big achievement while camping.