Elora Gorge Family Hike

 After years of thinking about walking along the Elora gorge, we finally did it. Lucas had to work that afternoon, so he was left behind as the rest of us drove to Elora. The original "medium difficulty" loop I had planned from the  All Trails app was thwarted by private developments. The access points and portions of the trail were fenced off. We changed tact, and traded free road parking for official paid entry into the conservation area and did the "easy difficulty" loop. We were a little alarmed at the first few hundred metres of trail which were heavily trafficked. After almost a kilometer, the crowds vanished and we were walking without other hikers nearby. The sounds of the people who had opted for the rafting adventure accompanied us along the river and made us jealous on a fairly warm September day. We saw many mushrooms and spider webs. At the end of the hike we drove over to Sugar Skulls for some ice cream and then continued to Fergus to visit with my parents. It was a long, but productive day!

Started off the hike with a pit stop. So civilized! (This photo is mostly dedicated to my sister Wendy)

Still smiles at the start of the hike.

First look-out

Sun-dappled birch

1km in and still some smiles.

Several patches of luscious grass in the forest. David thought they felt like pine needles.

One of the intrepid tubers. It was such a lovely warm day.

2km in and still smiling!

Such a flattering close-up, David. Remind me to thank-you for that later!

Michael describing how the hike fits in with Taylor Swift's Folklore "esthetic"

Fording a stream

Still contemplating Taylor Swift.

Resting at one of the eddies.

3km and the smile is fading, the tree is required for support.

David had fun at some crannies.

5.6km later, still smiles atop a mess of tree roots below the "hole in the rock" tourist spot.

Sandbanks Camping 2021

Welcome to Sandbanks Provincial Park camping extravaganza 2021!

This story really begins 5 months ago when we had 3 families trying to book 2 campsites at 7am before the sites all filled up. Two days and we were unsuccessful. The third day Chris and I, working on separate computers, were able to snag 2 sites! Phew! When Chris went to book his time off, however, the first week had already been booked by his colleague. So the rest of the Toronto Taylors travelled to Sandbanks while Chris enjoyed being in a house all by himself for the first time since March 2020. He then travelled by train to Belleville on Friday evening to join us for the last 4 days.

We were welcomed to the park on Sunday August 22 with a heat warning that would remain in effect for the next 5 or 6 days. We did a moonlight walk on the beach under a full moon. Two of our crew did their own full moon by skinny dipping in the lake.

The full moon rising above, and the full moon setting below.

Luckily, the lake always had a breeze so we spent most of our days at the beach swimming, playing cards, reading, and relaxing

Almost every night consisted of a campfire sing-a-long. Michael had the job of strumming while Maryke was in charge of the chords AND the harmonica for piano man. We did not have a piano... We did have back-up guitar players. Lucas's Whiskey in the Jar was a favourite and Thierry added some Arkells to the mix.

Time at the campsites were spent eating, singing, chatting, playing games (Secret Hitler was a favourite again), teenagers charging phones, and reading or napping in the ever popular hammock. Our beloved hammock did not survive this last trip and is now retired from service. 

A second annual wine tour was a huge success. We started with sparkling wines at Hinterland Winery and purchased a bottle there.

Next stop was the charming Grange of Prince Edward Vineyards and Estate Winery where Chris and I both sampled the tasting box and all 4 of us had some gourmet sausages. Yum!

Our last winery of the day was Closson Chase Vineyards which had a very professional feel to it. A talented pianist moonlighting at the winery wowed us with her wine glass dexterity, easily handling 10 of our 12 glasses in one hand.

 We finished off with some delicious coffee at an Italian café the Piccolina in nearby Wellington.

The next day, on advice from a good friend, the adults had dinner out at Harry's Charbroiled food truck. Delicious burgers outside of the Waupoos Pub where we purchased some locally made Cressy Mustard. We also take a pretty awesome photo there. I think we look like a tourism brochure!

While we were eating, the kids rustled up their own food and spent the sunset playing games at the beach.

Our final tradition was ice cream scoops on our way out of the park and back to Toronto. Another fantastic year! Love all these people so much!

Happy Hallowe'en

David was super excited about his costume this year. He started making it in August, took a 2 month break in order to keep the tradition of finishing the night before needing it! Our family has been big fans of the Nickelodeon show Avatar the Last Airbender. David is a 10 tonne air bison named Appa (that for some reason has a platypus tail).

One of the family favourite games is Guillotine, a card game about the French Revolution. Michael went out as a French noble, post-guillotine.

Our jack-o-lantern was from a pumpkin grown in my first vegetable garden this year. I was very pleased with this fruit of our backyard!

Michael had the honours of carving the pumpkin.

Our house was in one of the neighbourhood scavenger hunts for the "bush with a scary face". Not sure who designed the hunt, but I saw several dozen groups of parents and costumed kids stopping by!

Since trick-or-treating was discouraged, I divided up some of the candy I had already purchased amongst the family for snacking during our first family scary movie.

Michael and David participated in a neighbourhood street parade. All the families contributed some candy so that the kids could get a variety of loot at the end without having to go door to door. It was a nice way to still get some of the flavour of Hallowe'en (pun intended).

Speaking of flavour, we still had our traditional hotdog mummies for dinner. We also had our annual porch wine and candy with friends Sandy and Molly virtually through Zoom. Not as good as the real thing, but it was important to still be able to see them!

And then we watched The Sixth Sense! It was so great to watch the kids faces at the end! 

So that was our Hallowe'en. A mixture of old traditions and some new. David was a little morose about his lack of a pillowcase full of sugar, but I think he enjoyed the holiday in spite of that loss. I will enjoy not having quite so many candy wrappers floating around the house!