My Happy Travels

Nothing is more important than family. That is how we were raised and that is how we raised our kids. My family is everything. There is the ‘deep down maternal mother bear’ when I think about my daughters and clearly they are #1. But when I am in Canada there is some other ancestral genetic pull that is all encompassing and really hard to articulate. When your born in one country and immigrate to another, life always seems somehow split. I feel that most strongly when I am surrounded by my Canadian family.

This journey to the otherside of Canada, far from most of my Canadian family on the west, started with a promise to my Uncle Bunckle. The next time I come to Canada, I will visit you on the east coast. He told me he would wait. It is bitter sweet to be here because he couldn’t wait and I missed him. I miss him ❤

We journeyed along the parkway from Niagara Falls following the upper parts of the river into Lake Erie. We were heading to Utopia where my Aunt and cousins live. We had already decided we would take the long way there to avoid traffic and highways so I just plugged random town names into Google Maps to force it to take me the way I wanted to go.

We reached Fort Earie where you can drive over the border to Buffalo. We headed in the opposite direction away from the lake and through farmland, stopping for lunch at Orangeville. More wings were had (with a side of salad) and something that resembled a Yorkshire pudding stuffed with braised beef and onion. 😋 Driving the farmlands we stopped for icecream and meatsticks (pickle flavoured, so yes we had to buy). The farms appeared to be beans, corn, potatoes and stock feed. Big century barns, old farmhouses and just picturesque. We were on a mission to get to the family so no pictures were taken!

We spent 3 nights with my cousins. We had a chill day, and adventure day and spent time catching up, reconnecting and vowing to stay in touch. We laughed lots, cried a little and had all the big long heartfelt hugs. These guys are isolated from family too. A long way from their BC family so hopefully a visit from us was good medicine. 😍

My cousins, Victoria and Daniel, have a artisans business that was created along with their Dad before he left this world. It evolved into predominantly making beautiful wooden clocks. You can read their story here:

https://generationaldesign.ca/

Their business is run from both of their homes but mostly from Victoria’s home in a big workshop in the back yard. The set up is impressive and sings of family enterprise. They all should be so proud. I, of course, needed to take a clock home. They let me rummage through and pick one which I liked upside down… haha. They flipped it for me, branded it for me and finally signed it. It will be a treasured possession.

Our chill day consisted of playing with the kids, watching Daniel and Victoria work on the clocks, drinking beer, bbqing, chatting, catching fish in the pond, eating pizza and generally just relaxing and hanging out. It was perfect. Minus Victoria’s headache of course, right?! Wayne even got a ride in the Maserati to collect the pizza 🍕 He will repay the favour one day in Australia showing Mario how to drive without traction control 🤣

Our adventure day was heading to the Blue Mountains which sits on Lake Huron. The drive there was full of spectacular views of the lake or as Wayne says, the ocean in the distance. In the winter the village is a big ski resort. In the summer, it is where you go to get outside with some adventure activities from mini golf to high ropes. There is mountain biking, hiking and paddle boats and no doubt more that i didn’t see. Lots of touristy shops (we bought some Canadian theme ornaments for the Xmas tree from the Christmas shoppe). The kids wanted to do EVERYthing, obviously. We had lunch at a brewery… is there a theme here… which was on the little lake/pond which was full of the paddleboats. We shuffled our group of 8 + bubba across two tables and ordered a tasting skateboard, yes skateboard!

21stDaniel and his cute little very young family headed home and we convinced Victoria’s girls to narrow the activity down to the roller coaster which was like a luge. Wayne and his new besty Emma in one cart and me and Izzy in another. Izzys lungs work, I can tell you that. I wasn’t sure if it was happy screams or terrified ones, but either way, there was only one way down and we didn’t touch the brakes once!

From here we went to the Scenic Caves. Heading off for a hike to earn our lunch. Firstly across the suspension bridge and then to find some caves. What I wouldn’t give for the energy of Miss Izzy. There was no keeping up with her and the fear of losing her the caves was real!

On the way home we stopped at Wasaga Beach.. a fresh water beach. The size of lakes here means waves still happen, albeit little ones. No salty water wash off, who could complain about that!

Goodbyes are hard here, but we sucked it up and got on with it after our final night. It was time for us to see out the rest of our East Side tour. My heart is full. Love my people ❤️ Thanks for having us Scottons xx