School’s Out for Summer

This trip was a little different for us.  This trip the boys got a head start on celebrating the last day of school along with the first day of summer. Friday was a PA day here, which means Hayden is home from school, but I am still required to be at work.  That gave way for plans on having my boys get a night out on their own, and I would join them after work on Friday.

A few days prior, I started looking up for open sites on Ontario Parks… this happens frequently LOL. Found out that there were many openings for Thursday night. Looked again for Thursday and Friday and what luck, found multiple sites again! Now the weekend was a whole different story, but we didn’t need it.  I suggested camping to Dan, told him best to get up there and have a good solid Friday biking, swimming, etc and I would join then right after I could get home from work.

Thursday

So with that, I packed the majority of the gear, got the meals prepped and ready.  Right after school on Thursday, the boys packed the vehicle and headed north for Silent Lake Provincial Park. It was nice to get updates throughout the evening as I was prepping and sitting through graduation ceremonies for school.

Once all set up, the boys ventured to the water to check out the rocks. I guess they were scoping out the swimming prospects for the next day.  Guess they can take at least one serious picture.

I got the good night message, showing Hayden reading his book before they finally tuck in for the night. At this point I was just getting home from graduation and would have one final day of work tomorrow.

Friday

There is little evidence of their morning bike ride…. I wonder what could have stopped them from taking pictures? Actually what many little biting things…. I was told the mosquitoes on the trail were crazy thick.  They didn’t want to stop for a long time as they were getting eaten alive.

Their afternoon was spent swimming at the beach. It looked like they had the whole place to themselves.  Many campers, like myself, would be arriving later on Friday evening.

Right after our PA day, I headed home, got the canoe on the car, and drove north to meet up with my boys.  I arrived shortly after 4pm and they were just chilling on the site after a busy day.  It was actually really nice to not have to set up camp. I just rolled in and we prepped our pizza supper.

After supper we took advantage of the lovely evening to take the canoe out for a paddle.  This is a non-motorized lake which makes for nice quiet paddling.  There were a few people out enjoying the coolish air (not really), and I even had a friend tag along for some of the ride.

With the evening being so nice and warm, we got back to camp and quickly changed into swim gear.  I really wanted to get in that water and cool off.  It was so refreshing! The water was lovely and we had the whole rocky section to ourselves tonight. 

Our swim ended and we got the campfire going.  Hayden was happy to hear I brought along our hammock. He spent the majority of the evening just swinging and relaxing in it.

Overnight Friday

Just a little interlude to this post….. I woke up around 4am hearing Dan outside the tent gathering our chairs and the towels hung on the line and placing them in the car.  I wasn’t sure what was going on at this point, until I saw flashes of light and thunder!  Guess there was going to be rain… and rain it was.  He got back in the tent just as it started to pour.  We finally have phones which have data, so he checked the weather and there were severe thunderstorm warnings for the area. Great…. I checked online for other camping posts and some areas were also experiencing tornado warnings. Luckily those weren’t near us.  The storms seemed to be heading north of us, and we just listened for a bit until they eventually died down.  All this time Hayden was sleeping and snoring away!

Saturday

I thought the storm might get rid of some of the heat, however, I was mistaken. The morning humidity was high and you can see it in the trees.

After eating breakfast, consisting of pancakes and bacon (sorry no pictures, we ate it too fast), we headed down to the beach for the morning.  We had packed up all the gear, except for the tent so that we would have a place to change after the swim.

In the end, we decided to pack up the site and spend the remaining time at the beach. We made sure we were off the site before the 2pm time while keeping our place on the beach. It was getting busy as the weekend campers were all arriving.

It was really nice to watch all the kids play, and Hayden even found a few to spend a lot of time with.  I think we ended up being on the beach for almost 4 hours.  We even had our lunch in the beach shelter.

After many hours of beach time, many trips to the rocks and back, we were ready to come home.  This was a great way to welcome the end of the school year and the beginning of summer.  We have a lot of plans this summer and I can’t wait to share them with you all.