a peek inside the fishbowl

This is one of my all-time favourite camping photos. It cracks me up every time:

CHIPMUNK PHOTOBOMB! Haha!

This morning Mark will be packing up the pickup (YES, there is a TRUCK. Read on for the backstory!) while I’m scrambling around like a madwoman trying to strike things off our very very long list.

We are heading out for our annual camping trip this week. We’ve been so happy with Ontario Parks that we chose a new site called Grundy Lake for this year’s trip too. It’s south of Sudbury. I was reading more about it lately (Mark booked it so I’ve been a bit oblivious for the past five months) and I learned that our area has no comfort station nearby (we will have to drive to get to proper flush toilets and running water) and there’s a drinking water advisory. You may draw your own conclusions about how I feel about those things, but I will say that I’m looking forward to some peaceful time in the great outdoors and some quality hiking and beach time. :)

It bears mentioning that Grundy Lake is a 6.5 hour drive from Ottawa but at LEAST we’re going to be travelling in comfort.

A couple years ago Ford loaned us a really great vehicle for our camping trip – an Explorer – and it was ideal. I can summarize the experience thusly: four people, loads of camping gear, total comfort. They didn’t have an Explorer for us this year but they did have something… er, a little unexpected. This is it. Now I am secretly wishing we were towing something, anything. (Anyone got a boat they can lend us?) This baby has power. No truck in its class can carry more weight than the full-size Ford F-150. It also has that impressive back-up camera I liked in the Explorer and the same attention to safety (which I deeply appreciate).

Driving a pickup is a bit of a departure for us but I really like the experience of driving something totally new … as evidenced by my time on the “racetrack” with the Ford Escape last summer!

I will be writing more about the F-150 upon our return, but I wanted to let you know that the Fishbowl is not going to be dry for the week. No siree! I have scheduled a bunch of excellent guest bloggers to keep you entertained, so please stay tuned. The first post is coming up tomorrow! Please help our authors feel welcome while I’m away. Thank you! Have a great week everyone!

Note to self: go back to Kingston at the earliest possible opportunity!

Mark and I haven’t been to Canada’s Wonderland in almost 20 years. It was high time we returned (with kids in tow!) so they could experience the WONDER for themselves. And I’m glad we did. We had a lot of fun.

Lots has changed at Wonderland, including the installation of a bunch of new rides. I think the Leviathan was my favourite. I still can’t believe the four of us did it. It’s a jaw-dropping 306 feet tall, and the first hill turns into an unbelievable 80 degree drop. Oh, and it travels 148 km/hr. (!)

It felt like I was hurtling towards my death. Watch this front-car view:

Here are some of my favourite views from Wonderland:

For the record I was the only one who braved the Free Fall:

Here’s how we decided to go about our Wonderland roadtrip (in case you want to do it too!):

• We bought our tickets and parking passes online ahead of time to save a few bucks.
• We left Ottawa on a weekday and checked into the Hilton Homewood Suites that afternoon. We discovered that it was in a bit of an odd location (amid an industrial park and big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot) but it turned out to be a good choice of hotel. It’s clean, quite new, and only a few minutes away from the park. When we got there we realized that weekday dinners and hot breakfasts were included in the price as well. This helped our budget a little bit.
• Next morning we went straight to Wonderland and spent the whole day there.
• We went back to the hotel, swam, slept, and returned to Ottawa the next day via Kingston.

It was very fun. And you know what, I’m glad that we waited until the girls were a little older to do the Wonderland trip.