Living just a short plane ride away from our dear friends the Lokers has been an absolute highlight of moving to Canada. Each year we have either gone to them, or they have come to us and this summer we headed their way for a great catch up and some Ontario must do's too along the way.
This trip I was very pregnant and it was very hot. Not an amazing combo and it meant we went a bit slower than we may have otherwise but it left lots of rooms for slow mornings together catching up and talking and lovely evenings with Stew's delicious meals and more of the same. For the first time we spent some time in downtown Galt which is a very picturesque town, it was used for the filming of the Handmaids Tale and really is very architecturally interesting. We perused the St Jacobs markets and bought fruit, pies and cheese and made our way to the chocolate store Reid's and bought a selection of cremes, my favourite. We took all our finds down to the river, which was so much cooler and added some lemonade and chips from the vendor there to our haul. We ate and the kids explored the rivers edge and soon enough a wedding party came along which is always so beautiful to see.
The boys got to have a little adventure of their own going canoeing on the Grand River. Jen and Stew have a fantastic yellow canoe, perfect to fit all the gear and have a big adventure. They spent the morning canoeing down river, stopping at a little inlet to swim and had a great time together. Jen and I always make sure we get some quality girl time in too. As usual we saw a terrible movie together, this time it was Game Night, truly awful and I was able to meet her partner Geoff who is lovely.
In the middle of this trip, we spent a few days in the States visiting the church history sites in Palmyra, only a 3 hour drive from Ontario. But before we left we travelled to Niagra Falls to spend a day together before we headed on our little holiday in a holiday. It was very busy and very hot! We had been there all together once before but it was freezing and snowing, so this was a huge contrast. We had a really lovely walk from where we parked down to the falls, we passed through some beautiful gardens and walked the board walk high up along side the river. We went on the Hornblower tour which takes you right up to the falls and got a huge drenching, which I gladly welcomed, but despite Finley saying how much he wanted to get wet, when the reality hit he wasn't too happy. Primrose didn't like even being on the boat in the first place and cried most of the trip in Jen's arms, far from the action. Levi however was very happy and impressed by the whole experience and it was really him we had gone for so all was well. There was lots of laughs from Levi, Stew and I as the water poured in on us, so refreshing. For lunch we headed to the Rainforest Cafe again, which is lots of fun but the food left a bit wanting this time. It was great to escape the heat though and is a little world of it's own in there. We had another lovely walk through the gardens before we said our goodbyes and headed off across the bridge to the USA.
When we arrived back to Jen and Stew after our time away we had a big celebratory Indian dinner and a big rest before the next leg of our journey - Grand Bend. Jen's parents live in what use to be their summer cottage and it sits very close to Lake Huron, one of the great lakes of Canada. These lakes are so huge they look like the ocean and have their own tides and waves. It's like being at the beach with no salt which is pretty incredible. We spent a whole day at the lake, which in my memory is this perfect, quiet, peaceful day. We dipped in and out of the water, ate and read books and watched the kids who did not stop playing all day. They found an old wooden board and made a game of floating on it, they dug big holes in the sand, played catch out in the water and made friends with other kids on the beach. Primrose was so content, just digging and pottering around. It really was a magic day. Jen's parents Jan and Dan are always so welcoming and kind to us. Jan makes great food for us all and we love spending time and chatting together.
This trip was lovely and had the feel of family, not just friends. We are so familiar, with each other and where we we are, that there's no rush, just being together is enough. Emerson and Finley really are like cousins and have a great time together alternating between having fun and getting annoyed at each other. Just like family!
We love Ontario and the Lokers!
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