Our Grand Adventure - Lake Huron

Living all my life in Utah, I have not had many opportunities to spend time on the water, but ever since we took our big family trip back east, I have been fascinated by the Great Lakes. My first glimpse of Lake Michigan is something I will never forget; one of those moments that literally takes your breath away... and the kids just loved swimming in the warm water without salt.

So when we decided to take our trip together this year, and Canada became the destination, one of the things I wanted to do the most was to see more of these beautiful lakes. Our little resort is not far from Lake Huron, but an early snowstorm made it difficult to do what I had planned. I was hoping to take a ferry ride out to Christian Island on Monday, but the snow kept us in town. On Tuesday, I was determined that we would get out and see the lake. 

We climbed in the car and set the destination, but it kept winding us around these little Concession roads. My sweetie saw a sign that said Tiny beaches, so we decided to make our way there. As we drove between quaint houses on a snow-covered road, we realized that Tiny was the name of the town. After a few minutes of twists and turns, we finally turned a corner a caught our first glimpse of Lake Huron. 

It was not quite as life-changing as Lake Michigan, but amazingly beautiful nonetheless. I knew when we left Utah that we would not be able to frolic on the beach in November, but I had hoped to at least be able to touch the water. The angry waves that bit into the snowy banks kept us safely inside our toasty vehicle as we admired the seemingly endless water. Lake Huron deserved its own blog post.

 

The GPS reminded us that we still had Christian Island on our radar, so we followed the promptings until we were sitting in our car at the ferry landing. It wasn't there, but should be returning in about half an hour to make yet another trip to the island. We only hesitated for a moment before we decided not to wait for it to return. The waves were still angry and the snow had begun falling in earnest. We only had about 4 inches on the ground (or should I say 8 cm), but we had other places to go and things to see. 

My sweetie punched in the address for Captain Ken's Diner, a place that was famous for authentic Canadian fare. We were not disappointed with the service or the experience, but we didn't really love all of the food. Poutine was provided free of charge by our excellent server although after a couple of tries each, she laughed at us and took it away...fries covered in cheese curds and brown gravy was not our thing. I ordered pickerel which was a fish that sort of tasted like our trout in Utah, but I shared it with my sweetie when he was completely disappointed with the fish chowder. (I think he was expecting it to taste more like clam chowder.)

Back at the hotel, we spent the evening swimming and hanging out in the outdoor hot tub, playing games in the arcade (I actually beat my sweetie at pool!), and meeting some new and interesting friends.  On Wednesday, we head into Toronto for a couple of days. That will definitely be different from the way we are spending our days out here in the countryside.

Our Grand Adventure - Barrie, Ontario, Canada

Growing up in Utah and living on the Wasatch Front for most of my adult life means that I have been in plenty of snowstorms, so I didn't exactly travel all the way out of the country just so I could experience snow.  Basically, the snow in Canada is pretty much like the snow in Utah except that without the mountains that shelter the Salt Lake Valley, when the wind blows across this part of Canada, it is cold!!

We had originally planned to drive out and see the Lake Huron this morning, but the weather kept us much nearer to our condo and we ended up in the closest city which is Barrie. It's a nice place, with friendly people and a small town atmosphere.

We hadn't packed boots and things for weather this cold, so after a nice lunch at Applebee's where we saw more than a dozen people sporting their Canadian military wear for Veteran's Day, we headed for a little mall to see if we could buy some boots. Applebee's gives out free meals to military every November 11th which I think is super awesome. I was just surprised to see that it happened in Canada just like in the United States (or the States as everyone says it here).

After working our way through most of the mall shops, we didn't find any boots, but we did eventually find a bowling alley and we decided it was a great idea to challenge each other to a quick game. My sweetie won the first game, but I actually won the second one. It was the first time I can recall ever beating him at bowling.

We grabbed an Orange Julius on our way back to the car, stopped at a little Chinese market, and then drove to WalMart. It took us about 2 hours to buy new boots and a bunch of things to eat back at the condo. Food here seems to cost way more, but the exchange rate is off too, so it is hard to tell.

After a long and slow snowy drive, we were back at the condo. We made our own dinner of lasagna, salad, and wheat bread. It was nice to just be by ourselves for a change. Hopefully the storm will let up a little tomorrow so we can drive down to see the water.

I will let you know.

Our Grand Adventure - Detroit

I'm not sure it is really fair to call this post Detroit since we barely stopped there, but it was the first destination on our Grand Adventure so it will stay. On Saturday afternoon, my sweetie and I climbed into an airplane in Salt Lake City and a few hours later we got off in a much colder airport in Detroit. Actually, the airport wasn't cold, it was pretty awesome! It even had a small commuter train that shuttled passengers from gate to gate that ran on a track above our heads.

From the airport, we climbed on a little shuttle of our own that ran us to the hotel where we would spend one quick night. On Sunday morning, my sweetie picked up our rental car before we packed up, checked out, and headed off to the nearest church which just happened to be nestled right in the middle of the Ford campus.

After sacrament meeting, we quickly got  on the road. We had a 5-hour drive ahead of us and a storm was rolling in.  Our ultimate goal was to cross the boarder into Canada since yours truly had NEVER been out of the country before!

We arrived at our little resort condo just after dark and we were both ready to relax and enjoy some down time.

Don't worry, I'll have lots more for you tomorrow!

Bingham Football 2019

On Thursday night, we had the year-end football banquet at the Brick Oven pizza place for Curly's Mity Mite A-Team. They lost right before Halloween in the first round of playoff games. It was a heart-breaker and the season all ended so fast.

Curly is such a good kid and almost as tall as me now, and to see the tears just rolling down his cheeks at the thought that he wouldn't be seeing his friends a few times a week, wouldn't be wearing those pads and #97, or hiking that ball. The loss was hard, but the things he lost were devastating.

None of that was evident at the banquet though. The boys had a great time all sitting around a huge table in the center with the parents grouped around the edges.

The coaches said great things about the boys and then the head coach presented each boy with his very own football dog tag engraved with the team motto. It was an amazing night and one I'm sure Curly will remember for a long time.

One other thing...

For some strange reason, about half a dozen of his football friends got perms and they all sport this awesome curly hair now.

Curly took one look and now it sounds like he wants to live up to his blog name again, so when we get home from Canada in a week or so, he will be sporting a new 'do. Don't worry, there will definitely be pictures!