What I Learned On Summer Vacation 2022

                                        What I Learned On Summer Vacation 2022

As a family, we have wanted to do an epic road trip for a number of years, but something always got in the way. A Job change, family obligations, and of course the biggie…Covid. But now as we return to some sense of normalcy, we decided to pull the trigger and make it happen.  I am writing this in hindsight, we have been home for a week now. Sorry for ruining the suspense...we made it.

We had a few different destinations in mind, and after a few years of Ontario discovery trips, we wanted to go out of the province.  Many of our friends and coworkers had made the trip to the East Coast and loved it. And we wanted the flexibility to hook up with some friends that moved out to Nova Scotia a decade ago.  We chose Prince Edward Island as our final destination.

We chose to drive, we wanted to avoid the expense and the current nightmare of what is Pearson International Airport. We also wanted our kids, now 8 and 14, to experience the vastness of this great Country.  We were prepared for this when we bought our 7-passenger van in 2020. Now was the time! 

Here are some random things I learned from this adventure; you may judge if there have been any embellishments. 😊   

1. Even though we planned many stops well in advance, there was no guarantee that it would work out as we thought.  There are always factors out of our control, weather, venue closures, travel fatigue and the inevitable last-minute kid meltdown “but I don’t want to go”.   One of my earliest items on the “must see and do list”, was Tidal Bore Rafting. But as things turned out, the tides were at their highest, so Carleigh was too young to go, and in the end, nobody else was really into it. So we let that slip off the itinerary. Maybe next time.

2. Book your hotels early, and carefully, especially if you are planning on traveling over weekends.  We were pretty lucky for the most part, and our requirements are pretty modest.  We don’t need 5-star accommodations. But one stop on our way home in New Brunswick was a little rough around the edges.  A sense of humour was helpful to get through it.  The “lakefront cabins” we had reserved were more adapted toolsheds on an algae-filled pond.  The rickety decks, crazy noisy exhaust fans, plugged toilet, and sketchy neighbours were only to be topped by our discovery of a CN rail line running directly behind the cabins. The toot toot clickety clack, clickety clack loses it’s charm at 1:00 AM. But the “free” breakfast was great!

3. Be prepared for travel fatigue and crankiness from everyone at some point.  When we arrived at the cottage we had rented for a week, after traveling for a week, in and out of hotels, everybody was done…. NOBODY was happy. But given some time to decompress and assisted by the sheer beauty of our surroundings, we all bounced back, quickly, and let bygones be bygones. In hindsight perhaps we were too ambitious on our first week’s itinerary.

4. I was not prepared for the sheer beauty of this country. Over and over, we were blown away by the unspoiled beauty. Whether it was the grand vistas of the mighty St. Lawrence, the experience of walking on the ocean floor after a 40-foot tide had receded at Hopewell Rocks. The picture-perfect experience of Prince Edward Island is hard to describe and left us yearning to go back to spend more time, explore more, learn more.  I have never seen a place where so much pride of ownership is on display. The beaches are pristine, the family homes are quaint and colourful, the lawns are huge and manicured, the farm fields lush and colourful.

5. Swimming in the ocean is a must.  The water was a little colder than my last time in the Atlantic, a few thousand km’s to the south. But there is nothing like the taste of salt on your lips, and the feeling of the fine sand between your toes as you walk the beach.

6. Canadians are kind, we didn’t have a bad experience with anyone we encountered on the trip. But East coasters take it to a higher level. When we first came across the listing for the cottage we rented. We weren’t prepared for the laid-back response from the owners. They were slow in responding, leaving us concerned that we might lose the reservation. Only to be assured that the place was ours, and the financial details would be done old school, snail mail, on island time.  The cottage was everything they said it would be, even the cleaners were kind.  When I noticed a concerning wheel noise on our van, the local Dodge dealer bent over backward to keep us on the road, we only lost a few hours of our vacation time for the repair, not a dime was charged, all under warranty.

7.  I am glad we allowed ourselves time to be flexible and change course when it seemed right. We originally had not planned to venture as far as Halifax. But when time allowed we took the time to do it. My interest was to see Pier 21. This proved to be a rather emotional stop for me, my parents landed here in 1957, as immigrants.  To see the photo on the wall of the ship they traveled on, the stories of so many waves of people that arrived here to make a better life…and did. Though it wasn’t easy. I was heartened to see the interest my kids showed at this wonderful museum. I am glad we made the time to experience it.

In the end, if I had it to do all over again, I would change a few things, but I have no regrets. It was on my bucket list to see the Canadian East Coast. Mission accomplished. The experience was positive, but most importantly I believe my kids will carry the memories for a lifetime. We will likely return to P.E.I. again, I am not sure when, but we will likely fly to save time. (the chaos around flying can’t last forever…can it?) Our next major adventure will likely take us West. Time to save our nickels or win the lottery.