2nd Annual End of Summer Road Trip Extravaganza

Alright!  Well skipping all of the sorries and I'll never leave for this long agains, let's just say I'm interested in posting again and I'm starting with a recap from a recent adventure Sim and I had.

Last year it was Tobermory, and this year Sim and I decided to hit the road and visit two kind of bucket list locations: Grand Bend and Penetanguishene.  It was Saturday morning, and I headed out at about 8:30am to pick up Sim, and then we hit the open road.  I spent Friday night compiling what I would hope to be an epic playlist.  I think it did the trick.

We pulled into Grand Bend at around 1:30pm?  There was a sweet parking spot on the opposite side of the street.  I have, on occasion, been known to U-ey into a spot but it didn't feel right so I did a quick side road turn around.  Honestly for the Labour day weekend Saturday I was surprised to find any sort of parking.  It really was the perfect spot.  It was at the top of the main strip and we walked down towards Lake Huron.  It's a typical tourist town.  Almost reminiscent of Tobermory itself.  French fries, ice cream, salt water taffy, a tattoo shop, and a few local bars to choose from.

At the end of the street we found the perfect place to sit for lunch.  We shared this amaaaazing Jambalaya and a mediocre poutine.  I had about 3 pints of water because I was dying of thirst for some reason.  After lunch we climbed up the lookout perch to see what was going on.  The beach was fairly full but not packed beyond belief.  And there weren't a ton of people in the water.  There were a few people puttering around like some paddle boarders and a few boats kicking around the border of the swimming area.  We headed back up to the car and on the way knocked out a quick 18 holes at the local mini putt (which was an awesome idea, Sim).  Sim kicked my butt, as expected.  On our way out we were going to hit up the local surplus store but we missed it by minutes.  We also ended up not even finding it as we drove past.  Then I suggested we detour through Listowel to go to the massive yarn shop.  We also missed those store hours by mere minutes.  A disaster of timing.   We wrapped up the day with a night at Twin Ponds.  We (I) had a beer by the pond and then at 8:30 I checked out for the night.  Sim caught a second wind and went to visit the neighbours but I was done in.

Day two!  A scenic and curvy drive up the Bay took us to Penetanguishene which I shall call Penetang going forward.  We happened upon an awesome shoe tree on the way.  Definitely worth a quick turn around to come back and take a few snaps.  We came up on the city around 11:00am?  We did a quick drive around to see what was going on.  Stopped in on a museum that was unfortunately closed on Sundays.  Then back into the car to find a place to eat.  At the bottom of the main street is the dock area and we grabbed a bunch of gyros at Dock Lunch.  Sim masterfully noted a tourist centre and suggested we look up if they had a cruise tour.  And they did!  And the cruise was departing in 45 minutes, and it was the only cruise all week that even had any availability.  Timing success!!!  We were saving our luck up for the most important moment. 

We kicked around for a bit and then boarded the cruise.  Sitting up on the top it was boiling hot until we started moving, and even then the sun was starting to do a number on me.  The tour was very informative.  The area is rich with history.  After the cruise we called it a day and headed back to Sim's for some BBQ steaks.  Spence and Steve were finishing up construction on their back deck, which is phenomenal by the way.  We arrived just in time to get some proper lazing in.  Belly full and skin red I called it a night after dinner and back home I went.  I cleverly took the Tuesday after labour day off so it was like I got two weekend back to back.  Bonus.

That's all for now.  Hopefully.....hopefully I can keep this up.