Ontario | Pinery Provincial Park
February 2024 – 2 days
Pinery Provincial Park is located on the shore of Lake Huron. It protects a rare Oak Savanna and one of the longest freshwater coastal dune ecosystems in Ontario. With its beautiful sandy beach, it’s a popular spot to visit in the summer. The park also offers a variety of activities in the winter, including trails for hiking or cross-country skiing.
Quebec | Montreal
March 2024 – 3 days
Montreal is one of the oldest and biggest cities in Canada. It is named after Mount Royal, a mountain situated near the heart of downtown. It known for its vibrant art scene, historic culture and iconic food. Montreal has a certain je ne sais quoi quality and is just a very beautiful city to wander around.
Ontario | Point Peele National Park
April 2024 – 4 days
Point Pelee National Park is the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland. Its name in French means bald point, which it gets for its long sand spit on Lake Erie where no vegetation grows, giving it a bald appearance. It’s located in Canada’s Carolinian zone and is an important spot for migrating birds to rest and refuel before continuing their journey. Besides being one of the best places in the province to bird watch, the park also contains more than 12km of trails that wind through the different habitats in the park, including marshes, forest and sandy beaches.
While visiting Point Pelee we decided to check out the nearby Hillman Marsh Conservation Area.
Colorado and New Mexico
April & May 2024 – 16 days
The Rocky Mountains are the largest mountain range in North America. They stretch 4,800 kilometres (or 3,000 miles) from New Mexico to northern British Columbia. While we’ve explored many of the national parks on the Canadian side of the Rockies, we haven’t spent too much time on the other side of the border. So we packed our bags and flew into Denver to embark on a two week road trip through Colorado and New Mexico.
Colorado: Denver, Garden of the Gods, Mesa Verde National Park, Million Dollar Highway, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado National Monument, Rocky Mountain National Park, Roxborough State Park and Castlewood Canyon State Park
New Mexico: Bandelier National Monument, Pecos National Historical Park, Santa Fe, Petroglyph National Monument, Chaco Culture National Historical Park and Aztec Ruins National Monument
Utah: Arches National Park
Michigan | Detroit
July 2024 – 4 days
Detroit is located across the border from Windsor, Ontario along the shore of the Detroit River that connects Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. It’s known as Motor City as it was once the heart of the automotive industry in the United States, thanks in large part to Henry Ford. The city contains a number of attractions to appreciate art, architecture, and automobiles.
Nova Scotia
August 2024 – 8 days
Nova Scotia is located on a peninsula along the east coast of the Canadian mainland. It’s shoreline is dotted with charming lighthouses, sandy beaches and colorful fishing villages. It is the second smallest province in Canada and has dramatically different scenery from tidal flats in the southwest, a rugged coastline in the southeast and highlands in the north.
Places: Lunenburg, Annapolis Royal, Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, Grand-Pré National Historic Site, Halifax, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Fortress of Louisbourg and Peggy’s Cove
Manitoba
September / October 2024 – 8 days
Out of all the Canadian provinces, Manitoba probably gets picked on the most. It’s commonly seen as boring. And the cold and snowy winters definitely don’t help with its reputation. But when we were brainstorming places to visit this fall, we decided to give Manitoba a chance. With an abundance of parks, we were curious to explore the trails. And hey, it was a relatively short flight from home and there wasn’t much of a time change, which were all important considerations when traveling with our little one these days.
Places: Winnipeg, Riding Mountain National Park, Spruce Woods Provincial Park, Pembina Valley Provincial Park, Birds Hill Provincial Park and Pinawa Dam Provincial Heritage Park
Ontario | The Cabin
October 2024 – 1 day
We’ve had an unseasonably warm and dry fall in southern Ontario. So to make the most of the nice weather and beautiful display of fall colours we decided to head to the cabin. This would be our first visit to the cabin all year and baby M’s first visit ever.
Ontario | Algonquin Provincial Park
November 2024 – 4 days
We typically plan a backcountry canoe trip through a different part of Algonquin Provincial Park every summer. This year we were unable (or rather unwilling) to because of baby M. Instead we booked a rustic cabin in the Mew Lake Campground and planned to explore a few of the trails along the popular Highway 60 Corridor.
Ontario | The Cabin
November 2024 – 2 days
We had a fabulous fall this year. The leaves were a bit delayed in changing colour because it was warmer and drier than usual. But the cold and rain was finally catching up. It wouldn’t be long until we had our first snowfall. So we decided to head to the cabin before it got much colder outside.
Curacao
December 2024 – 8 days
Curacao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that’s located about 60km north of the coast of Venezuela. It’s a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is part of the group of Leeward Antilles known as the ABCs along with Aruba and Bonaire. It boasts of having beautiful sandy beaches, clear turquoise waters, colourful buildings, and no shortage of opportunities to go snorkelling or diving. You can read more about our experience diving in Curacao here.