Saturday 2 July 2016

Ontario Day Tripping - Weekend 1

After our trip to Iceland in the spring, a big summer road trip is not in the budget.  Instead, we will be exploring the sights around us in Ontario!

This weekend we celebrated Canada day in Riverside Park at home in Guelph.   On Friday afternoon Logan enjoyed the free petting zoo and bouncy castles! In the evening we watched the fireworks!!





Saturday Morning we packed the car and headed east on the 401.  Our first stop was Port Hope.

Port Hope is a charming little town!



We were glad to hear that they were still celebrating Canada Day, and headed down to their town hall. 


Every Saturday morning they have a small market behind town hall.  We strolled around a bit and made a couple of purchases.



Right next door to town hall is Memorial park.  The park was decked out for Canada Day weekend.  There was even a lively blue grass band in the band shell! 


After a picnic lunch in the park, we decided to hop on a horse and carriage ride! 






We also took a look at the antique tractor show!


After some serious play time in the bouncy castles, Logan fell asleep as we wandered the town.  





We grabbed a little treat at Sugar Dust Bakery before finding our way to the Fire Fighters Museum. 


There were lots of cool things that Logan would have enjoyed here, but he was sound asleep! 


Before getting back in the car, we couldn't resist stopping at Dreamer's Cafe! They are known for their trade mark Crazy Cookies! 


Heading down the road a little bit we stopped at a super cool Road Side attraction/store called Primitive their huge sculptures help it to stand out! 





This store had so much kitsch! I will not be surprised if we come back here one day!! 


By the time we had finished up at Primitive a Designes, it was almost 5:00.  We agreed that this would have been a great day trip, and well worth the 2 hour drive! With its "Back to the Future" esque town hall and old theatre, it definitely felt like a town stuck in the mid century!  Port hope is full of charm, and we weren't surprised to learn that Steven King is re shooting "It" here next week!   

We knew we would be making a weekend out of this trip, so we hopped back on the 401 east towards Cobourg.  As we zoomed down the 401 we caught a glimpse of the VW Spider on the south side of the highway



Making our way into Cobourg, the town was bustling with people enjoying the waterfront festival.  

We went to check out the midway set up on the pier, but decided there wasn't anything there that we wanted to ride on.  





We wandered the streets a bit and found a spot for dinner.





After dinner, we had decided to call it a day, and headed to our hotel for the night. 

Sunday, we went back into Cobourg  to spend the day on the beach! 







Cobourg beach was lovely! I'd definitely recommend it! With a great boardwalk lined with parks and splash pads, it was great fun for kids.  The water was also quite shallow and felt safe as it was monitored by lifeguards. 

We finished up at the beach and enjoyed some late lunch by the bandshell. 



 After a lovely day in the sunshine we decided to head back on the road. We stopped at Dragonfly park on our way home in Guelph for Logan to enjoy some play time! 



This was a fantastic long weekend, and we can't wait to explore more of Ontario!