Summer Recap

Living on a farm with animals, property, gardens, a pool, and grounds to maintain makes for a rare opportunity to take a vacation. This year the opportunity arose for us to get away from our farm for a week stay in Long Beach, Canada in the beginning of the summer and at the end of the summer, countless boat trips on the Niagara River and Lake Erie, days and days spent at our local County Fair, and a few “date” nights for me and the man of the house.

This was made possible by my niece being back in the area as she is more than capable of handling all of our animal and farm work. Couple her with my 72 year old mother who can care for the pool, gardens, and dog and we were able to have some much NEEDED family time away from the house.

I won’t bore you with hundreds of pictures and tons of details….ok…maybe a few. We kicked off our summer right after the Fourth of July weekend by heading to Long Beach in Wainfleet, Canada.

Our beach spot

This is a beach area and that is it. There is literally nothing but a beautiful beach, one restaurant, a local marine shop that serves only the catch of the day fresh out of the lake, and a cute little putt-putt course.

We treasure this area in Canada as the man and I both had spent time there when we were kids with our own parents/family. We first rented here in 2006 when our children were very young. The cottage we rented is directly on the beach in a very private family owned area. The family has owned the property and cottages for generations. The picture below is of the main house built in the 1800’s. You can see the house hasn’t been lived in or taken care of for years, but the granddaughter of the original owners (who is in her 80’s) has decided she is going to refurbish it. I so want to be a part of that project!!!! I did ask her if she would save the door (yes the partially boarded up white one on the second floor) for me. She said she would. I LOVE that historic piece!

This is our cute cottage we stayed in while there in July. There is no WiFi, there is no TV, there is no telephone. But it is full of special family memories we created that will last a life time!

We enjoyed our stay so much we rented the cottage next door to it (which was the one we stayed in in 2006) for the end of August. This trip was extra special as we were able to celebrate the boys 11th birthday with some friends and family and we let the kids each have a friend stay with us for a few days and rented jet skis. Even my niece and mother came for a few visits as this little paradise is only a 35 minute drive from our house.