A Weekend with Family
/Lake St. Peter
September 28 - 30, 2018
It all started when my brother-in-law texted Chris to say they were camping at Lake St. Peter over the last weekend in September. He works odd days so he and my sister tend to camp during the week. Chris works M-F, so we can rarely join in a weekday camping trip. Also, it’s usually my sister and I hatching all of the plans… But this time it came from Peter to Chris and then to me. Which was actually pretty cool.
Chris merely had to suggest we meet up with them and I was on the hunt for a site. There were sites close by to them, including one right across, but none of them were electrical and we hadn’t been to a non-electrical site yet. Yelp. I decided to book it anyways and convinced Chris that close by was better than having electricity and being on the other side of the campground. Plus, we have batteries, a water tank, a toilet and a furnace that runs on propane. Why would we even need electricity?
I was off on the Friday and Chris came home after half a day at work, promptly at the time he promised. I was mostly ready and finished loading a few things while he got us hitched up. We got on the road just past 1 pm and headed north-west. In an effort to get on the road, we hadn’t eaten lunch, so we made a pit stop to eat sandwiches we’d made, give Daisy a walk and go to the bathroom. I love that we have a travelling toilet:)
Aside from bringing Holly home from London, this trip was the furthest we had ventured. Not long after we made the turn off on Lake St. Peter Road, a van passed us flashing their lights. We thought maybe there was something wrong and were a bit worried about what the problem was. It could also have been another airstream owner flashing even though they weren’t towing their own trailer (we’ve heard that many airstream owners do this!). In fact, it was my sister and brother-in-law passing us! We had a good laugh, as we probably should have recognized their van. While they were off running an errand, we were able to back in, level, unhitch and set up inside Holly before they returned.
Our view
Our crew
We spent the evening having dinner, catching up and sitting by the campfire. There may have been some wine involved and I didn’t keep a diary from this trip, so it’s all a little fuzzy in my memory, but I do remember it was a bit cold, so we tried out the furnace (it actually went down to 3 degrees celsius!), Peter strummed on his guitar most of the weekend and there was lots of laughter.
Morning dew
Daisy and Chris were up pretty early on Saturday and were out for their morning walk for quite a while. We had coffee and bagels for breakfast when they returned.
Side note… I’m not a morning person and when Daisy gets up at 5:30 am, I’m not terribly interested in getting up with her! So, we need to work on coaxing her back to bed for a few more hours. What’s been happening, is that Chris and Daisy get up really early and go for a looonnng walk and then she’s pooped for the rest of the day. It makes getting out later pretty difficult! Next year, we’ll work on changing it - I’ve suggested that they go out for a short walk first thing, so she can take care of her business, but then come back, have coffee and breakfast and then go out for a longer walk/hike, so we can all enjoy it (cause I’m not going to enjoy, nor will I be a joy to be around, if I haven’t had my morning coffee!).
morning view
So pretty
Cutie!
perfect canoeing weather
We spent the day, as one does when camping with family… drinking coffee, enjoying the view, having breakfast, sitting outside, enjoying the view, eating lunch, sitting by the campfire, getting out the canoe (well, not us, my brother-in-law), enjoying the view, catching up… The weather was beautiful and not too cold or hot.
Seriously though. The boys went for a run before lunch and Jennifer and I took Daisy for a walk that didn’t last very long since she was pooped from her early morning walk!
Later in the afternoon, Peter and Jennifer went off for a canoe while Chris and I drove into Bancroft, where we stopped at a really cute coffee shop - The Muse Gallery and Cafe. The weather had become cloudy, the wind had picked up and it had cooled down quite a bit, so the warm coffee was just perfect and so delicious! It was pretty quiet in the cafe, so they allowed us to bring Daisy in as well.
a cup of deliciousness!
Back from canoeing, Peter warmed up some delicious homemade chilli for dinner. Quite appropriate, as it was chilli outside! Chris chose to stay in the warmth of Holly, while the rest of us hung out by the campfire, dressed in many layers. Despite the cloudy afternoon and evening, once the darkness settled in, the stars were bright and beautiful!
Bambi in the wild
The cloudiness continued the next morning and it began to rain lightly on and off, so we decided to get moving right after breakfast. We didn’t really linger over coffee, since we were dry camping and can’t use the microwave to reheat coffee. We might need to invest in some travel mugs to keep our coffee hot in these situations!
Before this weekend, I’d never heard of Lake St Peter Provincial Park, probably because it’s a little far from us. But it’s a cute little park and one of the smallest we’ve been to. It had an intimate feeling to it and a number of really pretty waterfront sites. Not many of the sites are electrical, though, so there were lots of smaller trailers and tents and very few really big trailers. We had two great sites, right next to each other that both had a little glimpse of the water. Our site number 38 was really cute and when we backed in, we faced the water, which meant we had a beautiful view from our front window! We were able to park the car more to the back of the trailer so that our view was unobstructed.
Thanks for a great weekend, Jennifer and Peter!
Homeward bound!
Next up… it’s time to put Holly away for the winter. We’ve had so much fun on our first 4 trips that we’re sad to winterize her and put her away, but we know we’ll be able to enjoy her again in no time!
Ottawa - Lake St. Peter Provincial Park - Bancroft - Lake St. Peter Provincial Park - Ottawa
Towing: 464 km
Driving: 78.4 km
