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The last night of our vacation was the Saturday before Canada Day. Mid-afternoon I received a text from the campground (they do that now – you get texts reminding you of the upcoming hay ride, or the ice cream sundaes at the shop, or a volleyball game) letting us know that the fireworks display would start just across the campgound from our site at 9:15.

At ten past nine we climbed into the driver’s & passenger’s seats and settled in. I thought it would be two starbursts, a burning schoolhouse, and a handful of sparklers. But it was quite impressive – a 20+ minute display of professional fireworks.

What a terrific send-off for our last day.

There was a time, a very brief time, where two friends and I considered all buying a motorhome together, and travelling North America (all of us, plus two large dogs and a cat).  Fortunately, wiser heads prevailed, and they bought the RV themselves while I was in Scotland, and the two of them had a great time.

I am seeing first hand just how much better two travelling together is than three, at least in an RV.  My sisters and I are very close, and we’re certainly not getting on each other’s’ nerves this week (well I say that, but for all I know I’m driving the two of them crazy), but it is cosy.  The youngest was landed with the dining table and benches as her bed (the lot of the youngest), and she has to take down and put up her bed twice a day.  Her bedding gets piled on my bed, until we have to pull in the slide, when everything then has to be re-adjusted (I think that’s how I lost my new earbuds).  Middle sister has the over-cab bed behind a little curtain, which at least involves no daily set up or take down. But she does have to climb up and down every time she wants something, and all her clothes, books, etc.. are just piled up at one end of her bed. So she has to scrabble through piles every time she wants something. There’s hooks for two towels in the bathroom, but we’re three people, so one bath towel is hanging from a cupboard handle.  There are shoes everywhere.  And whoever is last out in the morning gets the crappy lawnchair. 

I’m not complaining, not at all.  I’m simply realising that while three sisters for 8 days is a minor inconvenience, three friends for two years could have been a tad awkward.

Having said all that, I would have loved to have had at least one trip in their beautiful Class A.  As it was, I got to see it on its last day before being sold.

I grew up (at least part of my childhood) in Kingston and I remember the 1,000 Islands very well (I even did a project about them in Grade 5).  Yesterday we did a boat tour of the islands, and it was much as I remember: beautiful islands and isles with granite hills and huge trees; marinas with an insane number of boats; and some of the most amazing ‘cottages’ I have ever seen – perfect weather, smooth sailing, and a prime seat on the upper deck.

And, unlike another three-hour tour, we made it back safe & sound and on time, to Gananoque in time to pick up some desserts at the Pistachio Café.

In our down time, middle sister did a lot of crosswords, I did a lot of sudoku, and my youngest sister did a lot of pencil sketches. I was very impressed with her drawing of Boldt Castle’s power station.

She did a number of drawings from the trip – I liked her seagull, but she wasn’t so sure – you can see them on Instagram @ mandywebsterart

We grew up staying at KOAs in our family’s 19’ Citation trailer.  Camping purists sneer at them but I don’t care – they’re clean, they’re accessible, they’re convenient, and often they’re quite lovely.  And as my sisters noted, they’re now much fancier than in the 70s!  I’ve stayed here before and would stay again.

(I’m sitting typing this at 8:30 in the morning – in my line of sight there is a row of five rigs (trailers & motorhomes) and almost simultaneously, five men stepped out (one from each unit), all dressed in what must be the older-man’s camping uniform (light coloured t-shirt & dark pants or shorts), and starting hooking up and unhooking things.  It’s like a little ritual.) *30 minutes later: almost like a choreographed dance, each one pulled out of their site, one-by-one, about 3 minutes apart – I hope to achieve that level of RV-zen some day.

And, now that I think of it, yesterday afternoon at around 5pm a large pick-up truck with a company logo of some sort on the side and a back-up beep-beep alert pulled into the little parking area across from us, and four guys in work clothes and hi-viz vests got out.  At first I assumed they worked here, but then I saw them walk off towards a trailer.  Didn’t give it much more thought until this morning, when I saw them pile into the truck (still work gear & hi-viz) and drive off the campground.  Do you suppose they are a work crew, and they live in a trailer & share park expenses while they’re on a job?  More to come . . .

We’re off to Kingston & Gananoque today.  Highlights of PEC:  The Lavender Farm was lovely and while I felt their products were all good prices, $8/person to walk through the fields seemed a bit stiff.  Fifth Town Cheese Factory was, well, interesting.  Lots of good and unusual products and an intriguing set-up for their shop (including a $5/head tasting fee – now that was worth it – they had every one of their cheeses, olives, jams, and sauces open for sampling).  It was just very far and rather hard to get to.

The Crêpe Escape in Picton was very nice – good prices and great fillings – the crêpes were a tad thick, more like a thin pancake than a lacy, wafer-thin French crêpe (but still yummy).

Another memorable moment: staying at Casa Dea, we’d seen several military plans & helicopters – CFB Trenton is nearby.  But what will stick in my head is being strafed last night by two military helicopters, flying 30’ above the ground, at 2 in the morning.  Dear God, the noise!  The vibrations!  What possibly could they have been doing at that hour?  Night manoeuvres?  Scoping out American incursions into the wine region of Ontario?

Only PEC regret: we didn’t get to Wellington.  We drove through it on our way off the island, and it looks lovely – but somehow it hadn’t been on our radar.  I would recommend to anyone heading this way in the future.

The annual Ontario winery guide shows about a dozen or so wineries in PEC, but that isn’t accurate.  Every road we drive along has at least 3 wineries of varying sizes (some as small as a two-room shack) – the place is littered with wineries, cideries, breweries, and distilleries.  We’ve stopped at several of them: Huff Estates, Norman Hardie, Rosehall Run, Lake on the Mountain Brewery, and Casa-Dea.  And many of them have a patio restaurant attached.  Our lunch at The Lake on the Mountain was excellent: paté and smoked salmon with rosti; and the next day we had what was possibly the best pizzas (and smoked trout) I’ve ever had, at Norman Hardie winery. 

*As we were leaving Norman Hardie’s, a young sales clerk leaned over and quietly asked me, “is your sister a comp sci prof at Western?” and then fanned on LR for the next 10 minutes.  Cool.  That may be why I ended up buying two rather pricey bottles of wine there, when I had intended on buying only one at most. And tomorrow is brunch at Crêpe Escape in Picton – their menu looks fab.

We parked at the back of Casa Dea, and set up for two nights of boondocking.  Early evening another motorhome pulled in, with an older couple & their cute dog.  The winery had closed, so the husband came around to our side of the RV to ask if he was in the right spot, and we assured him he was (seemed nice enough).

A bit later we saw a deer feeding in the field beside us, and being city girls, we got all excited.  I went over to tell our neighbours so they wouldn’t miss it, which they appreciated.

When you book a Harvest Host, you have to check what they do and don’t allow at each property.  Many don’t allow pets, or slide-outs, or ask that you not run your generator after a certain time. Casa Dea has the last rule: no generators after 11pm.  No prob.

We did need to run my generator for about a half hour or so, so I started it up at 8:20, planning to let it run until 9:00, while we played Rummikub.  At ten to nine, our neighbour came over, and asked me to turn it off as it had been running for an hour (?).  I told him that at 9 o’clock I would turn it off.  He did not seem pleased.  Now to be clear, they were parked about 40’ away, were sitting inside their rig, and were not yet going to bed (I know that, because at 9:30 they sat outside watching the sunset).  The generator is not that loud, and the winery allows it until 11pm (which you can see in its HH profile).  Honestly, something as small as this can put a damper on an evening and we all felt it – very disappointing.  (MW may have given him a nickname after this, but this is a PG blog, so I won’t repeat it here.)

*Update: yes, I am petty, what’s your point?  The next morning, the neighbours left Casa Dea before the winery opened – in other words, they never spent any money.  (The whole idea of Harvest Hosts is that you are expected to purchase something at each venue, usually around the $20 – $40 range.)  So in my mind, this is their 2^nd HH transgression.  Well then, what does a petty, wanting-to-get-even girl do?  Does she take the high road and let this go?  No, Elsa, she does not.  Instead, that morning, when I went in to buy my two bottles of wine, I very disingenuously asked, “What is Casa Dea’s generator policy?  Really?  Oh dear, I think last night’s other guests – you know, the ones who left before you opened – must be new to HH, because they came over before 9pm to complain.  It was most disappointing – I hope they don’t make reference to it when they give Casa Dea its HH review.”  Meow. 

I don’t care – you play the game right, or go home, dammit.

One of my sisters has become so used to having her (lovely and incredibly well-organised) husband arrange every aspect of all their travel, that when she & I flew to the UK many years ago, we got off the plane and she turned to me and asked, “Did you bring some UK cash for me?”  Um, no.  You’re 40 years old, with a successful career, and I don’t want children of my own.  (We found a cash machine later that day.)

And my younger sister is so go-with-the-flow that, I swear, if I suggested that we would spend the afternoon weeding the vineyards here in PEC, she’d just shrug and say, “sure”.

But LR did have one good idea – each of us was to be responsible for one dinner in the RV.  Excellent.  So far I’ve had an amazing club sandwich dinner with a blue cheese wedge salad (thank you MW – and they were toasted without having a toaster in the RV), and a delicious lemon chicken orzo with a yummy gooey feta topping (thank you LR – pastas are pretty much made with the exact same ingredients, but somehow orzo just tastes the best).  I’m doing salmon in a lemon dill sauce with new potatoes and a chive creamed spinach tomorrow night.

It was sheer chance that my Remember This Day feature in Google Photos popped up this morning with the photo below, just as I was driving up the lane at Casa Dea Winery (Harvest Host).  It seems that nine years ago, to the day, my two friends and I were taken our very first RV trip, and stayed at this exact same winery.  I had taking our dogs for a walk and got this pic of them in front of the vineyards back then, so I had to do the same with my sisters today.  Sadly, they are both no longer with us (the dogs, I mean.  My sisters are just fine.).

They have some very good and very different wines at Casa Dea.  Along with the standards (Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir), they are the only Canadian vintner to make Pecorino, a, Italian white wine from Abruzzo that I had just discovered this year.  They also make a Melon de Bourgogne, also not very common in Canada.  So for the second day in a row, I bought twice the wine I had intended.  Ah well.

I’ve always liked visiting museums and art galleries.  That’s what my boss arranged as a going away party for my retirement: a tour of the Ismaili Centre and the Aga Khan Museum (I strongly recommend).  And my travel buddy LL knows I like these so kindly goes along with me when we travel (pretty sure she enjoys them too, don’t get me wrong – but I don’t think they’d be her first choice as a rule).

But just recently I’ve had the opportunity to visit a couple of galleries with my youngest sister (Cork Ireland and Georgetown Ontario), and it’s very interesting.  She’s an artist, so she looks at art (paintings in particular) in a different way, and I’m really enjoying it.  So when both she & sibling #2 independently found and suggested the Oeno Gallery in Bloomfield I was delighted.

Wow, what an amazing venue!  We really enjoyed the spectacular outdoor sculpture garden – it’s huge, different, interactive (in places), and they even have a sister piece of metalwork wolves to the one at 13^th Street Winery (see Scout below a few years ago at 13^th St with her new friends). And the work inside the gallery was equally interesting.  I discovered a new artist whom I really admire and cannot afford: Pat Service.  In fact all the paintings were noteworthy, IMO.

Then off to Slickers in Bloomfield.  I don’t really like ice cream (I don’t dislike it – it’s just meh) or sweet foods, but nine years ago I had a Campfire ice cream here and it has stayed in my memory ever since.  And I had it again today – it tastes exactly like burnt marshmallows – so so good – well worth the re-visit; siblings agreed.  Then a few boutiques, and home to what the Brits call a picky tea, and our Mum’s favourite meal, a little bit of everything.