Adventuring with Amelia

Canada, eh?

We drove only a couple minutes from our KOA campground to this lovely gem of a nature area.

Umm, gorgeous!

We pushed Amelia’s stroller up to the first waterfall. Only part of the trail was a bit sketchy/ wet/uphill. As mentioned earlier on the blog, I am planning on buying her a hiking cart from Huckleberry Hiking once we get back to Virginia as this hike reinforced the need for one. We will need it if we want to keep hiking and exploring nature as a family.

Not surprisingly, Amelia loved the bumpy/rocky part of the hike. She thought it was funny to be jostled around. Sassy little nugget. She will love the hiking cart.

This first waterfall was pretty epic. You get to stand directly on-top of where the water is flowing down.

Per concerns for Amelia’s safety, we did not take her out on this walkway. Just not a great idea. DJ and I took turns going on the walkway and keeping Amelia entertained for the couple of minutes we both spent looking at the waterfall with Jackson.

Jackson carried Messi on the metal bridge and Messi didn’t seem to mind too much being on-top of the waterfall.

Seriously so freaking cool! We see you Canada!

Craziness!

After the first waterfall, we walked back towards the truck. The boys went and found the second waterfall while Amelia and I hung out at the truck. Again, we were a little incorrectly equipped to bring her along. Almost the full walk to the second waterfall was on the same metal bridge material. So, once the boys got back, Jackson looped back and walked with me to the waterfall.

It didn’t disappoint.

Sorry, not sorry for all the waterfalls photos. It was fabulous.

After our little waterfall hike, we drove downtown and found a spot to park by the river that divides the USA and Canada. These cute, quirky, and colorful chairs were by the waterfront.

Below, you can see the bridge that we drove over to get into Canada.

It was such a nice day out. We walked around the waterfront killing time until the nearby plant-based restaurant opened at 11:30 am.

Once the restaurant opened, we walked over, ordered our food to go, and used their bathrooms. Then we walked down to the waterfront and found this picnic spot.

I walked back to the restaurant to pick up our lunches once they were ready.

Jackson got a vegetarian cheeseburger.

DJ got a vegetarian Philly cheesesteak sandwich.

And I got vegan Yaki Soba. (Not quite as good as I used to get in Japan, but still yummy!)

Amelia half allowed us to eat lunch. She was quite sassy and didn’t want to stay put at the table or the blanket. Totally par for the course for her. DJ took part of his sandwich to go and walked with her in the stroller for a bit while I finished eating. Then I tagged in and he finished the rest of his meal.

After lunch, we swung by a Canadian grocery store. Obviously it was quite similar to the US, with some differences. I got excited about their beans, lol… and decided to get these ones to try.

The exchange rate is in our favor, so me paying $118 Canadian with my credit card ended up charging $85 USD.

We took the groceries back to the camper and hung out for a little bit, letting our stomachs settle from lunch. Jackson really wanted to try Canada’s French fries covered in gravy and cheese, “poutine.”

We found a random little fry shack and got some. The small size was huge, but good and we all tried some. Definitely a fun little experience.

Next up, we went and got gas. DJ and I are still confused and pricing and the whole bit, but he successfully got gas without trouble. We just don’t know exactly what the unit cost was/what they were telling us on the sign.

Conveniently, the gas station was next to a Tim Horton’s, and they had all the sweets and treats!

We went specifically to get some TimBits (donut holes) and our afternoon coffee. They were yummy! We also grabbed some muffins for breakfast.

After grabbing our 2nd afternoon snack, we stopped by 2 gift shops. The first sold all the different flavors of maple syrup and maple syrup flavored treats.

We opted for the vanilla bean infused option, but the cinnamon one was also intriguing. We weren’t bold enough to try some of these other flavors like banana rum or lavender.

At the second shop, we found Jackson a shirt and some stickers for our basement fridge.

After our snacks and shopping outing, we came back to the camper for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I did 2 loads of laundry, and this was the second time at the KOA I tried to pay in US cash. No quarters excepted here! I legit started putting them into the washing machine pay slots only to have a “duh!” moment shortly thereafter.

BTW- I loved how they broke it down super simply for all us American folks. Anyways, the KOA takes USD and will do a 1-1 exchange, so clearly in their favor, but we needed to do laundry, so whatever.

Having bought 1 pack of firewood at this Canadian KOA (which was huge and enough for 2+ fires) we thought that we would be cute and use our sandwich makers over the fire to cook dinner and use some more of our firewood.

Unfortunately, said sandwich makers were nasty and hadn’t been used in years. So, instead of a cutesy memory making meal where everyone makes their own, I cooked the pizza grilled cheese sandwiches on the Blackstone as well as the cherry pie sandwiches.

Definitely not as fun as trying to gauge how much longer to leave your sandwich maker on the fire and try not to burn it…. But at the same time, cook it long enough to melt the cheese.

Next time… we will be getting some new sandwich makers and will have to try some other variations of grilled sandwiches.

After dinner, we showered and prepped for the long drive day. We made frozen smoothie packs to quickly blend in the morning, I prepped lunch supplies for the truck (peanut butter banana roll-ups), and got all of Amelia’s meds and gtube feed supplies ready.

Canada, we didn’t stay long… but clearly we made the most out of our one full day!