Wasaga Beach

Wasaga what now? Clearly, Wasaga beach was never on our pre-travel plans. So why did we go there? While we were on our African Safari, our Safari group were all great people. We caught up with Drew and Maria in Tampa, and now it was time to catch up with Doug and Susan.

So where are we?

Wasaga Beach is North of Toronto and not somewhere you’d plan to go when looking at places in Canada.

When we mentioned this to Curt and Sharen when we met them in Toronto (they were from Mississauga, I believe). They told us it was beautiful, and they’d like to retire there one day. The hotel bellhop had even told us that he’d just been out there with his family for vacation – so by all accounts, we should be pretty excited (and we were!)

Getting there.

First up, since we didn’t have a car we had to see what the best and easiest way to get to Wasaga beach was. You can get the GO train, but they don’t allow you on that train with backpacks, during peak hours.

So, we had to get the bus instead. We got the bus from Toronto, all the way to Barrie, where Doug and Susan kindly picked us up to drive us the rest of the way. A note on timings, the bus was meant to take 2 hours, but after 1hr 30 minutes, we’d barely left Toronto, so didn’t think we’d ever make it to Barrie anywhere near the time we’d told Doug and Susan. The bus didn’t go straight down the 400 but instead winded through various roads. Once it got onto the 4 though, we made great time.

Phew. We weren’t quite there yet though. There was still a 45-minute drive from Barrie to Wasaga Beach which was provided by the Maybee limo service. A 1.5hr round trip, which we thought was incredibly kind (until the way back) – us Brits can travel from Manchester to London in just over 2 hours. so even a 45-minute car drive seems a lot to us.

We arrived in Wasaga Beach

Wow. What a beautiful place and what a beautiful house we were welcomed into. Wendy quickly started filling in the adoption papers, so she could move to Canada and live with her new parents and quickly settled in.

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After we’d got settled, it was time to have some fun. First up, when staying in a place with beach in the name… course it was a trip to the beach.

It was also time to introduce Florence to Doug and Susan. Florence was our treat from Miami. This time, we had help to inflate her using a pump (this was still a workout). It was better than our inflation method in Miami where Mike found a straw in the sand, washed it with a bit of water and spent the proceeding hours trying to blow it up..

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We then sailed off into the water to have a float (Wendy) and water chauffering (Mike).

Saint Marie Among the Hurons

While we were here, there was plenty of sightseeing to be done. We spent half a day learning about Saint Marie Among the Hurons – this was a French Jesuit settlement in Wendake, the land of the Wendat, near modern Midland, Ontario, from 1639 to 1649. It was the first European settlement in what is now the province of Ontario.

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Hiking Blue Mountains

I might be wrong here on the Mountain name, but we took another trip out to the other side of Collingwood. To hike up Blue Mountains. Mike got a bit sweaty here, and we parked near a car with a license plate “Little Boy Blue” which belongs to a man who hikes up the mountain daily.

What was great about this was the views when we reached the top. We learnt a bit more about the area from our hosts (Doug should start a career as a guide and storyteller – it’s always engaging to listen when he tells you about the area).

It would be amazing to visit in winter when skiing is in full swing.

Free Beer Flight… Woah!

Sold. Let’s move here. We took yet another day trip to Creemore. Which is another nice town not too far from Wasaga Beach.

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One thing which would never happen in the UK, is what happened here. At one of the Brewery’s here, you could sample a free beer flight, each day (after that, you’d pay for any beers you had). It’s a great way to get everyone tasting the beers – and hopefully, stay for more.

The food… yummy!

A little bit different to our usual stops, we were treated to some tasty home-cooked meals (at this point, we’ve been traveling for 10 months so home-cooked food was a distant memory. We also sampled some local foods too.. check out what we ate

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Leaving the Beach…

What we really didn’t expect was to be kindly driven back to the airport (in Toronto!) by Doug and Susan so we could catch the flight home. In secrecy, it was also a good chance to air out the car and get it to stop smelling of the winter treatment coating that had been applied 😊. Now, we’re talking about a 3hr drive here, which for us Brits, you could drive half way across the country. So it was a very kind gesture, and it saved us a lot of hassle trying to get buses or other transport means back to Toronto for our flight.

We had a blast in Wasaga Beach and would recommend it to anyone who wants a break from seeing too many cities like Vancouver or Toronto. It was a well needed slow down for us and a great opportunity to catch up with Doug and Susan, who we hope to see again at some point in the future (Wendy’s still waiting for the adoption papers to be signed off – she left them under the pillow)

Next up, we’re heading to DC.. for our final mini-reunion (or so we thought…)