We are planning a big trip to Alaska where we will most of the time tenting instead of hoteling. Tents and campsites are much cheaper than a hotel, plus being in a campsite, out among the stars (and mosquitos) enhances the experience. Hotels are boring, compared to setting up a tent, cooking our food, watching the fire and falling asleep wand waking to the chorus of birds in the morning.
I needed to test out a new tent that I had bought for this trip. It claims to be able to set up in 10 minutes and is very dark on the inside. The best way to test a tent, is to go tenting. We did that with this trip. Bright and early, on a Saturday morning, we started our drive to Presqu’ile Provincial Park. Naturally, we did stops on the way.
Saturday:
- Max Tanenbaum Sculpture Garden
- The Robert McLaughlin Gallery
- The Oshawa Valley Botanical Garden
- Sifton-Cook Heritage Centre
- Art Gallery of Northumberland
At Presqu’ile:
- Horse Trees of Presqu’ile
- Marsh Boardwalk
- Beach and sunset viewing
- Sand Dunes
- Lighthouse and giftshop/museum
- Other hiking trails
Sunday:
- Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area which included lookouts, lighthouse, hikes and more
- Moses Hudgin Log House
- Mariners Park Museum
- Lake on the Mountain Provincial Park
- Birdhouse City
- Reid’s Dairy
- Royal Botanical Garden
This was meant to be a relaxing trip where we had a lot of time to explore each location and even just sit and watch the waves on this windy weekend. I am happy to say that the tent was up and ready in 15 minutes and this is a major improvement to the previous tent of 1 hour. Take down, including packing, breakfast and loading the car was only 45 minutes. I normally set aside two hours for this and now we can either get that extra sleep, or add in a new stop or two in our upcoming journey to Alaska and back.
