What I did on my vacation

I tried doing the "real-time" blogging thing while we were on vacation, but frankly, typing out a post on the teeny tiny keyboard of a BlackBerry is not fun. I can understand why heavy users develop carpal tunnel. I also could not figure out how to upload pictures from the device. So I decided to wait until I had time when I got back. So, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, fishing at the break of dawn...

Well, I regret mocking the boys for getting up so early to go fishing. They were quite successful!

They were fishing for pickerel and they came home with 12 on the first morning and 8 on the next. My dad cleaned and filleted them for us and I bet there was 30 lbs of meat all told.

Mom and I had the job of washing the meat and packing it for freezing. Luckily my parent brought along their camper so we had 2 freezers, otherwise there would not have been room for it all. We had to freeze them because it turned out that nobody felt like eating fish after cleaning and packing them made us smell all fishy!

Here is my mom and dad's trailer - from the front

and here is the "backyard"

It's quite nice in the back, very quiet. My dad's got a little bean garden over to the right. It's kind of hard to make out in this picture.

Ken and the girls and I stayed in the trailer and my mom and dad stayed in their camper. They parked it right beside the main trailer.

It might seem weird that my folks have a trailer and a camper. The trailer stays in the park year round and they use it in the summer, but they also like to travel (guess that's where I got it from) but they don't like staying in hotels. So they travel around in their little camper and they are quite happy in it. It's actually quite posh inside!

Saturday night there was a big bonfire and karaoke, which was organized by the camp owner. They do it every year for the Civic Holiday weekend. It's very fun to watch. In the early evening they let the kids go up and sing. Alli and Danielle went up and sang "1985" (Bring back Springsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana...) which was hilarious. Both Alli and Danielle are quite good little singers and it was nice to see them having such obvious fun.

Later in the evening, as the beer gets flowing the adults get up the courage to go up and sing. One of the camp favourites is "Picture" that song by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow. That one gets sung 3 or 4 times over the course of the night and it gets funnier with each successive rendition. Ah, I guess I shouldn't mock, after all I don't have the courage - artificial or otherwise - to get up and sing in front of people.

The karaoke ended about 11 pm and then we stayed up a bit later at the bonfire. The girls stuffed themselves with roasted weenies and smores. I would have too, but, you know...appearances!

The next day me, mom and the girls made a big bacon and eggs breakfast while the boys were out fishing. When they came back we went to the beach. The girls had made some friends so they went and hung out with them while Ken and I swam and sunned ourselves. There was a lot going on down at the beach - volleyball tourneys, arts and crafts stands and vendors selling beach wear, cheap jewelery and henna tattoos. Also a live band! That was neat. They had a little biergarten set up so you could go in and get out of the sun for a bit and watch the band.

I didn't get very good pictures of the beach. These are actually from Monday when we went back. It was MUCH less crowded than on Sunday.

After breakfast my mom and I went up to the liquor store to buy some beer for my dad. My dad is German and very particular about his beer. He told my mom the name of the beer and showed her what the can looks like, but alas when we got to the liquor store she couldn't tell which one he wanted. I stood there and read off the names to my mom, hoping that one would ring a bell. (My mom is legal blind, remember, and wouldn't be able to recognize the beer can anyways.) So while we're standing there, a clerk comes over to see if she can help us. My mom explains that we're looking for a particular beer for my dad but we can't remember what it is. "Oh," says the clerk, "I know what kind of beer your husband drinks!" and she picked it out for us. Ah, small town life!

That evening we barbequed some ribs and had local corn for supper. That was just about the best dinner I've had in recent memory! We ate out on the porch - which always makes food taste better somehow.

After dinner, my Aunt Trudy and cousin George came for a quick visit and brought Oma!! Trudy has been here from Australia for a few weeks visiting. My Oma is still in the hospital because since she had to have her leg amputated she has not been able to care for herself on her own. But on that day they let her out on a "day pass". I didn't know they had such a thing. Anyway, Trudy took her home and they spent some time there and then on the way back to the hospital they came down to the trailer to visit. (It's only about half an hour away and that's the whole reason they have the trailer there - so they can be closer to Oma.) Anyways, Oma has been resisting the idea of going into a retirement home. The whole idea frightens her. But going home for a day, she realized that she won't ever be able to go back to living alone in her home, so she announced that she had changed her mind and she would like to move to Waterloo and find a nice nursing home!!! This is the best news and it was the highlight of my weekend. We are so happy and relieved that she will be close to us now!

Here is a picture of Oma and George:

On Monday we went back to the beach. The waves that day were awesome! Most the time Lake Erie is pretty placid - you get a little bit of waves right at the shoreline, but nothing much. But every once in a while if the weather is right you will get big, rollicking waves that will carry you quite a ways. Not as big as on the ocean mind you, but still a lot of fun. And because Erie is so shallow, you can go out several hundred feet from shore before it gets over your head. So we took out a ball and played 4-way catch in the surf. Later I brought out the inflatable chair and just sat and floated around in the waves. We spent the whole time in the water. So much fun!

And then it was time to go home, so we packed up our belongings in the van and headed back for Waterloo. We took a less direct way home and enjoyed the scenery. No one really wanted to leave.

So that was how I spent the first weekend of our vacation. During the week we stayed at home - a "staycation" I guess you would call it. We went away the following weekend as well to (where else?) Niagara Falls. I got some good pictures of our getaway and I have some stories to tell as well, but this has already gotten awfully long, so I will save it for another time.