Algonquin Park

VACATION!  To say the past year has been a whirlwind is a serious understatement.  The last vacation we took was when Campbell was 6 months old (nearly TWO years ago).  Brad had heard from several colleagues that going to Algonquin Provincial Park to see the fall leaves was a must while in Canada.  So we booked a hotel (for one night, let's not go too crazy here); we loaded the kids into the car on Saturday morning and headed North.

Brad and I were so excited to go on vacation.  The Wednesday night before our weekend getaway, he texted "I'm so exited we should start packing now!"  Let us not forget that we were going on a 36 hour vacation.  Packing for one night should not have taken 3 days of preparation.  And yet, as we loaded the back of the Yukon with all our gear, we barely had enough room for the dogs.  Luckily, we didn't have far to go before they were dropped off at kennel.

And we're off!  Oh wait, is that our tire deflating.  Stop for lunch... stop to air tire... stop to find a place to replace tire... all service stations closed.  Make decision to press on and get there.  Mackie losing it because she HATES sitting in her car seat.  Finally arrive!  40 degrees and raining...  Hey, let's go check out the park with a 2 year old and screaming 9 month old...  View the park from the car with a deflated tire...  Get pulled over by warden who just wanted to tell us that our tire was flat ... head back to hotel.... eat frozen dinners from hotel microwave... survive the night in a chilly room with teething baby and wide awake toddler.

Sunday... let's regroup and eat breakfast in the inn restaurant.  It's impossible to mess up breakfast; unless it takes 45 minutes to make 3 pancakes.  1.5 hours later... okay team Johnson, it's time to put our rally caps on and pull this thing together.  We're headed back to the park for our hike and photo op if it kills us.

Campbell loved the .8 KM hike!  For a week we had talked about seeing a moose or "hopefully fox."  We settled for rocks, moss, leaves and sticks.  The rain held off just long enough for us to make the hike and get our photos.  Poor Mackenzie was so exhausted she fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn.  But the leaves were really beautiful; and at least we can say we've been to Algonquin Park.