Road Trip Round 2: Michigan- Day 5- Canada Day!

Day 5, Wednesday, July 24, was spent in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada!! Yep- we brought passports and crossed the border to take the kids to Canada! Annabel was quite tickled to see signs in French. She was ALL for going to Canada, of course, my little traveler. Grandma Mary Kay had wanted to just go for lunch (which we did), but we actually spent quite a lovely afternoon there- I'd wanted to see and do a little more, so we did. We'd stopped at a visitor's center where we got some great information about some places to stroll in the area. One of the ladies there took our group picture outside, too. 

We spent hours in Sarnia, strolling around the riverfront gardens, taking a beautiful drive through Canatara Park (which I would have loved to have gotten out and walked around more) and even getting out at a nice little beach along the shore of Lake Huron to get our feet wet and collect rocks (I wished we could have stayed longer, done the whole bathing suit thing for the kids and all, but alas...), and then continuing our drive through the neighborhood along the shore, too, before crossing back to the United States. Our ultimate destination that day was a beachside hotel in Mackinaw City, which we arrived at quite late, since we'd dallied in Canada soaking up the beautiful weather and lovely gardens and shore. I wished we'd done more in Canada (like a few days more), but we had places to get to, and really, our day here was quite lovely. (We'll just have to go back to Canada someday!!) I'm glad we stopped and did the day so leisurely. It was a nice change of pace. The kids had a lot of fun with all the climbing rocks and collecting rocks. I got some really great pictures of these kiddos!

Grandma Mary Kay braided Annabel's hair that morning, while we made one last visit to see Great Grandma Pat, Great Grandpa Bob, and Uncle Tim.

Love this candid snippet, this bit of real life!

Now entering...Canada!!

Annabel was tickled to be in another country!!

Beautiful river front gardens, complete with this awesome rock fountain!

After that garden and fountain fun, we drove under the border bridge and through Canatara Park and Beach, just a lovely area. We got out at the beach and the kids had a ball!

A gorgeous day for a beach stop!!

This is Annabel- that sigh, that ahhh, for sand and surf! 

I couldn't agree more, babe!

Back in the car, driving along the shore.

Back across the border to the United States and onward several driving hours to Mackinaw City for the night.