This is a special memory from my own childhood.
I don’t think our family ever went on a vacation together. I knew many other families that did. I think there are photos somewhere of us as very little girls at a cabin up north but I’m not sure if it is from a vacation or just a hunting trip!
A vacation with my Dad was one of the things I got out of the divorce. Judy never went to Dad’s on the weekend and she certainly wasn’t going to go with Dad on vacation, so it was just the two of us and we were going to Canada! I was eleven years old and to this day, it is the only time I have ever been out of the United States.
We took Daddy’s station wagon and lots of camping gear and we were going to sleep in the back of the car. It was the most wonderful adventure of my life!
Our trip started by driving from Jonesville to Detroit to go through the Detroit-Windsor tunnel into Ontario. We would drive north through Canada and cross back into Michigan and down through the center of the state, over one thousand miles. The Detroit-Windsor tunnel was such a disappointment! I expected it to be a glass tunnel through the river much as the Shark Encounter at Sea World is now. It was nothing like that. It was just a tunnel with bright lights and it was very short!
The rest of the trip was spectacular. We drove along some highway that had been blasted out of rocks. We both got out and took turns climbing up the rocks for a photo. I’m better with a camera now than I was back then but I love these photos. I have no idea where in Canada this is but it was very impressive, especially to an eleven year old. I’d never seen anything like this in Michigan.
That night we stopped at some campground and fished from a big rock alongside the lake. It was breathtaking sitting perched on those huge boulders. I don’t think we caught anything but Daddy had filled a little cooler with food and we had a small cook stove with us. I’m pretty sure dinner was hot dogs.
Sleeping in the back of the station wagon was fun! I had never slept in a real sleeping bag before. Daddy got some towels wet and hung them over the windows so we could roll them down and still keep out most of the mosquitos. I woke to noises coming from the trashcans and so of course, I woke up Daddy. He explained it was just raccoons stealing scraps out of the trash. I was convinced they were trapped. I was not going to go back to sleep (or shut up) until he got out and tipped each trash can over for me. He up righted all of them in the morning before we left.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing the St. Peter’s Cathedral. Daddy wasn’t Catholic but he went out of the way so we could stop and see it. I’d never seen such a beautiful church or one so big but the best part for me was the pipe organ inside. I was learning to play the piano back then and I thought it was the most beautiful organ ever.
One of the disappointments of the trip was the hitchhiker. Living in such a small town, I had never even seen one before and I begged my Dad to pick one up. When he finally did, I was so let down that he was just another person. I expected him to be some kind of alien being or something! He was boring!
Now, one of the funniest things to happen on the trip was the worm disaster! Daddy had gotten a box of live worms for us to fish with and was keeping them in the cooler with our food. I’m not sure I was aware of this arrangement in the beginning but on the last day when I opened the cooler and the worms were in the bottom swimming around in the water that had melted – well I was not eating anything that was in that cooler. End of discussion!
This was an amazing vacation filled with lots of other first. I had never been on a ferry and I couldn’t believe how huge the Mackinaw Bridge was. Unfortunately, it was the only vacation I would ever get to take with my Dad. It was about a year later that my mother moved us to California but that is next week’s story.
It was the vacation of a lifetime!
What a wonderful memory to have.
I’m glad that we got to do this, it helps to make up for everything we missed out on.
What a wonderful memory for you… I’m glad you went to Canada.. how cool 🙂 I think your sister missed out….
Is it selfish of me to be glad she didn’t come along? We really had lots more fun without her!
Another wonderful story, Kc! I love so many things about it- a vacation with your dad, sleeping in a station wagon- what kid wouldn’t love that? 🙂 I can just imagine how excited you were to go to a whole other country. I have been over that bridge as an adult, and it was pretty scary. I think I would have been pretty scared of it as a kid! 🙂 You were brave.
I don’t remember being frightened by the bridge just overwhelmed at how huge it was! Certainly nothing like the little bridges on the back country roads that I was used to!
Love your memories because I not only enjoy reading your story but it always triggers a memory for me as well. 🙂 I can only imagine how much fun you had on this great adventure with your Dad. I only went on one family vacation in my entire childhood and it was to a cabin near a stream not far from my grandparents’ farm. What different lives our daughters and grandchildren live. 🙂
I’m so glad my stories bring your memories back!
Beautiful memories! I’m so glad the two of you got to take this trip together! 🙂
You and Mark should do this ride on your trike!!!!
I’m very impressed at how great your memory is on details of all these interesting adventures! I think it’s wonderful for a little girl to have her daddy’s undivided attention on a trip like this one! Our family crossed into Canada at the same point you did, but it was the Ambassador Bridge that we used to get there. Then we turned around and came right back into Detroit – our vacation destination. Unlike you, except for Greenfield Village, I don’t remember a thing we did during the few days we spent there!
My very best friend since 9th grade is always teasing me about the fact that I remember everything!
Loved this story / how fun for you and I had to crack up at the end due to the worms! 🙂
I have never been a big fan of worms although I do love seeing them in the garden. But whenever we went fishing I always made Dad bait my hook and take the fish off. I was a wimp about that stuff even back then!
I love your blog & reading your posts. So many of your posts bring back memories of my childhood. My family never went on vacation together, with 9 people it just wasn’t affordable. So glad you have this memory of you and your dad. Great post!
I am so glad my memories bring yours back, too!
Well, if vacations were few, it’s a great thing you had even just one as fabulous as this! It sounds like a truly wonderful and special time… worms and all.
Worms and all it was wonderful and even better because it was something we had never done before and it was just the 2 of us!
Great pictures. Happy memories of the two of you, worms and all. Happy WW!!!
EEEK to the worms in the cooler! Sounds like a wonderful memory otherwise, though! My dad said he came back from fishing once with a fish in the cooler. I looked in and said, ‘But what if he can see me?’ when I heard we were having it for dinner. He said after I said that, he couldn’t cook it. He took it right back to the lake and threw it in!
I love your memory. Little girls do have a way of getting to their Daddy’s heart! Thank you for stopping by AmaraLand.
I love your blog! Thanks for sharing your special vacation memory. These blog stories will be a great legacy for your granddaughter.
Thank you! One of the other Grandma Bloggers suggested I start writing these stories down while I could still remember them! It really has been a lot of fun and even my own daughter has heard a few stories she hadn’t heard before! I’m enjoying your blog, too and based on your bio and recent post I bet we are the same age – with daughters about the same age, too!
Whoops, reading out of order. In light of what was to come, that beautiful memory is even sweeter. Good for your Daddy, making that memory happen.
I am so glad I got to take that vacation with my Dad and I can’t help but be glad I did have to share him.