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The Pride Diaries: a family trip to Ontario

So this post is a little different to our usual blogs, which are normally super informative and full of reccomendations for destinations we've visited over the years. Whilst this post WILL feature recommendations of things we did during our trip, it's going to be a much more personal share about our time in Canada, which we spent with family and friends who live out there.


The recommendations within this post are going to be a lot more niche as our family and friends live outside of the mainstream areas that most folk have heard of.


I think moving forward, I'm going to continue The Pride Diaries as a series of posts that combine our trips with our personal lives. I have no idea if anyone's even going to WANT to read these but I guess there's only one way to find out, right?


Debs has always had a strong connection to Canada. When she was just 6 years old, Debs' aunt at age 18 had decided to embark on one of the biggest adventures of her life and move from her sleepy home town in Essex all the way to Toronto, Canada.


From a very young age, Debs would find solice when staying with her family in Canada. She would spend three months at a time there during the summer holidays from age 13 and she very much thought (and still thinks) of Canada as much of her home as Essex, if not more so.


She didn't know it at the time, but 2009 would be the last time Debs would set foot in Canada for almost 13 years. (There was a whole host of reasons it took us so long to visit Canada together, we spoke about it every year or every time we would plan a trip and even planned a trip before COVID happened which obviously got postponed but anyhow - we made it in the end!)


So our trip to Canada this year was a very special one. For one, it was my first time ever in Canada but most importantly, it was Deb's first time visiting her family in their home since 2009. Granted, it was a different home than last time but honestly we always say that the PEOPLE are what make a home, not the walls and furnishings.

I can't tell you how nice it was to watch Debs sink into familiarity with the people she cares for the most. We had the nicest week spent catching up, exploring their local area and sightseeing, but honestly the highlights of our trip were the times we spent laughing and catching up with family.


Roz and Bill (Debs' aunt and uncle) live around an hour / an hour and a half north of Toronto, just outside the city of Barrie. For those of you who live in London, it's kind of like the distance from Essex or Brighton to London. Close enough to be able to easily get to and explore the city but far enough to have countryside, small local shops and a more rural lifestyle.

Their home is set within a 360 garden and to the back of their property is miles of woodlands. It is 100% the type of place Debs and I would love to live in one day.


Our first day in Canada was a pretty chilled one spent catching up with Roz, having a shop at the local mall and having family dinner with the addition of Deb's cousin and his (absolutely lovely) girlfriend, who stayed the night and got up early with us the next morning to head into Toronto for a girls day out.

*I did a separate blog about our time in Toronto here > Read about Toronto here.

If you didn't fancy reading the other blog, long story short: we went on a boat, had some lunch, checked into a hotel, had a wander round the city, had dinner, met up with Debs' other cousin the following day, went up the CN Tower, went shopping and got the GO train home (back to Barrie).


Upon our return 'home' from a night in the city we had a much needed lazy day: a bit of a lie in and then an afternoon spent watching a local ice hockey game, something I was told I HAD to experience during my first trip to Canada. As a lot of you already know, neither myself or Debs are sports people, not even a little bit, like not even to watch the BIG sporting events like the olympics or the world cups (or whatever they're called). No, sports is not for us... BUT... I've got to say that I actually really enjoyed the game and it could even be something I watched and followed, although having said that I probably wouldn't bother unless we packed up and moved to Canada (which, by the way, we haven't ruled out!)


After we'd defrosted from watching the game, we returned 'home' to meet up with Debs' other cousin (who we spent the day in Toronto with) and finally got to meet her gorgeous her son, who by the way, might just be the sweetest most intelligent three year old I've ever met! We spent a couple of hours catching up before heading out to Orilla for an incredible meal at Rustica Pizza. If by any chance you're ever in this area of Canada we'd highly recommend this place for it's authentic pizza's and a great selection of cocktails and wine.


We finished off the week by doing a little lazy Sunday shopping at the mall followed by an evening at Roz's besties home. Of course, as Debs has spent so much time in Canada, she knows Sonya and her husband Mike really well and has spent a lot of time at their home during her trips to Ontario. We had the lovliest evening chatting and gorging ourselves on the BEST schnitzel I've ever had in my life, followed by an afternoon walk through the woods that almost backs onto Sonya's home. We also spent the ENTIRE time playing with their unbelievably cute pomeranian puppy who was just 10 weeks old when we met her. I think my face in this picture just sums up how excited we were to meet her.


With just two nights left in Ontario, we packed up the car with way more than we needed and headed down to Niagara Falls with Roz and Bill to spend the night and do some more sightseeing before our trip to the other side of Canada.


Upon arriving in Niagara, we quickly checked into our hotel and headed straight out to meet up with a friend who I haven't seen in roughly TEN YEARS! You know how sometimes you meet someone and your friendship is just easy. Like you can go weeks, months, YEARS without seeing one another and things are just as they've always been. Easy and comfortable. That's how it is and always has been with Brandon and I'm so grateful we had a chance to meet up during our time in Canada. We also finally got a chance to meet his OH and honestly I'd heard so much about him that it was like we already had known each other for years.


We had the best day in Niagara, although the weather was absolutely WILD. We obviously had limited time in Ontario and had pre-booked our boat tickets and of course there just happened to be a hurricane warning on the exact day we had planned to do all this. Honestly, it made the experience so much fun and exciting. I can't tell you the last time I'd laughed as hard as I did on that boat approaching the mist of the falls.

If you're able to and aren't afraid of the water, don't miss out on doing the boat ride. It may well have been my favourite part of the entire trip.


Soon after the boat, we grabbed a bite to eat in the Table Rock Welcome Center, during which we decided to head back to the hotel to check out the Casino opposite. We finished up our meal but before we left, we wanted to grab a few photos of the edge of the falls. We packed up our stuff and prepared to head out but, just as we made for the exit, the heavens opened. I don't think I've ever seen so much rain in my life. None the less, I'm British and a little bit of rain was NOT going to stop me getting a few photos of the edge, so I decided to take one for the team and brave the storm to get said photos...


As I was taking the pictures, there were literally people running past me to get out of the rain and I suddenly heard that familiar sound of everyone's phone pinging, you know, that awful noise that told you that something serious is going down. Apparently there was a hurricane warning for the area - no wonder the rain had been SO bad! I grabbed as many quick snaps as I could before heading back to the cover of the welcome center. The rain was so bad that we decided to grab an uber back to the hotel as honestly, I was only in the rain for a few minutes and I was soaked to the core.


*I'm going to do a full blog about Niagara and once it's done the link will go in here. OR to stay up to date with our blogs give us a follow in Insta! > @prideescapes


After drying off in our hotel room and changing into something less saturated, we spent a couple of hours in the Casino which by the way, was my first ever time doing so, in which time we discovered that I really am not a gambler and apparently did not have beginners luck. I don't know if I was doing it wrong but like... gambling is stressful and I'd be happy never doing it again!

We then finished off the day with a local dinner before heading back to our hotel to watch the fireworks over the falls from our hotel room. This day was probably one of my favourites of the whole trip for so many reasons.


Our last full day in Ontario had arrived and we were very lucky to have two well versed tour guides of the area who took us to Niagara on the Lake, to spend the day browsing the cute little shops and tasting wine at one of the many vineyards in the area. Neither Debs or I had heard of this area but once we got there we were smitten. Again, this area deserves WAY more words than I want to include in this post so to read more keep your eyes peeled for the Niagara post coming over the next few weeks.

Niagara on the Lake was the perfect ending to our trip. We had the best time visiting family in Ontario, so much so that we've started looking at real estate in the area and we can't wait to head back some time soon.


I think overall we spent just over a week in Ontario and we managed to squeeze a lot of sightseeing into that time-frame but truthfully, the best part of the whole trip was seeing Debs' family, getting to spend time with them / getting to know them more, and watching Debs slide back into familiar routines with her aunt, uncle and cousins who she adores, and is most a-like.


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