A Vacation in Three Movements

Just so you know... I LOVE vacation, especially if it includes some travel. On the other hand, my DH doesn't really get enthused about leaving home. On every vacation in our 36 years of marriage, he has admitted that he's had a good time, but agreeing on a vacation is always a point of contention. So I plan and make reservations and arrangements and he eventually agrees...to a point. For this trip, I packed for ten days; he packed for five. I had gradiose plans of whale watching north of Quebec; he had plans to do no such thing. So, here's our vacation of five days in three segments:

Part I - We went to the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. It used to be known as a Shakespearian Festival, but has long ago opened its repertoire to other plays. I have been here probably five or six times, usually with students and once with my book club. It is a whole different thing to come here without worrying where and what students are doing and do we have them all? and who isn't in his/ her room? and who ran out of money? and why isn't Horatio at the meeting place on time?

I could tell that the recession has hit this theater town in a very unforgiving way. The streets and the shops, usually bustling with tourists, were virtually empty. I called two days ahead of time for a room and tickets and got a reasonably priced room and great seats. That wouldn't have happened a few years ago.

My goal was to choose something that my DH would really enjoy, so I chose "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," a classic comedy that didn't disappoint. He and I both were laughing out loud throughout.

Stratford is six hours from our home...not a bad drive. Of course, now a passport or "the card" is required to cross into Canada.

Stratford, Ontario town hall

Part II - My plan was to go to Toronto, a great city with so many things to do. I had seen that the Dead Sea Scrolls were at the Royal Ontario Museum and I thought that would be interesting. My DH loves history, so that fit the bill. Anyway, I had a list of possibilities, but then we heard on the news that they were three weeks into a garbage pickup strike. Photos were shown on Canadian tv of mountains of trash on street corners and protests were taking place over all this. So we adjusted the plans to go to Niagara Falls, Canada first and then assess what the situation was later for Toronto.

I have heard often that the Canadian side of the Falls is so much better than the U.S. side. I'd say the view was better, but to get there, we had to walk through what I called "Las Vegas on Steroids." Again, the crowds were there, but not as much as I expected. It was a little too touristy for my taste, but it was beautiful to see. We had ridden on the Maid of the Mist several times, so skipped the soaking on this trip.

Back at the hotel, we saw that now arsonists were setting fire to trash mountains and dumpsters throughout Toronto. That settled it. Trip north no more.

Canadian Niagara Falls

Part III - We decided to drive to Sandusky and take the Jet Express boat over to Kelleys Island. Since I had researched the Ellings and learned that a couple of the immigrant daughters went there to work and one lived her whole life there, I have been curious to go. Lake Erie cooperated and was relatively calm for the 20 minute ride from Sandusky to Kelley's Island. Once there, we rented a golf cart so we could make the most of our time.

Dianne at cemetery on Kelley's Island, at the Pringnitz stone.

 First stop, the cemetery where I did locate the Mary Elling Pringnitz stone. We tried to locate their home. I had seen a photo of it, but didn't know the address (not prepared for this angle of the trip!) Of course, if someone decided to remodel it, I wouldn't have recognized it anyway. So we just relaxed, toodling along in our golf cart all over the island, enjoying the breeze off the lake and imagining what it would have been like to live in this isolated spot - especially in the winter.

Back home on the fifth day...just as someone had planned.

(This post originally appeared on the Elling Family News blog on July 14, 2009.)