The fish blanket

This weekend we went camping up at the Pinery near Grand Bend. The park was so astonishingly beautiful that I couldn't help but wonder why Jeremy and I had never gone there before. Giant sand dunes, green water, trees and flowers everywhere... I was really happy that I remembered my camera.


We met up with a good friend of ours, one of those friends who was welcome at any time of day or night at our house, and would show up at dinner-time unexpectedly - I would always just take out an extra plate. He recently went through a break up with a horrible girl that I couldn't stand but had to be nice to because she was his girlfriend. She had no idea, but it got very tiring trying to be nice to somebody who complained constantly and tried to seem cool by making fun of her guy in front of his friends. He is now with a new girl, and we were very curious to see what she was going to be like. (She turned out to be a really nice person and just perfect for him)
After a loooong drive and some fun navigating up highway 21, we were definitely happy to pull up to the campsite and see cold beer and a nice fire already going. The tent went up in record time, and within a half hour we were relaxing and getting our stuff ready to walk over the dunes to the beach.
At this point I should clarify that the dunes were REALLY big - like small foothills covered in sand, making it difficult to walk or climb. (Try to imagine climbing a 35 foot mountain of deep, soft sand) I was getting really excited to go swimming until we made it to the last dune and realized that it was freezing cold on the beach! There was a pretty strong wind coming off of the water that we couldn't feel because of the dunes.



After our 10 minute trek across the dunes we were determined to get some beach time in, so we spread out the blankets and towels. I wandered around taking a few pictures while they sat and talked.
After a particularly big gust of wind, I turned around and shouted "Oh my god, it's freakin FREEZING out here!" to a white lump covered with little fishes sitting over the sand.

Of course, I had to join them. It was a lot warmer under the sheet, so we stayed that way for a pretty long time.

Sitting under the blanket on a beach, passing around a couple of cans of Heineken beer. Definitely the best part of the trip.

"Hey I wonder if anybody's watching us"
"Nah, why would they care about a bunch of people crowded under a bedsheet covered with fishes"
"oh I think they'd care - if you saw people sitting under a blanket, wouldn't you wonder what they were up to?"
"okay, I see your point. I'd definitely think that whatever they were doing had to be fun"
"hey! there are people watching! bet they're jealous!"

jealous, maybe. definitely curious.

It felt like we were little kids playing with a living room fort of couch cushions and blankets. You know it's innocent fun, but it still seems like you might get in trouble.

Other than the very unpleasant return climb back to our campsite (I found out later that there were STAIRS we could have taken, but that they had decided to be adventurous), we had a great time. A constant campfire, eating hot dogs and burgers, grilling Canadian bacon on a stick (no, I didn't do that), cooking Zoodles in a can in the fire (learned that trick from some friends on previous camping trips), some ice cold cans of beer, some good music, and a bit of a sunburn.


Gotta love the great outdoors!

Jeremy and I booked a camping trip for 3 nights on Pelee Island in a couple of weeks. Can't wait to do this all over again. Well, except for the bacon thing - that was pretty gross.