…..with the temperatures going into summer mode this weekend, there’s no better time

If you haven’t headed up to the cottage this weekend and need a little get away trip,  make your way to the ferry docks this weekend.

I would avoid Centre Island, unless you have children and need the amusement park for entertainment. Ward’s Island is a great alternative. It is a residential community where people own their homes but not the land and it’s the largest urban area in North America that has no motorized vehicles other than a few service vans. Most of the homes are tiny and on small lots. It looks very much like a cottage community.

My daughter’s mother-in-law was lucky enough to rent a house for a couple of months when she came back to the city before moving on to her next foreign adventure. On the Mother’s Day weekend we were all invited to her place for a meal. It had always been a dream of hers to own her own house on the island and every year for a number of years she paid a fee to enter a lottery when homes  became available for sale. Needless to say she was never chosen so being able to rent for awhile was the next best option.

While we were there we took a walk and enjoyed looking at all the cute homes and emerging gardens. As we continued north we ended on a beach and even though it was still chilly that weekend there were quite a few people walking along the beach and some were sitting on the sand and enjoying a small picnic. 

Our hostess loved living on the island. She was there in the middle of the winter and then again in April and May. Her only source of heating was a gas fire place in the shape of an old fashioned wood burning stove. She was toasty and warm all winter and she loved the solitude and quiet of her neighbourhood. The ferry runs every hour and residents can buy a monthly pass so if they have to make more than one run a day to the mainland it doesn’t cost them an arm and a leg. Most of the time if you’ve forgotten to buy something or have run out of something there’s a web bulletin board and your neighbours come to your aid if they have what you need.