With dawn on Canada Day came revelation. The Cyprus Lake campground of Bruce Peninsula National Park is situated largely on wetland. The campsites are islands between deep breeding pools of generations of exsanguinating monsters. There are fields, endless fields, where mosquitoes are no longer born, they are grown. I saw them with my own eyes. We folded up the trailer and hustled out of there pretty quick.

We had decided to circumnavigate Georgian Bay, but swung by the ferry dock anyway, just to see if there was any chance of getting on the first boat out at 11:20 as a stand-by booking. The surly dockhand said we were welcome to wait in line, but it didn’t look like the boat was going to be ready for 11:20 in any case. We snickered at the people waiting in long lines and drove on.

The drive to Sudbury was pretty, and thick with adventure. Every little town we rolled through was having a Canada Day celebration. I lost track of the number of firemen and old dudes in kilts we saw. It’s like nobody else can be bullied into being the public face of Canada Day.

We pulled off the highway in Parry Sound around lunchtime to stretch our legs. Completely by accident we ended up on the waterfront, which was really lovely. I am ashamed that I’ve never been there before. I think I always equated Parry Sound with lumber jackets and beer parties, but their harbourfront is quite vibrant and modern. And naturally they were having a Canada Day celebration.

While strolling along the piers, I noticed several signs for tour boats of the hundreds of low rocky islands that the area is famous for. I asked Holly to go into the info centre to get a brochure with the tour schedule and she came back with a bush plane tour pamphlet. Well, that’s way more fun! The office was just at the end of the dock, so off we went to check it out.

$320 (sorry Mama!) and 10 minutes later, we were getting a safety briefing on the dock from one of the company’s many female pilots. Another 10 minutes later and we were taxiing out into the harbour, with one of the company’s co-owners as our pilot. Keith and I had an interesting, albeit staccato, conversation in between the screams of Those Johnston Kids over the intercom. It didn’t matter that they were wearing headsets, or that they were sitting beside each other – certain things had to be yelled in order to communicate the appropriate gravitas. The flight was brilliant and landing on the water was as exciting as it sounds. I must squeeze flying into my list of things to learn.

Giddy after our singular experience, we wandered over to the Canada Day fair, hoping to catch some guys in kilts or something. No luck with that search, but we did see the ubiquitous firemen. We chatted with a fireman and woman and the kids climbed into the very fancy ladder truck which was not out putting out fires or rescuing cats. Canada Day is not only a day of celebration for Canadians, but also arsonists.

But wait, there’s more: even better than firetrucks, and arguably as exciting as low level bush plane flying over Massasauga Park, are free bouncy castles! Free, and with the kind of generous time limits that you can only get from bored teen operators texting about how bored they are. Awesome. Parry Sound has rocketed to the top of our list of favourite places. I didn’t even tell you about the fresh kettle corn we bought on our way out. It was still warm, as if it had just been born from some sweet and salty womb.

I found the candy.

Honestly, our first day really didn’t go that well. Maybe it was because we all stayed up after midnight to test the axiom that the only rule of vacation is that there are no rules. Maybe it was the cold realisation that home and creature comforts that didn’t include actual creatures was far away. Maybe it was the mosquito bites. In any case, none of us got along too well. Every attempt to do something other than sitting in the car with a book was met with sullen complaints about far/hot/boring it was. Yay, vacation.

We did manage to agree to ride down to the shore for a swim. Of course the water at this time of year is freezing. I waded, but the polar bears rolled in the water for a bit before shrieking for the warmth of the grass.

The Chi Chi Maun ferry to Manitoulin runs out of Tobermory (“Tub” to locals). The ferry, if you’ve never tried it, is a lot of fun. It’s quite luxurious, and the views of Georgian Bay are magnificent. No whales though, strangely. We had a reservation for 7 AM today, but the ferry requires cars to arrive an hour early. Rather than get up at 4 AM to break camp and drive to Tobermory from Cape, we elected to stay in Tobermory for the night.

We drove north to Bruce Peninsula National Park, which was almost completely full up owing to the national holiday. My winsome ways and Clooneyesque smile won us one of the last two spots in the park from the intimidating lady at check in.

She also let us know that the Chi Chi Maun was busted and all 7 AM reservations cancelled. Sad face. They aren’t even sure when it will be fixed, so waiting isn’t really an option. Besides being disappointing, it also seriously impacts our schedule. After some debate, we’ve decided to drive around Georgian Bay to Sudbury and Science North.

With a long drive ahead, we made it an early night. Dinner was campfire hot dogs, Kraft dinner with Kimchee No Moto, and fresh strawberries. We enjoyed our campfire as best we could in the light drizzle and swirling mosquitoes. Short Pants literally slept in his bug jacket. The wilderness is not for everyone.