With my favourite holiday just around the corner, today I decided to check out a spot that combines two of my favourite things- Halloween & Coffee!
Deadly Grounds Cafe, located in Courtice, ON was the perfect spot to grab a coffee on this grey, rainy day in October.
The cafe features horror themed drinks & baked goods, as well as over 30 coffee and tea options with names like Haunted House, Camp Blood, Never Sleep Again, Tropical Terror and Witches Brew.
Banana Skull, Sin-o-man skill & Camp Crystal Lake Latte
In the cafe, there are a variety of specialty lattes including Camp Crystal Lake, Myers Macchiato and White Zombie, as well a snacks including “Sin-o-man skulls.”
There’s retro video games and artwork and decor from all your favourite horror movies found throughout the cafe, including a few large animatronic characters.
The “Odditorium” is filled with creepy masks and retro horror merch and even a secret room…which not going to lie, made when jump when I saw what was hidden inside! (You’ll have to go check it out for yourself!)
Today, I enjoyed a Camp Crystal Lake latte and a Sin-o-man skull- both of which were delicious!
If you’re looking to get in the Halloween spirit…or just looking to get your daily coffee fix with a side of horror, this is definitely the place to be!
I like wine and during this pandemic I’ve come to enjoy it even more, so when I came across our next ‘Unique Stay’ on Airbnb, I knew we definitely had to stay here.
I actually found the listing last summer, but as it is a very popular one it took us awhile to get a date. Thankfully this gem was worth the wait!
Floating in Fox Creek, surrounded by lily pads, this red cedar barrel is tied to the shore with a panoramic window perfect for watching the stars at night on one side and views of lush vineyards full of grapes on the other.
The tiki bar was the perfect spot to watch the gorgeous sunset while enjoying a bottle of wine from one of the local wineries.
The barrel runs on solar power, with a whiskey barrel sink and even an outdoor shower right on the little dock. A chemical toilet is located on shore, along with a fire pit and big lounge chairs for enjoying an evening fire. There’s also a rowboat if you want to head out into the creek (easier to do when the water is a bit higher as the lily pads are thick!)
We opted to stay on our little dock and watch the fish swim around below us.
No matter the time, this spot was beautiful!
The bed was cozy and watching the sunrise through the panoramic window was the perfect way to wake up!
Want to spend a night in a wine barrel? Click here to check out the listing on Airbnb.
I can easily spend hours going down a rabbit hole on Airbnb looking at listings and planning ‘someday trips.’ One of my favourite features on this site is being able to select ‘Unique Stays,’ which includes listings for treehouses, tiny houses, yurts, castles, lighthouses, houseboats, and more. While searching under this for getaways close to home, I stumbled upon an option to stay in “An Authentic Romani Caravan in Swaying Cedars.” The title immediately grabbed my attention and the colourful photos of the caravan quickly made this a place I definitely wanted to check out.
The caravan is located on an 18-acre farm near Orono, Ontario. We were greeted by the couple who owns the property and got checked into our stay.
The colourful caravan is located amongst the cedar trees with a screened-in parlour next door. A fire pit is situated between the two and an outhouse with a chemical toilet is located nearby. There’s no electricity, but the caravan does have solar power for lights and an indoor washbasin.
The space was magical—so quiet and peaceful, with only the sound of the wind rustling through the forest of cedar trees. It was almost like stepping back in time as we sipped our coffee and read, enjoying the quiet.
In the evening, we made a fire and roasted marshmallows, which were set up by the owners for us to enjoy.
The stay comes with a delicious breakfast served on the back porch of the farmhouse. There are also trails cut around the property to wander, an orchard, gardens, a pet cemetery, and a pond with turtles to explore.
Definitely a perfect spot for a romantic little getaway!
Want to check it out yourself? You can find the Airbnb listing here
Sunflower farms seem to be popping up all over the place lately and I am here for it! As a sucker for a giant sunflower patch (especially if it has fun photo stations), I recently checked another local one off my list.
The Sunflower Experience at Pingle’s Farm Market near Oshawa has over 100,000 blooms in their 6.5-acre sunflower field!
Here, you’ll find classic yellow sunflowers, but also giants over 10 feet tall, small dwarf teddies, beautiful red and yellow-hued ‘Ring of Fire’ sunflowers, crimson-coloured ones, and some so dark they almost look black!
Trails are cut throughout the sunflowers and there are 12 photo stops along the way, including a swing!
They also have a stand in the middle of the field with clippers, mason jars, and buckets. Your entrance ticket comes with one pick-your-own sunflower, but you can pay for more here as you pick up your clippers to go hunting for the perfect sunflowers to bring home.
When you’re ready for a break, you can head up to the food and entertainment area where you’ll find tasty treats like chicken and waffles and top off your day with a delicious jumbo macaron ice cream sandwich (it’s delicious…seriously don’t miss this!) while listening to live music.
There’s really no better sight then a colourful sunset over a still body of water. I’m obsessed with sunsets in general, but there’s something magical about the mirror image reflected back off the water, like this one I took last week on the South Muskoka River. Magic Hour at it’s finest!
Halloween is my favourite time of year. I love the costumes, the decorations, the pumpkin carving and the Halloween parties, and I especially love travelling to check out Halloween places and events.
A couple of my favourites have been exploring Salem and learning about the witch trials (and seeing all the Hocus Pocus filming sites!) and dressing up to attend Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Disney World. But unfortunately with Covid-19 still happening, this year I won’t be checking a new item off my Halloween travel list or attending any big Halloween parties. So instead, I checked out a Halloween event much closer to home that I haven’t made it to before: Pumpkins After Dark at Country Heritage Park in Milton, ON.
This year, in order to keep everyone safe and distanced, the event was a 2.5km drive-thru experience. Along the dark, winding trail there are over 150 pumpkin sculptures made from 7000-7500 carved pumpkins all lit up.
The sculptures included superheroes, Disney characters, classic Halloween villains, a variety of animals and much more.
What an incredible sight! Although you couldn’t get too close to the pumpkins or stop at any point along the trail, the detail found in the sculptures was amazing.
I can only imagine how cool they would look up close (and how much better my photos would be if I wasn’t hanging out of a moving car window trying to take them!!).
It took about 45 minutes to drive through the park, including through a tunnel of spooky pumpkins.
With the creepy music playing and the thousands of pumpkins lighting up the dark, cloudy sky, I definitely left feeling more in the Halloween spirit!
I’ve been wanting to explore Flowerpot Island for a few summers now and with Covid-19 continuing to impede international travel plans, this seemed like the perfect time to explore more of my own province. Flowerpot Island is one of twenty islands found in Fathom Five National Marine Park, located off the coast of Tobermory on the beautiful Bruce Peninsula in Ontario.
We booked a glass-bottom boat ride with Bruce Anchor to take us out to the island, 6.5km from Tobermory. Before heading to the island, we sailed into Big Tub Harbour to see two of the over twenty historic shipwrecks found in the Fathom Five National Marine Park.
Through the clear turquoise waters, we came across the Sweepstakes wreck. This schooner was built in Burlington, ON and was damaged off Cove Island before being towed to Big Tub Harbour where she sank in September, 1885. It’s amazing how much of this ship is still intact 135 years later.
The second ship found in Big Tub Harbour is the City of Grand Rapids, a passenger steamer built in 1879 in Grand Haven, Michigan. On October 29, 1907, a fire broke out aboard the Grand Rapids while docked in Little Tub Harbour. To prevent the fire from spreading, the ship was towed out of the harbour and released to burn itself out. Eventually, the charred remains sank in Big Tub Harbour near the Sweepstakes, where it can still be found just offshore.
The cold water found here has helped to preserve these wrecks, and just sailing over them, it was clear why this area has some of the best freshwater diving opportunities in Canada.
From here, we sailed past Big Tub Lighthouse, which was originally lit in 1885, over to Flowerpot Island. As we got close, you could see the ‘Flowerpot’ rock pillars sticking up from the water.
We docked at Beachy Cove and decided to do the full Loop Trail, 2.6km, including hiking the Marl Trail.
It was a beautiful day to explore the island, although we came across a few too many snakes for my liking!
By the time we made it around to the Lighthouse station, we stopped to have our picnic lunch. Here, we found out that there are also an abundance of little red squirrels just waiting for you to leave your lunch unattended! The Lighthouse museum was closed this year due to Covid-19, but you could still wander around the buildings and down to the white rocky beach.
If you trade the rocks for white sand and the trees found here for palm trees, with the beautiful turquoise waters, you can almost imagine that you are in the Caribbean instead of Canada.
Unfortunately, the caves were also closed this year, so we just got to see the outside walls. The rock formations along the trail from the Lighthouse station to the Flowerpots were really cool.
The Flowerpots were definitely the highlight though. They were the reason I wanted to come here and they didn’t disappoint, standing tall against the clear turquoise waters. Crazy to think that these have been here for hundreds of years!
I took off my shoes and stood with my feet in the glittering cold water taking it all in (and wishing it was less crowded…) Such a beautiful spot.
After taking a bunch of photos at the Big Flowerpot, we headed over to the less crowded Little Flowerpot, finding a spot to sit and relax on the rocks nearby before catching our cruise back to Tobermory.
*We spent 4 hours on the island which was the perfect amount of time to hike the trails, have a picnic lunch and spend some time at each of the flowerpots
Like so many others, my travel plans so far in 2020 haven’t exactly worked out as I had hoped. I’ve really been missing getting out and exploring, especially during this beautiful summer weather.
I may not be able to journey as far as I usually do, but for August, I promised myself I’d get out and explore local tourist spots.
So today, I went five minutes up the road to check out The Sunflower Farm, located just outside my little town of Beaverton.
This beautiful farm, with 10 acres of sunflower fields, just opened a few weeks ago and I’ve been dying to check it out. (Apparently I wasn’t the only one as the wait to get in with current Covid regulations was over an hour…. so be prepared!)
Once inside, you follow the trail past 1000s of bright yellow sunflowers. I was in heaven.
Sunflowers have always been my favourite flower so wandering along the path here, with a sea of yellow stretching on and on, was the perfect way to spend a sunny, summer afternoon!
Tales of a Travel Addict 
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