Welcome back! Hope everyone had a good summer. I know I did.
One of the great things we did this summer was camping. We only only did one weekend doing tent camping, and the rest were in a Yurt or a Cabin which is a new feature in some Ontario provincial parks. Basically it’s a cabin without running water. It makes it a lot easier to pack and set things up which means we are far more likely to go.
This summer we spent four weekends “camping” at various provincial parks and I can assure you that if we were tenting for all of those weekends, at least half of them wouldn’t have happened.
Our last camping trip was to Pinery Provincial Park, which is located on the shores of Lake Huron near Grand Bend, ON. This park is quite huge and features absolutely no privacy on the campsites, however the fantastic beach made up for it. The weather was nice, the sand was great and the water was warm, so it was hard to complain about anything.
After leaving Pinery, we made a short stop in nearby Port Franks, Ontario where my grandmother used to live. I have memories of her place from when I was a child and I thought it would be neat to try to find her old house. My dad gave me directions which were out of date, since there was a new road in the area. I found one house that was a possibility and talked to the owner who directed me to his neighbour. The neighbour was 80 years old and apparently knew every resident who had ever lived in Port Franks. I told him my Grandmother’s name and not only did he remember her and was able to direct me to her house – he also told me an amusing story about once seeing her trying to walk a dachshund dog and five pups (she used to raise them).
Her small cottage wasn’t there anymore and had been replaced by a large house. I think the lot was the same size, but I didn’t recognize anything. Nonetheless, it was interesting to return to the area where she had lived.
Globe & Mail mentions
I did an interview with Roma Luciw of the Globe & Mail recently and two articles came out of it:
Roma & I both have young kids and after chatting about the summer, it turned out that she was at the Pinery park camping on the same weekend we were. Too bad we didn’t run into each other, we could have done the interview on the beach.
Best article of the last little while
Girls Just Want to Have Funds wrote a great piece called Are you treating your business like a hobby? Don’t expect to get paid. It’s a funny article related to running a small business and even if you aren’t interested in the topic – it contains the best hooker analogy ever. I loved this article
On with the articles
Mike Piper answers the question – Is 100% stocks ok for a retirement portfolio?
Miranda lists 30 ways to make more money over at Financial Highway.
Dan Bortolotti answers a good question about ETF trading liquidity. A good read if you are thinking of buying an ETF with a low trading volume.
Boomer & Echo has 4 investing mistakes to avoid. Send this one to a friend.
Steve L wrote a pretty good article about not listening to the media for investment advice. His message is that bad news sells.
5 replies on “Linkstuff – Pinery Provincial Park Edition”
Sounds like a fun summer, Mike. Every year we camp out at Moyie Lake in BC, usually in a tent, although the last few years we tagged along with the in-laws and their trailer.
This year, with a newborn and a three-year old, we figured we’d try renting a cabin just off the lake. We stayed 3 nights, and it came to about $160/night…definitely not camping cheap!
The cabin was great, and the location was awesome. The problem was, vacationing with 2 young kids is not exactly a vacation, so by the time we got home we weren’t sure if we wanted to do that again. Maybe next summer…
Thanks for the mention!
Robb, I remember going to my parents cottage when the kids were that age and it really wasn’t much fun. They are just too much work, cottage isn’t child-proofed, more dangers because of water etc. It’s ok when grandma was there to help out, but otherwise not so good.
I think three years old is about the minimum age for having fun (for the parents that is). My kids are 4 & 6 and this summer was excellent. Not just for camping, but even local activities were good.
Thanks for the link back! Yes the hooker analogy was crass LOL! I still can’t believe that this advice is being given out there…
Glad to see your back in the writing saddle again here Mike. Congrats on all the fanfare around your RESP book. I’ve been recommending it to several parents in school. It must feel pretty good to be sought after as the foremost authority on something eh?
@TM – Yes, writing a book is liking buying an “expert” license. It’s pretty neat. 🙂