We leave our motel as fast as we can, and at 8:30 we buy breakfast at Your Local Grocery. We drive to Beachville, where Olga’s cousin Martin lives with his wife Elise and kids Leo (4) and Jack (1).
Along the way, we try to visit some sights, but we’re not lucky today. The open air museum Ireland House is closed. Griffin House is being renovated. The sulfer spring is springing, it was not warm but smelled like sulfer.
The residential school is also being renovated, it does have a sign in front telling about the history. The Mohawk Chapel is also closed.
We expected the museum of Bell (inventor of the telephone and location of the first phone call) to be open, but unfortunately it’s closed on Sundays. We ran out of options, so we kill some time at Tim Hortons.
At 12:30, we’re expected at Martins place. Aunt Anneke is waiting for us outside and we get a big hug. It’s heartwarming to see her enthusiasm. Martin and Elise live in a beautiful house surrounded by a green garden and even some Maple trees. They renovated the house themselves in a beautiful way with a big living space where we can easily have lunch with the 15 of us.
Cousin David and his girlfriend arrive soon after with a cheese platter and Elise and Martin prepared a fantastic lunch. Mark, Kate and their kids Dawson and Briyanna also join us a little bit later. We only notified the Schröder family one week ago that we would be in their neighboorhood, so it’s super sweet everbody cleared their schedule to gather together for an extensive Sunday lunch.
David is very familiar with the barbeque, and the kids play with the toy collection of Leo and Jack, and the cockroach of Dawson.
There are four salads, many side dishes and drinks waiting for us. We are embarresed by the poor Dutch hospitality compared to this fantastic party. The Italian background of Elise shows through the tasteful food. We enjoy the warm family dynamics of the boys teasing each other and their mother, their good memories of Omi and their aunts and uncles in the Netherlands. Also their wifes and kids are incredibly sweet and kind.
It’s difficult to say goodbye, but we still have a two hours drive and pool dip ahead of us, so we leave at 16:30, taking a bag full of gifts from Aunt Anneke with us, but most importantly a hearthwarming memory of fantastic family in Canada.
When we want to check in at our waterpark hotel they want Tim to present himself with credit card and passport. He hands over his passport but can’t find his wallet anywhere. We turn over the packed car, try to remember where we last used it but can’t find it. Olga explains this to the reception while Tim checks the car one last time. Luckily he finds the wallet in Olga’s coat.
We have 30 minutes to explore the water park. There are dozens of slides and even more water showers. A big bucket of water on top is slowly turning over, Cleo finds it very scary. With her 1 meter 10 Cleo is tall enough for nearly all slides, but Zeno is just 1 centimeter short of 42 inch, so he has to enjoy himself on the baby slide and in the wave pool.
We’re back at our luxurous hotel room (especially compared to last night – no smell and all is clean!). The kids go for a an after pool session in the bath tub while Time explores the Niagara Falls by night.
