What we did on our summer vacation part 2: HUTTOPIA!

This is a huttopia:

 Isn't it luxurious?

It is a canvas tent on a wooden platform with limited electricity, including the mini fridge, small heater, and overhead light. It also has 2 "bedrooms," and comes equipped with most everything you need. First designed by French visitors who wanted to camp (and who had this business in France), this was a great first camping experience with our young family. J had attended a Y camp briefly as a child. I had gone to camp on Catalina Island off the coast of California for several years, and was more comfortable with the idea, but both of us want flushing toilets, especially with E and S.  The huttopia is perfect.

Unfortunately for us, the huttopia, which I first saw at a Plein Air festival in Montreal when we visited in May, is only in Quebec Provincial Parks.   If you are in France, or plan to visit, they also have several locations there as well. Canada as a whole is very good with the whole cottage culture/rustic outdoor living thing, and so there are many places to stay closer to nature. Ontario Provincial Parks also have yurts, but they differ in that they have mostly single beds. And their "comfort stations" are not as close; the pit toilets located near the yurts led us to decide to return to a huttopia rather than try a yurt.  We would car camp and buy or rent a tent from our local Mountain Equipment Co-op (like Canada's REI; now we're members of both!), but we aren't proficient enough yet to tent camp. Plus, it is getting much colder.

 Because we broke out our fleece and winter hats. In August. Because we live in Canada. 

S'mores every night before bed are VERY important when you are camping. And having the perfect stick takes up at least an hour every day, giving your parents peaceful time to read at the campsite.  If you are three, you break your stick at least twice before you find one that is sturdy enough to withstand your best efforts to break it.

The kid-size sleeping bags we purchased at MEC were zipped together to make one big kid bag. Of course, it still couldn't contain marshmallow and chocolate energy.

Our cruise on the Fjord du Saguenay.  The Parc National du Saguenay is where we camped.  It is past QC up the St. Lawrence towards the Atlantic Ocean. The fjord is popular with whales, and I am working on a short video that I will post directly on facebook with the kids.  It is astonishingly beautiful.

 Canadians are way into canoes. This is not a stereotype.

We kayaked from this beach with the kids.  Our guide was amazing in pointing out the seals just meters away, and we kayaked all of the way into the waterway of the fjord.

J and I thought that this was the best way to spend our 10th anniversary. It may have been our best vacation ever. The Saguenay area is one of the most breathtaking areas on earth, full of wildlife. We hiked, kayaked, went on boat rides, cooked and ate outside. We couldn't name all of the animals we saw, from the porcupine to the humpback whale to the gray seal to the beaver dam.

We now have a stuffed black bear named Fjord who lives at our house.