So, I checked one more thing off my summer bucket list; a road trip.

If you’ve been following the blog, you might have remembered that I was excited for a summer road trip so when a couple of my friends brought it up, I immediately jumped on board.

We went to Grand Bend- a little beach town, about two and half hours away from us, and I’m going share some tips and tricks for a day/beach trip.

Leave Early

Remember, you only have a couple of hours to make the most out of the day. We left past 10 and arrived around 1 PM, with 4-5 hours before we had to head home, which wasn’t really enough time. If I had to do this again, I’d definitely propose leaving at or before 8 AM, + the earlier you are, the easier it is to find a perfect beach and parking spot.

Plan Your Activities

My initial destination for a road trip was the Blue Mountains or Niagara Falls. Somewhere that had more activities to indulge in, and I thought Grand Bend was going to be similar. It’s as it’s called, a beach town. If you’re going somewhere that doesn’t have a lot of activities, it’s best to plan out your day.

Make a list of all the activities you’d like to do, where they are, and what time they close for the day. That way you have a budget, and you also don’t spend the few hours you have trying to figure out what to do.

Anyway, after about 1 hour of settling down, we found an activity we could all do. A one-hour boat charter that included tubing, wakeboarding and water skiing.

We only got to do the tubing however, because one, we had limited time, and two, well, after the tubing experience, what I now refer to as my near-death experience, the captain thought the other activities were too advanced for us, and you know what? I agree.

Tubing Experience

I was on the first set to go on the tube, and I strongly believe we were scapegoats. At first, it was calm, just floating behind the boat at a normal speed. Fine, the waves were hitting my face but I still thought it was fun. THEN, the captain decided to ramp it up a few notches, and that’s when it went from fun to the dragging death. I was holding on to that floater like my life depended on it because you know what? It did!

Next thing, my friend flew off the floater, and I mean this literally. Like I knew the exact moment the wave hit us and she let go, and then I fell off too, but for the life of me, I could not let go of that floater. I was still holding on to it like my life depended on it because in my head, if I let go, I’d drown, life jacket or not.

Did I mention that I cannot swim?

Everyone was like, ‘you won’t sink, you won’t sink, calm down’, but honestly, I was panicking. It felt like I was going under the water.

The captain turned the boat around to get the other girl cause she was so far off, and I was screaming, ‘Noo, Come HelP me, I’m scARed!’

In retrospect, I can laugh about it. In fact, I was already laughing once they pulled me back to the boat, but NEVER AGAIN! I’m going to be staying away from water for the foreseeable future- at least till I learn to swim.

Pack Replacement Clothing.

It’s a day trip yes, but you never know where the day will take you. We had to buy a change of clothing from a store after we each took turns being pulled by a boat for fun.

Bring Snacks And Drinks:

I don’t really like to eat on trips of any kind, but I’ll still recommend packing some snacks and drinks. It’d save you time otherwise spent searching for where to eat, or waiting for your food to come.

Factor in Unplanned Events

I’m so big on this. After one disastrous trip during the pandemic, I learnt to account for unforeseeable situations, because even in a properly planned scenario, things may not always go as planned, but it is your responsibility to make the most out of any situation. So when you plan your trip, leave room for change in plans.

We planned to visit a winery before heading home but by the time we got off the boat, and got ready to go to the winery, it was almost closing time for the winery. So we had to regroup and plan our next course of action.

At the end of the day, we decided to get food and head home.

All in all, this trip was a fun experience, and while I will not be going back to the water any time soon, I look forward to more day trips.

How did you spend your long weekend?