How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Friends, I just got back from a one week long solo vacation.  I grabbed my passport and went on an island bender.  Four islands in seven days!

Hmmm...you know that I don't like to fly and that I keep an eye on my budget, so where could this exotic locale be?

I'm so glad that you asked.

Here's the big picture:

I dunno about you, but before last summer if I thought about Lake Erie at all, I thought about this:

But if we zoom in on the western side over near Toledo and Detroit, what we actually have is this:

Last year I spent a bit of time on the US islands.  This year I wanted to one up by going north to add the big Canadian island to my island collection.  I also thought that it would be fun to "drive" my car across Lake Erie via the ferry, so my vacation path looked like this:

Trip Planning

My goal was Pelee Island, and naturally I picked the week to line up with my family's big Boy Scout camping trip==>when they go away, I go away.  I wasn't sure exactly what was on Pelee except that people love it and it's huge so I figured that this was more than a one day thing...hmm...3 days?

In the doldrums of winter I found myself browsing Airbnb and decided that I might as well go ahead and book somewhere to stay since real estate on an island is limited and things fill up.  I spied a cute little beach cottage that wasn't too expensive and had rave reviews.  I was <this close> to booking it when something made me go back and read through the listing one more time.  I saw the list of things that were not provided - no washing machine no problem, yada yada...oh...no wifi?  In 2023????

Whew I dodged myself a bullet there.  I moved on to another listing...huh no wifi here either.  Next listing...hmmm I sense a theme.  There's no wifi on Pelee Island.  I knew from experience that the cell signal is spotty on the US side, so I adjusted expectations for a possible non internet stay.  Did I still want to go?  You know it!

I grabbed a cottage but the booking had to be approved by the hosts first.  They got back to me right away, and their criteria for acceptance was making sure that I was aware that this is an island and what was my plan to get there.  They said that they weren't sure if the US side ferry would be running in early June, so was I cool with going in from the Ontario side?

Man, Pelee was just mocking me at every turn.  I didn't want to drive to Ontario and then drive back, but that might be the price of going to Pelee Island.  OK, fine.

I made sure to get my ferry reservation as soon as I could, which was in March [note: ferry service stops in winter because...ice...and restarts in the spring].  I knew from the US side that there's always room to fit another person on the boat, but not necessarily enough room to fit another car.  By shear coincidence, my last day on the island lined up perfectly with the US ferry, so my dream of driving across Lake Erie would come true after all.

I didn't plan the rest of my trip until closer to go time.  I wasn't sure what was on the Ontario side but I figured that if I went there I'd find something to do - better get there a day before the ferry in case something weird happened at the border, eh actually let's get there two days before so I can spend one day traveling and one day chilling out.  I took note that the top attraction of the area was a place called Point Pelee National Park, so I figured I should check out the "other" Pelee while I was there.  

For the back side of the week, I love the US islands so I was down with spending more time there.  But which one?  There are a lot of islands, but for purposes of ones with ferry service, there are three.  

• Middle Bass Island is the smallest island with ferry service, and it's known for having nothing on it.  This made it a strong contender.
  
• Put in Bay is known as the "party island" and gets a bad rap.  However, in my previous trips I'd loved everything that I'd seen there and I still had a long list of things to do.  
• Kelleys Island is the fan favorite but my previous visits had been on the meh side.  I'd seen more obnoxious partying there than on Put in Bay plus there was less stuff to do.  It was a solid number three on my priority list.
  

I really couldn't decide and also island lodging prices were a bit steep for my taste.  I settled on staying on the mainland for cheap so that I could go to all of the islands without committing to any one of them.

This spring I got a bike, which I told you was because I was visiting places where it wasn't convenient to take a car.  Such as...an island.  Let me be perfectly clear that you *can* take a car to all of these islands, but it's not the most desirable form of transportation.  On both Put in Bay and Kelleys the go-to for wheels is a golf cart.

Itinerary

In the end, my week looked like this:

Sunday: drive from home to Leamington, Ontario, crossing the border at Detroit/Windsor.

Monday: hang out in Leamington, hit up Point Pelee National Park.

Tuesday: take the ferry to Pelee, hang out on island.

Wednesday: hang out on Pelee.

Thursday: hang out on Pelee.

Friday: take the ferry from Pelee to Sandusky, Ohio.

Saturday: go to Middle Bass and Put in Bay.

Sunday: go to Kelleys and then go home.

What Happened Next

Lots of things!  We need to talk about Pelee Point, Pelee Island, Middle Bass Island, Put in Bay, and Kelleys Island...five places so there are five post yet to come over the next few weeks.

Have you ever been to any of these places?  Somebody please make my day and tell me that you've been to Pelee Island!