Kingston Penitentiary Tour

During our holidays, we did a tour of the now closed Kingston Penitentiary.  This was by far my favourite part and the most fascinating thing that we did on our holidays.  So it deserves it's own post!

When I spoke to the people at the Penetentiary, they said that although kids are able to go on the tour, the groups are big and you want to be able to hear the tour guide.  Since we were in Kingston with my parents, we decided to offset our tours so that we didn't have to take the kids with us.

Basically, the tour was amazing, and much better than expected.  I would highly recommend it.

In the recreation yard

We had a tour guide who took us through the prison.  However along the way we stopped and spoke with 6 different retired prison employees.  There were a few guards, an ex-warden and a lady who I don't actually know what she did!  This aspect of the tour was amazing because you knew you were hearing from the people who really knew.  They were able to explain that area and tell us what that part of the prison was actually like.

While on the tour we saw things like the visitation rooms, the outside of the family visit houses, the main dome, a cell block, the short term segregation area, the shop, the yard and the gym in the Regional Treatment Centre.  We saw the long term segregation area from the outside of the cell block as well, but didn't go into it.  This is where a lot of the high profile criminals that you may of heard of were held.

The shower in Short term segregation - not much privacy

Family/conjugal visit houses

The tour guide and former guards aren't able to actually discuss any prisoners who are still alive, so if that's all you are interested in then this isn't for you!  They did tell us a few stories about escapes and such from prisoners who have died.  So when we saw long term seg they didn't tell us who had stayed there, but most people are aware that people like Paul Bernardo and Russell Williams have been in long term segregation.

In the short term segregation wing, an ex-warden spoke to us and he was by far the most interesting I found.  This was probably just because he really knew his stuff.  

In the dome, the guard talked about the 1971 riot which was also really interesting.

The main dome

Divided visitation room

I don't want to give it all away in case you plan on doing the tour.  I'm not sure how long they will be doing tours for as it seems that they have some plans for what to do with the penetentiary, so if you want to do it then I would try to do it as soon as possible!  If you can make a trip to Kingston there is actually so much interesting stuff to do there and it's totally worth the trip!

The Shop Dome

Inside the main gate

A cell block

A cell

Touristing in Kingston

The second half of our holidays, we camped at Rideau Acres outside of Kingston.  I had originally planned on taking advantage of all the park had to offer, but we got so busy doing other things that we were barely there.  

The first night that we got there we did a Ghost Trolley tour through the city.  I enjoyed this, Ryan had his reservations.  We made stops at John A. MacDonald's grave.  Parker may of seen a ghost, but we will never really know!  The driver said that sometimes kids wave at a man and a dog at the gate.  So my mom told Parker to tell her if he saw a man and a dog.  A few minutes later as we were driving through the gate he pointed and said man and doggie!  Power of suggestion?  Maybe.  But he didn't really know that it was at the gate that he was supposed to see them, so I don't know!

The scariest stop was at the Rockwood Asylum.  It's an old mental institution that looks terrifying.  Basically anybody could be sent there for things that really didn't make them insane and they would do testing on them.  So they think that it is very haunted.  Whether it was all just stories, I don't know.

There were other ghost stories along the way as well.

The next day we did the Kingston Penitentiary tour.  This was definitely the highlight, but you will have to wait because it's getting it's own post!

After that we stopped at the Rideau Canal to watch the boats for a bit.  Ryan and Parker loved it.  My anxiety about Parker being so close to the canal was through the roof.  I tried to contain it but things like that make me really nervous!

The third day we went to Murney Tower, which are old small little forts that they built a few of around Kingston.  My kind of museum, short and sweet.

Then we did the Penitentiary museum.  We brought the stroller because we assumed that it would be accessible, and it wasn't.  So I didn't spend as long in there as I could of since Ryan had to wait outside.  It was neat though.  Not too big so you could do it fairly quickly.

Parker liked the looks of this moose at first, but once he got close to it he was terrified!

Later that evening we took the Wolfe Island ferry to Wolfe Island for dinner.  There isn't much on Wolfe Island and we were one car away from having to wait an extra hour for the ferry.  Dinner was delicious, but Parker was very unhappy at the restaurant, which is slightly stressful.  Once he got some food in his belly he was better.  But the ferry was fun for Parker, (and us).  It was very windy....

On our last day we did a Boldt Castle cruise with Rockport Cruises.  It was a lot of fun!  It was perfect time wise for the kids.  Half an hour on the boat, 2 hours at the stop and then another hour on the boat.  It broke everything up nicely.

We stopped for a picnic lunch while at Boldt Castle.  We actually probably could of spent another hour on the island as there were things that we didn't see.

The boys had a good time camping.  I love that we have the trailer and can make these summer memories.  

Camping in the County

Last week we were away on our summer vacation!  It was a packed week of camping and we did so many activities.  It was slightly stressful at times.  Cooper was crankier than usual.  Parker had his good days and bad days.  Cooper had some sleepless nights.  But we made it through and made a lot of fun memories.  

I'm going to split this into two (or three) posts so hopefully it isn't too much picture overload!

We started the week at a little campground called Smugglers Cove in Prince Edward County.  We were there for 2 nights and it was a nice little park.  The sunset was beautiful!

While we were there, we explored the county a little bit.  We went to a few wineries and breweries, as well as Lake on the Mountain.  We even found a little petting zoo at one of the wineries, which was perfect for Parker!

We visited Lake on the Mountain.  It just looks like a regular lake in this picture, but it's at the top of a mountain and for a long time they weren't really sure where the water was coming from.  

 The day that we left that campground we stopped in at Long Dog Winery.  It was a cute little winery.  They mostly focused on red wines and chardonnay, which aren't my favourite.  But I did buy a nice sparkling Rose.

Next stop was Sandbanks Provincial Park.  This park is very well known amongst campers and very hard to get into.  We've been trying for years!  Luckily this was the year and we actually got 2 sites right across the road from each other.  

Unfortunately the bugs in both of these parks were terrible.  Poor Parker was eaten alive and completely covered in bites.  It wasn't even enjoyable to be outside half the time, which was really too bad.

 The first day that we tried to go to the beach we packed everything up (which with two kids takes a long time), and headed out around 12:30.  Well we get to the beach road and he tells us that parking is full and we should come back in a couple hours.  So we tried to go to the Dune's beach.  It was also full, but I think by being friendly they let us in.  

The beach isn't quite as nice, but the big dunes are there.  And the water is really calm so Parker had a great time playing.  It was so hot that day and we had no shade.  Cooper was miserable.  And honestly so was I. An unhappy baby in the heat is not a lot of fun.

This picture is of the trail.  They have had so much rain that it was completely flooded!  

The next day we got up and ready for the beach right away and went first thing in the morning.  Seems like an odd time to go to the beach, but we were able to get the perfect spot with some sun and some shade and it was much nicer.  I found a shady spot for Coop and he plopped down and loved playing with the sand!

 The day we left we had a relaxing drive to our next destination, Kingston.  We stopped in at Parson's Brewery in Picton for lunch.  We had some delicious tacos, Ryan had some beer.  And Parker, in typical Parker fashion, ate nothing.

So there is the first half of our trip.  Next stop, Kingston!

Disney & Universal Tips (With a baby & without)

Before we went to Florida, I had been looking for tips on how to make your theme park visits with a baby as easy and enjoyable as possible.  So I thought that it might be helpful to share what I had learnt.


1.  Strollers - I bought a fancy umbrella stroller for the trip.  This was partially because it's significantly smaller than our regular stroller and we had limited room in the vehicles.  The stroller had a small area underneath it to carry things which I found very helpful.  I liked having the smaller stroller in the parks for maneuvering around, but it didn't recline all the way back, so I found that Parker wouldn't really fall asleep in it.  I had to put him in our Ergo carrier when he was getting tired and then he would fall right asleep. 

I would definitely recommend bringing your own stroller ahead of renting one from Disney or Universal as they are hard and don't recline at all.  

You can't bring strollers in the line ups so that's where the carrier comes in handy so that you don't have to hold your baby the entire time you are waiting.  The strollers are left in stroller parking.  Our stroller was always there when we returned to it, I just never left anything valuable in it.

2. Feed when you can and where you can - At Universal we had really long waits.  I fed Parker his breakfast in line and I nursed him in line.  I just put him sideways in the Ergo so that it provided a bit of support and put on the nursing cover and we were good to go.  

At Disney, I found nursing Parker during shows worked well.  Well it worked when he was hungry enough to not be distracted by the show!  I nursed him in the Country Bear Jamboree (he was very distracted by the bears!), in the Carousel of Progress and in the Enchanted Tiki Hut.  While waiting during a rider switch is also a great time to feed, whether it be nursing or real food.  See below for more rider switch details!

3. Take time for meals - When I wasn't feeding Parker in line, we did take time for real meals and sat down at a table.  This gave me time to feed Parker properly.  I did bring some baby food to feed him, but also shared whatever meals we got.  A perk of having a baby is that you can order kids meals and save some money!

4. Bring a bag or cover for stroller - Luckily it didn't rain, but if it did I had brought a stroller rain cover.  I figured Parker would be very unhappy if he got soaking wet.  (Most line ups are indoors or covered so that would help.)  At the very least, bring a garbage bag so that you can cover your stroller while it's in stroller parking if you think it's going to rain.

5. Fastpass - At Disney you get 3 fastpasses that you book ahead of time.  We booked ours all as early in the day as we could.  So we booked the first one for 8:55 and got to Disney at 8.  First thing we did was rush to the back of the park and go on the roller coasters that we didn't have fastpass for.  There was no wait for them at this point.  Then at 8:55 we could go on Space Mountain.  We used our next two fastpasses before noon.  

Once you have used all of your fastpasses you can book them one at a time.  So we continued to book fastpass for whatever was the earliest available ride.  Doing it this way we never waited in line for a ride.  It might seem silly to use a fastpass for It's a Small World, but do you really want to wait in line for an hour and a half for it? Definitely not!

6. Rider Switch - But how do you all go on the rides when you have a baby, you ask?  Easy peasy.  It's called Rider Switch/Swap.  At Universal, you all have to wait in line for the ride.  Once you are at the front, you just tell them that you want to do a rider switch and they send you to a little waiting room.  When the first group gets off the ride, you can get on it.  Since we had 7 adults, two of us would wait and then we didn't have to ride alone afterwards.

At Disney, there were only a few rides that Parker couldn't go on, and the only ride that we used Rider Switch for was Space Mountain, which we had Fastpass for.  When the first group went through I just got a rider switch pass which allows 3 people to use the Fastpass line at any point in the day.  I waited alone while they went on the ride.  (At Disney you don't wait in the line up, so if we hadn't of had Fastpass I could of found another ride for me and Parker to go on.)  Then when everyone was done, I went on Space Mountain and two other people got to ride a second time!

In hindsight, I didn't need a Fastpass for Space Mountain and could of used my first Fastpass on something else because of the Rider Switch.

7. Get to the park early - If you can get to the park early, it's a huge help.  As I said before, we rushed to the back of the park while everyone else was gawking over Main Street USA and we didn't wait in line for the rides.  We also beat the crowds and had no traffic coming in and we could see that the parking lot was getting really backed up once we got in.  So we saved the huge rush at the gates and on the monorail.  We weren't quite as lucky with Universal and we got there too late so everything was already very crowded.  We had bought all of our tickets ahead of time and had our fast passes set up.  This is key so that there is no extra waits when you get to the park.

8. Use the Baby Care Centres if available - Each park has one baby care centre.  We were never close to it at Universal so I didn't use it.  At Disney we were close the one time I had to feed Parker.  They have high chairs, a whole room of change tables and a nursing room.  They also sell baby items if there was anything that you forgot.

9. Enjoy - Don't forget to enjoy yourself and just take everything in!  We really didn't rush around the parks too much.  We stopped and watched parades, had leisurely lunches and enjoyed what the parks had to offer.  I would say that obviously Disney is much more geared towards children.  If you have a two year old, they would enjoy Disney much more.  Parker was just happy to have rides in his stroller so he was pretty content at Universal, but there were very few rides that small children could go on there.