Gold Teeth and Johnny Cash

While searching for waterfront property to buy about a month back I found this sandy beach state park called Fair Haven State Park just two hours away on Lake Ontario. Rob and I decided that at the end of April we would go for a long weekend. We left this last Sunday after church and stayed two nights in one of their rustic cabins. This was the view from our front door. Beautiful and calm.

This is the inside of the cabin - perfect for us. Four cots, some shelves and a fridge. They are only about $50 per night and well worth being able to be in the outdoors 90% of your day, sit around a campfire drinking wine with the hubby at night while children sleep, yet protected in case of rain. Also I am a bit nervous about the stranger aspect of camping in tents with my kids so I like that you can lock the door.Our neighbors to the right were entertaining to say the least. A couple in their 60's that, due to a handicap park pass only had to pay $2.50 per night to stay so during the warm months they actually turn off most of their utilities in their home and live in the park because they love nature and it actually saves them money. He had two gold front teeth and talked like boomhower from King of the Hill. Their mini van was maybe worth $500 but inside his cabin he had two Taylor guitars (each worth about $2000). Too funny! And so he'd play and sing Johnny Cash while Elise danced (sometimes joined by Daddy) and Mal played with their three dogs. (I'm more of a toe tapper smiling as I watched my family have so much impromptu fun). He'd get done with each song and say as if talking to a large crowd "Thank you, thank you" and Elise and I would clap as his wife rolled her eyes. They kept lending my kids bootlegged kids movies... And their little pug would come over to our campsite, sit quietly, and when one of the kids finally handed her a graham cracker she'd slowly walk over to her own campsite and sit down to eat it. Very cute little dogs. These folk were quirky but very nice and kind of made the trip.

Sunsets there were beautiful.

The kids loved the beach even in 50 degree weather.

Elise was especially interested in the drift wood and this is a whole log we found.

It was a fun trip but cold for sure. We weren't sure if the cabin had heat when we went and found out it didn't. The first night was fine but the next day was a bit hard to keep warm and around 6pm with my husband happily beside a fire and my kids watching a bootlegged monsters vs aliens I told Rob I'd be back, I was exploring and drove to a Walmart where I bought two small space heaters on clearance for $7 each. SO GLAD I DID. That night was frigid. About 36 degrees with a storm so fierce I prayed at one point for God to not let a tree fall on my car. It was still very cold in the cabin but the space heaters took the edge off just enough that we could sleep.

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This park is absolutely beautiful and would be a great place to take your family especially in the warmer months when you could enjoy the beach. many of the regular camping spots give you a full view of Lake Ontario as it stretches out endlessly. There's a great playground, clean bath houses and tons of wildlife. If you need to, we'd even lend you our space heaters - But you'll have to find our cool neighbors on your own. I'm sure they'll be there somewhere. :)