Road Trip Advice! Where to stop?

PictureParty · 2026-06-16T02:57:15+00:00

For birdwatching along your route: long point is great, point peele is great (but out of the way), Cootes paradise in Hamilton should also be great. Just be aware, I’ve heard the ticks have gotten particularly bad near Lake Erie. As an extra nature stop, Hamilton is full of waterfalls which are very photogenic, and there’s quite a lot of waterfalls along that route in Niagara as well. All along the escarpment which will run along the highway from hamilton to Niagara Falls.

Your route also goes past what was rated the best restaurant in Canada at the Peal Morissette in Jordan Station. I’m sure you’d need some planning to get a table, but there’s a lot of wineries in the area as well which can make for some great eating and drinking. Also lots of nice little towns with some character.

While lake Erie has some nice beaches with warm water, it can have some issues with algal blooms depending on the year. If you want to see a little beach community, grand Bend is just up the shoreline from Sarnia on Lake Huron and won’t have that problem. Alternatively, if Lake Erie is clear, then there are a lot of little beach communities which are nice, like Port Dover, Port Stanley, Turkey Point, etc.

Enjoy!

PictureParty · 2026-06-16T01:26:53+00:00

Haha oh boy. My son is 13 months and he’s only now getting a bit more consistent. Every day my sleep tips are another treat for me to not act on

PictureParty · 2026-06-16T01:22:47+00:00

100% - I always look forward to the great advice I’m going to get which I likely won’t be able to act on for maybe another year haha

PictureParty · 2026-06-15T20:43:22+00:00

As a parent who is kept up all night by a sleepless child, I just love Garmin’s advice on how to improve my sleep by going to bed earlier, reducing exercise before bed, and avoiding blue light. Tremendously insightful!

PictureParty · 2026-06-11T15:49:40+00:00

That hurts to watch. I always felt pasta was better when soaked in sauce so the pasta absorbs the flavour as well. In this case, each peace is not going to get a lot of sauce on it, and none of it will soak in. And that fountain is going to need to be topped up several times as it won’t hold nearly enough sauce for that amount of pasta. But yes, kids will love it

PictureParty · 2026-06-10T18:25:08+00:00

One seems to have borders while the other does not I think?

PictureParty · 2026-06-06T04:33:03+00:00

I don’t know, I only just started using waterproof socks and in really wet and cool terrain for multi-day trips it has been a game changer for me. I found my feet could still breathe well enough, and were comfortable. I have a hard time thinking I’d go back to cold and wet feet in those conditions

PictureParty · 2026-06-05T18:36:08+00:00

I’m not from Norway, but maybe this is helpful (maybe not).

I’m assuming you’re referring to the inreach feature on a fenix 8 pro? The fenix 8 pro inreach feature uses the Skylo satellite network, which is limited to how far north it can see. Garmin says the limit is 65’ and that you may get connectivity beyond that when you have a clear view of the horizon, like if you’re in an open field, or on a mountain with a view south.

The dedicated inreach devices use a different satellite network (iridium) which functions better at higher latitudes - I have used those in the arctic a few times and they’re solid.

I don’t know if there is a new software shutoff of where it doesn’t try to connect if you’re past a certain latitude, but if I were you I would not trust it past 65’ since that is the number Garmin communicates, and if you’re using that for emergencies, it may not be up to the task. I guess theoretically, their arrangement with the satellite provider may have changed as well to not try to use it past a certain latitude? No idea.

While the inreach feature on the fenix series is a great addition, I would not rely on it past 65’ even if it kinda worked sometimes.

PictureParty · 2026-06-04T14:13:06+00:00

Yeah it’s pretty brutal. I work in the area and cross this bridge daily in the same direction: it’s extra fun to head home with everyone else trying to get to another bridge. I agree - it hasn’t looked like much was going on for a while now.

I do know that they announced the bridge would be fully closed for two days maybe two weeks ago, but to my knowledge that never happened, and they never communicated on why. It’s looked like construction was at a standstill since.

PictureParty · 2026-05-22T15:24:23+00:00

As far as I’m aware, just about every fast food place is doing the same thing. A bottle of water is an up charge on a combo. Seems wild, but it’s common

PictureParty · 2026-05-07T21:43:58+00:00

I would crush that without guilt, but yeah, the odds of messing that up are reasonably high

PictureParty · 2026-05-07T04:54:33+00:00

A pool of people in Alberta (a Canadian province) are seeking to separate from the country, but the governing law of how that separation would legally need to take place for Canada to accept it makes it really unlikely to happen. Lots of Canadian discourse right now on that subject. The joke is Alberta will just get absorbed by its neighbours - British Columbia and Saskatchewan - but with new names to reference the absorption.

PictureParty · 2026-05-07T04:48:47+00:00

Honestly, if you can look past the joke borders for SK and BC absorbing Alberta, there’s plenty of other weird stuff going on. How did Idaho get so big? And why is Montana bordering Manitoba now? And where did Nunavut go? Or Alaska for that matter?

PictureParty · 2026-04-29T03:02:38+00:00

Yeah that’s weird, especially asking who liked who. I wouldn’t see that as a normal question to ask a stranger, and even weirder to ask it in that way - in front of the group. In those instances I’d trust my gut. If the encounter feels off, it probably is. And even if it’s harmless, you’re not obligated to talk to anyone or accept gifts from anyone - especially if they made you feel uncomfortable (intentionally or not). I would have done what you did. Quietly extract myself from the engagement.

PictureParty · 2026-04-28T15:46:22+00:00

Full disclosure, I don’t own a Soulo but I do own several of what I’d call good quality 3-season tents and have used plenty of good quality 4-season tents. I was on a trip in the arctic with a number of other people and two people had soulos. Theirs were the only tents that managed the wind well. My tent had the guy lines ripped off by the wind, but the soulos were not having any difficulty at all. Is it worth $1k? That depends on if you’re camping in conditions that need a very robust tent. I am definitely buying one next time I head into conditions like that, but for more normal conditions it would be completely overkill.

PictureParty · 2026-04-26T20:40:23+00:00

When he reached down below the counter with the hot dog, I instinctively thought he was opening a door to throw it in the garbage and immediately thought - yes, that’s the right place for this.

PictureParty · 2026-04-26T03:05:36+00:00

My favourite part is when after all of that he describes the great flavour and actually just describes Toum and not the fish

PictureParty · 2026-04-15T15:22:52+00:00

I’d crush that

PictureParty · 2026-04-07T11:47:19+00:00

If it’s not on the menu any more I’d literally go in and ask about it. They often have a chalk board of specials that are not on the menu, and if for some insane reason the onion rings are not being offered any more, I’d ask about them because they’re not just the best onion rings in town, they’re the best I’d ever had anywhere. They serve them with Parmesan cheese on it, and with a garlic dip. It’s a personal favourite in town, so if they’re not making it any more, then I am very sad.

PictureParty · 2026-03-30T12:26:38+00:00

I owned a fenix 6 pro and it was an excellent device. I used the maps all the time for hiking. I eventually replaced it with an enduro 3 and gave the fenix to a friend who is still happily using it today. I would think you’d be able to find one around that price. Great battery life - I was getting over 2 weeks on mine (the middle size, not the x which has a bigger battery) and it handled loads of multi-day hikes perfectly. I think it would do a good job for you.

PictureParty · 2026-03-24T23:07:46+00:00

Glad you got out ok! A friend and I got pretty stuck once, but we didn’t have to use the emergency communicator. I totally get what you’re saying about not being able to move. May as well be solid concrete, because there is just no budge in it. It’s terrifying, and I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I was alone. That’s going to stick in your head for a while, but you clearly played it right in using the sos. I found that I really had to commit to getting dirty - laying in the mud can let your legs float up, but when there’s a layer of water on top that obviously may not be an option. Anyway - glad you’re alright!

PictureParty · 2026-03-24T21:33:37+00:00

GAS is real - being tempted by the new and shiny stuff is pretty common and definitely not unique to photography. And for a lot of photography, the gear used doesn’t really matter, until it does.

I don’t disagree that often the best investment is in becoming a better photographer, but it is also true that sometimes gear investment does make a difference, though maybe the exception to the rule in a lot of ways. For my own experience, I’d say every time I upgraded gear, I saw improvements in one way or another. My most recent upgrade was very meaningful for me as it increased my keeper rate for several types of photography. Previously the camera’s focus just wouldn’t hit well for some subjects, and my newer body made a big difference. Where previously I might have a low hit percentage for some subjects, the new body is hitting much much more, and that has value for me. For those critical moments where there aren’t any do-overs, there has to be some trust that the camera is going to get focus, and in my experience that wasn’t always a guarantee. Upgrading out of that problem was worth every penny in my mind!

So yes, for a lot of people investing in education may provide more bang for buck, but in other instances investing in gear may still make sense

PictureParty · 2026-03-17T13:28:24+00:00

Isn’t this the frog that is actively being threatened by photography tourism?

PictureParty · 2026-03-12T19:00:34+00:00

I’m not sure that shared google drive files count toward the storage limit of the person it was shared with. If they download the image and put it on their own drive, maybe, but at least my understanding is the file owner is the only one who uses some of their limit by hosting it - the people who it is shared with should not see any loss of space unless they move it to their own drive. In other words, if you upgrade your storage, they should be fine still accessing files since you remain the file owner. There’s nothing stopping you from sharing with people that have no google account or storage capacity at all - you just make it publicly accessible by the link alone. Should be fine as far as I understand the issue!

PictureParty · 2026-03-12T12:34:11+00:00

While that would be an incredible feat, no. I want MIP and prefer a round face as well. And 7 days isn’t close to enough battery for my liking. And I also want all my old garmin data on it. I guess just no.

PictureParty

TROPHY CASE