Me, a beach bum?

So up until this point, I never thought of myself as a beach sort of girl. I've never been to Mexico/ Cuba/ Dominican/ wherever it is that people go to lie on sand, eat bad buffet and drink pina coladas. And frankly, I've never wanted to. I'd much rather spend the $800 on a flight to London and a few pints. However, I think that my prejudice against lazy tropical vacations was (as the term prejudice suggests) prematurely founded.

The hubby and I went camping at The Pinery Provincial Park in Grand Bend, ON this weekend, and it was lovely. The Pinery is on Lake Huron, and as you can see from this picture,


it is pretty damn gorgeous. The beach is huge, it's all powdery white sand, the water is clean and beautiful, and it's shallow out for miles. Our campsite, in the Dunes section of the park, which is closest to the beach (duh, Dunes) was about a five minute walk to the water. Now don't get me wrong; my bias against all locales tropical has nothing to do with the ocean (more to do with strange diseases, the heat, and the aforementioned bad buffet). I love just sitting and watching/ listening to the waves, and boy did I get my fill here. Basically, this was our weekend:

• Build fire. Cook something. Sit and watch fire until it goes out.
  
• Read. Take a nap. Build another fire and cook something else. Drink lots of tea.
  
• Walk to the beach. Sit on beach and stare at waves/ sleep/ read book.
  
• Walk back to camp and build fire. Cook something. Sit and watch fire until it goes out.
  
• Walk to the beach. Sit on beach and listen to waves in the dark.
• Walk back to camp and go to sleep.
  
• Repeat until time to go home.
  

From the time we set up our tent to the time we checked out, the hubby and I wore no watches, looked at no clocks, and turned off our phones. We spent two and a half days doing nothing, worrying about nothing, not knowing what time it was, and it was great. And now the idea of Mexico etc. sounds more appealing than it once did, because we could do exactly what we did this weekend with the added benefits of: a) a private bathroom, b) a bed, c) food that does not taste of smoke, and d) less copious amounts of dirt. The Pinery is definitely the nicest place that I've ever been camping, but luxurious it ain't. So maybe, just maybe, I might want to do some sort of last minute tropical vacation for a honeymoon/ pre-Christmas trip next year. Or, I might just want to go back to The Pinery. But I'm definitely now a confirmed beach bum.