#DiscoverON with the Kellogg Show - Part 2

Guest blog by Susie Kellogg

We’re a tight family of 14 (12 kids, 2 parents and a dog) and we all reside together in a 36′ RV. It’s been 25 months and we’ve logged over 59,000 miles, visited 30+ states, and 3 provinces in Canada — Ontario, Montreal and New Brunswick. What began as a fun vacation has transformed into a way of life! We wanted to show our children a different way of life. Working 9-5, living for weekends and 2 week vacations until we are lucky enough to reach 65 and retire does not sound like living, it sounds like existing. So we traded it all in for the unknown, a spontaneous, adventure filled dream that inspires us to wake with the sun in anticipation of the day ahead.

Our first stop in Ontario was Toronto, a city of over 2.8 million people. Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the 4th largest in all of North America! Now we aren’t typically big city people, we tend to bypass them at all costs to avoid the traffic, the pollution and all the people, but we drove into Toronto on purpose and are so glad we did!

We stayed at the gorgeous Glen Rouge campground on the outskirts of the city. It is right on the Glen Rouge river and is really the perfect spot for a weekend family escape! The kids woke early in the a.m. and went fishing, we set up our slackline, at which I am embarrassingly awful, and we made campfires and ate S’mores! Pretty simple really … simple and fun and relaxing.

Now our big stop in Toronto was the zoo. I know, I know, every city has a zoo, but I’m telling you this one was akin to a safari, it was unlike any zoo I’d ever been too. It was in a word, amazing. There are over 10 km (6 miles) of paved hiking trails that meander through woods and tall grass. It would be a beautiful spot just to go walking or running, but for a zoo, it’s phenomenal. You truly felt as though you were on a nature walk and simply happened upon a rhinoceros or a giraffe. It was such an amazing park that we actually saw a wild fox running through the grounds and, of course, peacocks at every corner!

Of course, Dan and I loved the fact that there was a Meet the Keeper schedule that offered an educational talk and/or a feeding that added to the entire experience. We love that we have become education ninja’s, you know, sneaking knowledge and experience into our kids’ worlds without them suspecting a thing!!