CANADA'S FUNNIEST FAMILY VACATIONS

True tales of hijinks, hot peppers and all-out hilarity

- LEAH RUMACK

I’M RAISING A BARFLY

BY LEAH RUMACK

My eight-year-old son, Ben, is obsessed with sitting at bars. He loves nothing more than to have a drink while perched on a stool. It could be because his dad is a craft-beer nerd—and Ben wants to do everything that Daddy does. But the only times Ben is somewhere where kids are allowed to sit at the bar is when we’re on vacation at a resort or on a cruise. That boy has sampled all the best virgin cocktails from Mexico to Amsterdam.

Last summer, we took a river cruise down the Rhine, and despite the fact that we were surrounded by castles and incredible medieval towns, Ben’s favorite part of the experience was the nightly cocktail hour. Every evening, he made sure we were right on time for “Sip ’n’ Sail,” where he planted himself on a barstool and ordered Shirley Temples. A river cruise means traveling on a small ship, and there were only about five spots at the bar in total, but that was his seat.

At the end of our trip, when we passed through Canadian customs, the agent didn’t believe us when we told her we didn’t buy anything while we were away. So she turned to Ben and asked: “What about you? Did they buy you anything?”

“Just a lot of cocktails!” he replied.

BEWARE THE PEPPER

BY STACY LEE KONG

Every summer, my family takes a day trip to Turkey Point, a beach in Norfolk County, Ont. A motley—or at least loud—crew of parents, siblings, kids and in-laws, we try to make these excursions feel like beach days in Trinidad, where we’re from. We always have pelau, a meat-and rice dish that somehow became the traditional beach meal for the entire country. A true Trinidadian, my auntie Pat always adds a whole hot pepper to the pot.