I have been slowly getting back into my regular routine after a fun two-week vacation. For today’s blog post, I wanted to provide a little recap of my holidays and give you a sneak peek of some upcoming blog posts based on my summer cemetery adventures.

I did quite a bit of traveling during the last two weeks, getting the chance to explore the Ottawa Valley and some of Southern Ontario. My fiancé and I spent some time in Ottawa visiting family and touring a bit of the city. Of course, I tried to fit in as many cemetery visits as I could. I had the chance to visit the grave of the Unknown Soldier on Parliament Hill and witness the changing of the guard. We popped into the lobby of the haunted Chateau Laurier to look at its beautiful architecture, and I even had the chance to stop in at the office of Haunted Walk to say hello and browse their gift shop.

After Ottawa, we made our way to Perth to visit some friends and explore a bit more. We explored the quaint little town and had to stop in at the Mammoth Cheese for a quick photo – I do love a fun roadside attraction. One of my favorite things we did while in Perth was take a short road trip to visit the Mother Barnes Homestead and the grave of the Witch of Plum Hollow. When I was planning our trip and saw how close we would be to Plum Hollow, I knew we had to take the opportunity to visit. The story of Mother Barnes is a very interesting one, full of folklore, politics, and witchcraft. The stigma of which can still be felt today. I look forward to sharing her story and my visit with you in an upcoming blog post.

Another fun thing I did on vacation was take my mom on a Guess Where Trips adventure. They sent me the Historic Haunts tour to try out, which just so happens to have some cemetery stops! We had a great time exploring Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo and its outskirts. I don’t want to get into too much detail here about our trip because I will be writing a full post about our adventures soon, but I will say it was a super fun experience!

If you’re not familiar with Guess Where Trips, I highly recommend you check them out! They offer fun road trip itineraries that will take you to lots of hidden gems. They include interesting facts and stories about each location and great restaurant suggestions. Our trip took us to a haunted historic house and art gallery, mill ruins, a unique tombstone, and a haunted museum. We learned a lot on our trip, and I have a lot to write about for upcoming blog posts.

The last leg of our summer vacation took my fiancé and I to Toronto. We were there for the Sammy Hagar Best of All Worlds Tour. It was a great show, with Lover Boy opening for Hagar. While we were in town, we took the opportunity to hang out with some friends and do some exploring in the downtown core. We checked out a few board game stores, visited our favorite brewery, popped into the new location of the Prehistoria Museum & Store, visited the Monkey’s Paw, and tried an amazing new Mexican place. My favorite stop though, was our visit to the Toronto Necropolis.

The Toronto Necropolis has been on my cemetery bucket list for a while. Can you believe I had never visited any Toronto cemeteries before? This cemetery was high on my list because it is the final resting place of the father of zombie movies – George A. Romero. It’s also a gorgeous cemetery and one of my new favorites. This cemetery also holds some other notable graves and, I look forward to sharing my visit with you.

In total, I made 19 cemetery visits on my holidays and collected a lot of content for upcoming posts on the blog. It was a great vacation and one that made me reconsider my career. If only I could make traveling, photographing cemeteries, and writing about them a full-time job!

I hope I piqued your interest with all the upcoming stories. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog if you haven’t already, to get new cemetery posts straight to your inbox every Sunday. Stay tuned for next week’s post about my Guess Where Trips adventure.

I hope you also got to enjoy some time off this summer to explore, relax, and reconnect with friends and family. The season is so short you need to fit in the summer fun where you can.

Thanks for reading!