The final weekend of summer is, as best I can describe it: bittersweet.  It is all at once filled with sadness and confusion that the past two months have flown by, yet is at the same time filled with a sense of relief that we will return to a routine and, as foolish as the thoughts may be, there is hope we won’t be so busy and tired all the time (yeah, right).  At work there will be droves of people retuning from their much deserved vacations, and I will suddenly find myself no longer complaining about not having enough to do every day and will instead be drowning and overwhelmed by all of the things that so many people thought could “just wait until the fall”.  At the same time – I love the fall weather, I love Halloween, and, sorry folks, but I love Christmas, and the end of summer marks my official countdown…but I won’t get into that today, don’t worry.

Among all of the thoughts and emotions tied into summer being over, there are also a lot of big feelings around the return to school.  I vaguely remember how that felt to me when I was much younger; I was equal parts excited for new clothes and new supplies, as well as getting to see my friends on a regular basis again, but I was also nervous and what I now recognize as anxious for the other things that it meant: a new classroom.  a new teacher.  not knowing if my friends would be in my class.  potentially a new school.  Just about everything falls into that ‘new’ bucket, and while that usually seems like a good thing, it can be overwhelming and scary as hell.

As adults we don’t tend to experience this many ‘new’ things all at once; I guess if we’re starting a new job maybe, and with that comparison in mind, I’m sure a lot of us could suddenly relate to how our kids must be feeling.  As the first day draws closer and closer, it becomes far more difficult to ignore or control the thoughts it elicits – especially on the last weekend of the season.  To make matters worse, every conversation these kids have with everyone they meet is led by:  are you getting excited for school?  or, are you feeling ready for school?  Observing this as a parent now, and going through the effects of these feelings in my children, I realize how awful it must feel to be constantly asked and reminded about the thing that your so nervous about.  If everyone I ran into kept asking me: are you excited for your colonoscopy?  then I’d be feeling pretty out of sorts with the world too.

So with that in mind, we’ve been trying hard to change the narrative in our home.  We don’t ignore feelings, and that would never be a recommendation that I’d make to anyone, so that’s not what I’m driving at.  We’re simply changing our language from “I can’t believe school starts next week” to something more along the lines of  “let’s soak in this weekend!”.  And instead of having the first day of school being the thing on our calendar that we’re counting down to, we’re instead looking at tomorrow and populating it with something we’re excited about: a movie night, or a play date, or our lemonade stand.  Events don’t need to be epic for them to be exciting.  Then again, I have been known, on occasion, to get elaborate with my thoughts and plans and so this being the final hoorah weekend of summer, I thought the best thing for us to do and to add to each calendar day would be to eat as much ice cream as possible.

The girls did not object.

Given where we live, there are no shortage of options available, so we are best to try them all.  Below, then, are the destinations we have carved out, and given that we will not be able to get these all in before the initial post goes up on Sunday morning, I will do my best to update the results as they occur thereafter.

Until such time – I hope you have as much to look forward to tomorrow as we do (and that it’s not a colonoscopy).

Cheers, everyone!

Scoops

Location: Elora
Weather: 26 and sunny
Flavours of choice: Peach, Mango, Creamsicle
Price: $$$$
Rating 9/10

Conclusion:  it’s hard not to be biased on this one because Scoops has been my favourite since it opened a few years ago.  I will admit that it is still on the pricier side of the equation, but why this doesn’t bother me is because they actually make their own ice cream, they use proper, real food ingredients and it tastes damn good.  Texture is amazing, though the creamsicle may not be my top pick in this category.  9/10, will definitely go back.

Sweet Distractions

Location: Elora
Weather: 25 and sunny
Flavours of choice: Birthday Cake, Moose Tracks, Raspberry Gelato
Price: $$$$
Rating: 8/10

Conclusion:  Sweet Distractions serves up Kawartha Dairy ice cream, which you can readily buy in stores at a fraction of the price.  What sets them apart, in my opinion, is that you can also source gelato in a number of wonderful flavours.  In addition to that, I have to say that the owners of this downtown staple are incredibly friendly and patient (especially given the number of tourists they must serve every day), and have always been fantastic with our kids.  They may not be cheap, but, if you like gelato as I do, then this is the best and only place in town to source it.

Remi’s Place

Location: Elora
Weather: 25 and sunny
Flavours of choice: Dump Truck and Grape
Price: $$$$$
Rating: 5/10

Conclusion:  aside from the spoons not being sturdy enough to actually get any ice cream, the overall experience was just ‘ok’.   Definitely expensive considering the portion size and that this is just ice cream from a large distributor and mass produced.  I’m not sure what flavour ‘Dump Truck’ is, but it was tasty enough.  Texture was fine.  It’s a place that, even beyond the ice cream, is capitalizing on the tourist market.  All in all, we’re not rushing to go back. 5/10 likely will end up back there one day because the kids want it and I will have forgotten how much I’m not a fan.

The Boathouse

Location: Guelph
Weather: 19 and sunny
Flavours of choice: watermelon sorbet, gold medallion
Price: $$$
Rating: 8/10

Conclusion:  here’s the thing:  The Boathouse is the only place that I know of where you can find my favourite I’ve cream, watermelon sorbet.  I get it once/year and it’s a treat I look forward to every summer.  They serve exclusively Shaw’s brand, which you can typically find in grocery stores, save for the elusive watermelon sorbet.  Their prices are fair, and I commend them, more than any other ice cream shop, on their system.  They are organized, which shouldn’t be hard to do, yet it always shocks me how many business can’t figure out how to be efficient.  Kudos to them.

Our Kitchen

Location: Elora
Weather:
Flavor of choice: Bubblegum

Conclusion:

Sugar Skulls

Location: Elora
Weather: 21 and sunny
Flavours of choice: disappointment
Price: $
Rating N/A

Conclusion: Welp, they were hoping to be open on Sept 3rd for the PD day, but they sold out of ice cream on Sept 2nd and those plans changed.  I can’t fault them, there is only so much inventory one can keep on hand.  That said, this is the second year in a row where we have tried to go on their advertised final day and they’ve been closed.  shame us in, but also – why not just stay open another month?  Do you know how many parents and kids would leverage this as the thing to look forward to (read: get them through) the first day, week or month of school?!  At any rate, we didn’t go this weekend, but we’ve been SO many times in the past that I can tell you it’s not my favourite; in fact I don’t even particularly like it, but tons of people do, including my kids who think it’s the bees knees.  It’s cheap, you get a ton of topping choices and there are 70+ flavors to choose from.   See you next year Sugar Skulls!