When I was nine years old, my family took our first real vacation together. We went to Evergreen Lodge in Ontario, Canada in early June and stayed for a week. It was, and continues to be, a wonderful place. Everyone stayed in cabins, and there was no running water in them back then. (There is now, and has been for a long time.) It kind of added to the mystique of the place—china pitchers and bowls stood on a washstand, and if you had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you grabbed your flashlight and headed up to the lodge.
You ate your meals at the lodge, and they were wonderful! The resort was located right on Lake Huron, so originally, no need for a pool. (That has changed, too.) There were neat activities for kids, and fun things that I had never done before like square dances, masquerade parties, and talent shows. My parents liked the reasonable prices, especially since the American dollar went further in Canada.
We actually visited the lodge the first time with another family. They never went back. We, however, continued to go almost every year for the next 47 years. My husband and I became engaged there in the Canadian woods, and we later took our own children there. We made many wonderful friends, and learned the words to “Oh, Canada” by heart. We left there tearfully every July, knowing that it would be a whole year before we could return.
And then, things changed. My father passed away in 2001, and we continued to go to Evergreen every summer with my mother. Our kids were having kids and were otherwise occupied with their lives, so they no longer went. We felt somewhat forlorn, our table of three, at that fantastically family-friendly resort.
People continued to be nice, but something in us had changed—we missed our kids and grandkids, and decided we would probably rather be home, instead of at the lodge. We grew tired of eating the same wonderful meals and doing the same activities every year. And we had started to timeshare—yes, we had started to timeshare, where every place we went was new and different! With so many new things to learn and experience, we never had a dull or boring moment.
Yes, we still miss the grandkids, and always will when we’re away, but we have become very good at scheduling trips so that we are home for long periods of time. Also, since we are experiencing new territory when we travel, we’re usually so enthralled that it takes a few days to a week before the homesickness sets in.
In making our decision not to return to Evergreen every year, we also knew that we would need passports. This added expense, plus the devalued U.S. dollar, somewhat clinched the decision for us.
Making this choice was tough, therefore it always saddens me that some people who own timeshares continue to go the same place every year. It just seems so limiting, when there is a whole world of vacation possibilities out there, and it is so easy to trade. It also amazes me that some people will only go to resorts within their own timeshare system. Of course, they have every right to do this– this is just my opinion.
Will we ever go back to Evergreen? I certainly hope so. There have been a lot of changes there in the last year or so, to include more flexibility in length of stay. And, it looks like we’ll be getting passports soon, anyway, as we’ve booked a week at a Whiski Jack Resort in Whistler for next fall.
But even if those things had not come about, I think we would still go back, although not every year. Evergreen Resort is a small, but important part of who I am, and it needs to be revisited now and then. However, I am most grateful for all our timesharing vacation travel opportunities. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it, too?
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