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Owen Sound KOA - Owen Sound, Ontario

July 16, 2020 / BY Alanna Rusnak
—this post contains Amazon affiliate links— CAMPGROUND RATING We think it's important to share our thoughts on the places we stay and we're choosing to give each r place a rating out of five. Five campers means we really loved it and have zero complaints. One means yikes - maybe don't take your family there. Everyone has different reasons for liking or not liking a place, and we may be looking for sites that offer...

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Pork Chops & Veggies - VanLife Skillet Edition

July 16, 2020 / BY Alanna Rusnak
After bringing Pearl out of storage this spring, I decided to remove the propane stove top. We had never used it. Not once. And it was gross: sticky, greasy, rusty. Yuck! (You can see the old stove in the Philly Cheese Steak post.)This left us 100% dedicated to skillet meals. For now anyway.This 'throw it in a pot and hope it works' version of pork chops turned out so well, it was worthy of a...

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Happy Hearts Park - Tobermory, Ontario

July 03, 2020 / BY Alanna Rusnak
CAMPGROUND RATING We think it's important to share our thoughts on the places we stay and we're choosing to give each r place a rating out of five. Five campers means we really loved it and have zero complaints. One means yikes - maybe don't take your family there. Everyone has different reasons for liking or not liking a place, and we may be looking for sites that offer different things than you need. Always...

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Glaming up the Kitchen with Sticker Tiles!

May 16, 2020 / BY Alanna Rusnak
—this post contains Amazon affiliate links—Since the very beginning I knew I wanted to find some kind of easy (cheap!) option for cleaning up the kitchenette - making it a little brighter and a little more "me". While I am all about embracing vintage charm, there are a lot of little changes that can be made that maintain that charm, but also make you go, "yeah, this feels like home."I went on a bit of...

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How a Friends Episode Helped Us Name our Van

January 22, 2020 / BY Alanna Rusnak
We needed to name our van and we had several names on the table, but sadly, I can't remember most of them. Liam, the snarky thirteen-year-old, wanted Vanessa. "Get it?" he said. "VANessa." He thought it was hilarious. I thought it was too obvious. It came from the kid who hated our choice for the door panels so I have a hard time accepting any of his suggestions, let alone letting him name our beauty....

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Philly Cheese Steak - VanLife Skillet Edition

October 15, 2019 / BY Alanna Rusnak
My children baulk at peppers, even though I try to sneak them into many meals. "What is this green nonsense? Peppers? Ew. Mooooom!" When I decided to try my hand at cheese steak sandwiches it was with the full knowledge that "the kids are going to hate this!" What a happy surprise to find they actually LOVED them - even with the peppers and mushrooms. In fact, they requested it again the next time we...

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Coffee is the Sunshine of Every Vanlife Morning

October 10, 2019 / BY Alanna Rusnak
(this post contains Amazon associate links and any purchases made upon clicking through this link will put a little cash into our gas money jar) We'd just finished setting up camp along the Saugeen River. The kids were helping secure the awning, angling it appropriately because we knew rain was called for later in the evening. I was inside getting things ready for supper. When I opened the overhead kitchen cabinet for our cups, I...

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