Experience the warm, beachy campgrounds of Atlantic Canada.

I started camping so early, I was too young to remember. My family always headed to the same spot each year, a beautiful campground surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, rolling hills, and the salty scent of summer. While I haven’t managed an overnight trip in about six years, I still make it a point to visit the beach at least once during the warmer months.

The campground is set in Dunvegan, a small community located in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Among an Island known for its breathtaking scenery and warm hospitality, Dunvegan is one of my favourite places. If you’ve never visited eastern Canada, I highly recommend it; our summer temperatures usually hover in the 70s and a campsite is never far.

When I was a child, my mother and I would pack up for the weekend and make a two-hour drive to the campground. We often stayed with my uncle, who still keeps a trailer there year-round. Sometimes we pitched our tent and roughed it, but when it rained heavily, my uncle, aunt, and two cousins, along with my mother and me, would cram into the three-bed trailer. Fortunately, we rarely spent time inside.

The campground houses a small grocery and supply store, complete with arcade games and a pool table. Most of our time was spent at the beach, a sandy piece of the ocean where a small ‘wading pool’ always formed a few feet from the water. My cousins and I would bring our pail and shovels and dig for clam and oyster shells, and - of course - build sandcastles. After a few hours of water play, our tanned arms and legs would sport lines of dried salt left behind by the ocean and our hair would feel like rope.

While setting foot on that beach still makes me nostalgic, what I remember best are the trips to and from the beach. I still can’t figure out how we carried it all: fold-up chairs, umbrellas, sunscreen, towels, toys, and a countless number of coolers. We had a lunch ritual of red Kool-Aid and sand-filled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that always tasted better on the beach.

Now that I have children of my own, I can fully appreciate the fact that the campground has barely changed. It’s part of its charm. In fact, I’ve already decided that this is the year I’ll buy a new tent (or maybe even a trailer of my own) and set up camp in Dunvegan for a new generation of family adventures.

I can hear the toasted marshmallows calling my name now.

~Jayne