With warmer temps and longer days, hitting the road with the kiddos for some adventure suddenly feels a lot more doable. Daytrips are perfect for family fun outside the city, and don’t require a lot of planning, money, or patience. So for our first daytripping day of fun, we headed west to St. Jacobs, a Mennonite community, only 90 minutes from Toronto.
St. Jacobs is an interesting mix of old and new: with outlet malls beside the Farmer’s Market, you can literally shop for designer threads and then walk over to buy maple syrup, preserves, or fresh-baked bread from a Mennonite farmer. Bring plenty of reusable bags and an appetite to the Market (open Thursdays and Saturdays year-round), so you can sample and stock up on farm-fresh produce, meats, cheeses, baked goods, and gift items. Kids will want to visit Bubbles the Clown outside the main market building, who makes at least 100 different balloon creations. There’s also a small barnyard petting zoo, horse-drawn Trolley tours of local sugar bushes and Mennonite farms, antique shopping, theatre, and a LEGO Toy Building Zone (how can you go wrong with maple syrup and LEGO?).
The Village Of St. Jacobs is a five minute drive from the Market – expect to see at least a few traditional horse-drawn buggies pass by! Along with the Village’s quaint feel, Torontonians will love all the free parking. The Village shops carry Mennonite wares, and kids can learn the history of St. Jacobs at “The Mennonite Story” exhibit, or take a tour of the small maple syrup making museum. Our preschooler didn’t have much patience for either the museum or exhibit, but did enjoy sampling the treats throughout the Village. The Stone Crock Restaurant is a perfect lunchtime stop, or you can grab to-go snacks from the local bakery. We also discovered Toy Soup – a toy store housed in an old church, filled with more playthings than you can imagine. It was the ideal place to enjoy a few quiet moments while the little one played happily.
We visited first thing in the morning, and found both the Market and Village quiet. When we headed out of town after lunch, the Village shops were bustling and Market parking was hard to come by. So filled with maple sugar and other sweet treats, we made our way back home while the kiddo slept in the car. All in all, a perfect way to spend the day.
St. Jacobs: www.stjacobs.com
Yo, mama! Have any St. Jacobs family hot spots to share? We’d love it if you’d use the handy comment functionality on this article online to let us know where (else) to go when we’re in the ‘hood!