A Day of Exploring – Goats and Port Hope

I’ve gotten into the bad habit of spending my boy-free Sunday afternoons laying on the couch watching Netflix and doing a whole lot of nothing.  Today, I decided these Sunday afternoons were better spent going out exploring and discovering local gems before the weather gets too nasty to enjoy.  I wasn’t quite sure where I would be going but I ended up heading east to Port Hope.

Just before I left, something came up in my Instagram feed and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was exactly where I had to go.  First stop, Haute Goat Harvest Hoedown.  What is Haute Goat you ask?  It is a 200 acre farm located just outside Port Hope and is home to Nigerian Dwarf goats, alpacas, chickens and horses with a shop that sells handmade premium goat milk items.  There is cheese, Goat butter caramel corn, goat milk soaps and skin care products.

Today, was their Harvest Hoedown, to showcase all they had to offer plus some local food vendors.  It was a beautiful day for especially with all the fall colors as a background.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a crazy love for goats, so when I saw that they were having free goat shmurgles, I knew I had to go.  A shmurgle is basically giving the goats all the cuddles and snuggles you can.  They allowed groups of about 25-30 people in at a time for about 10-15 minutes to spend shmurgling.  It was amazing.  I could have spent the entire day.  They do offer events where you can get up close with all the farm animals and go behind the scenes at the farm and of course extended time getting to shmurgle the goats.  I am definitely going to bring my son back for that!

After sadly saying goodbye to the goats, I decided to head into Port Hope and see what I could see.  Many have told me about this quaint little town but I had never had the pleasure to visit it.  As soon as I drove in, I noticed it was definitely a town with some history with it’s architecture.

I decided to park by the Ganaraska River and take a walk.  All I can say is what a view!  Each fall you can see the salmon trying to get upstream to spawn but unfortunately I was too late to get a first hand view.  Next year, for sure.

After taking in the views of the river, I headed towards the beach of Lake Ontario.  It was a perfect fall day to take a walk on the beach and kept thinking to myself, how have I never been here to enjoy this before.  It will definitely be on our day trip agenda next summer.

I have always enjoyed taking my son out to local events and locations but after today, I think I am going to start using my weekends with out him to do some more exploring around the area.