Popular Demand Requests....

...that I post some pictures. I guess that should save me a thousand words or so.... Oh that's too bad since I don't usually have problems with words. :):) This is one of all of us at the top of Ragged Falls just outside the perimeter of Algonquin. It is just a small hike to get to but the flora was spectacular. The river comes around a bend at the top and flies into a little narrow channel with rapids just like you see on tv. It's up quite high and gave me the heebie-jeebies....but the lads just clambered up and down like mountain goats with nary a care in the world. Only moms worry about that kind of stuff. The dad went and did the same thing. The rapids empty over a rock jumble at the bottom and then into a creek that emptied into the lake. It was very scenic paddle( for about 20 minutes in the creek) ,with a nice slow current, easy to paddle and about a 45 minute paddle from our cottage. Ray's mom and I kayaked it one afternoon. It was very relaxing. This is a shot of Craig and I at the bottom of the rapids....
One of Ray's favourite things to do each day was to go fishing at the crack of dawn. The lake, first thing in the morning was soooo peaceful. I loved to sit on the firepit benches with my coffee and just sit. I hope everyone got to do something like that at least once this summer... You notice all kinds of things when you sit there by yourself. The guy on his gator at the beach of the resort across the way dragging a rake over the sand there to make it look nice and tidy, the duckies swimming around, the loon that comes around the bend ducking under the water and surfacing a fifty feet further down the shore where you weren't watching because you thought she would only go about 12 feet. I love the perfect mirror image reflection and the deep blue of the sky. I love the stillness, okay then, minus the gator. And slowly, as the day begins, the wind picks up and the small ripples begin, as if when the mirror is gone, it's time to get going. The quiet calls to you when you sit here, on this half log, and you know you will sit here later, as darkness falls. ...when it is campfire time, the wind dies down, and the peaceful stillness returns.

Now a little pic of our casa, our home away from home. The windows on nearest corner were for the boys bedroom. There is a latch one side that locks them and they swing open on hinges into the room like little doors. What an awesome breeze, right at bed height. The second window to the right was in our living room over the futton couch, which faced our fridge....not that scenic. Then the door....which opened into an open concept, livingroom, diningroom, kitchen combination. The next wall had two big picture windows in it which gave you a view through the trees of the lake. Notice how our entire cottage is surrounded by tall, mature trees? That meant that we didn't get much full sun on our place, which kept it nice and cool, but meant that drying the laundry on our clothes line was the pits! We always brought the towels to Ray's mom and dad's cottage which was right by the water and in full sun. Dried in a flash. Our cottage was fairly modern and had some updates, like cupboards, countertops and carpets. Some of the others were a bit more rustic.
This was the view from our deck, and basically our view from the front windows. There was one cottage on the right had side by the shore, and Ray's folks were right beside it. That cottage had a very quiet family in it. They fished a lot but didn't have much better luck than Ray. His luck changed when he switched from lures to worms. The boys didn't do any fishing this year, but that's because there weren't any signs of life near the dock. The boys spent a lot of time swimming with their cousins and playing things on the beach. Of all things, we also had fun flying kites!!! When's the last time someone told you to "Go fly a kite!" and you did!!!! It had been years for me and I did it a couple of times. One night it was really windy and we couldn't get them to go up. And a few days later there was barely a breeze off the water and you were down to just the spool in no time at all!!!!!

And this is Joe taking a long walk on a short pier. I was supposed to capture him leaping into the water....but I just caught his entry, right behind the motor boat....and it's NOT a 10!!! The water was the colour of iced tea, many of the lakes in this area are that colour, I wonder if you "steep" in it if it would change the shade of your tan.....

That's our holiday in review. Our last memorable stop was for lunch on the 400 at the "famous" Webers. Everyone always talks about it so we succumbed to peer pressure and checked it out. A good homemade burger with no filler. Real meat, cooked real tasty....but still just a burger. Imagine though, that you've just spent 10 days in the bush, living on de-hi(dehydrated food) and this is your first meal! That changes the context just a bit!!! It was still a lot of fun and now we are just like EVERYBODY else! I suppose there are worse ways to conform.....