The weekend of June 19-21, we ventured down to Little Italy to take in the "Taste of Little Italy" festival.  We decided to walk from our Midtown apartment -- which took us about 45 minutes.  It was a hot humid day and we were both dripping in sweat before long.  All I could think about was gelato, mmmmm gelato.

That said, when we got there we were overwhelmed by the crowds and the yummy smells coming from all of the vendors stands.  We decided to have some lunch instead.

Mmm meat on a stick.

Porchetta - this is what we had - disappointing, actually.

It was fun to walk around, people watch and just take it all in.  It seemed like there was something to stop and look at on every corner.

Overall, it was a fun day out but we never did stop for gelato as the lines were really long <pout>.

I only took a few shots but if you want to see them, they can be found here.

N is another year older.

So we had to go out for steak and lobster. Mmm.

N and I have come to a conclusion.  While I somtimes grapple with whether I think T-dot is all that, we LOVE small town Ontario.  Especially cottage country small town Ontario.  First -- these towns are super cute; beautiful and interesting.  Who said small towns need to be boring and uninspired?  We have never been more curious or reduced to tears in laughter with the quirky/cool factor of small towns than on our last camping trip.  We saw a gas station called "Just Jugs", we saw more advertisements for pig roasts (even one hosted in the Mayor's backyard) than we could count.  We passed through a town with pop. 1700 -- and saw signs for not just any garage sale... but a "Rock and Roll" garage sale!  Seriously -- what do you think they were selling??

The town names are fantastic too.  Ever been to Penetanguishene?? Well we have!  It is lovingly referred to on all the road signs as Penetang! N says to add that I kept referring to it as "Tang Machine".

Further -- no trip to small town Ontario would be complete without a Special K's "foot in mouth" celebrity encounter.  The town: Midland.  The scene: the local Tim Horton's.  I enter the doughnut joint to buy a coffee and a doughnut (go figure, eh).  N beelines it to the washroom where en route he observes Jason McCoy.  Meanwhile, back in line, I too observe Jason McCoy.  My purchase is made, I sit and wait for N, sipping slowly on my hot coffee.  N arrives, he asks if I saw Jason McCoy.  I say yes.  Now, I suppose you need to know that my back was to the rest of the coffee shop.  N had a clear view of everything.  I say,  "Hey N, why don't you try and snap a picture of the RoadHammer with your cell."  N starts laughing quietly, desperately trying to send me a telepathic signal to shut up (one that I do not receive --> we are now convinced I am incapable of telepathic communication via N).  He refuses to snap a picture. So we eat our doughnuts and drink our coffee all the while I am blathering on out loud about the RoadHammer.  We get up to leave and N quietly asks me to turn around.  Lo and behold, Mr. McCoy had been sitting right behind me.  I felt like a tool. 

Anyhow -- I bet you are all wondering what any of this post so far has to do with camping.  Well, these are little vignettes of what happened on our camping weekend.  Awenda Provincial Park, is situated on Georgian Bay/Lake Huron.  It is a beautiful park.  The campground is massive but the sites are very private (best we've seen in Provincial Parks here in Ontario so far). 

On the first day we had nice hot dry weather.  We set out on a hike that ended up being about 6 km round trip. It was shady along the wooded trail and the mosquitoes where unbelievably bad -- my legs received 60+ bites this trip.  

Most Special K swatting mosquitoes.

Needless to say, to battle the bugs, we used copious amounts of bug spray and were wearing long pants.  I even switched to a long sleeve jacket.  This is sad because when we got to the beach we were way overdressed and this is the sight that we took in:

Sunbathing and swimming on Lake Huron - 1st Beach - Awenda P.P.

Still, we pulled up a rock and took in some sun.

We'll definitely go back to Awenda next year.  We had a great trip.

To see more pictures from this trip, click here.