I love to camp.  Neil and I both do.  After a long afternoon hike, supper cooked over an open fire, a night sitting by a campfire under the stars, N and I are both struck with an overwhelming desire to never head back to the city.

My brothers had never camped before and thus were uncertain they would enjoy it, but enjoy it they did.  We took them out to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula.  The Bruce Peninsula is a little slice of heaven -- so beautiful.  

We camped in the Cyprus Lake Campground and our site backed onto the lake.  We hiked some rather treacherous trails thanks to Neil and his mastery with a trail map.  

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.