Neil's office had their yearly summer BBQ this past Thursday.  On a weekday no less - no complaints about that!  One of his co-worker's has a family cottage out near Wasaga Beach and so a plan was set in motion to have the office shut down for a day of beach therapy!  

The weather looked as though it wasn't going to cooperate.  There had been severe thunderstorms in the area the night before and in the morning it was grey and drizzly. But by noon, the clouds were gone and the sun was out!  Turned out to be a fantastic day to spend the beach. 

After a tasty BBQ lunch, most of his co-workers and their families headed down to the beach (maybe a 10 minute walk).  The sand was soft (not rocky) and the water was clear and surprisingly warm.  There was some choppy surf hitting the shoreline but that didn't stop our little rugrat from racing right into the water! 

Alex had so much fun we had trouble getting him to leave.  It would seem we have a little beach bum on our hands!  Looks like we'll have to bring him back out to the lake!!  

Well, actually it's been 14 - but who's counting.  N and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in the Niagara area.  I love Niagara-on-the-Lake and that is where I wanted to stay but alas there were much sweeter deals to be had in Niagara Falls so we opted to stay in Ontario's "mini Vegas" and enjoy the relatively close proximity (10 minute drive) to the peace and serenity that can be found having a picnic while staring at beautiful vineyards.

We got a beautiful "falls view" studio suite at the Niagara Hilton.  While it was a beautiful room with great views of the falls, our stay was not without it's share of problems.  First, our room was supposed to be non-smoking, but there was a faint smoke odour and there were ashtrays in our room.  When I called the front desk, they claimed that this was because people like to burn incense in their rooms.  I laughed because cigarette smoke and incense hardly smell the same.  They did offer to come deodorize the room but I was annoyed that they had lied - there is no way our room was non-smoking.

We dined at Brasa, a Brazilian Steakhouse in the Hilton.  It was an all-you-can-eat steakhouse with a large salad bar and where "Gauchos" walked the floor with spits of different cuts of meat.  You waved a disc at them if you wanted them to come to the table and then they'd carve the meat right at your table.  It was very very good and very very expensive (though everything about Niagara Falls is over-priced).  We got up to fill our plates at the salad bar and when we returned to our seats (which had been a wonderful, cozy spot by a window with a nice view), they had seated new people at our table.  We were then re-seated but we didn't get as nice a spot the second time round.  However, the staff were very professional; they apologized profusely many times and we did get a free dessert for the inconvenience.  Even with the little bumps, N and I agreed that we would return to Brasa. 

We had a delicious wine with dinner.  It was called, "Red Moose,"  a 2007 Zweigelt from Konzelmann's Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Konzelmann's is our favourite Niagara winery and this wine is fantastic.  We stopped there on our way home and picked up a few bottles.  If you are lucky enough to see this one at your liquor store you should give it a try.  We loved it.

After dinner, we wandered through the Fallsview Casino and then took in the fireworks over the falls (there are fireworks every Friday and Sunday evening in the summer).  Overall, it was a great way to celebrate 5 years!

The next day we had the buffet breakfast at the hotel and then spent the morning wandering around "kitchy" Niagara Falls.  If you have never been, imagine walking into the biggest tourist trap known to man-kind and there you have it, Niagara Falls, Canada.  We stopped at the Rock N' Bowl and bowled a few games and then wandered down to see the falls up close.  

In the afternoon, we wandered throughout Niagara-on-the-Lake.  We snacked on fresh fruit and took in the loveliness and small town charm of the place.  We walked the main street, bought jam at Greaves (best jam ever!), checked out the fruit stands, visited a winery and then declared our mini break over.  Time to head back to the big city.

 Late August = fresh peaches in the Niagara Area.  Yum!

My flickr set from this trip can be found, here.

 

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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.

I know that as part of your Canadian education, you learn that the Great Lakes are big. Neil and I are not sure we realized just how big until this last camping trip we took up to Bruce Peninsula National Park. I mean, on our drive out east we noticed that it took two full days to drive around the top half of Lake Superior... but it wasn't until we were out on the water that we realized that there are points where you cannot see a point of reference along the horizon. The islands off the tip of the Bruce are scattered just like the Gulf Islands off the West Coast of BC -- the big difference being that here we are on a lake and not transversing the Strait of Georgia out into the Pacific Ocean. Neil said that you get an idea of scale when you realize that our campground was at the tip of the Peninsula that juts out into Lake Huron and our campground was located on a rather sizable lake in the middle of the Peninsula.

Thursday, we left for one night of camping. We'd have liked to camp two nights but we could only reserve the one night and we had hoped (fingers crossed) that we could find something for Friday night. In the end, we just had two very long and hot/humid days. The drive started out in true K & N fashion... I gave Neil the map and soon we were 40km in the wrong direction. Not a problem, he realized the error of his way and we were soon turned around. We made stops to look around in Owen Sound and in Wiarton. Arriving in Tobermory, we made our way to the campground, set up camp, browsed the trail maps and then set out in search of a swimming hole. Let's face it, the big draw of the area is the crystal clear blue waters of Lake Huron. The water was cold but it felt very nice given the humidity and the excessive sweating that occurred as a result. The horse flies were really bad and we got very bitten. The biggest downside was that between sunscreen, bug spray, bug lotion, sweat, dirt from the hike back -- we were DISGUSTING when we got back to our site and there were no showers at our campground. Upon arriving back, I can to the realization that I'd have paid upwards of $20 to be able to shower.

We had hot dogs and beans for supper (classic campfire fare) and then I roasted marshmallows. It never really cooled down until about 10 minutes after we went to bed. Then began the intense lightening and thunder... and then the heavy downpour that lasted about 10 minutes. It was enough to clear up some of the horrible humidity as the next day was hot and dry. The next morning found us paying for showers at a highway gas station. Sounds gross but these showers were coin operated and super clean. We then ventured into town for breakfast and an Island tour by boat. We figured that since we had to drive back that night we'd have a lazy day -- so we went on an hour and a half boat tour... saw some shipwrecks and islands. We'd have liked to disembark on Flower Pot Island but we decided to save that for another time.

I've got pictures in a Splashr presentation here.