Canada 2009
I realize that different people find different things relaxing and reinvigorating, but my ten days in Canada were wonderful, amazing, peaceful, quiet, enriching.
A stop in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a Shaw Festival play and winery visits and a nice dinner and stay at our favorite B&B is always a great way to begin our vacation. Three friends who have known each other since grade school and middle school and now live in three separate cities but who are embarking on a vacation together for the third year in a row.
Stocking up on our favorite wines for the week, and taking advantage of the chance to walk around the small town of NOTL and stretch our legs after a long day in the car.
A fabulous, relaxing dinner on the outdoor patio of the Epicurean, followed by a great play (in this case, Sunday in the Park with George) at the Royal George Theatre.
A night's rest and then four more hours north by car to Pointe au Baril and an additional twenty minutes by launch to the island where we will spend the next eight days.
With no TV, no radio, no computers, no Internet, no phone (although our host has Canadian coverage for his cell phone, so we can be reached in case of emergency), no work woes, no kids, no nothing.
Eight days of relaxing, reading (I managed to fit in four and a half books and numerous magazines), sunning, talking, listening to music, kayaking, swimming, eating, and drinking all those great NOTL wines. Cocktail hours on the screened-in porch or out on the dock, home cooked and grilled meals with fresh produce we had picked up at a farmer’s market on the way, sitting in lounge chairs watching the water and the surrounding islands and the birds and the occasional boats that come and go.
It really was about as close to heaven on earth as I can imagine.
The stark scenery of the windswept pines and granite rocks against all that water is breathtaking and never boring. And the weather changes constantly and unpredictably from one day to the next and even within a single day.
Ducks, Canadian geese, loons, gulls, woodpeckers, snakes, minks, squirrels, fish, bats, and mosquitoes; the wildlife is ubiquitous, and thankfully we did not see a bear this year!
You can just sit and look out at the water and the islands and never be bored: sunrise; puffy, streaming clouds; overcast skies; rainstorms and thunder; clearing skies and rich blue; late afternoon and early evening skies; a slow, prolonged sunset; painted waters; darkness. And then it begins all over again.
For eight days.
That is life on Yoctangee, a small island in a sequestered part of Georgian Bay, in Ontario....
A stop in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a Shaw Festival play and winery visits and a nice dinner and stay at our favorite B&B is always a great way to begin our vacation. Three friends who have known each other since grade school and middle school and now live in three separate cities but who are embarking on a vacation together for the third year in a row.
Stocking up on our favorite wines for the week, and taking advantage of the chance to walk around the small town of NOTL and stretch our legs after a long day in the car.
A fabulous, relaxing dinner on the outdoor patio of the Epicurean, followed by a great play (in this case, Sunday in the Park with George) at the Royal George Theatre.
A night's rest and then four more hours north by car to Pointe au Baril and an additional twenty minutes by launch to the island where we will spend the next eight days.
With no TV, no radio, no computers, no Internet, no phone (although our host has Canadian coverage for his cell phone, so we can be reached in case of emergency), no work woes, no kids, no nothing.
Eight days of relaxing, reading (I managed to fit in four and a half books and numerous magazines), sunning, talking, listening to music, kayaking, swimming, eating, and drinking all those great NOTL wines. Cocktail hours on the screened-in porch or out on the dock, home cooked and grilled meals with fresh produce we had picked up at a farmer’s market on the way, sitting in lounge chairs watching the water and the surrounding islands and the birds and the occasional boats that come and go.
It really was about as close to heaven on earth as I can imagine.
The stark scenery of the windswept pines and granite rocks against all that water is breathtaking and never boring. And the weather changes constantly and unpredictably from one day to the next and even within a single day.
Ducks, Canadian geese, loons, gulls, woodpeckers, snakes, minks, squirrels, fish, bats, and mosquitoes; the wildlife is ubiquitous, and thankfully we did not see a bear this year!
You can just sit and look out at the water and the islands and never be bored: sunrise; puffy, streaming clouds; overcast skies; rainstorms and thunder; clearing skies and rich blue; late afternoon and early evening skies; a slow, prolonged sunset; painted waters; darkness. And then it begins all over again.
For eight days.
That is life on Yoctangee, a small island in a sequestered part of Georgian Bay, in Ontario....
posted by delta at 1:29 PM
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