Today was the first “typical” Ahmic day that we’ve had since I arrived. By that, I mean that we had absolutely stunning weather. Blue skies, temperatures in the low 70’s, bright sun, a perfect breeze, etc.
This morning’s outlook was not quite that rosy. When I rolled out of bed at around 7:30, it was overcast and quite cool – cool enough, in fact, that I don’t believe anyone here took a standard morning dip. I looked out the window and went back to sleep for 30 minutes.
Got to the main cabin at about 8:15 – just in time for blueberry pancakes and scrapple. “T” was responsible for the former, and his sister Kathy had left the latter. Both were excellent. After breakfast, I decided to head down to Huntsville to do some gift shopping. Note that I said “down” to Huntsville, as it is south of Magnetawan. That’s an important fact to remember, as I generally do not.
Huntsville is a town of about 19,000 people and is generally a pretty good place to spend a few hours window shopping or getting lunch or – if one needs something out of the ordinary for dinner – grocery shopping. It was really boring today, however. A lot of the shops that I’ve gotten used to visiting seem to have closed. So I got on route 60 East and headed towards Algonquin Park, which is one of Canada’s largest parks and an all-around beautiful place. I camped there for a week a few years ago.
I got as far as Dwight, which is a small town on the outskirts of the park, and stopped at a trading post for souvenirs. Spent 30 or 40 minutes there and decided to head back to the lake because it had become apparent that I was missing a rather gorgeous sunny day on the dock.
Some people don’t believe in mental blocks. I have one. I’ve had it for as long as I’ve been coming to Canada, and I mentioned it earlier in this post. I have somehow become firmly convinced that Huntsville is NORTH of Magnetawan. That being the case, I came back (on 60 West) from Dwight to Huntsville and then got on Canada 11 SOUTH, thinking I was headed back to the camp. After driving just about 40 miles, it dawned on me that I was going in the wrong direction.
One thing about Canada 11 – there are very few places to turn around. So I drove ANOTHER 10 miles in the wrong direction before finally getting turned around and driving NORTH back to Ulvik.
As I said, I almost always get turned around when I go to Huntsville, but it’s never taken me 100 miles out of my way before today.
Back at the camp, I found everyone sitting on the dock enjoying the weather. I grabbed one of the kayaks and paddled around to the other side of Indian Point, where I visited Opal Island, a small nearly circular island that I’ve coveted since the first time I vacationed here. It is owned by the Coolidges (incorrectly identified as the Kellys in an earlier post – Dexter and Carol), and I have yet to convince them to sell it to me.
After visiting Opal, I poked around on Indian Point itself, marveling at the construction of the cottages on the lake’s oldest camp, and then made my way back across the lake to Ulvik. Spent an additional hour lying on a float attached to the dock (and somehow avoiding a sunburn), then took some pictures until dinner.
Said dinner was made up of Chop Suey and Blueberry Bread Pudding, both cooked by Dad and Cy, and both excellent.
After dinner, Don took off in the putt-putt to do some fishing, Dad and Cy started and new crossword puzzle (their third in two days), and “T”, Dianne and Julie settled in to work on a jigsaw puzzle.
Not being interested in doing any of that, I excused myself to my boathouse, where I’m currently typing this and getting ready to read a bit before retiring early.
It is beautiful and relaxing here, and each year I spend here makes me want to live here year round just a little bit more.
TWD