Day 11 – 13/Jul/2007 17:35
The portion of my vacation that I spend at Ahmic Lake is always a great one, and this year has proven to be no exception. In fact, although my brother-in-law may disagree with me, this year at the lake has been one of the nicest that I can recall ever having spent here.
Lots of backstory to fill in here.
The folks who were supposed to show up on Sunday didn’t. As of today, nobody knows where most of them are (a family of 4 has disappeared from the face of the earth).
Cy and I played some tennis Sunday afternoon (I whooped her, thanks very much) while “T” pretty much moped around and slept. The day was fairly cool but sunny. The forecast called for rain. Cy made a fairly spectacular pork roast for dinner, after which we were joined by “T”‘s sister Ellen and her husband, Whit. They just finished building a house and boathouse on the parcel of land next to Camp Ulvik, and seem like nice folks. The five of us played “Oh Hell” (a great card game) until 11:30 or so before retiring to our cabins.
The weather fireworks began sometime after 2:00 Monday morning. For probably two hours, the lake was hit with a monster storm which featured driving rain, nonstop lightning and extremely strong winds (Ellen and Whit, sleeping in their boathouse, were apparently terrified). I loved it. The lake sounded like an ocean crashing against my dock.
At some point during the storm, we lost power (known as “Hydro” hear in the land of the Ojibwe). It would not be restored until 5:00 Tuesday afternoon.
Since Jamie had still not arrived (he’d attended a rock concert in Ottawa on Sunday night), Cy and “T” and I decided to drive to Parry Sound (which still had hydro) on Monday. We had a nice lunch by the harbor and puttered around in book stores and other shops for a few hours, then came back to camp to take a nap.
During nap time, Jamie arrived and the three Talls played tennis while I slept, swam, and walked in the woods.
I cooked some rice/sausage/leftover stuff on the propane stove in the farmhouse on Monday night and we all ate and later played cards by the light of my lantern.
Tuesday morning looked like more rain was on the way, but it never developed. Most of the day was spent reading, although the four of us did get some tennis in in the afternoon. After power was finally restored, Cy made another monster dish with leftovers and the evening was completed with a rousing game of “Oh Hell.”
On Wednesday, I decided to head towards North Bay for souvenirs and gifts. On the way there, I took a detour to the dump to get rid of some garbage. I ended up spending a couple of hours taking pictures of lots of bears. They’re pretty populous and bold at the dump this year.
We got some more tennis in in the afternoon, Jamie grilled some steaks for dinner and the evening’s entertainment was doubles cribbage (Cy and I destroyed the Tall men).
Yesterday was basically a dock day. It was sunny but brisk for much of the day. I did get a fairly long walk in and took a bunch of pictures.
We invited Ellen and Whit and a couple from Indian Point (Dexter and Carol Coolidge) over for dinner last night and I opted to make my (in my mind) world famous Shepherds Pie. It seemed to go over fairly well and Ellen chipped in with some fresh brownies which we topped with ice cream and devoured before moving on to a game of Mexican Train (dominoes).
This morning, everyone rose fairly early and Jamie, “T” and I set off for Parry Sound to take a cruise among the 30,000 islands and have lunch at Henry’s renowned restaurant on Frying Pan Island. The cruise was basically chartered by a decent number of Ahmic cottagers, Ellen and Whit among them.
We got back to camp at around 5:00 this afternoon. I’d like to take a nap now, but I’m leaving tomorrow and I don’t want to miss anything. So, as I’ve typed this, I’ve had one eye on the lake.
And I think I’ll go jump in it.
TWD