We were pleased to be invited to visit Wendy and Stu’s cottage this weekend. We arrived late Friday afternoon, and after getting settled, we headed down to the dock for the “hour of happiness”.
The hour-of-happiness on the dock
It had been cloudy earlier in the day, but as we enjoyed our beverages, things started to clear. As we relaxed on the dock, we were treated to stunning sunset views.
We spotted all kinds of interesting cloud shapes – everything from a giant axe, to a fire breathing dragon, and finally a flying goose.
Flying goose
The lake is on the Canadian Shield, so the landscape is rugged with regular outcroppings of granite.
Granite
Every year, Wendy uses one of the old tree stumps as a flower pot.
Organic flower pot
It has been a wet year, so there were a number of very interesting mushrooms in the woods.
MushroomsMore mushrooms
Here is the cottage.
The cottage
There is also a screened-in gazebo with a gas fireplace.
The gazebo
The end of the dock shows the directions, for those who can’t figure out directions from looking at the sun.
For the directionally-impaired
On Saturday, we headed into Bancroft, which is the nearest town. It has a local microbrewery, with very tasty ales.
Bancroft Brewery – flight of local beers
And here is the obligatory group photo.
Group photo
We’re getting close to travel season, so before too long I’ll be posting more often.
We’re trying to include some local-ish trips in our travels. You know, change things up a bit! This year I started following the Munk Debates, and we decided to attend this year’s spring debate in Toronto in person. We made it into a mini vacation and took the train rather than drive. No high-speed trains here (yet … fingers crossed) but we still enjoy traveling by train whenever we can. We certainly aren’t about to subject ourselves to downtown Toronto traffic if we can possibly avoid it.
Via Rail to Toronto
The debate was interesting, and well worth the trip. The essence of the question was, should America continue trying to act as the world’s policeman, or would the world (and the U.S.) be better off if it would mind it’s own business and stop throwing it’s weight around. I’m paraphrasing here, but you probably get the idea. Both sides of the debate made legitimate and interesting points. But occasionally, both sides were completely clueless. Neither side seemed to realize the world has moved on, and returning to the old status quo isn’t one of the options on the table. But what do I know? These are the experts…
But that isn’t what this blog is about. It’s a travel blog, and this was a chance for us to get away for a few days. Spring is further along in Toronto than it is in Ottawa, and the trees are coming into bloom.
Tree in bloom
We stayed in Toronto for two nights. We had a lovely visit with Anne and Sharon, but with two days in the city, we still had time to kill. The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) had an exhibit of photographs by Paul McCartney that Jan was interested in seeing. These were taken in 1963-64, just as The Beatles were rising to fame, so they provide a fascinating snapshot in time. Apparently he misplaced the negatives for decades, and only recently rediscovered them. They are well worth a look if you have the chance.
Our hotel was a half hour walk from the AGO so we headed over. There was an interesting sculpture outside the gallery called the Couch Monster, apparently inspired by the story of Dumbo the Elephant. Several couches were “sacrificed” to create the early mock-ups of the sculpture. I quite like it.
Art Gallery of OntarioCouch Monster
The price for a season pass was only a few dollars more than the price of a single ticket, so we opted for the pass. That meant we could have multiple visits, so before catching our train home today, we went back for a second visit. These caught my eye.
From the Art Gallery of Ontario
Across the street from the AGO I spotted this unusual building.
Mersivity
I was curious. Of course I was curious. Turns out it is a UofT student led initiative exploring eXtended Reality (XR) called … wait for it … Mersivity. Cool idea … I think. Certainly a cool piece of art. If you are a mathematician, that is.
On our way to catch the train I had to stop for this iconic Toronto image. Looks a lot like Auckland … or Seattle … or Las Vegas, now that I think of it. But this one is Toronto.
Typically, I only post when we’re traveling. This is a travel blog. But sometimes I make an exception. I looked out our back door tonight as the sun was setting and saw this.
Home
Twenty minutes earlier it looked rather blah. Twenty minutes later it was dark. Timing is everything.
This is just the beginning of the prime season here. I’m looking forward to enjoying the summer.
I’m writing this from the Auckland airport, waiting for our flight back to Canada. Our trip to New Zealand has come to an end. We had an amazing time and are sad to be leaving. We love home, but we’re still going to miss New Zealand. Enough said.
While we were touring New Zealand, Jan came across a lovely pāua shell ring. She has been looking for something like this for some time, so she immediately bought it.
Pāua shell ring
I loved it too, so I bought one of my own, and then we had a thought. We’ve toyed with renewing our vows for a while now, so we figured “what better time”. We put on our new rings, and headed for the nearest beach.
Vows on the beach
And there, on a New Zealand beach, with no one around but the two of us, we renewed our vows. We promised to return to New Zealand every winter, so long as we both shall live (or at least as long as we can both afford it).
If It Was Today... 