Hello again from the nation's capital !
It was a wonderful two week adventure. We arrived home from Fitzroy Provincial Park this afternoon. The weather was perfect, quite hot and humid, for the weekend. We left just as the rain clouds moved into the region. It rained most of the way home but stopped a couple of kilometres from our neighbor hood. It is desparately dry. There has been no precipitation since we left. Anyhow, we enjoyed two enjoyable nights in Fitzroy. On Friday we arrived just after 7pm and after a quick dinner we all headed to the beach for a nice cool dip. We swam until after dark then returned to the RV for a fire and smores. The fire was not really needed as the heat from the fire was not required. We spent Saturday sleeping in, a hearty breakfast then to the beach for swimming, the woods for a walk, ice cream, a game or two of crib, dinner then back to the beach for a cool swim. We sat by the fire but once again but the heat made it unbearable. The boys enjoy their smores. This morning we slept in again, that will not happen again until next weekend, vegged around the camp site, the boys and Paula went to the beach and Randy cleaned and packed up the RV.
On Monday August 1st we arrived at Cabyss Bay in Algonquin Park. We had a long drive with a few stops to break up the ride. We stopped in Lindsay for groceries and were pleasantly surprised the LCBO was also open. LIndsay is in the heart of the Kawartha Lakes; a very popular cottage country destination. The high way from Lindsay to Algonquin was bumper to bumper with tourists and families returning home from the cottage. It made rush hour in Ottawa look tame. The highway a bit tricky with the wind, curves and steep climbs. The RV kept pace and handled the turns okay. The driver was a little worse for ware. We arrived safe and sound and on schedule. We registered, bought our wood and ice, found our camp site and settled in for the next four nights. Oh, did we mention we brought along a friend of Carters in Darlington (Whitby). Paula and the boys were off to the lake while Randy set up the RV. Our camp site was perfect. All the sites were spacious and very private. The closest camp site was through the woods. We heard nary a word from our neighbors. Anyhow, the first morning we booked a canoe and two kayaks. They arrived at 2:00pm and we were on the lake like lightning. The weather on Tuesday was picture perfect. We canoed for awhile then found a perfect little beach and parked the boats. We spent the afternoon swimming and horsing around in the water. Bob absolutely loved the water. Did we mention it was warm. It was so warm you went out far and deep to find cool spots. There was no algae as the lake is fed well and drains well. It rained Tuesday morning so we stayed indoors and played crib and watched a movie. The boys also enjoyed the PS3 player. We were out on the lake by 2pm and spent the next five hours at our private beach and paddling on the lake. We actually paddled all the way around the lake. While at our beach we watched three loons feeding. When we left to paddle around the lake they followed us for a few kilometres sometimes surfacing right beside our canoes. It was amazing. When we got to the north end of the lake we spotted a family of loons with two young ones. The mother or father for all we know made a lot of noise until we left the vicinity. The call of the loon is as wild as we got. Liam saw a deer in the bush other than that the only wild life we saw were two squirrels. We did hear the call of the wolf every night. That is amazing. They howl for quite some time. We were going to take a walk in the woods after our picnic on Thursday but Bob started barking at something in the woods so we packed up our things and took off. We don't know what he heard and quite frankly we don't care. We had just finished our picnic lunch and obviously attracted something. We paddled back to the main beach and swam until we had to return our boats. Once again it was a perfect day. We spent each night sitting around the fire roasting marshmellows and making smores. For dinner we were adventureous and made packages with meat and vegetables and roasted them in the fire. The boys gladly chopped the wood for each nights fire. We left Friday morning for Fitzroy but had a nice adventure on the way stopping at a Driver. Drive-Inn or Dive for lunch. We found a small gas bar restaurant for lunch and had a spectacular lunch which kept us full for hours. The drive was quite an adventure as we took a wrong turn twice. We had no map and the GPS had no reception. The forests of the Algonquin are quite simply amazing and we will definitely return.
The second leg of our trip was to Fitzroy Provincial Park to take part in the Provincial Lacrosse Tournament in Whitby Ontario. We arrived on Wednesday July 27th after a nice drive from Sand Banks. We stopped for cheap gas and cheap cigarettes enroute at a first nations reserve. We couldn't resist the prices. Fitzroy is situated on Lake Ontario and very close to Whitby. There were not nearly as many lacrosse players there this year as last year. Carter still found kids to shoot the ball with and play with during the evening. We could hear the kids singing and playing in the open space. The also met up with an Asian Christian group. The weather was okay with rain a couple of mornings. It cooled the weather nicely. We enjoyed our privacy from last year and had a very nice camp site in the woods. We had no encounters with skunks like we did last year. Carter rested well each night for his games. The tournament went as expected. The team actually won one game and came very close to winning their last game. Carter came out blazing the first game scoring four goals. They were down two goals quickly in the first period. Carter scored on a nice break away to get the team back in the game. He was on fire with his passing, blocking and break aways. He even scored one of his goals on a penalty shot. The second game on Friday was a white wash for the other team. Carter played very good but his team mates seemed to be in a daze. It was a hot, muggy day and we played at 7:30pm. Who knows what happened but we lost big time. The third game was on Saturday at 1:30 and was very exciting. We were once again down 0-2 in the first. Carter bounced a picked pass down the rink and shot after the ball. He managed to bounce it twice more while running, eventually he picked it up and sped in on the goalie and scored on a quick change left to right hand shot. It spent the team and crowd wild with excitement. The team was once again invigorated and went on to score six more goals. However, we also took six more penalties and the opposition scored on every penalty. It was sad as they played a very good game. We spent Sunday watching some very exciting lacrosse as the National Championships started. We watched the first period of the Peewee Sask vs Iriquois game. Sask lost by sixteen goals but we cheered hard as they scored the only goal in the last minutes of the game. We also saw the Peewee Ontario team play Alberta. We only watched one and a half periods as it was a total white wash for team Ontario. The best game we watched was the Bantam Ontario team play team Alberta. It was a good game in the first but the Ontario team was spectacular at moving the ball and quickly ran up the score. We had played team Quebec and New Brunswick at previous tournaments and beat them handly. Overall the Ontario and B.C. teams dominated the tournament. The Saskatchewan and Alberta teams had nice uniforms but were very short on height, speed and abililty. It is obvious that lacrosse is not very popular other than in Ontario and B.C. It was exciting to watch the games we did. We did so want to cheer for team Saskatchewan and Alberta. We also asked a friend of Carters to join us on our adventure on Saturday. Liam Lucas, a friend of Carters, who also played lacrosse but for the Peewee two team, joined us on Saturday night. He and Carter had a blast and kept each other entertained the balance of the trip.
Our first leg of the holiday was to Sand Banks Provincial Park. We left on Sunday, July 23rd. It was a very hot day and drive. We even turned on the air conditioning a couple of times (needless to say it wasn't the only day). Our camp site was a tad open with one tree. We arrived just after check in time. Paula and Carter were anxious to get to the beach so Randy agreed to open camp. First off was a cold beer to cool off before unpacking anything. The shade of the tree was a welcome treat. We had an awesome time walking, biking and swimming each and every day. The beaches are spectacular. The water was a little colder than our last day visit but the heat kept you in the water. The wind was a tad strong but Carter and Randy had a blast jumping and riding the waves. Paula enjoyed reading and tanning on the beach. We took Bob to the water in the evening as dogs are technically not allowed in public places. No one complained or ratted us out. He loves the water. We had rain a couple of times but it was no big deal as it cooled the temperature and we stayed indoors and watched movies or read. It was hard for Randy to sleep in this week but did manage until at least 6:30am. Bob enjoyed his morning strolls as we left him in the air conditioned RV during our visits to the beach or biking.
Overall we had a wonderful vacation. It is kind of hard to return home but two weeks is just the right amount of time for a holiday. Tomorrow we return to work and Carter starts Hockey 99 camp. He will enjoy quite a few hours of ice time each day with a scrimmage at the end of each day. He is anxious for it to start.
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