Well, it’s been an interesting two weeks. And i’ve had a bit of a whirlwind adventure.
It all started three weeks ago today, when I sat down to talk about time off during the summer. We (Myself and the powers that be) were looking at the summer schedule and going over time off, deciding when the best time for me to have a vacation would be. I was asked, “what would work for you?” to which I replied, “well I can take off these weeks or… I could always leave next week with my parents for ontario?!” And who would believe but that day I booked a flight back from ontario and made arrangements to leave the following wednesday with my parents for our Cottage on Manitoulin.
So here is what I’ve been up to for the last three weeks:
On June 25th (wednesday) I left Surrey BC with my parents and began to drive to our Cottage. The trip lasted 52 hours, with us arriving at our Cottage at 12:30 Am Saturday (EST). It was a lovely trip, on which I only had one cd to listen to… since of course while I was packing I diligently put all my music on my IPod to listen to on the airplane. Of course this was a foolish jesture, because I do not have an adapter to listen to my IPod while I drive. So this meant that I was stuck with only one CD to listen to all the way to ontario. Fortunatley, it was a good cd and I do still enjoy it.
We spent a week at our Cottage, where I assisted and did my part of the Chores. We put in the Dock, a Cottage Must, and cut down trees. I personally burnt about 1 full cord of wood in our fire pit, which is now full, and I had emptied in the first couple of days that I was at our cottage. I planted a Garden, or at least started one, and am hoping in the following years to fill and expand it with local wild flowers so that I don’t have to do any maintenance.
I also had the priviledge of “Learning” how to sail. Now I do not want to mislead you into thinking that I am naive when it comes to the waterways, but up until these last few weeks my knowledge was quite limited to vehicles powered by Man or by Machine. Not anywhere near as majestic as to be powered by wind. Anyways, while I was at some friends, I was fortunate enough to be invited out sailing on a small 5 meter boat. This was my first sailing experience ever… and it was quite fun. We actually in our inexperience Flipped the boat! What an adventure, and in righting the boat our inexperience showed again because it turtled. Needless to say, I enjoyed my first sailing adventure.
The second most highlite of my time on Manitoulin was Canada Day. If you know much about manitoulin, you will know that Canada Day is not an event that is celebrated and looked forward to. It is the lesser of the summer holidays and on manitoulin everyone looks forward to the cou’de gra is the Civic Holiday weekend which is know on the Island as “Haweater Weekend”. Anyways, in an attempt to create some excitement among friends, we hosted a Canada Day Bar-B-Q. This was quite exciting, as we ended up having 9 people over for our little celebration planned only the day before. However, if you know anything about my family and our cottage celebrations, 9 people is a quite intimate and familiar number. Most of our party’s have upwards of 35 people. Oh, this is most fun. If you are ever in the area you will have to come and see for yourself.
At the end of the week, I journey’d down to Whitby to stay with family and meet up with friends. And that has been another highlight. It has been a pleasure to see loved family and missed friends on my Long awaited, and almost missed vacation. And alas, today I travel home. Back to Surrey BC to resume my Post at the Church.
I hope that this report finds you well, and may y0ur summer adventures be as great as mine.