The boat we sailed on is similar to our boat at home (the one that Maura's Dad gave us for a wedding present...OMG) Below are some pics as we set the boat up and then a little side trip we took to a wonderful little cottage owned by friends of Don and Linda.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Random Toronto Pics
There are more photos coming, but I need to figure out how to get them from another computer that just won't connect to the net. Be patient...
One goal for 'the east' was to find a good feed of poutine. This place just opened on Queen Street in Toronto. It was called something like Poutine R Us. The first feed J and I had 15 years ago by the Parliament Buildings is still number one. This however was #2.
See? Even Maura tried it!
Barb (M's sister-neighbour) and Maura posing at the Poutine Bar. Supposedly the place just opened, last week there were line ups outside the door! These 'babes' were as hot as the poutine, let me tell you...
Had dinner with my nephew Matt in his hood. It's all good!
Check out the pink skid jacket! Only in a big city such as TO!
The 400 (Big Frigging Hwy) out to Niagara On The Lake flooded. FLOODED!!! So much for hot, muggy Ontario summers.
The family shot...Niagara On The Lake
With our friends Doug and Laura on Niagara on the Lake.
One goal for 'the east' was to find a good feed of poutine. This place just opened on Queen Street in Toronto. It was called something like Poutine R Us. The first feed J and I had 15 years ago by the Parliament Buildings is still number one. This however was #2.
See? Even Maura tried it!
Barb (M's sister-neighbour) and Maura posing at the Poutine Bar. Supposedly the place just opened, last week there were line ups outside the door! These 'babes' were as hot as the poutine, let me tell you...
Had dinner with my nephew Matt in his hood. It's all good!
Check out the pink skid jacket! Only in a big city such as TO!
The 400 (Big Frigging Hwy) out to Niagara On The Lake flooded. FLOODED!!! So much for hot, muggy Ontario summers.
The family shot...Niagara On The Lake
With our friends Doug and Laura on Niagara on the Lake.
Carcross Pictures
Back in the 70's I went to an alternative school in Carcross, Yukon. It has been 30 years since it closed down. The Carcross Community Education Center (aka The Hippy School) was a pretty important place/experience for many people. I was one of them. I took off from Toronto to spend the weekend with a bunch of old friends, old hippies. Oh how we have aged, more so, oh how we stayed young...at heart...
The Big Group
The Engineers (We all got/had our 4th Class Stationary Steam Tickets at Carcross)
Doug taking down two caribou...with his bare hands...
Activities included some scary moments, such as "Hippies with Guns" aka trap shooting.
Getting in touch with my inner duck hunter...
Morning coffee...with OLD friends
SOME of my fav folks...
Yoga...a more typical hippie activity...And now...for the best picture of all, or at least the funniest, possibly the most surprising...
This is me at 18. And no, I AM NOT stoned. Honest. Pinky Swear. (Photo Rick Van Sickle 1977)Friday, July 10, 2009
Cottage Country I
Rob hard at work on the blog. I tell you, blogging can really take it out of a guy. Thank god he has Skeya to help him out with some of the work.
Henry's Fish Fry is a famous places on Georgian Bay. It is a resturant that is only accessible by boat. We got on a taxi out of Parry Sound and took at 40 minute ride to the place. The scenery and company were WAY better than the food. I guess living on the West Coast we have developed a little bit of fish snobbery.
Nice!
If you look carefully enough you can see Tom Thompson's ghost, in a canoe just off the point.
His tent is just in the shadows at the back.
Big as an ocean
End of a long day. Back at Janet's on the lake.
Skeya and Jake are NOT having ANY fun...Thursday, July 9, 2009
Ontario is Sort of Like Golf...or Fishing...
*
I am starting to get this Ontario thing. Well sort of. I remember hating fishing on the ocean and then dropping a line off of Campbell River with a good friend. I opened a beer, felt the sun on my face and realised that fishing wasn't about catching fish. I remember living on a driving range, collecting golf balls and doing my best to hit them (and not the horses then residing on the field in front as I hooked or sliced balls in every direction). I was fairly entrenched in my disdain of chasing these little balls around large over fertilized lawns. I then went golfing with friends at the Long Beach Golf Course and had a blast inventing a new system of par. (Maybe I'll call it Pargavie, but that is another story).
I have already mentioned what my Western Canadian perspective on Ontario is/was. I am getting that Ontario is like golf and fishing: it's about people, specifically hanging with people you love.
We are now at Janet's cottage. Life is good and full of love.
Lotus flower (actually it's a lily pad, but I love the Bhuddist analogy)
The buds
Happy wife, happy life
Who said you can't go home?
The lake where we are staying
The Janster
No fun allowed. More like fun aloud!
Sunsets are cool!
Life is hard (NOT!)
I am starting to get this Ontario thing. Well sort of. I remember hating fishing on the ocean and then dropping a line off of Campbell River with a good friend. I opened a beer, felt the sun on my face and realised that fishing wasn't about catching fish. I remember living on a driving range, collecting golf balls and doing my best to hit them (and not the horses then residing on the field in front as I hooked or sliced balls in every direction). I was fairly entrenched in my disdain of chasing these little balls around large over fertilized lawns. I then went golfing with friends at the Long Beach Golf Course and had a blast inventing a new system of par. (Maybe I'll call it Pargavie, but that is another story).
I have already mentioned what my Western Canadian perspective on Ontario is/was. I am getting that Ontario is like golf and fishing: it's about people, specifically hanging with people you love.
We are now at Janet's cottage. Life is good and full of love.
Lotus flower (actually it's a lily pad, but I love the Bhuddist analogy)
The buds
Happy wife, happy life
Who said you can't go home?
The lake where we are staying
The Janster
No fun allowed. More like fun aloud!
Sunsets are cool!
Life is hard (NOT!)Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Eating Ontario Crow
*
So for years, I have trashed Ontario. It's the western thing to do. Providence being what it is, I end up marrying a woman from Ontario. I glibly admit now that OK, maybe there are SOME good things that come from Ontario. Part of our year off has been dedicated to Maura showing me that, in actual fact, Ontario actually has some positive qualities. This video is taken on our first night in Ontario. I humbly admit that it is time for me to 'eat crow' and admit that yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus, and that Ontario IS quite beautiful. I open the video saying "This is me eating crow", and close with saying "I like the taste of crow". For more on eating crow, see this link.
After several attempts I couldn't get this video load as I think it was too big. I have loaded it on youtube. The video is from our first night in Ontario.
So for years, I have trashed Ontario. It's the western thing to do. Providence being what it is, I end up marrying a woman from Ontario. I glibly admit now that OK, maybe there are SOME good things that come from Ontario. Part of our year off has been dedicated to Maura showing me that, in actual fact, Ontario actually has some positive qualities. This video is taken on our first night in Ontario. I humbly admit that it is time for me to 'eat crow' and admit that yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus, and that Ontario IS quite beautiful. I open the video saying "This is me eating crow", and close with saying "I like the taste of crow". For more on eating crow, see this link.
After several attempts I couldn't get this video load as I think it was too big. I have loaded it on youtube. The video is from our first night in Ontario.
Click here to watch. This will take you to youtube. I have in addition embedded it into the blog below.
Ontario!
So we've made it. We are in Ontario. I have a wonderful video of our first campsite. It was one of the prettiest places I have been. I am trying to post it but it is too frigging big. When I find a way to shrink it I will post. Maybe youtube? Regardless, here are some photos of our time travelling across this HUGE province. Right now we are hanging with our good friend Janet at her place in cottage country, north of Toronto. Next week we're off sailing with MW's dad, Don in the North Channel. Just us and Tom Thompson's ghost!
This is the way we start off each day. Kind of nice.
Katherine's Cove on the shores of Lake Superior. The Lonely Planet said "...even if you are on a whirlwind tour, make time to stop here..." So cool. One other couple at the rest stop eating their dinner. They were from Vancouver Island.
This canyon was a bit of a drive off of the highway but worth it. Because of its orientation to the sun and the time it was formed (eons ago) it shares characteristics with the Arctic. Its ecosystem has many of the same plants etc. We ran into a fellow from Thunder Bay that hadn't been there for over 30 years. He asked if the old car was still at the bottom or had it rusted away?
Our last night along the shores of Lake Superior, just outside of Sault St. Marie. On my last trip across Canada we drove this section with valve cover gaskets made from some old corn flakes boxes. Thankfully this trip has been WAY less mechanically inclined. The only hassle has been the weather, as to turn the heat on and off, I need to crawl under the van and wire the heater boxes either open or closed. We turned the heat off in Merritt, on in Edmonton, off in Saskatoon and on again in northern Ontario. Waiting patiently to turn them off again...
This is the way we start off each day. Kind of nice.
Katherine's Cove on the shores of Lake Superior. The Lonely Planet said "...even if you are on a whirlwind tour, make time to stop here..." So cool. One other couple at the rest stop eating their dinner. They were from Vancouver Island.
This canyon was a bit of a drive off of the highway but worth it. Because of its orientation to the sun and the time it was formed (eons ago) it shares characteristics with the Arctic. Its ecosystem has many of the same plants etc. We ran into a fellow from Thunder Bay that hadn't been there for over 30 years. He asked if the old car was still at the bottom or had it rusted away?
Our last night along the shores of Lake Superior, just outside of Sault St. Marie. On my last trip across Canada we drove this section with valve cover gaskets made from some old corn flakes boxes. Thankfully this trip has been WAY less mechanically inclined. The only hassle has been the weather, as to turn the heat on and off, I need to crawl under the van and wire the heater boxes either open or closed. We turned the heat off in Merritt, on in Edmonton, off in Saskatoon and on again in northern Ontario. Waiting patiently to turn them off again...
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