July 29 to Aug 7 – To and at the Cottage

We left Letchworth State Park in New York and headed to our cottage in northern Ontario. Crossing the border at Buffalo, over the Peace Bridge, was once again very easy. The line-up going the other way, to get to US customs, was backed up all the way across the bridge. Going into Canada there were 3 cars ahead of us. A few questions and we were back.

We stopped at the house for one night, mainly to pick up our mail.

I spent rest of the afternoon pulling 3 months of accumulated weeds.

A while ago I had said that Jennie was annoyed by all the wild day lilies that she had seen because she had tried and failed to grow them at home. This is what we came home to.

She doesn’t even remember planting them here.

The back yard was the usual disaster. After all the work in the front yard, I just snipped off all the seed pods and then will deal with the rest of the plants when we get back.

The next morning we left for the cottage. My parents are going up as well. We stopped to meet them in Sudbury, as Jennie was going to drive them the rest of the way, but my Dad was still feeling pretty good so he wanted to keep going.

We will be spending 2 weeks here. My parents intend to stay 3 weeks as my sister is coming for her holidays at the end of our stay.

The family have two cottages in the area. The one we are at is from my mother’s family. My two brothers now own the one from my father’s family. On Aug 1 my father and I did the hour drive and boat ride to his family’s place.

My father’s brother’s (my uncle’s) entire family was there to have a delayed celebration of his 80th birthday. I am kicking myself because I was so busy catching up with everyone that I forgot to take any pictures of them.

My dad and I did manage to get in a ride down the lake.

This boat can really move it, with a 60+ mph top speed. It gets a bit unstable because at that speed very little (around 1 foot) of the actual boat is still in the water. It is more flying than boating. My dad and I do not go that fast. My brother and his kids, however, are speed demons.

The lake we are on has lots of little nooks and crannies to explore including a couple of very narrow sections.

It was an on and off rainy day but we somehow always managed to time it such that we were inside when the rain hit. We got some pretty strong downpours.

Near the end of the boat ride the weather looked threatening.

This is a view of the cottages from the water. My uncle’s family own the one on the left. My brothers is the green one on top of the rock with the dock down at the right.

The next day back at our place we got some interesting clouds formations as a storm front moved in.

Over the winter the mice had gotten to the boat cover so Jennie spent an afternoon making some repairs.

My cousin, whose cottage is two down from us, had some friends up to visit. On August 5 the lake looked reasonably calm so we decided to head down the shore to show them some of the pretty bays and islands.

A narrow spot that, with the water in the great lakes being so high, we have only recently been able to get through.

I think it was a mink that swam in front and then climbed onto the rocks to watch us go by.

Moving on.

Conferring over the GPS as to where the entrance to the next bay was.

There were quite a few yachts here, seeking shelter from the coming storm. The area around here is a very famous sailing destination.

The wind started to pick up along with the waves. We got into to some 4 or 5 foot swells on the way back. Our boat can easily handle them but it was a very slow and steady and bouncy ride home.

On August 7 the forecast called for light winds all day, which meant a calm lake, which meant it was time for a long boat ride.

It is about 45 km east through the North Channel to set of islands called the Benjamins, another well known destination in the area. We cruise at about 50 kph so it is about an hour each way.

Jennie wanted to sit up on the back deck so we strung a rope across for her to hang on to.

Being out in the boat is definitely one of my “Happy Places”.

We have to go through a place called Little Detroit (I have no idea why it has that name) that is normally very narrow and you have to carefully following the line made by the range markers on the shore. Not this year.

There were lots of boats of all kinds heading in each direction.

There wasn’t much wind but this guy got his spinnaker up.

The Benjamins are a set of low pink granite islands with a very scenic small channel down at the very south end. The yellow line is the start of our path home.

Preparing to land.

Anchored and heading up to the top for lunch.

There were a few other boats anchored in the channel. They were probably staying the night.

Just an amazingly beautiful place.

The bay at the entrance to the channel also had some boats overnighting.

You can barley see my cousin down at the end of the point.

Looking back out the way we had come.

Very peaceful.

We headed back down to cool off as it was quite hot up there.

Jennie likes to check out all the little pools.

Winding our way out the other end of the channel.

We didn’t quite catch the right angle but this rock looked like a whale or a walrus.

Heading home.

The sky got a bit greyer on the way but no rain.

This post is getting quite long so I will stop here for now.