I Love Muskoka

I LOVE Muskoka...I could move there in a minute.  I love it's lakes, it's quaint shops...

it's delicious food, it's amazing dedication to carrying on Tom Thomson's beauty, ahhhh.

Home On The Blue

More from the water...

 



Can I just say again, how much I adore my kayak and these views!

Adventures In Kayaking

It started out as a very beautiful day to be out on the water...
sunny and lovely but not too hot...smooth as glass water that sparked like diamonds...
Perfection.
We just had a busy morning and a yummy lunch out and were ready to be out in our boats.
For it's no secret at all that being on the quiet water with my favorite person in the world
is definitely one of my happiest places.
(we just wish we could bring a bunny or two along as well, ha ha!)

 

 

My love saw a big beautiful grasshopper afloat in the middle of the water

and he stopped to pull it out of the water...(heart flutters enter here).

The grasshopper crawled to the front of his boat and dried off and stayed there the whole journey...

(just one example of why after 20 years this guy still makes my heart flutter and beat fast, ha ha)
I picked up my own passenger about an hour later, so there we were paddling away,
both with a green grasshopper sunning themselves on the front of our kayaks!
They only jumped off when we were close to an island shore...so awesome, ha ha.

There were hundreds of tiny turquoise blue dragonflies darting about the lily pads...

they were so pretty...also apparently to quick to catch a shot of!

 

The world seemed to turn off for long long peaceful wind swept moments...

 

 

All that seemed out and about was us, the dragonflies,
the sound of our paddles slicing through the water,
the grasshoppers & an osprey who spotted lunch in the middle of the reeds.

 

 

All was quiet...

until my love was deep in the reeds looking for a pathway to the main lake...

when a deafening, sudden and very scary crashing sound of grass & water parting

by very heavy and possibly very angry hooves rushed towards my honey!!!

He was rushed by a moose!

We couldn't believe it...it was terrifying and quite unbelievable.
Our hearts were going like mad...
it happened so quickly and coming right out of the peaceful quiet, was quite jerking!
It took my brain a few seconds to put together what was happening...my brain processed it like this...
Big crashing sound...
something huge...
something huge heading straight for Jon...
where's Jon?...
where's JON...
then seconds later my breathing began again as my love emerged from the tall grass...
paddling harder than ever before!

Lesson learnt!...if the reeds are too thick to see through, DON'T paddle through them!!!
What are the odds though!  holy crap!

 



 THAN the water turned and got really chopped

with these big rolling waves that made me want to puke big time

(and I am a massive suck when it comes to being nausea!)

but we still had about 2 hours to paddle back to the shore & truck!

My shoulder started to pain and pull and than a bad headache set in making the pukiness even worse!

My sweet love wanted to tow me but that didn't work too well cause the water was too rough...

and well let's admit it, I was just too stubborn and was determined to get back on my own steam.

 

And we did....soaked and abit chilled despite the skirts.

The waves brought us in for a crash landing against each other on the shore, but we didn't care, ha ha
we were just happy to have hit the beach finally!

We flopped on our backs on the sandy beach, exhausted...
The solid unmoving earth wicking away my nausea...

We laid there letting the evening wind dry us off as the setting sun turned all around us golden.

We retold the moose & reeds scene over and over to one another...
until we realized we were starving & it was time to head home to feed us & the bunnies...all in all

...another perfect day of kayaking indeed. 

 

Kayaks

We've wanted to get kayaks for years now

and everything happily aligned just right a couple weeks back

that allowed us to find the perfect ones for us.

Up until then every time we looked, nothing ever worked out...nothing felt quite right.

This time not only was the decision on which kind of kayak seem super smooth, but also the timing

was perfect & the price just right AND we also got the custom roof rack we needed for the Jeep too.

Cherry on top type of stuff, ha ha.

 

We've been having sooo much fun & are out on the water every chance we get

and oh what adventures we are having together.

Since we can't travel anywhere this summer because of the new bunnies...

this fills our wanderlust beautifully.

 

We chose a hybrid kayak and we're so happy with that decision.

They are a cross between a touring (which is what you normally see)

and a white water rafting one...

which was perfect when our glass smooth lake suddenly turned into 2 foot swells the other night!

We can enjoy smooth water but also do class 3 rapids with these guys.  Wohoo, ha ha.

I am so excited to have a kayak finally.  I am now a Kayaker...ha ha.

 

I was super worried about my bad shoulder and my bad wrist BUT both seem to love the motion.

And those close to me know that being near water always heals & centers me...

so being right out there smack dab in the middle of it is even better....Wow.....

I am a HAPPY GIRL.



Toronto With My Munchkin

A few weeks back Jonathan & I took my niece to Toronto for 3 days.

We had a complete & utter ball.  I can't resist sharing some photos here on my blog of course.

We stayed with my best friend Judit & her fam.
It was great for me to have my niece get to know my 2nd family.  She was a star with their 2.5 year old.

We started the busy 3 day adventure with the Toronto zoo.
I took over 1000 photos!
I have something special planned for all the animal ones so I won't show you those ones quite yet!

 We went on a ferry...

We spent a whole super fun & tiring day playing about, biking around
& enjoying a festival area on the Center Island...

We took Karly to the C.N. Tower & for a stroll through the tallest buildings of the city...

 



We took her to my old stomping grounds, to see where her Auntie went to college, at OCAD...

 

We took her on the subway several times and to the Rainforest Cafe...

 

and of course for some shopping at the Yorkdale mall...

She's already getting too busy to spend time with her Auntie...she's growing so fast.
Special times with each other like this are more important & precious then ever.

She counted over 18 'first-time' things over the 3 days, ha ha...
First time on a subway, first time at the CN Tower, first time on an escalator...fun fun fun.

I don't want kids of my own but I LOVE being an Auntie
& I LOVE LOVE LOVE this little Munchkin of mine. She's so special.

Interested in a few more shots from our city adventure?  Just check out my Flickr photo stream.

Cave Spelunking

Some adventuring and fun was recently had.

My honey and I with a friend of ours all went cave spelunking together.

It was great fun and quite physical.  My legs were so tired the day after I could barely walk, ha ha.

Jonathan and I had ventured to this spot years ago when we were in college...

but it was so fun to revisit it.

There is one part called "Fat Man's Misery", a crevice that snakes through the rock

and is only 14" at it's widest opening...it took me a few attempts to get through.

It was such a mental experience, if you panic, your chest expands and you get stuck really fast.

Apparently alot of people do get stuck and require help to get out...

I had made it through this same crevice years ago
but I admit, I was quite abit slimmer back then, ha ha...

But I persevered and made it through then turned back around and did it again, ha ha.

I was so proud of myself.

 

I just wanted to share my favourite photos from a great day.  Thanks for hopping in.
My scanner is on the fritz again hence the lack of artwork...but hopefully I'll get it sorted out soon.