Cottage trip 2012, huzzah!

I’m back from the cottage! I think this was my longest visit, 10 days. Totally could have stayed up later. This was a very interesting trip...

First interesting thing: the trip up. As T was already up there, I flew up to Sudbury on Saturday. I highly recommend flying with Porter – this was my first trip with them and I found it very comfortable, check-in and security was smooth, the cabin crew were dressed smartly (great throwback ’60s uniforms) and the flight itself was quick and relaxing with complimentary snacks and drinks.

We got what we needed in Sudbury and then were off to the cottage – which is more than an hour’s drive from there plus 15 minutes on the boat. There’s a stretch of lake that gets quite shallow close to the cottage, so to avoid bottoming out we’ve always had to go through either full-tilt or super slow, and we opt for full-tilt every time... but this trip the water level was way down from last year (overall, over the past dozen years I’ve seen the water drop by more than two feet, maybe closer to three), so far down that we dinged the propeller on a rock on the way in: the days of going in hot are over. Then the next surprise: T’s brother was there, camping out on the lawn with his tent and big dog. Big dog. Lovely dog, to be sure, but it meant the kitties weren’t able to go out, poor guys – they paced and grumbled quite a bit about that. Anyway, dinner was made, drinks were mixed and videos were watched – and I actually don’t remember much of it, that’s how much LawnGuyLand I had...

The next few days were mostly lazy – the massive amount of wind on Sunday (coming mostly from completely the wrong direction) brought the water level even farther down and exposed a lot of beach, but more dramatically it brought down a massive branch onto a stretch of fence in the back, demolishing the section (T and his bro then got to be impressive guys and bring down another iffy branch with an anchor on a rope, such boys). Tuesday was kind of perfect, with some relaxing and some swimming and some shooting stars while lying on the dock at 3am (and that was the last clear night of the trip, which is super irritating because we plan this trip around the Perseid shower *shakes fist*)... Also T’s computer and my Runabout decided they didn’t like each other any more so we couldn’t access the 300G of TV and movies we’d brought up, so frustrating! We had Fringe DVDs though so we were rescued *phew*

On Wednesday T’s bro and his dog headed back to the city so the kitties got to go out, they were so happy! I decided to be helpful and do some weed ripping on the beach, which turned out to be a bad idea as I had a low blood sugar/low blood pressure/mild heatstroke moment and had to throw in the towel and lay on the floor for a while. And I still feel guilty about it, of course. Better by dinner, but took it easy with the boozahol that night.

The next day we went into town to do more groceries, stock up on Canadian Tire stuff and visit the Futureshop, where we discovered there was nothing wrong with the Runabout and it was probably a laptop issue, so we bought some more DVDs (have you seen The River? Awesome!) and then went for some boating supplies – including a new propellor, as the boat was already on the spare, and a new anchor, as T’s brother had to cut one loose while fishing. When we got back we tried out the Runabout again, with more patience, and found we could copy some stuff off it to the laptop a bit at a time, so we finally had variety again! And we discovered two things about LawnGuyLand Iced Tea: a) gingerale is a superior substitute for coke, and 2) it’s called a Flint Michigan Iced Tea when you do that. Mmmm...

So The Boy drove in on Friday and we boated into town to get him – and dinged the prop again. Bad. The water level was down another two inches at least that morning (at least six since I arrived the previous Saturday), so we were going out super slow for a really long way, but the prop just ticked a rock and lost a huge chunk, and we had to go the whole way into town super slow, which doubled our travel time. Good thing we got that prop in town the day before! And that we’d left it in the boat rather than bringing it in with the groceries! The guys at the dock swapped it out for us while we did laundry. A bit extra chilly that night too so we had a fire while we watched movies and tv.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful – bbq dinners, drizzle and sun, reading and music, Cards Against Humanity, bocce, a few deer fly bites, watching the terns fishing, Flint Michigans and late-night viewings. So melancholy on Monday when The Boy and I packed up to go home! At least the water level was up again, higher than when I arrived, so we were past the rocks faster this time. We stopped and got fish & chips before heading out, so glad we did. Our drive was uneventful and quick – we did stop for petrol at one point and saw the tiniest and the largest stop signs ever right across the street from each other, which made us laugh.

So today I was very glad I’d decided to take the day off – I’ve spent the day catching up on Drop Dead Diva and doing laundry, and soon I’ll be on my way to darts. Back to work tomorrow!