Cottage Recap

I thought about splitting this into two posts, but instead have crammed it into one, so bear with me. 

Going to "the cottage" is common when you're from Toronto, but the problem is, we don't have a cottage! Since our summer holiday plans were usurped by baseball, we decided to rent a cottage for a few days at the end of August to experience cottage life for ourselves. We have often thought about buying our own place, and maybe we will someday. 

We found this place on Airbnb, located on Moon River in Bala. I love Bala, we always stop here on our way home from picking up the kids from summer camp and it's a charming little town in Muskoka. We were even more charmed by it after spending a few days here.

We left after work last Thursday and took the Hwy 11 way so we could stop at Webers. We missed going to Webers last year so we were happy to be back, it was just as delicious as we remembered. 

We drove to the cottage. Here was our view for the week.  There was a fire pit and a climbing obstacle course, with the dock down by the water.

Lovely place to spend some time. It had three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Yay, we are here!

And a little family of ducks came to see us right away, but I guess since we didn’t feed them they never came back again. 

We got ready for a fire. 

Q and I went down to the water the next morning. It was so pretty.

We got started on a puzzle.

Then we headed into town. I had forgotten my bathing suit but fortunately a lovely shop, Overboard, had some bathing suits for sale and I got a nice one (and I got it on sale since it was end of season!). 

We got some brisket from The Smokin’ Birds to take home for lunch. 

It was not super warm unless the sun was out, but we still got in for a swim. The cottage also had a sauna so we went back and forth to that a few times. 

There was a dart board as well and that provided lots of entertainment. 

It was a beautiful morning on Sunday. 

It was calm so we took the kayaks and paddleboards out. 

After lunch we went over to Splash Island and the What Wake Park. 

The kids tried out the Wakeboarding. E had done this at camp so he got to right away. Q worked hard and eventually got up for a few minutes. 

We stopped in for an ice cream cone at Jack & Stella on our way home. 

After that full day, Q was ready for a nap.

We had reservations at Turtle Jacks that night in Port Carling. We were there a little early so we walked around town for a few minutes. 

Lovely night on the patio.

Evening light.

Fire building.

Sunday morning was a little gloomy. Q and I went for a little paddle. He and Dave went to practice baseball at the Torrance ball field.

We had a quick swim and sauna and then went inside to watch the Blue Jays game. E and I picked up some dinner in town and we had another fire that evening. 

Monday was calling for rain but it held off until mid-afternoon.  We headed over to Hardy Lake Provincial Park for a hike and to try fishing in a new body of water (since we had been unsuccessful fishing off our own dock).

I saw a snake in the water but didn’t run away screaming, progress! But I was definitely on alert for any more snakes that might cross our path.  (And for bears, but we didn’t see anything else besides squirrels and chipmunks.)

Finally they caught a couple of fish, if you can call them that! Haha, but they were pleased. 

Requisite trail head photo, although it was at the end of our hike. 

Then we stopped in at Clear Lake Brewery for some nachos.

This is really what kept me going during our hike!

We got home around 3:00 so we watched our respective shows (Breaking Bad for Dave and E, Junior Bake Off for me and Q). It was definitely raining by that time of day, so we did not do a fire, and played games inside instead.

This loon was down by the water the next morning. 

I went for a kayak. We managed to get in swimming, and sauna, and started tidying up to prepare to leave the next day.

The piece de la resistance was our dinner at Jack & Stella on the dock. It was such a lovely night out there, watching the boats come and go.

Then we walked over to Windsor Park to catch the Bala water ski show. We didn’t know what to expect, but were thoroughly entertained. this show has been happening every Tuesday night in the summer for 54 years. It showcases competitive water skiers and some local daredevils!  This was the last show of the season so we were very happy we got to see it.

We got home and made the last fire of the trip. E and I were the last to head in, I didn’t want to let go of summer.

The next morning we packed up and hit the road. 

What I really liked about this cottage holiday is that we spent time on “restorative” activities. I read somewhere recently that watching a fire is good for the brain, the “campfire effect”, look it up, and it occurred to me that watching and listening to the water, working on a puzzle, paddling, fishing, those are all meditative activities that we don’t spend time doing during the rest of the year. Maybe that is enough reason on its own to buy a cottage… ;)