From Hank's Cottage to Hotel California

I'm living in the Muskoka area which is often called Cottage Country. You only have to look if you're cruising on the Segwun or Winona to see why. Cottages dot the shoreline! As well as the big lakes there are around 1600 lakes in the Muskoka and no matter how large or small each of the lakes seems to be surrounded by cottages. They vary from small and simple to very ornate and extremely expensive with owners varing from Goldie Hawn and Steve Yzerman to Gravenhurst friends. And no matter who owns the cottage it is always called "The Cottage"! 

As luck might have it an invitation had been extended to me to come out and visit "The Cottage"! It wasn't an invitation from an ex hockey player or an actor but from people of substance! You see I had been invited to come out and visit Barb and Hank's cottage to look around, have a swim and to have dinner at "the Cottage"!!

Hank's family had owned their cottage for many years and it was situated on Muldrew Lake which is just south of Gravenhurst. Hank had arranged for Ron and Barb Riddell to collect me which was fortuitous as on reflection there would have been a fairly good chance of me becoming misplaced... So what was the Smith's cottage and Muldrew Lake like?????

And with good food, good wine and good friends, what was my Cottage experience like??? 

Good?

 No way,

 it was GREAT!!!!

After the day's exercise (swimming, walking, riding and yoga) I had a very good sleep. Although on reflection it may have had something to do with the relaxing night I enjoyed at the Cottage!!! 

It was lucky I had slept so well as according to the notice I received from Multisport Canada the Gravenhurst Triathalon was on. I was not really certain why I would receive the notice, although I had recovered fairly well from my bike/ tennis/ stair falls. 

Australian's are known to be fairly good at Triathalons so I figured that the organisers were looking to add an International competor of note to raise the profile of the event. 

Then I had a closer look at the notice!

Actually what I did was that I turned the notice over and read it properly. 

http://www.msctriathlon.com/ms/events/showevent.cfm?showEventID=118

Sarah Street was one of the roads that would be used as part of the cycling leg.  I guess I'll have to wait for another day to hear the "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" chant!!!It was neat to have a cycling event going past the front door maybe in a few years we'll do a house exchange to France. Or maybe we'll just go back to South Australia for the Tour Down Under.

One big change to life over here has been that Gravenhurst, the Muskoka, Ontario and indeed all of Canada has discovered summer. Now if only there was a beach and some cool Far South Coast water or maybe just a hint of the summer nor-easter that cools our afternoons at home. Oh well I guess I need to take note of my favourite hockey chant and "suck it up princess"! 

As I was going over these thoughts a neighbour came over to remind me of a fundraiser that was happening nearby http://www.nachoaverage.ca/events/pedal-for-parkinsons/ 

My one regular Multiple Sclerosis related activity in Canada is to go to a monthly support group meeting for people with Parkinson's Disease and MS. And I had to travel all of 40 metres to go to the fundraiser. Too easy!! It was also good to meet my neighbours. And even better was the offer to go canoeing with Graham and the offer of a canoe to use when Julie returns.

Next day, although there was more cycling my thoughts were in a different area from sport and I headed north to Bracebridge and the Muskoka Arts & Crafts summer show. http://www.muskokaartsandcrafts.com/Summer_Show/summer_show.htm 

I had been warned about the heat at this show. The heat is not because of the exhibitions or exhibitors but because it is one of the few areas of the Muskoka that isn't surrounded by trees. I was the first person there and felt like one of the punters at the Great Southern Blues Festival when I was told you can't come in until the show opens.

When I got in, right at 10am the show was amazing, there was anything and everything and lots of it was very good. Unfortunately as the temperature was heading toward 35C (95F) I was feeling my body start to wilt. Although I would have liked to head for the relative cool of 460 Sarah North I had one last stop to make at the arts & crafts fair. The stop was at mmmmy favourite basket maker.....

Leslie's baskets are in a word - GOOD! And the friendship Leslie and Peter have given Julie and I, is even better. As JJJJJimmy MMMMcGrath would say it's nice meetin nice people! 

On my return to the cool of 460 Sarah St I expected to basically do nothing much in the afternoon and then slow down in the evening. But I should have known better!

At about 6pm I received a phone call from Diane, who is another that fits the Jimmy McGrath description. Diane wanted to know whether I was interested in going to the Music on the Barge concert that night.

So 7pm found us walking along with a big crowd on our way to listen to Hotel California. http://hotelcalifornia.ca/ I'm not a huge fan of tribute bands but these guys had good voices, harmonised well and the venue's great. I did notice a lot of people singing along!!!