Weekend Trip!

A weekend off is a big event here at the Goodwin household. No running around mad trying to get my tie on correctly, no frantic battery charging or name memorization before a wedding.

Instead, we like to rewind and recoup by going away camping for the weekend. This involves running around mad trying to get everything packed, frantically charging batteries for holiday photos, and stressfully deciding on which books to bring, podcasts to update, and playlists to include on the iPod.

This weekend was originally going to be a backtrekking trip up to Alonquin Park. When we called the good people at Parks Ontario, they told us that we had to find somewhere else to do our recouping, so we looked elsewhere, only to find out that everywhere else pristine would be crowded with weekenders whose only purpose in the grand scheme of things was to ruin our mood.

Anyway, in the end we just decided to go and see where we ended up, having the general idea that we would car camp at a provincial park or conservation area somewhere in a general northerly direction.

To the left you will see us ready to go, not knowing where we will end up and quite happy about it all. It is here....that our story....begins....










It is here....where our story....stops for a minute to check the map.












We had found ourselves in Port Elgin for Dinner....unsure of what was next, but figuring we'll watch the sunset at the beach. Our waitress had something else in mind....basically to take an eternity to get us our food and subsequently earn a meager tip from the disgruntled wanderers unable to watch our celestial light bringer drop below the horizon next to a large body of fresh water.

From here we headed north, and were rejected by every campground we came across. Bereft of any dwelling place, we kept heading north until I came across a wee piece of information in the deep recesses of my memory: my uncle has a cottage very close to a town we were heading to. We headed in the general direction fearing our long shot would result in us sleeping on the side of the road in cottage country, only to be eaten by a bear or some hungry Torontonians who had fought traffik all day. Alas, with some handy info. from our good friends Aimee and Nick back home whose good friends had a cottage up the dirtroad from my uncles, we found what we were looking for...sort of.

For those of you who know me, you will know that I am related to about 1/3 of all human beings West of Toronto (and 1/5 of those east). I knew that my mothers extended family had a cottage right next to my own uncles, and I immediately recognized it as we drove down the dark road. (We hadn't yet found my uncles place). Anyway, we stopped in front of this cottage and I figured I had a good chance of being related to the people we saw sitting inside, so I walked up and introduced myself as the Son of Pat Hazzard/Goodwin/Waring (her three last names) so they spared us and let us set up our tent on their front lawn.



Here is Julie attacking herself in front of the cottage as we set up our tent that night. This was done with a long shutter, and a flashlight!






So it turns out this little corner of my extended family are the most hospitable folks you could ever find, and they invited us to stay for breakfast the next day, and my second cousin Sarah (26 years old, beautiful, and single), their daughter enjoyed respite from all the oldness around her. We got up the next morning and had a full omelete breakfast, followed by a tour of my uncles cottage which is under construction.



<--This is their dog maggie.

-->This is my Mom's cousin Bob (who welcomed us in the night before) climbing to the observation deck of my uncle Dave's cottage.





<-- This is my uncle Dave giving us the grand tour of 'Le Chateau Hassard' under construction



--> This is Rufus, who gave me an excuse to play with my new camera.




After this, the young ones (Amber, Trina, Julie, Sarah, and myself) drove up to Cyprus lake to hike and take a dip in rocky Georgian Bay at the grotto. Just below are the girls getting underway.


Here we are after a frigid swim through a cave formed by many a wave hitting the rocks. Pic taken by Amber...


<-- Here we have Amber posing for a shot after our swim. --> This is my cousin Sarah chillaxin on a rockface....foshizzle.




Alas, my family's hospitality knew no bounds this weekend, as they invited us to have dinner with them that very evening. This motivated us to leave the beauty of Cyprus Lake area and head back to the cottage. We would have liked to stay longer, but were drawn by the thought of a full fledged roast beef dinner!


<--Here is Julie and I on our way back to ROAST BEEFness We arrived back to a house full of people preparing. There were some new faces, including my Mother's-cousin's-wife's brother (no joke)....

--> Here he is. He came with several bottles of wine that he had made himself....all of which was wonderful. He was also suffering from a bad case of 'dog-jaw' which he accidently passed on to Trina (you'll have to ask her what the symptoms are, and how she got it from this guy). There were about 18 or so people at this dinner, and we were blown away by how welcome we were made to feel. We kept joking on how lucky we ended up and told them all that we were pretty sure we would be up every other weekend for the rest of the summer.

So, for a 'spontaneous' weekend, things ended up going pretty good! You gotta love family! It was such a great experience and will be remembered for a long time.
Sorry for the long post. Later