The Busiest Weekend EVER

I mentioned before we had a crazy busy summer.  Hockey, pool parties, trip to the beach, movies, DVD marathons, cottageing, etc...  Last summer I felt like we didn’t do anything!  This summer we were kept super busy.  I always view the start of the school year (even though I am no longer in school and don’t have kids who need to go back to school) as the unofficial end to summer.  It’s now Fall in my head.  With that being said, a few of my blog entries have a “What I did this past summer” vibe, very back to school-esque.

Last weekend we dubbed “The Busiest Weekend EVER.”

Christopher Loyd!

Friday we headed up to Torontofor Fanexpo.   We met up with two of our friends and I took off with them while my husband got his comic nerdom on.  Our friends left after an hour or two and headed up to the cottage.  (We were meeting them up there!)  Hubby and I walked around for five hours total checking out the diehards’ costumes, the celebrities and the merchandise.  Christopher Loyd actually made me gasp out loud and squeal

like a little girl “It’s Christopher Loyd!”

Lou Ferrigno was also another highlight of mine as he is an impressive looking dude. He walked by us and I had my camera in my hand that I forgot about until just as he passed by, resulting in this awesome blurred extreme close up of his neck. Haha.


Lou's Neck

The husband and I finally left for dinner of a hot dog and fries and ate at our car.  We didn’t leave yet as we had to head back down the road to see BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.

Seeing Bruce Springsteen perform was on both of our bucket lists.  And let me tell you, he did not disappoint.  He played for 3 hours and 45 minutes.  Bruce is so awesome, he seems to genuinely have fun up on stage and he seemed so appreciative of his fans.  We left at the 3 and a half hour mark to avoid the crowd.  Bucket List Cross Off!

Leaving at 11:30 pm from Bruce’s concert (we’re on first name basis with him now); we drove up to Haliburton as we were generously invited to our friends’ friends’ cottage.  (Confused?)  It took us close to three hours and we arrived at 2:30am.  We kept our eyes peeled for wild animals but the only thing we spotted was a small fox scampering across the road.  When we got to the cottage, our friends were up waiting for us and showed us around a bit.  We were placed in a cute, very clean and tidy room and collapsed into a super comfy bed. 

After a few hours of sleep I was up bright and early!  I am always an early riser, no matter how late I get to bed; I am up by 7am at the latest.  On a regular day I am up at 5:30 am, sometimes earlier … bah.  My Mom is the same so I inherited it.  I had something else to blame it on this weekend, WE WERE UP NORTH!!! 

Up North Hot Chocolate Cup, I fill you up!

Growing up, my family went “Up North” every year, we went until we were in our twenties and co-ops and jobs got in the way.  We used to go to Algonquin Parkor Haliburton or Parry Sound.  This is my favourite place, my first true love.  It’s always a rejuvenation for me.  I am an outdoors girl at heart.  Nothing makes me happier then dawning something plaid and going for a hike or fishing or swimming or visiting bears at a dump!  This is my thing!

I was the first one up so off I went exploring.  I brought my Up North Hot Chocolate Cup with me.  My Mom had 4 of these mugs and every year she brought them Up North as they are plastic and travel well.  Hot chocolate has to go in them, it’s the rule.  

I filled up said hot chocolate cup and explored the cottage yard and headed across the road to the lake.  It was so beautiful, a nice cool and crisp morning.

Surprisingly, when I got back at around 9 am, my Hubby was up.  I explored the cottage a little, it was beautiful.  Beautiful antiques and cozy modern pieces all with a homey vibe, super clean and tidy, WITH air conditioning!  This is my favourite way of “roughing” it!  Our friends rolled out soon after and we breakfast-ed on cereal, showered and headed out for a drive.  They showed us the sights and took us in downtown Haliburton proper.  It is BEAUTIFUL.  It’s like Niagara-on-the-Lake but better as it’s not swarming with people, but they seem to invest in the gardens like in NOTL.  I should have brought my camera, but left it at the cottage. 

It was warming up nicely so we returned to the cottage for lunch and then we headed down to the lake for a swim and kayaking.  I have canoed before, but had yet to kayak.  I have never had the opportunity, but also, kayaking has always made me nervous as your body is IN the boat.  I can swim but the thought of being trapped in the boat creeps me out.  I am not sure what the technical difference was, but these kayaks had large openings so I didn’t feel trapped at all, in fact I liked it way better then canoeing because you sit flat on the bottom of the boat, making it far less tippy then being in a canoe.   Hubby had never kayaked either, and he was hooked.  First he and I went out and then he went back out with our friend.  We stayed down by the water for a few hours and returned to the cottage.

My lack of sleep finally caught up to me, so I took an hour nap and when I woke up we BBQ’d homemade hamburgers.  After dinner, Hubby and I drove to the dump in hopes to see bears.  He has never been “Up North” so I wanted to make sure he experienced the whole thing.  Our family’s tradition was always to go to the “Drive In” to see bears. The dump was closed to viewing.  Bah.  So we returned to the cottage and grabbed our friends who lead us for a drive for the world’s greatest ice cream.  Along the way a black bear raced across the road in front of us!  I love bears and was glad Hubby got a chance to see one in the wild.  We arrived to the Kawartha Dairy.  I had a “small” Crème Brule and Wolf Paws ice cream.  Crème Brule made me swoon, I could have eaten another. 



Creme Brule on top, so amazing!

We returned to the cottage for a Wii dance competition.  We laughed so hard that my belly hurt.  (I was prohibited from taking pictures)

The next morning I was up early again and headed down to the lake.

When I returned we tidied up, showered and Hubby and I left early.  We had something to do, CROSS ANOTHER ITEM OFF MY BUCKET LIST!!!  (I will have to devote a whole other entry as I had waited 25 years to do this item so I want to devote more time to talking about it.)

We spent 1.5 hours crossing off my bucket list item and headed towards the highway on our way home.  One last stop entailed WEBERS.  If you are from Ontario, chances are you have eaten at Webers at least once in your life.  Hubby had never tried them and I haven’t had Webers in about ten years, I dream of their burgers, so we had to stop.  Funny as even though we left at separate times, we crossed the bridge and we saw our friends who just got in line and were waving to us so we got to have lunch with them!  Hubby had his first Webers burger, he said they were ok.  I on the other hand swooned as they were just as I remembered!  *Wipes drool from chin.

We headed back on the highway to be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour.  But we brought a yummy dessert!  My mom had long since established that Oh Henrys are the “Up North” chocolate of choice.  For some reason, every time we would go up north, she craved an Oh Henry, and upon mentioning that she could really go for one, the rest of us would go “Man, that sounds good” so we would get one too.  Ah, family traditions, how I love thee, especially when you involve chocolate.  Or food.   

It was a great weekend.  Great friends.  Great food.  Great times.   Ridiculously busy.