Le Weekend au style Canadien

Its been a couple of years since we visited the Muskoka region north of Toronto but our friends Daina and Byron most kindly invited us to visit for the weekend, a long weekend as it turns out.  This meant that the traffic on the way up the highway past Huntsville was very busy (on the way back too).  We found a car hire firm on the 5th floor of the Eaton Centre which was very convenient for us … something to remember for the future … and hired a Toyota Corolla, considered a Midsize car, which after all the big vehicles we'd hired lately felt very small indeed.

Amazing how quickly you adapt from small to big without making an intermediate jump through Middling.

Byron was very hospitable welcoming us with wonderful Margeritas… and kept them coming.  This was wonderful of course but did mean a certain slowness in the brain the following day.

However we also managed a quick boat ride where Byron's daughter Rowena amazed me by her skill on a surf board that danced along the top of the wake from the boat… some 6 feet behind the boat itself.

I had a go and proved that an older guy who can barely swim and is equally inept on skis can potentially do serious damage to himself on a surf board.

Going… well almost...

… Going...

… Gone

But my goodness the mosquitos were out in force.  Apparently this year they are in biblical proportions as the lakes, rivers and swamps around are all very full indeed.

We managed some tennis the following day and another boat trip where Viv this time humiliated me on the surf board (to be expected) and as Byron didn't feel like getting wet he simply stepped onto his board and generally showed off in most unbecoming style.

Mind you he fell in and Daina towed him back to the dock during which he had to hold his trunks up, hang on to the rope at the back of the boat and wave cheerily to his holidaying and partying neighbors all the way back.  Serves him right!

But again this was a lovely weekend in the country… even with the bugs.