Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Finally... Canada Day weekend

I am soooooo behind in my blogging! Please forgive my absence; I've been working like crazy! Where to begin...

On the weekend of July 1st I celebrated (along with Canadians everywhere) Canada Day. It was an amazing weekend shared with great friends! Something wonderful happens when Drew and I get together with our friends Mark and Lauren. Our weekends together always turn into CRAZY adventures that have us laughing so much I feel as though I've done 1000 sit-ups (...not that I even know what 20 sit-ups feel like, let alone 1000... but I digress) This weekend was no different!

It all started on Thursday June 30th; we arrived in Kitchener, where M and L live, dropped off our bags and went to the nearest LCBO (liquor store) to purchase a few libations (Independence is nothing without a little Amaretto!!) We then went to another friend’s house for some late night swimming. There are few things as enjoyable as swimming in the bluish hue of near darkness, when it’s warm outside. The place was beautiful and much drinking ensued, although now that I think about it, only the boys drank alot, much to the amusement of Lauren and myself; picture two grown men sitting in the backseat of a two door singing and giggling to the song Black Betty. The only lyrics that they knew were "Whoa, Black Betty Bam-ba-Lam Whoa, Black Betty Bam-ba-Lam" They were content enough to sing it the whole (20 min) ride home!

On Friday July 1st (Canada Day) we awoke, some more painfully than others, got ready and packed up the car for our camping trip. Our first stop was the Collingwood blue mountain area; we were going to the scenic caves to participate in an awesome eco adventure. The adventure consisted of walking on narrow planks of wood, 65 feet up in the air.

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After that we took a 300 foot zip line down to the ground. We were up in the trees for about 45 long minutes. The zip line was really the best part of the adventure (except for the pain it brought to our nether regions!) My only true sadness was that they had yet to open the 1000 foot zip line

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(They were still testing it for speed) Imagine riding that line and ending up right next to the house at the bottom... oh the joy!!!


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After the eco adventure we drove up to Tobemory to camp. We set up our site, which was basically a peninsula that you had to hike to get to. Before you all start feeling like I'm some kind of "crazy camper girl", I have to let you know that the hike was about 5 minutes, and that the grounds did have a hot tub! It was the best hybrid of camping. I truly believe that EVERY camp site should be required to have a hot tub. It was such a decadent feature, and we were in it every night! That night we all slept well.


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The next morning, Saturday the 2nd, we went into Tobermory; a beautiful coastal town that boasts one of the only Marine National Parks. There are something like 27 shipwrecks in the area that tourist come, from all over, to scuba dive and see. As none of us were certified, we decided to take a glass-bottom boat to one of the islands located in the bay. The island was called Flowerpot Island due to the cool flowerpot-like rock formations that had formed on it. On the way to the island we got to stop and see one of the shipwrecks, up close:


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If you are having trouble imagining how huge the flowerpots are, just look at how small the heads are of the people sitting next to it.

Flower Pot Island couldn't accommodate our large boat, so we had to switch to the Zodiak

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as we got closer to the island. The Zodiak was very fast and somewhat bumpy, it was only a short ride though, so I wasn't too terrified of anything terrible happening. Someone also let me know that the white thing in the back (behind the girl) is actually a second zodiak boat that inflates (like an airbag would) in the event of an accident. Truthfully, I can't say whether it made me feel better to know that if our zodiak had an accident, that we would have to get into another ZODIAK that seemed to be packed tightly onto the malfunctioning zodiak.

On the last day, Sunday the 3rd, we decided to take a slow, relaxing drive home. Whenever the four of us are together we see some of the weirdest things. Last time we hung out we saw a duck, in downtown Kitchener, sitting on her eggs. This time, we were standing on the beach (one of the pit stops on the way home) when what looked like a single bird flew right by me and landed on the sand about half a foot away from my feet. I looked down at it and realized that it wasn't a bird at all, but a small... obviously disoriented bat. I knew something must have been wrong with it, because bats don't usually fly during the day. As we all stood around staring at what looked like it's lifeless body, It suddenly moved in a way that made me positive it was about to charge at one of us. I screamed, and we all decided that it was probably time to go home. As cute and small as bats can be, it reminded us quickly of how dangerous they are.

So that was the end of my Canada Day adventures with Drew and the Doherty's! We had a blast and I'm looking forward to our next adventure together!

7 comments:

Jason said...

I got to celebrate Canada once in Niagara Falls -- a great time! I'm glad you had fun. I work for a Canadian company and have family up there, so I figure I qualify for honorary citizenship or something. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Wow - your friends Mark (and especially) Lauren sound really great! :)

Forzavryheid said...

Sounds like a good time... EXCEPT for the bat.

begins with v said...

I like the new layout of your page! And I still think you are gorgeous, even if it is not your headshot! Actually all of you in that pic are way to pretty! Must be Canadians...get ready, I'm gonna do a post on that beautiful country

Anonymous said...

Confused!! Is this a Blog or a dating service.....

Jess said...

um ok... hows your scary face comming? Cause i used it twice today and it failed...I suck. I thought that maybe if i am failing horribly then possibly you are too. ta-ta!

Paddle Out for Whales said...

Sounds great. Looks like a beautiful place. Friends like those are the best kind. There's nothing better than laughing all day long. Just looking at those pics makes me so enthusiastic about oneday coming to Canada. Lets hope its in the very near future. I'd have no idea where to go :S
How do you possibly narrow it down??? Oh and the bat thing. I would have pissed myself laughing if that came anywhere near me!!
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