at the beach...

to start the long weekend off on friday, i took a walk down to the "beach" near us. dylan had just gotten in from work at 7am, so it was just me, myself, and i. this particular "beach" is man-made, and just a tiny little thing with a handful of umbrellas and adirondack chairs. given that it was such a hot day, i headed down early in the hopes of grabbing a seat. i grabbed one of the last few available and parked myself there for about an hour. i did some people watching and then watched some of the boats go by in the water in front of me. a perfect start to the weekend.

 toes in the sand.

quenching my thirst when i got home.

a cabin adventure...

an adventure is the best i can call it. 30 minutes before we were leaving, i had my blow dryer out to take with me and dylan lets me know that there is no electricity. only propane powered. well this just keeps getting better and better doesn't it? first outhouses and now this?! i seriously considered backing out, but i went through with it. after a few hours in the car, we met up with his aunt and uncle at a friends where they park their cars, saw a couple horses which live on the farm, loaded up the atv's with all our stuff and then went on the 30 minute rocky, muddy, bumpy atv ride to the cabin. this cabin, which belongs to his aunt and uncle, sits on 220 acres of land that they own. insane. so private is an understatement. and there's a real threat for bears and moose.

when we got to the cabin, i was pleasantly surprised; it was bigger than i thought. it took his uncle and his brother 3 years to build it. there's a nice big porch, a living/kitchen area on the main floor, and an open upstairs with about 6 beds. we had s'mores, burgers, open fire cooked wings, potatoes, you know, the usual. they all enjoyed doing things like fishing and swimming in the lake. i was down for neither. plus, the weather was not fantastic. it was a little cool and i was in pants and a sweater the entire time. come sunday, i just couldn't do another day. i needed toilets, i needed clean running water to wash my hands (not lake water siphoned in), i needed electricity, and no bugs! around 1pm, we took an atv ride back to our car and back to civilization. the first stop was obviously starbucks, though we were driving for an hour before we got to one ;)

7am, not sure if i'm ready.

making friends.

looking good for the ride through the forest.

off we go!

and we've arrived.

their dog looking ever so regal. and the outhouse in the back.

peaceful.

the best part of camping.

cheers!

here's a little video which was put together using the vine app clips i took. meaning, the quality is horrible and it's quick 6 second clips!

i'm glad i went and experienced this, but it's not for me. i'll stick to fully equipped cottages and a night or two of camping on campgrounds, because at least there are washrooms! but you know, i tried.

canada eve...

we made it home from the cabin just in time yesterday to see the fireworks at the harbourfront for canada day. even though canada day is today, for some reason, they held the fireworks on what they called "canada eve", apparently they haven't had fireworks there in years and they kicked it off with concerts all day, too. when we got there, jully black was on, and we took our seats and waited. it was nowhere near as busy as fireworks at the beaches, but we agreed that they were better. they even had "I *heart* U" fireworks.

 the 'raining gold' ones are always my favorite.

the bonus was that because this is closer to us than the beaches, and there were less people, the walk home was much quicker and easier! 

ps: don't forget that today we say goodbye to google reader. you can follow along on bloglovin here.

canada day fireworks...

on canada day, we went over to my parents for a nice little bbq. it's weird being such a short drive over to them now (i'll get to the move and the new place, eventually. i'm currently tethering from my phone so i don't want to do too much on my computer until our internet is installed (the 9th!! oy). they had the whole shebang; chicken, sausage, ribs, pasta salad, fries, corn on the cob, salad, and a bocconcini/tomato/basil salad. all so delicious.

a little limoncello cheers to me being back.

after dinner, we headed back home (!!) and took a walk to the fireworks by the pier. they were a little lackluster this year, but we always enjoy going to fireworks a couple times in the summer.

 nearby train tracks on the way down.

perfect light at the sun was going down.

representing canada and 'exhausted from moving' smiles.

progression of the sun setting.

brightening the sky.


happy july!
my birthday month :)

happy canada day!

to canadian bloggers! looks like we're lucking out and getting one gorgeous day ahead of us. who knows what the plan is for me and dyl today (and chloe too), as most things are closed. but, i think we're going to go see bad teacher tonight at the movies.

last year at canada day fireworks. there was flying debris!

enjoy the long weekend

i'm off to make apple turnovers :)