thanksgiving hike...

on saturday morning, we woke up at my parent's house ready for a nice thanksgiving dinner later on. to pass some time, we decided to go on a hike. hamilton just happens to be the waterfall capital of the word (seriously) and since it had been years since we had been to webster's falls, that's where we decided to go.

after we chose the location, i remembered that that place was the very first hike i ever went on, and dylan was the one to take me. the year was 2006 and we took pictures in front of the falls; when i posted them on facebook, a bunch of people joked that they looked like engagement photos. we found that pretty funny, considering we weren't even officially dating yet.

almost there!

misty rainbows.

since i still have the picture of us in front of the falls hanging in my room at my parent's, i took a picture of it before we left so that we could try to recreate it. we had to wait a bit for people to leave the area, and it took a bit to find the perfect rock to place the phone on without it tipping over, but we got pretty darn close! (and thank you to the iphone 6 finally having a timer!!)

the original - such babies back in november 2006.

october 11, 2014. a little older, a little grayer, but we're still cute ;)

the hike was a perfect start to a weekend of stuffing our faces with mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted veggies, pies, and more. and now that thanksgiving has passed, it's basically christmastime, right?

algonquin provincial park...

early saturday morning, we grabbed a cup of coffee and headed out to algonquin to check out the fall colours. while i knew it would be busy since the colors were in 'peak', i was just not expecting it to be thaat busy. we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for nearly 2 hours in a lineup to get to the park's information station where everyone had to get parking permits. because of that, we got there much later than we were expecting and couldn't do the full trail we wanted to - the centennial ridges trail. it's classified as 'difficult' and is supposed to take 3 hours; however, because we were only starting our walk at 2:30, we knew we wouldn't finish it before it got dark, and i did not want to be stuck in a huge park in the dark.

we did what we could and managed to still see some great sprawling views. in my opinion, the trees are a lot nicer looking and much more vibrant driving through the park on highway 60 rather than once you're hiking the trails. regardless, it was still beautiful and just amazing to look out and see a never-ending sea of trees. i really had my hopes up that we would see a moose, but alas, we saw no wildlife, unless you count a chipmunk.

dylan really prepared us for the worst. yes, that's bear spray.

along the highway.

that's us!

oh canada.

i mean, really...

wine stop.

hello, is anybody out there?

chilling the wine in a creek.

i think we'll plan our next visit for the summer and maybe stay in a cabin. that way we have a lot more time to explore the park. it really is beautiful, though. it's approximately a 4 hour drive from downtown toronto and a definite recommendation. 

bluest of blues; tobermory...

oh tobermory, what can i say about you besides the fact that you are so incredibly beautiful and amazing. although the area where we spent most of our time isn't technically tobermory, it's the bruce peninsula national park, i think most people generalize it all as tobermory. even though it's a 3.5 hour drive away, we knew we probably wouldn't get there for an overnight trip this summer, so we decided to take a friend and just make it a day trip. the friend we took just moved here from the uk about 2 months ago (his girlfriend was working and couldn't make the trip), and we've only known them for about a month. he was laughing that we considered 3.5 hours to be a day trip and said that he could drive across the uk in that amount of time!

i didn't know a whole lot about tobermory going into this trip, just that it's been a place i had wanted to get to for years. i knew there was a grotto and crystal clear water. gps first took us about a 20 minute drive further than we intended, but we did get to see a lighthouse, the beautiful water and make a sandwich on the side of the road. once we figured out how to get to the grotto, we drove there only to find that the park rangers were turning everyone away because the parking lot was full! (note: it's part of the bruce peninsula) they told us to try again in a bit, and in the meantime we went to a nearby beach called the "singing sands", which was ridiculously windy and a little cold. after about an hour, we tried to get a parking spot again to no avail. we went to the bank and tried again. still no luck. by this time it was about 4:30. the rangers told us that we could just keep circling if we wanted, so that's what we did. after going by them about 5 or 6 times, they finally told us there was a spot available! once we parked,  we had a 45 minute hike ahead of us to the final destination of the grotto and indian head cove. it's quite a nice flat walk along the lake, until you get to the end; then you're scaling rocks and climbing up and down cliffs. but, it is so worth it. this place is absolutely beautiful and i had no idea that a place with water this clear existed in ontario, let alone only 3.5 hours from toronto. and bonus, there's no fish, not even minnows!! well, i'm sure there are when it drops off and the water gets darker blue, but not in the clear part.

ready for a complete photo overload?! it was all too pretty to narrow down.

country roads and clouds along the way.

#arewethereyet?

lots of tourists at tobermory!

 first time laying eyes on the clearest water i've ever seen.

seriously though, are we in the caribbean? 

 singing sands beach.

 sand bottoms and shallow water.

along the 45 minute walk (once we parked) to indian head cove and the grotto.

 the beautiful indian head cove.

 trying to find how we get to the grotto; not easy.

 time to head into the FRIGID 65 degree georgian bay water.

 new best friends haha

 it was weird going into water that cold. my body could handle it, but it actually took my breath away and i had a hard time breathing for a few minutes. i think the coldness shocked my organs ;)

 oh, here come some waves.

tearin' me down. the slippery rock bottom was the main culprit.

 loving life.

:)

i think it's high time i stop here and leave the grotto for monday's post. it was so crazy and cool, so of course i got snap happy!