July 14th: Canadian visit with the Petersons

View from the lake house balcony

Timing worked out well following the North Channel trip. The Rahns dropped me off on their way to Toronto and Cindy picked me up to take me back to their place in time for Liam's 8th grade graduation. Nick and Niki, Randy and Cindy's kids, have a lake house they rent. It's within walking distance and is very nice. Erica, Tom and Eve (Randy and Cindy's other daughter's family) was staying at the lake house and I was invited to stay there also. Plenty of room.

I had a very nice bedroom with a view of the back yard

Liam and Nick

Nick was helping Liam with his dress shoes. Both were looking pretty fine!

Liam and Mea

Liam and Mea looked great! I thought back to one of the earlier years when we first met. Hard to believe the time went by so fast. They are now a young man and a young woman. Here are some pictures from August, 2017. Liam and Mea were very close to Linda. They loved playing Mario cart and cards together. Randy, Cindy and I still talk about how much fun it was to be outside the boat with the three of them screaming while playing Mario Cart. We enjoyed traveling with them. Very good memories.

Liam, Linda and Mea - 2017

Mea and Liam at Coboconk - 2017

Here are some more family pictures 

Randy Liam and Cindy

Liam and Mom Niki

Cindy, Mea, Nick, Liam, Eve, Randy, Niki, Eve& Tom 

Liam and cousin Eve

The graduation was more enjoyable than I expected. The 8th graders gave very good remarks and Liam won the annual sportsman award.

Next we spent a couple days at the Lake house. Liam wanted to play golf for his graduation and had received a new set of clubs from Nick and Niki. I said I would played but warned everybody it had been a long time and I was never proficient. No one cared. We had a good time.

There was work installing a new railing and a project to bring the boat dock closer to shore. Flooding had moved it out. 

We all enjoy playing cards and games. I learned a new game, 3 & 13. It was fun.

Cindy, Mea, Nick, Liam, Eve, Randy, Niki, Eve & Tom 

Everything was accomplished and it was time for Erica and Tom to go back to Harrisburg. Eve was staying with us to spend a week at Lake Temagami 

On our way north, we stopped to see Nick and Niki's and Randy and Cindy's new houses which are close to completion. It has a beautiful view and the homes are going to be spectacular.

We drove up to Lake Temagami in the rain, about a 2 hr drive. Fortunately, the rain stopped just before we loaded the boat and headed to the island. It was fun to return. Rain and clouds were forecast for Sunday and Monday but the forecast is unreliable.

We tried fishing off the dock at the guest house but caught only a few small bass. Eve likes to fish but hadn't learned to cast yet. I showed her how and she picked it up very quickly.

It turned out the forecast for Sunday was correct. Lots of rain and it was chilly. Randy, who is always hot, even built a fire in the buck stove. It felt good. Nick andNiki said they were going to take to boat into the marina and drive to the LCBO because they forgot to bring Bailey's liqueur. Also needed a few grocery items. The websites said they were open. 

We arrived and found both were closed. Given it was a rainy day, Niki called Marten River to see if they were open. They were and had Bailey's liqueur. We decided to drive the 40 minutes.

 The main reason I wanted to come along on this trip was to get a red shirt. (The Canadian flag is red and white). Monday was Canada Day and we were to attend a cottagers gathering. I had nothing red! Virtually everyone had at least something red last year and I didn't want to be the lame guest.

I got lucky. I found a very nice, red, Marten River sweatshirt. I was looking for a t-shirt but given the weather I went for the sweatshirt. I'd been thinking I needed a new one anyway. 

The weather was pretty chilly Monday which you can see by looking at Cindy's coat. 

But that didn't deter Nick and the kids from swimming. They jumped in off the dock despite the cool weather. Niki, Cindy, Randy and I watched.

Eve and Mea decided to play chess. Good idea for a rainy day. I told them about my brother-in-law Jim who played a great deal of chess.

I woke up early Tuesday and it was a beautiful morning. Great day for some fishing. 

Nick, Liam and I hiked up through the woods, across a small creek, and fished from a small boat. We didn't catch a lot, but we did get two 2lb. bass and one smaller one. Enough for a great fish appetizer.

One day I spotted these pintail ducks right outside the boat house. I couldn't get a great picture but the pin tail is visible. Here is a link to some good pictures and info. Northern Pintail Ducks    

The weather changed and it was in the 80"s. One extreme to the other. We used the pontoon boat to take the kids tubing. It goes quite fast and the kids were air borne often! 

Nick had bought some sparklers for Canada Day which the kids enjoyed. A campfire included smores.

It was time for another fishing trip. This time it was Cindy, Nick, Liam and me. We had a great day fishing. We caught eight keeper bass and one pike which we released.

Here is the fish count with weights. 

Once again we had a beautiful sunset. The beauty of the place is amazing!

Our stay was winding down. We all returned to Utterson, (Peterson's house) to prepare for the 9 hour drive to Harrisburg. I decided I would ride along so I could visit my niece's family in Philadelphia. My niece Mary offered to pick me up in Harrisburg.

There was time in Utterson for some ziplining in the backyard and a great bass fish dinner with the entire family. Randy put the zipline in last year. One end of the cable is attached to the tree house Randy built. Eve enjoyed the ziplining.

We planned to stay overnight at a motel with a pool. Eve loves to swim. Traffic was worse than we anticipated but everything worked out okay.

We made it to Harrisburg and Mary picked me up as promised. The Canada trip was great and i was looking forward to spending time with the Fuchs. We were going to spend some time at their beach house in Ocean City, NJ. I hadn't seen it because they just purchased it last year.