And Now ...Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program !!!

OK , so we had the disasterous trip up here and yes we've been unkind to our car and murdered a dear little deer, had no success getting a car, have left our kids with Michael and Frances much longer than anticipated, had a terrific little weekend despite all that and now it is time to get back to our real day to day lives.

Monday, and suddenly the world is back at work, on line, connected and happy to conduct business - we talk to our claims adjuster and the lady at the car rental , all anxious to help and not suggesting as was the not so helpful individual on the call centre line for our insurer who suggested Saturday that we should perhaps just take a cab to the car rental place ( there are so many cabs in Algonquin Park looking for tourists needing rides ). Our friends at Bear Trail Couples Resort have offered a ride to Huntsville this morning, Enterprise will have a car ready at noon, the sun is shining, yes we are on our way home!!!

We are on our way to pick up our little darlings who have had an absolutely awesome time with Uncle Mike and Aunt Frances. We have a Ford Focus to toodle around in until we get an opinion on the Mazda - to repair or not to repair - I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can get it fixed !!!!

The girls in the meantime have had a terrific time - preview of the new Shrek movie complete with finger nail painting in Shrek colours, dim sum, the Science Centre and that was just Saturday !!! Ok Mike and Frances - you have raised the bar rather high !!! Thank you thank you thank you - the girls had such a great time with you !!!

We are all tired and getting home feels good . Time to mellow out a bit before beginning the mountain of laundry............... and so our week truly beings...............

Romantic Getaway - The last day

The last day of our Romantic getaway and ....

Awoke to a beautiful sunny bright cloudless day !! Went to the lodge for a great breakfast and then came back to our room to get a call from the front desk and find out we do not have to change rooms after all - they managed to swap things around or something so that we can stay put tonight which is terrific. One of the gals at the front desk also told us that although she was not working tomorrow , we could call her and if need be she or her husband would drive us to Huntsville if required to pick up a rental vehicle. How sweet is that !!! Apparently our insurance company has a requisition in for us to get one from Enterprise in either Huntsville or Pembroke. They are supposed to deliver as well . They are open at 8 am Monday to Friday so we'll be calling tomorrow at 8 am sharp!!!!

Went for a walk on the trails here this am ....I'm not sure that Chris and my radar is actually in any kind of shape as we seemed to get a little lost on their teeny tiny trails. Go figure !!! The little red bear paw marks were the trail markers - should be a piece of cake right ? It was nothing serious however and we did manage to amble back to relative civilization without too much trouble.

Which way ??? Hmmm Not that way ...unless we're swimming back. Yeah a Red Bear Paw marker....Such a challenge !!!!

Back to our room for a lunch of pate, cheese, crackers, etc - yummy !!!! Then maybe ..hmmmm .. not sure what next .....

OK so we couldn't resist trying to get a picture of the two of us in the jacuzzi.....

The Romantic Weekend Cont'd

This morning we were able to order an absolutely yummy breakfast, delivered to our room no less. It's overcast up here and not super warm but that's ok ... we stoked up the fire and enjoyed ourselves.

Finally deciding we needed to get to the main lodge and actually check in and get a rental car, we were in for a surprise ..... up here in the wilderness , the car rental places don't seem to stay open on weekends !!!!

Chris was on the phone for several hours with the assistance of the resort staff and couldn't get any car ... the rental places in Pembroke and Huntsville he was able to talk to had no cars ....grrrrrr and everyone else was closed for business arghhhh

So after much effort, finally a call to Mike and Frances ( oooops, we have a rather big problem ) and to Erik and Lisa ( won't be able to get Jilly to school on Monday), we considered other options - how to get back to Toronto sans vehicle at all with all the stuff we have ( our weekend stuff and entire contents of the Mazda ) in the event there is no rental available on Monday and could we actually stay here till Monday - small but important details.

During all this I managed to get a spa pedicure in ( free - part of the perks for returning guests ) and so later I gave Chris an hour pass to play his Evony game on my Netbook . And now to get some fun out of the weekend as there is absolutely nothing more we can productively do for now!!

After an absolutely fabulous dinner tonight, we enjoyed the fireplace and jacuzzi with just a few bubbles...well actually the bubbles got totally out of control !! We were going to try for a picture of both of us together in the jacuzzi but feared for the safety of the camera with all those bubbles ...we had bubbles EVERYWHERE so thats why the 2 pictures of us each 50's style!!! Think there are enough bubbles ????? Fun fun fun fun fun !!!

A Tough Start to a Romantic Weekend .......

It all started out pretty well, I thought ......... Chris found out he wasn't working Thurs or Fri so we could leave right after my 11 - 12 noon meeting..... We were kind of ready to go ... I bought the munchies Friday morning between appts and had packed the car with everything that was ready to go. I did NOT have the directions to the resort however.


Well first we had to address a call from Direct Detect regarding one of our properties, then drop in to Erik and Lisa's with last minute instructions for their open house Sat and Sun from 2 to 4... then without lunch under our belts, we hit the road.


First stop - kids to Mike and Frances for their getaway weekend, but first a stop at the Mandarin restaurant in Mississauga to stop those hunger pangs - a very nice lunch and Chris's idea !!!!


Then on to Mike and Frances and a mass exodus of 'stuff'' from the car - booster seats, clothes, games , stuffies etc etc and a quick kiss and hug goodbye ( the kids were thrilled to be with Mike and Frances and were not terribly interested in what or where their parents were going ) and off we went... 3 1-2 hours to the Bear Trail Inn..just outside Whitney ( in Algonquin Park ). Being the clever techno idiot , I had my internet stick and my netbook with me and went on the internet to get dirctions on how to get to our destination... and there were the gps coordinates for our gps !!!! Now I know in the past their website has said NOT to use gps to get there but I figured with the coordinates on the webpage this must now be ok ..... WRONG WRONG WRONG Turns out the coordinates were for plane taxis not cars !!! oops

Mistake 1 - leaving Toronto late - 3 pm on a Friday. We crawled out of the city - absolutely crawled...should have given the kids some sandwiches and stayed the course !!!

Mistake 2 - follow the gps directions onto an old old , now private road - no -road is too grandiose a word - path ?? until we finally admitted our folly and backtracked losing hours - well 1 hour.

Mistake 3 - bad timing, bad luck . Wrong place, wrong time . Bob, Leanne if you are reading this - stop now as Mazda lovers you will be upset by the following.

Now we are tracking , have phoned the resort who will have dinner in our room for us at 9:30 when we get there, we are now on hwy 127 heading for hwy 60 about 30 kms away from destination when who darts out of the forest but Bambi - medium size male buck. Well no warning , doing the speed limit - no way to avoid the thing and bang !!! Thankfully we were driving the Mazda not the Hyundai so the deer did not slide over the hood and hit the windshield , but the rad was destroyed and the front of the car is looking very sad.

Its quite a weird feeling to be in the middle of literally no where with a dead deer at the side of the road and your 4 ways blinking woefully at 9 pm .... so we called police, insurance , and CAA and in a half hour or so along came the police. We also had a truck stop ahead of us and ask if we were ok and as soon as I said 'yup , we had just hit a deer , no one hurt' , he then asked if he could have the deer. A fairly common thing we found out as when the police showed up they were quite pleased there was someone already there that would remove it from the side of the road. A little weird we thought but hey , we don't live out here - what do we know.

So the car is probably getting a two week vacation while insurance sorts out adjusters coming up here to survey the damage and get an estimate from the car shop in Combermere and its made driveable again, we will get a rental , thankfully paid for by insurance , likely that will come from either Huntsville or Pembroke and hopefully it will be delivered to the lodge so come Sunday we can be on our way !!

In the meantime however , at this point of writing, it still has been a very romantic getaway. The tow truck fella was very good about driving us to the resort and waiting whilst we unloaded everything from the Mazda down to the last paperclip . Keys were left at the front desk making life easier for us to get to our room quickly . Dinner was waiting in our room mostly cold but certainly that was not the resorts fault, we got a fire going, got the food on the table and relaxed - it was just after midnight. Chris got romance back to centre stage. Deer and mushed grills have been temporarily forgotten. Enough said ...gotta go !

A New Very Special Best Friend and A Lost Tooth !!

Tonight was a very important night. Carolina received an invite to her best friend in the world Maya's place for a playdate. Carolina and Maya had on meeting bonded instantly and completely. Many hugs and kisses are included in all greetings.

Tonight I drove Carolina over to her playdate. As soon as we pulled up Carolina announced ' Heres my tooth ' and Rosalind in the back seat with her said ' Mommy it IS her tooth ' and sure enough when I got out of the car there was a teeny tiny tooth in Carolina's rather bloodstained hand !!!

So we cleaned up Carolina , put the tooth away somewhere safe till we got it home and off she went with her new not so toothy smile. We will take the 'official ' missing tooth picture tomorrow but as far as I know the tooth fairy is due to make a stop tonight .

The playdate was a huge success , according to Maya's parents ( who were hosting a housewarming party ) they were terrific little folk who played well and happily for the entire 2 hours. What a super terrific Friday for Carolina !!!!

Do YOU Have Your Own Salad Chef ? We Do !!

How does one manage without one - I just cannot imagine. Our little Salad Chef is Carolina. She does require some sous-chef assistance from her Mom from time to time to help with the more mundane chores required in salad making.

She loves mushrooms in her salad ( she loves mushrooms in EVERYTHING ). She cuts them up VERY carefully with the vegie knife. She is game to try anything in her salad and only really needs to be watched when it comes to adding the salad dressing ( she can be a tad heavy handed) Otherwise she is an awesome little chef and her salads are a really big hit!!!!

She does require a careful eye now as she is branching out and has no fear of taking on new challenges. We've caught her making popcorn in the microwave ( yes she DID have the time correct ) and putting together Strawberry Quik and milk, getting the whole thing into a pitcher and putting it in the fridge ( oh, her Uncle Doug would be so very proud ) and also peeling a kiwi with a knife. All done very carefully and masterfully !!! Ah what a girl !!!!!

Its a Hard Knock Life .. for a Snail in our Garden

All last summer and so far this year, the girls have been collecting and looking after snails both from our garden and from our neighbours' - Bob and Kathy. They have captured them and put them in snail containers and played with them and fed them spinach and lettuce. So this year when the snails as pets idea re-emerged, I thought I'd be helpful and get some info from the internet on how to properly look after them.

I printed off some good info and gave a copy to Rosalind to read. Since then, the quality of care has declined to a scary level. I live in fear that the Humane Society will arrive to check into complaints of snail abuse.

The lesson I think is not to overthink your childs interests. Don't get too sophisticated with their fun !!!!! Now I want to set up a snail aquarium ... the girls of course have no interest , they've moved on ...........................