For the first time, we’re taking Bermuda Air. The flight was not quite full and the plane was not quite as big but the seats were very comfortable and there was lots of legroom.
We made a stop at Yorkdale Mall and had a nice lunch at Moxie Grill. The food was actually better than we expected from a mall restaurant.
Driving to Peterborough, I stayed on the 401 but we should have taken the 407 because we hit rush hour traffic and it took forever. Ah well, it’s neat to remember what traffic like that was like, and appreciate Bermuda more. It took well over 2 hours to get there.
The house upstairs expansion is finished! It’s just inside work remaining now, but this meant that they all had a bedroom upstairs, and we had a nice guest room downstairs! Claira was already starting to get ready for her graduation ativities. And of course I had to get cut pics of Mollie, their kitty!
Claira’s graduation had daytime activities as well as the actual ceremony later on. In the gym, they showed everyone’s baby pictures, and people had to guess who it was. They guessed Claira immediately because Simon was in the picture, I think! Then we headed out for lunch.
Claira looked absolutely lovely! I love how the girls all have their own style, and they stand by it.
When Claira went up for her diploma, the principal said some very nice things about her.
“Don’t underestimate her—she may be small, but mighty. This young lady is always willing to lend a helping hand wherever she is, even when eating or packing snacks for our school. Congratulations!”
One of our whole family activities was strawberry picking! You go there, pick your own strawberries, then buy what you picked at the end. The crop was so incredibly abundant, we barely picked 10 feet across 2 rows, and filled all of our baskets! It was wonderful to have those lovely fresh strawberries to snack on for days.
It was Paul’s birthday, my birthday, and a month after my sister’s birthday, so we had a big family birthday celebration and dinner. We got Lily and drove out to The Chemong Lodge. A lovely place in a wooded setting and everyone had a nice time together!
Lex and I took a few days for ourselves. We drove out of Peterborough towards Algonquin Park. On the way, we passed through Bancroft – for a small town in the middle of nowhere, it was actually quite a hub for all the people from small towns in the whole area. It surprised me, and a place like that would definitely be something to consider maybe to live later on should we decide to leave Bermuda at some point.
We found a Couples Resort right near the East gate to Algonquin Park, where we stayed for 3 nights. It was a really quaint place, trying hard to be a 5-star resort. The room was nice, with a balcony and hot tub inside and outside overlooking the river. One evening we even got to experience a thunderstorm in the distance, right from the hot tub, all the while staying dry.
Our resort had bikes, canoes, boats, and paddle boats that we could just use! We checked out some bikes and explored the area once we settled in. Afterward, we took out a paddle boat and floated in the river! It was relaxing because the wind was blowing us one way, and the current was pushing the other way, so we had to do NOTHING to stay in the same place. Perfect!
And later they had bonfires where we chatted with some of the other guests. It was really neat – ALL the guests were in fact couples!
The entire stretch of road through the part is only 45 minutes long, so really all trails are fair game for a day trip, and we had 2 days to spend. Our resort also included free day passes to the park that we could use!
We started with the Lookout trail, which was supposed to be really short. But we started it too early (i.e. the first parking lot), not knowing there was a second parking lot. LOL No worries, it just had us hiking along the road for a half-kilometer each way.
We drove along for a while and stopped for a mid-day snack at the Lake of Two Rivers.
I started noticing a lot of different kinds of mushrooms growing from the trees, so I made a point of snapping them. Here’s the whole collection!
On the second day, we started with the Whiskey Rapids trail. We tried to choose a variety of trails, so this one would be river-focused.
In the afternoon we made the Spruce Bog Boardwalk trail – it was all boardwalks across a spongey bog! I didn’t step on the ground but felt it with one foot, and it really felt like stepping on a soaked sponge. At the end, we saw a little snake on the last boardwalk! It was a Moose Snake. Why? Because the whole time we saw Moose crossing signs, and hoped to see a moose, but no luck. So instead, we declared every animal we saw to be of the Moose variety, like the snake, the Moose chipmunk, Moose flies, and the Moose turtle. 🙂
Our last stop in the park was the Logging Museum as an easy finish to the second day. There was a lot to see along the lakeside trail, and we learned a lot about how logging was done in the early days, and how it evolved into the present day. After a little theatre presentation, the screen and door opened up and we saw the same cabin as in the video, right in front of us. Neat.
Throughout the trip, we had some great food experiences. From One Eighty in Peterborough, to The Chemong Lodge, and from lovely home-cooked meals to Timbits and fancy meals at the Couples Resort.
