We got side tracked a bit by events from the US who did/did not completely destroy/obliterate/dent/modestly annoy Iran’s nuclear capabilities depending on what colour Kool-Aid you drink.
We had intended to cover off some of the vacation, so that’s what we’ll do.
With another couple of long-standing and his Mom we arranged accommodation at an Air B&B on Lake Huron for seven days of disconnection and reconnection with the outdoors. If you don’t know Lake Huron, it is one of the Great Lakes and we were located near Wiarton Ontario right on the shoreline, essentially looking at the halfway point of the thumb of Michigan. Lake Huron is a couple of hundred kilometers wide at that point, so we couldn’t actually see Michigan, but that should locate our Amerikan readers.
Getting there from home in Ottawa would normally be a seven-hour highway drive, door to door, but we had slightly different plans. One of Marylou’s senior colleagues was retiring and there was a going away ‘do’ for the colleague in the suburbs of Toronto, out near the airport. Marylou wanted to be there to wish the colleague well, so we stopped for the evening at a hotel near the restaurant. The fascinating thing with the hotel is that it is located about 500 meters from the PAPI (Precision Approach Position Indicator) for runway 24L at YYZ. As in right in the friggin’ flightpath, just outside the perimeter fence! Looking out of the hotel room window, aircraft are going right over your head. Look downrange and you can watch the landing lights in the ATC lineup stretching back miles on the final approach of several flights per hour. Turkish, KLM, Air France, WestJet, Porter, Air Canada and most of the US mainline carriers whistled by our fourth floor window.
Next day we pointed the GPS at our destination and rolled in a few hours later.
The first thing you notice getting out of the car is the lack of noise. There is no hum of traffic, the steady drone of air conditioners or the usual city sounds of trucks, construction noises or animals making their presence heard. Instead you hear wind moving trees and leaves around a little bit with the coda of small wind-driven waves barely brushing against the rocky shore. Then a gull cry or the sweet chirp of a robin.
The second thing you notice is the air, filling your nose and your lungs. We live in a city, not one with particularly large manufacturing concerns, mostly office folk, so there is no grand evidence of the economy working. The old saying in Cornwall was if the air stinks, then the people are working. (Cornwall had a large papermill for years and years) Ottawa doesn’t do that, but we still have the noticeable pong of a few hundred thousand people moving around each day in cars, busses and transit.
The air at the lake? Cool and sweet, fresh from blowing across the lake. The occasional waft of something like decaying water grass, but natural and welcoming, never offensive or intrusive. The smell of rocks and soil and sunshine, which can never be adequately described, but is so very calming.
That’s the fascinating part of vacation, you feel the city, the stress, the high-performance vibe, the constant striving, grasping and pressure flowing out of your fingertips, dripping on the ground, leaving your body, turning to dust then blowing away in the breeze.
The usual glad to see you, you guys take this room, we’ve got this one, working up a grocery list, how was the drive, did you see the whatever. Unpack, sort stuff out, have a coffee and sit on the deck. Fortunately the couple we’re with are longtime friends and serial vacationers with us, so dialogue is never obligated or forced and long silences looking out the window are expected and respected.
There were a few drives around the area, being near Wiarton, Ontario, we were obligated by our citizenship to visit the statue to Wiarton Willie. For those who don’t know the story, Wiarton Willie is the weather-predicting groundhog, who every February is forcibly taken from his den and shown the sky, while trying to scratch his handlers to death and pissing on everyone in a two meter radius as he is scared stupid and only half awake being yelled at by the gathered not unsubstantial crowd yelling his name. Legend has it, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of Winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow, Spring will arrive in a month and a half. Or, it is the opposite?
Facing due West, there were several gorgeous sunsets and naturally, several delicious meals, as our travelling companions are like us: We love to eat good, well-prepared delicious food, savouring in tastes and presentations. We swapped duties back and forth and made sure we dined well every day. There were day trips around the area, including a boat tour from Tobermory around Flower Pot island, an old shipwreck in-shore, viewable with the glass-bottom of the cruise boat and some other tourist sites. Nothing challenging, no zip-lines, no cliff climbing. Simple relaxation.
We’ll continue in the next posting, but for now that’s the setup. More to come.
RoadDave 