Cottage at Port Severn, Muskoka

Andy is on holiday this week so we decided to take a few days and visit "up north", to do what the Canadians do in the summer, take off for a cottage by the lake.  

We rented a cottage right on the Lake at Port Severn, Muskoka.  It was lovely.

There was a paddleboat and a canoe.  We couldn't swim right from the dock because there was too much weed but we took the canoe around to the beach and had a swim there.  It took us about 10 minutes although Andy would say much less.  It felt like an hour to me.  My arms are not used to such work!

We had a BBQ and spent the evening with our next door neighbours who were from Canada, Scotland, Ireland and Australia (2 couples).  We sat around the camp fire and they made us smores which we had never tried before.  Jesse was an instant fan and demanded we buy the fixin's to make our own the following day which we did.

It was also an excellent chance for Jesse to use his telescope to look at the stars.  He has been extremely interested in astronomy lately.

On Tuesday we visited the Muskoka Lock which is used to lift boats from one part of the lake (the lower side) to the other part of the lake (higher side).  It was really interesting and I took heaps of photos so I apologise if you get a bit bored looking at these.  They managed to fit four of these luxury boats into this small space before shutting the gate behind them and letting the water out.  Then they opened the gates at the other end and off the sped.  We wandered across the bridge, it used to be an opening bridge that you could drive across but the swing part has rusted through and they are intending to replace it shortly.  

Next, we headed off for White Falls.  This is a beautiful place where a dam has been built across the falls which allows only some of the water through at any given time. Jesse managed to shut his finger in the car door just as we arrived at the falls.

Just after we arrived some workmen asked everyone to get out of the water so that they could do maintenance on the bridge and dam.  What they did was move the huge pieces of wood that formed the dam up and replace them which let a lot more water through.  It would have been very unsafe to be swimming at that time.  It was really interesting to see what they were doing.  

It was really hot so the boys were back in the water as quickly as they could.  I dangled my feet in wishing I'd bought my swimsuit but wasn't really in the mood for a swim (more of a pool girl myself).

In the afternoon, we went back to the cottage and just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves (sleeping is what I mean).  Jesse paddled around in the paddle boat and managed to get himself caught up in the weed.  Of course, whatever instructions we yelled at him to help his speedy entanglement were met by the opposite action.  It was a good laugh to watch him and he eventually managed to disentangle himself and paddle back to shore.  I should point out that he was only about 5 metres from the shore when all of this was going on.  Don't worry, he was in no mortal danger.

We had a nice BBQ dinner, made our own smores and retreated to a most sound sleep in the quiet of the countryside.

On Wednesday, we got up early and cleaned up the cottage, packed the car and headed off for the falls again.  We were the only ones there so the swimming was good, even if Andy thought it was a little cold.  Jesse's finger was very sore and so he decided that it was time to get out so we headed south.  We stopped at a friends cottage at Wasaga Beach and said hello and then came back to the city.

It was Jenna's birthday (unfortunately she could not come away with us due to work commitments) and all she wanted was a cheesecake.  I know (and she knows) that she's not supposed to eat cheesecake but she was prepared to suffer the consequences.  So, we stopped at Highland Farms Supermarket, they make the most amazing cakes, and purchased one on the way home.

We finished the day with dinner at Hemingways.  Happy Birthday Jenna.

To view the rest of the photos check out the gallery.