Toronto Island

A mostly photo blog-post wherein Lisa, Graham and I visit Toronto Island on a rainy Wednesday.

History: I worked on Toronto Island for two long summers (May-Sept) in both of the restaurants on Centre. While much less traumatic now, it is difficult to visit the islands without feeling some trepidation (Oh god, they're going to put me at Paradise and I'll be bored, oh god I'll be at Carousel and have to deal with tourists and children oh god oh god). Despite having not worked here for almost three years, these feelings still happen. I can safely say, however, that these sensations have lessened much, especially during this last forray. I daresay the island may even represent fun after so many years of negativity.
Here are Lisa and Graham waiting for the Ferry. I refuse to take photos of the ferry as it is a large and scary boat. Any island officianados out there: We took the William Inglis.
The view from the ferry on the way to Centre.
This is Graham's favourite ferry, which we missed by minutes.
View of the city from the ferry. Fog or smog?

William Inglis went from City, to Centre, to Wards. We decided that Wards was the best place to depart and begin adventuring. I had never really spent much time on Wards; it's the residential area of the islands. We, for whatever reason, did not take pictures of the houses, which is really unfortunate because they are extremely cute. The "streets" are actually just sidewalks between houses. One cannot drive around Wards, just walk or bike.
Flowery tree of unknown genus.
Potentiall ominous path... but mostly because it leads either to wetland or someone's back yard.

We found ducks in the Eastern Gap. I refused to take a photo of the industrial carnage happening on the mainland. Instead, the view in the opposite direction:

Across the Eastern Gap, away from the carnage, there is a haunted light house. Wednesday was rainy and foggy (typically British... damn colonizers) so you can't really see it that well, but I swear to you it's there. I've never been to it, but will make a solid effort to visit it this summer.

Along the boardwalk, we found an arch.
While there aren't roses growing on it (yet?) I told my companions the magical truth that evil cannot pass through a rose-covered archway. We could all pass through this one, roseless though it was. I say it counts. Sort of. Perhaps we are all just demi-evil. :)
We found the most perfect Peter Cottontail garden at the Senior's Centre. No Farmer McGregor is sight. Oddly, also no bunnies. Instead we found:
Lisa Rabbit!! It was hard for her to resist all the growing cabbages and carrots, but there was this really high-tech security gate preventing her pillaging:
See how it doesn't quite reach the ground leaving a one foot gap... very difficult for bunnies to shimmy under. It also stands a solid four feet high, preventing the 5'7" Lisa Rabbit from hopping over it.
The also have the added security of TROGDOR!!!!!
Burninating all the people in the thatch-roofed COTTAGES!!!!

We came upon the Island Church.

There's a plaque next to it with all its history, but I won't post it because it's hard to see in a photo. Basically this is a 200 year old church which still holds services on Sundays. I very nearly cancelled all of my wedding plans in favour of doing it here, marriage classes be damned. However Graham, in his wisdom, told me that in order to be married here one must be a member of the congregation, and probably for a requisite number of years. If they did not have this rule, they would be performing weddings probably every day of the year. I am only slightly disappointed.

Across the way we found Far Enough Farm.
It is clearly quite picturesque from this distance. There was even a peacock on the shed roof:
On the way to the farm, we passed the Carousel Cafe (shudder) and the pond just outside of Centreville.
Is that a Kingfisher?
Lisa sat in story-time chair and watched Gimpy Goose gimp by.
The farm was... depressing. The animals were far smellier than they should have been, the horses were supremely pissed off and DIRTY. Even the donkey got cranky with us and tried to eat my camera.
Here is an overly smelly billy goat:
He might look like a wizard, but he was quite rank.
He could also scratch his own ass with his horns. Useful skill, that.
We found Peter Cottontail... incarcerated.
And having an interspecies relationship with a pheasant.
Cranky donkey, just before he tried to eat the camera.

Pretty much depressed, we left Centre Island and headed to Hanlan's point for the haunted light house.
There's a plaque for this as well, but the short of it is that this is a 200 year old light house reputed to be haunted by one JP Rademuller who was the keeper until his mysterious disappearance and the discovery of human remains nearby.
Lisa searched for more human remains... and enjoyed the view, mostly because she did not find any remains. We did, however, find geese!
Mean, probably semi-evil geese teaching their young to hiss and spit.

After this, it began to rain so we caught the next ferry back to the city, where we met Jim for much deserved protein.

Despite some of the more depressing aspects, this is a trip that bears repeating, possibly with bicycles and boat rentals!

Muskoka Adventures Day 3

The Final Forray

Monday was Lucy's first birthday! Lisa made her a pretty party hat, we sang Happy Birthday, Mom Adams made her a lamb and rice "cake" with a little candle and everything. It was possibly the cutest celebration I've ever seen.

Monday began with WORK! Wedding work. Wedding-planner-Lisa had made the delightful decision that our table centrepieces should involve birchwood candle holders. I had no idea what this even meant, except that they were wooden candle holders (duh) until I saw what they would look like:


Awesome.

What I also didn't know was that they were to be hand made by us. I'm not really one to shy away from power tools, but I get nervous using other peoples' big expensive equipment because I am Emily: Destroyer of Technology. So Lisa and I let the boys get started and instead ensconced ourselves in the kitchen to make breakfast. We spent most of that particular morning completely polarized: Lisa and I making breakfast, cleaning house, washing dishes, and finally enjoying a cup of tea on the porch; Jim and Graham at the drill press, breaking for a meal, then drinking tea back at the press. Eventually, Lisa and I got a little restless and joined them at the press to see how things were going:




Then we forced them to take a break:


Which they actually didn't really appreciate, so we gave them back their tool.


We decided to make one last journey into the wilds. Now, between this decision and the actual forray, there is an unfortunate story involving car keys and an automatic locking mechanism on the rental car. The moral of the story is this: Mazdas have an automatic locking mechanism which activates if all the car doors are closed and the keys are NOT in the ignition. They had fallen out of my pocket onto the back seat. It was a $70 lesson about cars and now I am wiser. We told the nice people at Enterprise about the incedent (there was no damage from the saviour from Gravenhurst whose job it is to help unfortunates such as ourselves, but in the interest of full disclosure...). They've given us 25% off our next rental for the trouble. Enterprise is basically awesome (and cheaper than Budget, surprisingly).


Anyway, annoyed with myself, I hiked with Lisa around familiar ground. We were cheered up and reminded of yesterday's great victory with this:

As we rounded a corner (sort of) I came basically face to face with this thing. It was no more than 20ft away. And it didn't move. I hissed at Lisa until she noticed, then the three of us stood completely still in this strange triangle. Lisa got two great shots. He seriously posed for her pictures for a solid five minutes. After the second shot, he nodded once then went on his merry way. We wanted to follow him, but he was too quick.

Awed and somewhat humbled, we continued up the rock mountain and eventually settled down just to watch scenery unfold before us.

When we got back to base we told all about the deer and made them look at our pictures (because we're like that). We saw how much the boys had completed. It was impressive.

Then Mom Adams asked us if we wanted to go for a boat ride. DID WE!? I hadn't been on a boat in over a year and forgot how cold it could be. We went everywhere we could think of (and everywhere Dad Adams was willing to take us). We drove around "Bird Shit Island" which is so named because it is a nature preserve and utterly covered with seagulls, cormorants, and a few herons. There are photos on Mom Adams' blog (Great White North), but not here as our camera was burried somewhere in the trunk of the car. Back at the base, we ate a good lunch of leftovers, then had to say our goodbyes and head back to the big smoke.

We all a spectacular time. I cannot express how grateful I am to Mom and Dad Adams for their hospitality and generosity. I hope to make another visit or two before summer's end (and will happily rent because it's totally worth it). Thus ends this adventure, and spurs the creation of a new one.

Muskoka Adventures Day 2

(Why yes, I am splitting this up to keep you on edge... is it working?)

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful, if rather chilly. Jim and I were pampered with a pancake breakfast courtesy of Graham and Lisa's ingenuity (I never think of having pancakes... ever). Post-pancake, we all collapsed into a carb-coma for about an hour with crossword puzzles, word jumbles, and a little vacation planning. Once rested, Lisa and I decided it was time to visit the great outdoors and venture to a little place we had found the previous day.

After Saturday's turkey dinner, we bunch of us took Lucy (the Adams' dog) for a little walk in a direction I had not been before. Along the journey, Lisa and I noticed a great many places that would take us deep into the heart of wilderness, but a little further on realized that we could, from the road, see what looked suspiciously like actual fairy rings. Being with non-believers (and a rambunctious puppy) we couldn'nt fathom going there just then, but promised to come back the following day and, following food-coma, we did just that.



We climbed rock mountains again, we traipsed through meadows, we treaded carefully on sacred ground. We found sacred pools, metropolis, fairy rings, altars, fortresses, and soldier training grounds. We left offerings. We were put through an obstacle course to measure our fortitude; trudge through the swamp, walk across the skinny fallen tree, hop over dangerous ground, run up the hills, duck under low-slung branches. Having past, we were sent on the red-flower quest which lead us from place to place, using only the most difficult pathways.

Sacred pools:

The fairy training program:
The Red Flowers:


Several hours in we were inches from giving up, heading back from whence we came (which was FAR!, but since we weren't sure how much further we were from emerging on the other side it seemed the safer option). Suddenly, there came the sound of a bird; a red-breasted robin. We followed the sound and found more red flowers and decided to carry on.







We discovered trilians (which I had never seen in person, and did you know it's illegal to pick them or trample them?), higher crags, hiding places, gnome villages, crazy giant fairy lake with lone-tree island.












Finally, after one last steep climb, we found the prize:


A bleached fallen antler from a stag. We were rewarded with a display of birdie virtuosity, and sat on a rock for a while. When we decided it was time to leave, we noticed from our vantage point that we were right above a road which lead us right back home.

We ran into the boys on the street, about four houses from our destination. They had just begun a biking mission, off to rescue us in case we were lost. They would never have found us, I'm sure. We were cloaked in fairy magics. They made a merry adventure of a ride, while Lisa and I returned to homebase to tidy up and make food.

The remainder of the evening saw card games, barbeque, s'mores, and more martini mix than was good for anyone. I headed to bed extremely exhilleratingly exhausted by 10pm.