Oastler Lake 2007

We spent this weekend at Oastler Lake Provincial Park near Parry Sound. Vanessa spent many weeks here as a child with her aunts and uncles. Oastler is a small park situated on a quaint little lake. It boasts some greatly varied terrain for such a small area - many of the sites are located on a shallow treed and sandy slope to one side of the park (Vanessa remembers when this was sandy, open, and hot with no privacy as the trees were in their infancy) while other sites are located on a large typically-Canadian-Shield hill that is part of a point that juts into the water. Most of the sites are car-camping sites but there are some walk-in tenting sites on the tip of the point that are very nice!

The main attraction of this park is the facilities for boating. We were able to leave The Toad at their docks all weekend. Stacey and Bryon joined us for the weekend with their bus, only a few sites away, and we enjoyed their company. I doubt we'll see them at this park again because of the heavy train traffic nearby, but it didn't deter us from making the most of it.

As you can see from the pictures above we did quite a bit of tubing. We all took a few turns on the tube, even Vanessa and I. The tubing ended abruptly today, however, when we ran out of gas. Luckily it was anticipated and we were only a hundred metres or so from shore. Bryon and I handily paddled us to safety while Vanessa gleefully took "what-not-to-do" pictures for CPS....

Here's to another great weekend of fossil-fuel-burning fun!

A few Mid-July Updates

I've been a little lax on the updates... My apologies.

The summer is drifting away before our very eyes. The weather hasn't been particularly co-operative over the last few weekends... We're keeping pretty busy, though. I've been working on Bob's Bug in the evenings (see the VW Tech section for updates) and we've been away every weekend since the last post.

The first weekend after Vanessa's birthday was spent renovating her parents' bathroom. We did a full reno, including replacing the tub, toilet, vanity, tile surround, floor, taps, etc.

The following weekend was spent at Rock Point Provincial Park and June Jitterbug in Niagara falls. It was another great, well organized weekend. We met some new friends, Rene, Krista, and their Weimaraner, Kristin, Mike, and their kids, and again we camped with Stacey and Bryon. I was a vendor for the first time at the show and I'm very happy with the results! Here are some pics:

The weekend after JJB was Canada Day. We spent the long weekend in Orillia visiting friends. We did get a chance to get out in the boat as these pictures evidence:

The weekend following Canada Day was spent at Killbear Provincial Park. It is a beautiful park indeed, however the weather and the expense of camping, gas, food, etc. has me rethinking the whole combination of camping and boating. I wonder if we should just pick one (camping) and try not to combine everything??

This past weekend was Kerri Tambling's wedding. We enjoyed a great time in Woodbridge. The Tambling and Commisso hospitality was second to none!

Now, back to the grind for a week, then camping and boating at Oastler Lake Park next weekend with Stacey and Bryon...