Unexpected Adventures

I did want to get up today, but breakfast was calling.  Today it was yogurt with fruit and Elisabeth's excellent granola, but she had done it in a different dish.

The main was a spinache omelette,bacon, and English muffin.

No monotony here.  We hung around waiting for our ride, Our host took us to where the horse she rides lives and we met Mandy who took us on our ride.

 My horse was Ben. He was a rescue draft horse who has no teeth.

Poor Ben, but also poor Caroline as I LOVE a horses nose and his was drooly green slop and I wore it for duration of the ride.  Jodi's horse was named Maverick but he too was a BIG boy.  We rode through some beautiful country, Mandy leading the way, Maverick behind her, Ben trying to push his way to the front and Elisabeth on Belle at the back.

It was a nice day for it and Jodi said it was good.  We decided to go to Wasaga Beach then and see what there was to see.  It is the longest freshwater beach in the world,  logging in at 14km.

Located on Gregorian bay of Lake Huron it Was lovely, but there was so much surf that one could think that one was at the ocean.

It was brisk, cool and lovely.

 We had a hard time figuring out where we could place the buggy, and finally decided not to pay to park as it would only  accept 6 dollars at a time and I was not wanting to pay that.

At last we strolled on the beach, it was windy and my ears and fingers were cold, inspite of my jean jacket and Jodi's vest.

We hung there for a while, just enjoying the beauty of the earth.  Elisabeth suggested that we try a place called Il Buco

and since neither of us had eaten since breakfast it sounded good, at least better than chewing on Jodi's arm!  We started with bread and a roasted red pepper hummus, followed by shared Caprese Salad.  Jodi had Manacoti,

and I had Parpardelle Bologonese.

And of course some  wine, though we did hit up the LCBO tonight on the way to dnner!  After a warm bath I believe that we are ready for bed!

Good Clean Cold Fun

This morning dawned without the sun for a bit, but it dawned cold. Breakfast started with yogurt, fresh fruit and granola, coffee and was followed by blueberry pancakes with peaches, and sausage.  

I couldn't eat it all, but it was delicious!  I started a new book and read for a while until Jodi got up.  We decided, since it was so cold, we would do laundry.  So off we set and about an hour and 2 socks later we were done, where do they go?  Then we started looking for lunch choices and Jodi found an awesome Creperie called Chavo.

 

I had a goat cheese, pear, walnut and honey crepe,

and Jodi had a mozzarella  and  cheddar crepe.  

The flavors of my crepe were AMAZING!    We shared a Nutella and Banana Crepe,

I liked this one better and Jodi liked the one the other day better. I had ferreted out (so I thought) 5 knit shops in Barrie and we started looking, the first one was supposed to be near the creperie, however it was not there.  So on to the next one, and it was not their, and then on to the next one and it was a quilting shop.

However, she directed me to the True North Yarn Shop  and it was pretty fun.  I found a pattern and some great yarn to make Ghianna a Fish Tail, but I think am going to have to bug my friend Laura!  On we went to the next one,but we never found any more and gave up.  Jodi wanted to walk on the waterfront, it was bracingly cold, but she loaned me her vest to wear over my coat and she had brought gloves, which I forgot to bring!  There were amazing outdoor sculptures,

one looked like a fish bone that moved with the wind,

another was a Dream Catcher, and it was amazing.  We walked along the shore and there was an adult entertainment center,

it had this glider/walking thing that was so fun.

 I think we need one in my little town!  At the end of the walkway were theses great rocks, Momma were you here first?

We drove as close to the shore as we could, but it was on and off again.  We encountered a small park along the lake and Jodi wanted to swing.  So we got out and stated swinging.

I had forgotten how much work it takes to swing.  Jodi started pushing me and it went much better It turned out to be terribly fun!  She also wanted to do the teeter-totter thingy, but I had flashbacks to cantering the horse last year!

We decided to munch on Red Velvet cupcakes Elisabeth had for us and went to the store for something to go with.  I found milk, but Jodi had not yet found any Tab here.  IN the grocery store it occurred to me that the Canadians have the bathroom thing figured  out.

Buying wine here is a bit trickey, and while we wanted a bottle of wine, we were unable to accomplish that as the LCBO was closed. Home to watch a movie and unwind. We got home and Elisabeth had great news, we get to ride tomorrow!

Cold and Cloudy with a Significant chance of Rain

 I woke up this morning about 8AM after Jodi and I watched movies last evening until about 11 PM. We watched a "The Big Wedding" and "Black and White" both good for different reasons.  So when I woke up  I moseyed into the living room/dining area Elisabeth was there and had coffee ready!  She served berries and yogurt with homemade granola on top and a muffin.   The Second course was Eggs Benedict with a tomato and orange juice and Carolina.  Carolina is a young woman from Panama who is staying with Elisabeth while her "exchange Mom" is gone for a few days.  She was charming and it was very fun to practice my Spanish.  What a pleasant way to pass my breakfast!  Then, Elisabeth and I chatted for quite a bit.  She showed me her kitchen and all of the back yard.  The kitchen is amazing, a vaulted ceiling with floor to ceiling widows and plenty of counter/work space ,  it gave me ( I wanted to say "it gave me itchy fingers" but when I looked it up the Urban Dictionary said it meant you either wanted to slap or shoot someone - neither of which is my truth!  So it made me) want to cook!  The back yard looks amazing She has created an oasis for herself.  It warrants photos but not today in this weather.  She suggested that we go consider the Cranberry Festival in Bala by Muskoka lakes.  It is where she was on our arrival and she said she had a great time.  What swayed me, was the info that there were cranberry Boggs to see and I thought that interesting.  Jodi agreed and so, off we went.  We found the festival without trouble, but darn, it it was raining.  We came to a tented area with booths, one of which, was wine tasting.

We tried cranberry wine - tart, (maybe delish with Sprite) Cranberry - Blueberry wine - sweet,  Blueberry wine very sweet, as lastly a Cranberry Maple dessert wine which was our winner.
A bottle is coming home!  

We bought our 2017 Cranberry Festival buttons and wandered a bit, looking at the tents of goods the vendors had set up.  I saw a new thing, at least, to me, a beaver tail, it looked like a long flat donut/pastry thing that you could decorate your way, icing, bananas, chocolate, etc.  Yet another way to get fatter and fatter.....  I did indulge in a cranberry sausage sandwich, about the size of a hot dog, it was tasty and the condiment, cranberry, maple mustard was the perfect toping.  We caught a bus to the cranberry bogs ( This little guy, Trigger, rode with us to and from the bogs)

 and it started raining, we bought tickets for the bog tour.

The line was under a tent filled with oriental people, a hoard, a bus load all piled in under this tent and it starts pouring.  I swear these folks had no sense of personal space.  And they kept pushing us out from under the tent more & more and it started raining more and more until I was soaked from the knees down.  They delayed the tour because the ran and wind were so strong.  And we stood and we stood, being shoved around by those people.

At last the tour people decided it was safe to take us out.  It was pretty interesting, cranberries have 4 air pockets in them when they are mature so they float,

the bogs are not actually water filed as the berries are growing,

but then they are mature and ready to harvest they flood the bogs and the berries that have matured enough to fall off  the bush will float with the flooding.

After the harvesting they trade the water off of the bog and use it in another one.

In the winter though they flood it back up because the bushes do better with frozen roots (hm, maybe that's why there are so many on Alaska).   When it snows they actually remove the snow from the bog as the snow insulates the plants and they want the roots to freeze and stay frozen.    SO it becomes a huge ice skating rink!
We got to see them process the berries too.

We went back to town but thing were closing up.

So I went into a bakery while Jodi took a couple of pictures she wanted.

I bought us butter tarts, plain and cranberry and a cup of maple flavored coffee for me.  The coffee was beautifully hot and when we got in the car and got to try the tarts they were awesome!

As we drove toward Parry Sound there were lakes EVERYWHWERE, you would look out one side of the car or the other and there was a lake!

We drove around this waterfront town a bit and then stopped for pizza at Pizza Hut, but I was a boob and forgot to ask for thin crust.  

So for fat crust pizza it was good.  We drove home and I took a gloriously hot bath in a tub that was almost as good as mine, MUCH better that that shallow little thing at the hotel.  And now it is movie time!