Over the river and through the woods...

We arrived at the Meyer-Macaulay's cabin/cottage yesterday afternoon amidst the woods 3 hrs north of Toronto. I don't know exactly what town we are considered to be in or near, but it's definitely not that close. Because the roads are covered with snow, we snowshoed to the cabin. And since the Meyer-Macaulays have had this cabin since 2003, they have devised a brilliant way to transport food and bags to and from without dying. They take regular sleds and we filled 3 of them with our food and bags and bungeed them down. Then, they tied longer ropes to the ones already attached to the sleds, made a loop, and we put the ropes behind our necks and over our shoulders. Most of the way was flat, but with many MANY layers on we were still sweating. Their cabin is on a lake, and the lake was frozen with a layer of slush then snow on top. We saw snowmobile tracks on it, so decided to shortcut it and drag our sleds across the lake to the cabin.

*Note: The Meyer-Macaulays are family friends of Vanessa's family. We went with the parents, Susan and Will. Oh, and apparently snowshoed and bungeed are not words..FYI.

I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous. I've been on a frozen lake in Minnesota before, but there was no snow on the lake, so you could better tell how frozen it was and if it cracked. ALSO, because our shoes and sleds were already making noise, I kept wondering if it was a cracking noise. But we MADE IT. After we settled we attempted to go cross country skiing but didn't make it far because the wax on the skis stuck to the snow. And I fell like 5 times.

There is no running water so we pack snow in buckets and heat it on the fireplace. Will somehow rigged his iphone up to his computer to make a wireless network so we do have internet. The biggest thing is there's no toilet. There is an outhouse. And a trail to the outhouse, so it becomes a big deal to go to the bathroom. Last night we tried not to drink a lot of liquids, but then the parents busted out bottles of wine and how could we resist? So, I end up holding it til the last second, and my first trip out there ended up being right before it was fully dark. They started talking about how apparently there used to be a lot of bears roaming around. I was like oh man, don't tell me that!

Today Vanessa and I went snowshoeing around with the sled to find a good hill to sled down. We were somewhat successful, but I was less so when I tried to roll down a hill. We found the kids' tree house, climbed up and then jumped off without snowshoes. My feet went in so deep it took some digging to get them out. Then Vanessa made us do snowbeards..don't worry I have pictures. Throughout my time here, I have really tried to channel Bear Grylls..from Man vs. Wild. Especially when we were venturing on the lake because he has jumped into freezing water many a time to demonstrate how to get out. And also quicksand..but that doesn't apply here.

These are some great photos..also keep in mind I was wearing their daughter's snow pants..I would not have picked out the bold plaid, but I grew to love them:







We finally got to the cabin!


Cozy and warm around the fireplace:

*You can also click on each picture to enlarge it if you need a closer look...PHOTOS CONTINUED ON THE BLOG BELOW.

P.S. I officially love Susan and Will!!! I'm just gonna bullet point my fave moments of them:
- First meeting Susan (they live in Toronto) she said she hates Toronto in the winter..then said she just hates Toronto
- Last night after dinner they both said the same thing and high-fived each other afterward
- I was telling Vanessa and Susan about a friend sending me a pic of a guy she likes, and Susan automatically said, "Does he have his shirt off?" and then when he was facing the camera she said "Aw, he needs to turn around" (this was endearing, not Cougar-ish like her son Iain called her)
- Will and Vanessa have an ongoing Scrabble rivalry and it was hilarious listening to them!
All in all they are amazing! They fed us, housed us, sorta clothed us, and I am forever grateful! The Meyer-Macaulays ROCK.

Pure Photos

We had to sled a couple of times to make a path and the last run I went farther down to the right of that bigger tree:


The view from the tree house...Ah-mah-zing:

Vanessa before and after jumping off the tree house:


Me before and after I jumped off the tree house. The second picture is after I tried for like 5 min to get my feet out. I was tired.


The rope from the sled indented into the snow:

The "snowbeards" that Vanessa made us do with leaves in our hair. This is apparently the "most Canadian photo" I will ever take:

Sledding out onto the lake:

These are us on the lake, taken from the shore:


Sunset from inside, Susan was taking photos outside:

OOT and ABOOT

For all non-Canadians, the title is out and about. I FINALLY got my camera charger today, which was amazing..but also a little sad because yesterday I went oot and aboot in Toronto down by the Lake..that's Lake Ontario. I went to this cool place called St. Lawrence Market which is very different than London's Covent Garden market in that it is mostly produce, meats and cheese stands. Covent Garden had ice cream, cupcakes, teas..but St. Lawrence was cool in its own way. When I got out of the subway I was really close to the CN Tower..Canadian National Tower. It was sunny too! Perfect photo that I DIDN'T get. And there were other missed photo opps.

But, no need to dwell on the past, it's not healthy. So let's talk about what I did today...today, I went on an adventure to get alcohol. Now, before my family and others think that I'm some sort of lush who makes special outings just to get alcohol..needs to first understand how Canada distributes its alcohol. Like how our states have their own laws about distributing alcohol, so do the different provinces in Canada. My mom told me she found out during our trip to Arkansas to go crystal digging when I was little, that Arkansas doesn't sell alcohol on Sundays. Nowhere in the state is what she heard. So maybe the province of Ontario that I'm residing in is not as crazy as I thought. BUT, I should tell you what they do. Alcohol distribution is run by the government. Therefore, there are only two stores where you can purchase alcohol. One is called LCBO..dunno what it stands for and I don't care enough to ask. The other, quite creatively may I add, is named The Beer Store. There is a handful of both stores scattering Toronto, but because there are only two, it took me a nice 45min walk to find one. I went to the LCBO, which is pretty dull on the outside, and actually kinda feels like you're going into a dirty book store..like you're being judged on the way in, and there are sorta scummy people hangin outside. Here's an uninteresting pic of the LCBO:

AND..inside I encountered my first Canadian creepy bum! He tried to say something to me but I ignored him and walked away. Then I was looking at this sale rack of wines, and he came up and stood facing me and was mumbling..so I put my arm that was closest to him up so it was blocking my face and just ignored him. He walked away after like a minute...but it was definitely creepy. I wanted to either yell "I'm somebody's daughter!" or just punch him in the mouth, like Vanessa says. Oh, and this was at like 3pm, not even dark out or late!! But I survived, so no worries. So, here are some pics from the adventure. This is outside of Vanessa's house (oh p.s. there was a mini blizzard during early afternoon, hence the snow on the ground):

I thought I'd take a pic of my excited demeanor at finally having my camera, I was trying to get a background so I guess I don't look that excited:

And the walk there:


And the walk back..man I miss Mexican food..I tried one place that was gonna charge me $7 to get a side of guac..Outrageous:


Does it look like this car has a milk mustache??

And this is me freezing walking back..hence the pink face. It was like 16 degrees fahrenheit!

This is my longest blog ever, but my friend Natalia said to take so many pictures that is gets obnoxious..I think I almost got there. Lastly, I also went out to get more Feta to make more Greek Salad cuz I made some last night. Here is the finished product...it's frickin DELISH!!

PHOTOS!!!

So I now have some photos to share...ones of food making for the potluck, this is Vanessa's family's dining room..so nice:

This is a friend Rachel making a Serbian/Bosnian dish called Burek:

And these are most of the Beatons. Mama Beaton is in the back, Vanessa, and Little Beaton (Alex, who oddly enough is the tallest):


Then I took pictures of the Covent Garden Market here in London. If you've ever been to the REAL London, you know Covent Garden is an area there, so this place is still really a colony. Also, Vanessa's stepdad told me that they call this town London because it was supposed to be the capital of Canada (they're really loyal) but then realized that it was too close to the "enemy" (Detroit is only 2 hrs away). Anyways...the market is really cool: This place is the Tea Haus..so many teas, I know my mom will appreciate this!

This one is for my Auntie Jan:

This is for Gina, the cupcake closest is Coconut! I think they stole your recipes!






That's all I got for now, and thanks to my wonderful Dad, I should have my charger by Tuesday!! Just to give you all a heads up, we'll be going to a Brewery on Tuesday, and on Friday we're going up to a friend's cottage in the middle of nowhere, and will have to snowshoe in! There should be some great pictures after that adventure.
As Gladys Knight and the Pips say: Keep on keepin' on!

London....the one not in England

We went to Vanessa's hometown of London, Ontario this weekend. We left on Thursday after I got lost trying to get to the coach terminal, which pissed me off because I had directions and then asked people who had no idea where anything was. We got here and that night went to a music show which was acoustic and folksy, just like Vanessa. It was very good and I was impressed. And there are some good looking musicians around here!

Anyways...last night we had a potluck at Vanessa's house with her friends: part rowdy girls and part girls from her social justice club. Some really good food and cookies, and entertaining watching her rowdy friends play drinking games. Today, Vanessa's working so I'm either hanging with her sister or her brother, not sure yet.

Someone asked me last night if I notice any language differences between Canadians and myself. I answered by saying that I picture Canadians being just like Americans but with cute little ways they say some words. Like bum and mum. Whenever someone says bum I stifle a giggle because it's just so adorable. Like I want to pat those cute Canadians on the head and say, "it's alright, I won't make fun of you because you can't help it."

ALSO...I went to get batteries to use Vanessa's camera, and I put brand new Panasonic batteries in the camera, and of course...it doesn't work!! Well I took pictures with someone else's camera but she has it and I don't...so maybe in the near future I can commandeer it (I love that word) and put some pictures up. One last tidbit...Ontario's tax is ridiculous!!! Tax varies between provinces (like states) and Ontario's is like 13%!!!! So hopefully I will start to budget.

First Day!!

P.S. Before you read...I wrote most of this yesterday night but shutdown halfway because Vanesssa was going to sleep. So it says "today" but it means yesterday. I'm lazy, didn't feel like changing it. You can handle it I'm sure.

So guess what I realized today?? I don't have my camera charger. I know, pretty crappy..considering my battery was going out last night. So I went out today and realized I couldn't take many pictures. Don't fret readers, because I already called my dad, and he's sending it pronto. We went to the Royal Ontario Museum today which had a controversial new construction for the entrance. It looks really modern now, but the entrance was very traditional, with almost a mini Vatican look. By that I mean it had a classical painting on the dome ceiling, and old statues and stuff. I took a couple pictures today because...it started snowing big flakes as we were walking!!! I was walking around with my mouth open trying to catch snowflakes..then realized nobody else was doing it so maybe I shouldn't.

I hung out with some of Vanessa's friends, and the conversations ranged from hitting Moose with your car to USA's hockey team being bad to cracking jokes about Newfees...which is the nickname for people from Newfoundland. I guess the population is very small, and you don't see many Newfees outside of Newfoundland, so when you do it's like a treasured gem. Also because they have crazy accents that are a mix of Canadian, Scottish and Irish...and apparently NOBODY can understand them. If I meet one I will be sure to describe it as best I can. But for now, here are a couple of photos I took last night in the snow!

This is me trying to catch snowflakes..pretty awesome.

CANA-DUHHHHH

I have arrived!! That's what I yelled getting off the plane. Just kidding. I wish I had the gusto to do that. I landed in Toronto at 3pm and my friend Vanessa was gonna meet me. One thing you should know about Vanessa, which you will notice in future pictures, is that she has flaming red hair. Not literally flaming, but you get it. So I was just looking for that, like a beacon in a sea of gray. Turns out it's not as bright as I thought. I sat behind her for like 20min, and finally saw a girl I thought was her. If you've ever been around me, you know I can't see far away too well. Yes, I have glasses, but why would I wear them? That's just crazy. So I'm sitting there and see a redhead (who by the way are going extinct apparently. But she has a family full of reds so hopefully they pass the gene on) but I can't really tell if it's her, so I'm squinting as I walk closer and closer. Kinda creepy if you were an onlooker. Then I went up and stood right beside her, and said "Who're you looking for?" Hugs and hugs and we left.

After eating we went out walking, turns out I CAN handle the cold..but my nose almost froze off. I did buy baselayers..actually my mom, whom I love very much, bought them for me. Love you mom!! So I think I'm gonna wear the crap out of those. We went on a bridge, and attempted to go see the Canadian National Tower, which used to be the tallest free standing building in the world (who knows how long ago that was) but it was actually foggy. So hopefully I'll see it tomorrow. AND, I finally got a Loonie and a Toonie (a dollar and two dollar coins)!
Here's a couple of cool pics to tide you over til I take legit ones tomorrow.





This is my friend Vanessa, all bundled up. She was in the process, or PRO-cess as she says, of telling me the history of the bridge which is the first picture. I was like uh huh, uh huh..SNAP! And then I told her I'm probably gonna be annoyingly taking pictures for my blog. She laughed, but I secretly think she was like, crap, I gotta put up with this.

Getting ready for cold

I just came back from a 3 day trip with my oldest friend Madelyn Burger, aka Burger, Burgatron, Burgs. Drove up with her and her boyfriend Andrew in Andrew's "Hog," an old white Land Cruiser. First time meeting her boyfriend and in the first half hour, I slipped and fell right on my face. Typical. We got to Tahoe that same night full of deliriousness from driving for almost 7 hours (it should've only taken 5hrs, but traffic happened).


Some highlights included: me falling on my face twice the first day of boarding. Having bad nachos (how does that happen!!) at the pub next door, a weird guy got excited and went up to Burger when he saw she was dancing to a song he picked(she was joking around because the song was really bad), I saved her by telling him she just had tourette's of the body.


Best story: The bear mascot of the ski resort got tackled by a drunk skier. We were sitting around a lunch area, watching this bear mascot walk around and hug people and we joked that someone should tackle him. 5 minutes later a drunk guy tackled the bear to the ground!! The bear got super pissed. BUT, he told his boss what happened while in character, so he just mimed everything. Looked hilarious, but he was really angry. They took the skier away on a snowmobile while he flipped everyone off and his friends took pictures. This is the Bear trying to mime what happened to his boss:

And then they scolded the skier and took his pass away

I think I'm ready for endless amounts of snow. Maybe.