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.