Incredible clouds over Round Lake.

As always packing for our Round Lake vacation took longer than expected and we left late. But we were on vacation so… *shrug* Sadly I forgot my newly found iPod at home so we were forced to listen to *gasp* local radio. Thanks to Shazam for letting me know what bad music we were listening to. I’m hoping no one ever seeing that Shazam log. *cringe* We stopped in Port Parry for another disappointing chip truck experience. Even the dog got sick. It was dark by the time we reached the Lake area. We ended up staying at bdot’s parents for the evening in Killaloe. We started Tuesday giving bdot’s Mom an Android tablet tutorial. I bet it seemed like a ton of information. She appeared to grasp things well however. Facebook. Skype. Android. Messenger. It is certainly a lot to digest. We eventually made our way out to The Lake. Unpacked and visited with both sets of Aunts and Uncles. By this time a swim was in order. The water was certainly cool but the body eventually acclimatized itself. During this vacation was my first real experience reading with e-ink. I have to say it is pretty awesome! I finished Contract of War, the final book in the series. It was a great series. I’ll have to keep an eye on this “Tammy” writer. *smirk* So I needed a new book. I settled on the Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. I can certainly see a lot of similarities with Lord of the Rings… but the writing is certainly less congested and it has been enjoyable so far.

Wednesday was bdot’s birthday. Happy Birthday hon. Her Mom made her her favourite Coffee Cream cake. I think everyone we knew in the area ended up getting a piece. Yummy! The cottage formula for the week was pretty easy: Eat. Read. Deck. Swim. Repeat. The only decision to make each day was dinner. Wednesday evening we chilled out in the evening with a very unChill movie called The Machine. An odd creepy Sci-Fi film. Very dark. Almost too dark at time, maybe why the RT reviews were so low? It has a Blade Runner-esque vibe as it asked what role Robots and Cyborgs should be? And what defines life? Certainly some thought provoking question. ⭐⭐⭐

Under attack on the deck from these guys all week.

Thursday started as every day did with bdot making a delicious pot of coffee. Mmm coffee. Where the cottage is located is a fairly isolated area with long driveways. In all the time I’ve been going to Round Lake I don’t recall every seeing strangers, let alone someone at the door. But you can’t stop God I guess. Yes… We had a Jehovah’s Witness knock on the cottage door Thursday morning. Oivey. In the afternoon one of our friend’s Trish dropped in with her two kids. We had a fun visit and more cake. By the evening the sky had cleared revealing an incredible star speckled sky. I’m sure the naked eye can see 1000x the number of stars at Round Lake compared to Bolton. I tried (haha) to photograph the spectacular scene but it proved to be quite a difficult task. My shots were pretty fail. I’ve since read about shooting the night sky and apparently to get great results requires a fair bit of equipment which I don’t have. Hmmmpt.

Friday we met up with Trish for lunch in Killaloe. It was a curious experience. The restaurant was strangely informal. I mean you wouldn’t know it was even a restaurant from the exterior. Still… the food was really good, even though it felt like we were at someone’s home for lunch. There is dappled and unreliable bandwidth at the cottage. So when we come to town our phones explode with updates. It was nice be able to get some banking done from an app. The afternoon was spent relaxing on the deck and in the Lake. In the evening we watched the very strange movie The Kings of Summer. I nearly turned it off at the beginning because it was so outrageously quirky. But eventually the strange characters were enough to keep it on. A weird film indeed. ⭐⭐

Saturday we ventured into Barry’s Bay, stopping first to visit our favourite local artist Joyce Burkholder. We then dropped over to visit our friend Jessica who just bought a new home. It was an incredible place! A newer brick home on a small lake with tons of property. In the evening bdot’s cousin and one of her friends was at the Lake, as was Ryan and his girlfriend. When we caught up to them they were in the middle of a drinking game called Wizard Sticks. We walked over to Ryan’s for a beer and chatted, mostly about BBQs. They invited us over later in the evening but after we made dinner and settled we were done and collapsed into the couch for the evening.

The final few days were spent reading and swimming. Sunday before we left I did spent some time helping one of her Aunt’s with her dying laptop. With the aid of boot disk I was able to get it booted and backed up all her data. It took some time to sort out. We came home through Algonquin park.

Sadness! Closed Tuesdays!

Sure it is slow at times if you get stuck behind someone pokey, but the views make it worthwhile IMHO. We stopped for pies in Barrie for dinner finally getting home in the early evening to happy cats.

It is bdot’s Aunt’s cottage we have been fortunate enough to have been using for the past several years. Sadly this was our final year with access to the cottage as her Aunt is retiring and will be there full-time. Congrats for her but bittersweet for us.

Algonquin Park. HWY 60 Vista.