A Cabinin' We Go

"Well, what a fellow should do..."

Friday, 23-June-2006

A night of packing, 2 phone calls at work from Angela, and the work day was just dragging. I was overly anxious and all my nails have been bitten down to nothing. Not a lovely site by far. But I could see out of the window that the weather was gorgeous.

Come 4:30 p.m. I jump out of the doors (or as close to one can get to jumping with 3 heavy bags...) and headed over to Steph's. The adventure was to begin! But first - Steph does a quick check of my bags and removes some of the stuff that was not on The List.

We meet Anne's friend Sophie, who wonderfully offered to chauffeur us on this trip. And then... we're off!

It was first to Rocky Mountain House ("Where Adventure Begins"). The drive is about 2 and half hours but felt really short as we talked about music and travels. We arrive at Anne's old home. And no one was there. Hm... they knew we were coming... *zipping images of people vacating the house as fast as possible* No worries, we found what we needed and Anne's dad returned before we completely ransacked the place for provisions.

The cabin is located at Crimson Lake Provincial Park. And has quite a history in Anne's family. Bits and pieces were donated to the cabin over the years, and there was antique iron wood stove, possibly antique tea lights (with Dutch labelling), and coffee cups that were so old that they looked "retro". We arrived there and unpacked. Spiders and other bugs were disposed of. And then it was time for dinner: S'mores.


Saturday, 24-June-2006

Yes! I got to sleep in! Which was needed since there were all these "non-city" sounds keeping me awake. When all the bird calls start sounding like maniacal laughter... how do you identify the loon?

We all lounged on the deck, went canoeing on the lake, and then had lunch. I had a ball taking photos and soon ran low on batteries (visit Anne's for some of those pictures). Which was unfortunate because in the afternoon we headed out to Siffleur Falls for a stroll. Beautiful and practically indescribable. Postcard perfect - so much in fact that some of the pictures I did manage to take look like I had tried to paste our images into postcard backdrops.

We reached the first falls, sat, rested, and dipped our feet into the cold water. Amazing how much calm there can be among all the crashing water. I saw the others' faces relax and soften to the sounds and sights... and there I was thinking about swimsuit photoshoots...

We returned to find Rene (Anne's housemate) had decided to come! He had made friends with the neighbours while we were away and they treated him to an afternoon of waterskiing. They didn't mention the leeches.

It was such a great day... and still there was s'mores :P But before that - glad to report that all the celery was eaten! Yay, for celery!

Rene certainly added an interesting element of... posh? to our gathering. Not only was he the cleanest of us, he also wore a Disel shirt, and bandana to dinner (very fashionable). Later he decided that a water gun complimented his cowboy gear, and used it (loaded with lake water) to chase us around a bit.

The neighbours set off some fireworks (big no-no: illegal), and we decided to go to bed. More awaited us the next day!


Sunday, 25-June-2006

Adventures in the night: Surreal moment where an errant squirrel decides it would be fun to jump on Anne's feet as she was sleeping. Steph eventually chases it back outside. The rest of us slept through the entire thing.

It was hard to believe that there was still one more day left to the weekend, we packed in so much the day before that it felt like it must be time to go. In the light of authenticity, I had refrained from showering. It felt pretty good. Though I was probably not in the best appearance for Sunday breakfast back at Anne's place.

After the blueberry waffles, poached eggs, and tea prepared by Anne's dad... we barely wanted to move. I took a ride in Rene's truck and we watched the forests go by while listening to salsa music (it kind of worked). And when we made it back to the cabin - we brought out the romance novels (not only for rainy days at the cabin) and lay there in the sun reading. Rene decided to brave the leeches rather than take part in this activity - and took a swim.

And soon it was time to go. We packed up, cleaned up, and locked up. The ride back was a bit quieter (I was dozing off again). We became a lot more animated though when it came time for dinner: marshmallows, carrots, and graham crackers. When I did get home - it felt great to take that shower.

So, I am a City Girl - No way am I going to fool myself that camping would be similar (we had electricity, and a toilet that flushed!) But this was a fun little excursion... and if the invite came again, I would definitely go again. I found out that I am indeed allergic to nature, but antihistamines can help with that. And surprisingly, spiders aren't that bad... as long as they're outside. Anne also planted something in my head: Small steps to anarchy. Thanks guys for a great weekend! Now only if I didn't have to think about work...