Back to Work Tomorrow

Another week of vacation is coming to an end and for the first time in a long time I'm okay with going back to work tomorrow. Not that I didn't enjoy my vacation. I did. It was a very relaxing holiday. We didn't stress about what we did. We didn't try to jam too much stuff into it. For the first time in a couple years I feel very content about going back to work. I think that's a good thing.

I started my week of vacation with a mouth full of stitches, on antibiotics, and a long-range forecast of an entire week of rain. The first day I cried I was so down in the dumps. My vacation had nowhere to go but up. And it did. We didn't dwell on the forecast and decided that it is what it is and we'd just take it as it came.

Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days. Warn, sunny and quiet. We hung out at the cottage by ourselves and just relaxed. Monday we went to my parent's house about an hour and a half south of here. They're selling their cottage and wanted us to trade paddleboats with them. Theirs is better than ours was and they figured we should have the good one and let the other one go with the cottage. They also wanted us to see if there were any treasures that we'd like from their cottage for ours. We had a nice lunch at their house prior to heading out to their cottage (another 20 minute drive).

My Dad made me this coat rack and I absolutely LOVE it! I found a picture of one and asked if he'd be able to make one for me. We have a bear theme at our cottage and I thought it would be a cool addition to our bear collection. Dad is really good at woodwork and the coat rack turned out even better than I had imagined it could.

At the cottage we found a few more treasures and filled the truck. I said goodbye to the cottage. They've owned it for over 20 years but now that they have a new camper they never go out there.

We then drove out to visit some friends. We'd never been to their house before so while we were in the neighborhood we drove another half an hour to get to their place. They were coming to the cottage on Wednesday and we wanted to confirm our plans. After a short visit with them we headed back to Mom and Dad's for dinner. We had thought about going to see The Dark Knight on the way home but we were anxious to get all our new treasures home.

On Tuesday we went and bought some wood and patio stones to start working on the new support piers for the cottage. The ones we're sitting on now are old, sinking and rotting. I looked really cute shovelling sand out of the back of the truck in my bathing suit and sandals.

Our friends came to the cottage on Wednesday morning and we sat on the deck and had a couple cocktails before heading down the lake to swim in the fast water. We putted along and showed them the lake and when we went under the bridge the husband stood up and grabbed the bridge and climbed up on it! We had to circle back and pick him up. He had hoped to be fast enough to get to the other side and jump back in on the other side. *snicker*

We swam and played in the water for a while, swimming across the current until the skies opened up and it poured rain. Our friend saw a tire on the bottom of the current and he was determined to get it from the bottom. Even the rain didn't deter him. He was finally triumphant.

Reluctantly, we decided to head back to the cottage and when we got there the dock was dry. It hadn't rained at all at the cottage. We swam again off the dock and all had a good laugh watching our friend try to get in the kayak. We had more drinks and a fish dinner before getting lazy and relaxing for the evening.

One of our friends had to work at noon so after breakfast they had to head out. Thursday was another work day for us and I filled and delivered pails with sand for Dusterboy who was under the cottage building piers. We were really happy with the amount we got done seeing as we hadn't even planned to work on this during our holidays. By 5pm we called it quits and went for a nice long boat ride to a corner of the lake we'd never been to. We made it back just in time as it started raining about 5 minutes after we got back and covered the boat.

On Friday we started getting ready for the weekend. Voyageur Days is a weekend festival in Mattawa (about an hour away) and they have a huge turnout. http://www.voyageurdays.com/home.htm It's one of the top 100 festivals in Ontario. We drove out on Friday night to see Michelle Wright. Dusterboy was the DD and I had my fair share of $5 drinks. We met up with the friends who'd been up to the cottage Wednesday as well as another couple from work and some friends we hadn't seen for ages. We got back to the cottage at 1:30am and watched the last bit of Swingtown on a late feed.

We slept in until 10am and then packed up and headed back to Mattawa. The music started at noon and went until midnight and we decided to stay the night. All the campsites and hotels are booked well in advance so we took our truck tent that sets up in the truck bed and parked in a friend's driveway for the night. It had poured buckets just before we got there and the street beside our friend's house was flooded. It drained away fairly quickly but not before killing a couple cars. We headed down to the festival grounds and listened to the music and hung out with a bunch of friends we met up with. It was hot and sunny and the ground was saturated with water so our feet were quite a mess. I was glad that I packed a box of baby wipes to clean up with before the evening session. We stayed until midnight and then headed back to the tent. We were wiped and our legs and feet were done. We slept, but not very well, until 7:30 this morning and we packed up and came home. It's been a very lazy day today. I've been napping off and on while we watch the Brickyard race.

All in all it's been a great holiday. My stitches are gone, I'm relaxed and tanned and I think I can handle another month of work before we have another week off.