Canadar.

Missing Canada, we go back. Passing through Chatham, why not stop and see nana and run some furniture up to Wallacebeurg, and then grab some wine and food and watch kids' videos. The next morning, how refreshed we all were.

 

Driving on the 401 just past Guelph I had such a moment that I thought I might have to pull over. It occurred to me, as I was listening to an archive of my own radio show playing The Smiths, that I'd been here before. It would have been summer 1992, when I worked at Geoff's family farm for a few weeks. And I thought, I must have driven on this exact road listening to something almost exactly like this, going to basically the same place. I hadn't progresses in 30 years! Except for my American wife, my two kids, couple of huskies, being a marketing professor and some kind of dean, living in Kentucky after living all across Canada and the US, traveled the world, driving a minivan. Imagine, all of that, and still being in the same place doing the exact same thing. What I would have said to my 21 year old self back then.

 

Arriving in the Kawarthas, we're on a boat! A very special boat that doesn't move, and has a lot of stuff inside that makes it look like a house. You could almost say it was like a house, boat.

 

If it's a house, it has a roof. And given that there was no traffic, the roof is the best place for kids to play.

 

 Water sure is cold. I'm not talking from personal experience, I'm not crazy enough to jump in. But the kids did. Sort of. Levi was more encouraged to jump than jump.

 

 

 I'm windswept. Look how healthy I look after only a couple hours on das boot.

 

Our bijoux sleeping spaces on the boat. That giant space next to Levi is where I slept. And there's ol' Geoff cooking up some vittles in the kitchen. Excuse me, galley. Excuse me, breakfast.

 

 

 Here are some people eating said vittles.

 

 Spying some jelly beans, the loose tooth that has plagued Eva since Ljubljana finally came out. In about 15 seconds of chewing. Some kind of genius dad is for putting it together.

 

We're on a boat! That isn't a house. But a small zodiac with a giant 50 hp motor on the back. People commented.

 

This is us at speed. 50 hp on a zodiac.

 

 

This is me after about 15 times jumping over the waves from the wake of another boat at the front of the zodiac. The shape of the metal railing pressed into the flesh covering the back of my rib cage. Imagine this is barely 24 hours after the previous picture of me.

 

Here we are enjoying some downtime from the wake while we wait in a lock. I don't know why everyone doesn't go everywhere by boat.

 

Into the town of Buckhorn for some ice cream. And beer. And garlic bread. And lattice fries. And a western sandwich. And garlic shrimp. And tons of water. So much water. Notice this is barely 48 hours after my first photo...

 

When the bugs would allow, we had fires. 

 

 

Nice fires.

 

 

Levi was fire dude for much of it. He's really good.

 Having not eaten the worms at either of the first two breakfasts, we finally put those them to use to catch fish. Eva is the first up, with the beginning fish.

 

 

  Levi follows up with the keeper. Which we promptly threw back.

 

 Then I swear I think Eva caught the same fish a little later on.

 

 Between watching Napolean Dynamite and 50% of Cannonball Run, we skipped some stones out by the lake.

 

Each morning Eva would join Geoff and I for a coffee in Buckhorn. By boat or by car, it was a special time where Eva got to experience mint tea latte, iced latte, and london fog.

 Each night was beautiful. The perfect sunset at the end of our last night.

 

 And the perfect moonlight after the end of our last night.

 

 

Capped off by jamming my shin into the trailer hitch on Geoff's car on the final morning. Finally, stopped by a hotel off my favorite exit on the way home.