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The end of Summer
Sep. 3rd, 2005 08:19 pmThe year 2005 is already a right off, so far as I'm concerned. But this summer, I think, is perhaps the best I've had in a long while. It didn't turn out at all like I thought it would, but that was, in many ways, better.
And last night was the perfect end, and the best night of the season. My cousins invited us all over to their cottage at Gibson Lake, which none of us had ever been to before. We spent the afternoon here giving diving lessons to their kids and then went over to their place at cocktail hour. The cottage is fantastics, solely because there is not piece of level ground on the entire property. All the floors in the house are sloped! The clouds had all cleared off, so it was beautiful blue sky, and the gale that was blowing here was non-existant there. We had a truely lovely dinner (the second best I've eaten this year!) and went through a total of 8 bottles among the 7 of us (who were drinking). The evening was furthered by more than an hour spent in their wood sauna with a neibouring family that came over for a visit. By this time I had downed four glasses of wine, and was thoroughly enjoying myself. We did the sauna-swim-sauna thing about three times. On the second dip in the lake (which felt warm, all things considered) the Northern Lights appeared in the sky and we spent a good long while simply floating by the raft watching them move across the sky with the stars all out over head. I'd never seen the lights before, but I was told this is as spectacular as they get in Muskoka. It was wonderous. I got to have a nice long talk with my younger cousins, which is the first time that's happened all summer, and finished up the sauna experience with a shoulder message and a birch branch beating (it's a European tradition, Finnish I think, wherein a hot and damp birch sapling, complete with leaves, is beat against the skin...a truely invigorating experience), and also a Smirnoff. By the time I got back into the cottage and changed, I was as relaxed as I've ever been and well on the way to tipsy. And the two margaritas I down in the next half hour put me over the edge. Tipsy is a good feeling. I couldn't fall asleep in the car ride home because when I closed my eyes I nearly passed out from the dizziness. Oops.
Woke up this morning stiff, sore, and thoroughly hung over. Spent the morning popping tylenol and drowning in glasses of water. I was apparently better off than my cousins. Spent the afternoon diving. Lesson number one: diving, drinking, sauna-ing, and medication is the worst combination possible. I can't wait to do it all over again.
The outcome? We've all agreed we must build our own sauna here. I'm in heaven.
And also, it was so the best weekend ever. I have go home to Oakville tomorrow for the first time in 5 weeks. I wish I was going back to Waterloo tomorrow instead.
::sighs and downs another sip of wine:: The non-alcohol diet starts tomorrow. Ta-ta all.
~Amy
And last night was the perfect end, and the best night of the season. My cousins invited us all over to their cottage at Gibson Lake, which none of us had ever been to before. We spent the afternoon here giving diving lessons to their kids and then went over to their place at cocktail hour. The cottage is fantastics, solely because there is not piece of level ground on the entire property. All the floors in the house are sloped! The clouds had all cleared off, so it was beautiful blue sky, and the gale that was blowing here was non-existant there. We had a truely lovely dinner (the second best I've eaten this year!) and went through a total of 8 bottles among the 7 of us (who were drinking). The evening was furthered by more than an hour spent in their wood sauna with a neibouring family that came over for a visit. By this time I had downed four glasses of wine, and was thoroughly enjoying myself. We did the sauna-swim-sauna thing about three times. On the second dip in the lake (which felt warm, all things considered) the Northern Lights appeared in the sky and we spent a good long while simply floating by the raft watching them move across the sky with the stars all out over head. I'd never seen the lights before, but I was told this is as spectacular as they get in Muskoka. It was wonderous. I got to have a nice long talk with my younger cousins, which is the first time that's happened all summer, and finished up the sauna experience with a shoulder message and a birch branch beating (it's a European tradition, Finnish I think, wherein a hot and damp birch sapling, complete with leaves, is beat against the skin...a truely invigorating experience), and also a Smirnoff. By the time I got back into the cottage and changed, I was as relaxed as I've ever been and well on the way to tipsy. And the two margaritas I down in the next half hour put me over the edge. Tipsy is a good feeling. I couldn't fall asleep in the car ride home because when I closed my eyes I nearly passed out from the dizziness. Oops.
Woke up this morning stiff, sore, and thoroughly hung over. Spent the morning popping tylenol and drowning in glasses of water. I was apparently better off than my cousins. Spent the afternoon diving. Lesson number one: diving, drinking, sauna-ing, and medication is the worst combination possible. I can't wait to do it all over again.
The outcome? We've all agreed we must build our own sauna here. I'm in heaven.
And also, it was so the best weekend ever. I have go home to Oakville tomorrow for the first time in 5 weeks. I wish I was going back to Waterloo tomorrow instead.
::sighs and downs another sip of wine:: The non-alcohol diet starts tomorrow. Ta-ta all.
~Amy
