The Beauty of Algonquin

Wilderness Adventure...Sort of!

Back in September, Brad and I were able to take a wonderful trip to Algonquin park in northern Ontario. I'm not sure what got into me, but I suddenly decided I really wanted to go camping. Now for those of you who know me, that is a strange thing indeed! But there we have it - I wanted to go camping, and I wanted to go to Algonquin. Brad is wonderful and even though he gave me a funny look when I told him I wanted to go camping, he was totally up for the adventure!

What we failed to realize as we planned our trip was that by the time it is September, Algonquin park is a COLD place to be. As the trip approached and we anxiously checked the weather, we realized that we may not be as ready to "rough it" as we first thought. Still, we were determined to make it a good trip. I went ridiculously overboard in my planning, printing lists off the internet of things to take and doing all kinds of research into what kinds of meals we should make...but I knew it was all worth it when we were finally sitting around the campfire eating our beef stew. I actually got a "Good job, Juggers!" from Brad...so I know it must have been good!

The beginning of our trip actually started out kind of funny. The guy at the border asked where we were going, and after hearing our answer he actually started laughing and said, "You know it's going to be cold up there, right?" I motioned to the back seat, which was piled to the roof with blankets, and pretended like I wasn't worried at all. Shortly after crossing the border, we decided to stop for dinner. That was when the "incident" happened. I was driving, and I pulled into the Harvey's parking lot and was chatting excitedly about how long it had been since I had eaten at Harvey's, when all of a sudden Brad screamed, "STOP!" and the car jerked violently like we had just run over something. Of course, his screaming only caused me to press down harder on the gas. I wasn't sure what had happened until I pulled the car over and got out. That's when I saw the pothole and humongous curb that I had just gone over. Oops.

I felt SOOO stupid but luckily I have a very gracious husband who only laughed a little and didn't get mad at all. Thank you, honey :)

The site of the infamous curb debaucle:



Brad checked out the car and said I had dented the transmission pan or something...all I wanted to know is if I had broken the car! But he said no, and we were able to continue on with our journey. Thank you, Lord!

We stayed the night with mom and dad, and the next day at the crack of dawn (10am) began the long treck up north. We were surprised because it only took us about 7 hours - not bad at all.

Our campsite with a really long name!


When we arrived, we were very happy to find that our campsite was beautiful. We were very unhappy to find out that we had a bunch of drunk neighbors for the first night. Nothing is more obnoxious when you have just driven almost 10 hours to experience the peace and quiet of nature than to have noisy neighbors! Luckily they left the next day and the rest of our time was much more serene.

Our house may not be that big, but our tent sure is!


The view from our campsite


The rest of the trip was spent taking walks, going canoeing, exploring around the lake, taking pictures, playing scrabble, and cooking meals. We also spent a significant amount of time trying to get the campfire lit!

Brad canoeing - yey, we didn't tip over!

Brad on a log


The perfect marshmallow!


And of course, everyone wanted to know if it was cold...yes, it was cold! The days were beautiful, blue skies (after the first day) and warm. But the nights were quite chilly and I was glad I was a little over-zealous with the packing. We did have to sleep in winter hats and sweatshirts, but we were nice and warm once we got settled under all those blankets!

Preparing for the long, cold night ahead


Overall, it was a wonderful trip and a great way to celebrate our second anniversary. We even talked about going "into the interior" sometime in the future...I'm not sure I'm brave enough for that yet!