Cottage life

Well... it's been a nice two days up north so far. The first day was interesting with traffic chaos, but we ended up discovering a nice side route that I had never been on in the 40 or so years I've been traveling up north.

Once we got to Orillia, we spent about 2.5 hours searching for a new bike for Pippy as his old bike is far too small for him and most of the next size's bikes are too big for him. He's the classic 'tweener' - most kids his age are small enough to fit in the learner bikes that have training wheels on them and then allow them to learn without the wheels for a bit before moving onto a bigger bike. Pippy's huge for his age and there's a gap between the 16-inch bikes and the 20-inch bikes that a lot of boys move up to, and for girls there's an 18-inch bike. I don't really get why there's a difference, but almost every 18-incher (no that's not code, folks) is designed for girls. Pippy won't touch a 'girly bike' in his words.

Later on at the cottage, problem solved as another kid had an extra bike that fits Pippy. So I spent half of yesterday teaching him how to ride the bike without wheels with some success. There's a huge difference between Pippy being able to ride a tiny bike last year and a much bigger one this time around, so it was quite an adjustment period for him. It was a bit comical to watch as Pippy rode off with his slightly-older cousin, but she's tiny and riding a 12-incher in record speed while he's trying to keep up on an 18-incher that is at least twice as long as hers.

And no visit to the cottage is complete without two staples.

Here's the "Holy Grail" of Muskoka cottage country:




Weber's Burgers on Highway 11, just a short hop over from the cottage.

And here's a golden oldie - The Pop Shoppe was the 'it' drink in cottage country for some time and then it vanished around the mid-80's. About three or so years ago, it had a rebirth and it's regained its popularity up in the Muskoka area:



Yum yum! A Weber's burger with a Pop Shoppe root beer (pineapple for Pene) hits the spot.