Algonquin Provincial Park

I've already mentioned two YouTube videos about the park, one from the Friends of Algonquin Park and another by Ontario Parks.  But here is a less official video taken by RV Lifestyle, an older RV couple from Detroit who drive up to Algonquin Park for an RV road trekker get-together.   Two takeaways from their trip are the logging museum because there is an interpretive trail that shows how the loggers lived.  You can watch its 15 minute video The Loggers of Algonquin Park ahead of time so the kids don't have to sit through it.  It is well done and informative.  And second, it hadn't occurred to me how little light pollution there would be that far north so that we'll be able to see the Milky Way.   I'll even buy Milky Way Midnight Dark candy bars for the occasion.

By the way, our RV friends mention that late summer and early fall is a better time to go because of the bugs.

Civic Holiday or the August Long Weekend

We hit the jackpot!  We'll be starting our vacation week in Canada during their August long weekend which marks the halfway point in summer and which is called by different names in different provinces and cities.  One website said:   "It is probably the busiest day on highways as tens of thousands of families go camping, to cottages etc this weekend."  But there are no events scheduled in Algonquin Park for those days as of yet, so maybe it really isn't that "national"?  We can check their Events Calendar later on to see if that changes.

On the other hand, Muskoka is already planning for it:  Discover Muskoka August Long Weekend Events.   Will will be happy to know that they typically have a Session Muskoka Craft Beer Festival.   The information on the website is for last year but I assume it will eventually be updated.  Session Muskoka is held in Bracebridge, about half an hour south of Menominee Lake.

Another event for Will -- who can take Isabel along this time -- is TreeTop Trekking in Huntsville.  Unfortunately you have to be 9 years old so the boys are too young.  Such a disappointment.

There is a Santa's Village Theme Park near Bracebridge but it looks like it's for younger kids and the general admission is $37.95.  We could almost buy 2 youth kayaks for what it would cost for a family of 4.  There are also fireworks the night of Monday at Gravenhurst, at the tip of Muskoka Lake.

For Jen there is a Muskoka Lakes Farm and Winery where they harvest cranberries, make cider from apples and cranberries, and make wine from cranberries and blueberries.  It's about an hour away to the west.  We could drop Will off at the craft beer festival and drive on to the winery, skirting around lots of lakes.  All I can say is that by the end of this trip we should have our fill of water and should be ready for a desert vacation!  Hm.  Maybe it is time to buy some kayaks for the kids.

Menominee Lake Here We Come

We've bitten the bullet and reserved an AirBnB in Canada on Menominee Lake about 7 hours north of Pittsburgh.  It's about 6 kilometers north of Baysville and 19 kilometers south of Huntsville in an area pockmarked with hundreds of little lakes.  It's about 140 miles north of Toronto and around 100 miles northeast of Collingwood which is on the Georgian Bay.  (That's where my grandmother was born.)

That's Toronto at the bottom of the map covered up by a bunch of stars and the Google logo.

Three fourths of the family is going to make it:  the two of us, Camila's family and Will's family.  Juan is using up his vacation and money on the Disney Cruise as we speak, which sounds pretty good to me at the moment.  We're going to Canada instead of the Outer Banks this year and the weather should be significantly different.  With all those little lakes and ponds I hope there aren't too many mosquitos but I've got two bottles of Off with DEET left over from our Punta Cana vacation last year.  I never used it once there so hopefully it will continue to be unused this summer.

We hope to get to Algonquin Provincial Park, the original destination of this trip.  The Friends of Algonquin Park video traces the geological formation, prehistory and history of the park.  Highway #60 runs for 56 kilometers through the lower half of the park and provides camping sites, interpretive walkways, a museum and visitor center.  For more information on the recreational offerings, watch the Ontario Parks video.  The rest of the park can only be accessed on foot or by canoe.  The west entrance to the park is about 42 minutes (48 kilometers) from our AirBnB but the Visitor's Center is near the eastern entrance about an hour and 15 minutes (94 km).  Google Maps gives Canadian distances in kilometers and although you can change that to miles in the Options, I figure we might as well get used to them.  It's easy to convert from kilometers to miles:  you just multiply by 6 and move the decimal point one place to the left.  So 100 kilometers would be 60 miles.

By the way, Isabel says she has dibs on the top bunk:

Grandma's Recipes

Using okara to stuff fish

I am always amazed at how many videos there are on Japanese culture and how YouTube has become a platform for them.  My latest discovery is a series of small vignettes called Grandma's Recipes by Yu Nakamura about disappearing recipes from rural Japan that are kept alive by old women.  The videographer explains what they are doing this way.

"Our team especially tries to focus on eccentric, lovely but “Rock” ladies above the age of 80, who have lived through World War Two. We interview them with great care, and through their recipes which represents the relationships they share with those they care about, we are able to uncover great depth in their life stories. We want to spread those stories to the young generations living today. We believe that if we can share the stories of those beautiful and loving ladies to the world, regardless of borders and languages, people may appreciate even the dinner table just a little bit more."

"There are many grandmas over the age of 80 who have collected many "wrinkles" of joy throughout the years.  We collect those "wrinkles" in the form of their favorite recipes and we try to understand the depth of their life stories." 

The photography is beautiful even if you don't want to try the recipes, the majority of which seem to be Osechi, New Year's dishes.

• Sansai (Wild Vegetables, picked in Spring)
• Grandma Mitsuko from Haida making whole fish sushi.
• Tatsuko - san, a shoyu-maker from Fukui, making a soup for New Year's
• Osechi made by Keiko oba-chan in Tokyo, nishiki eggs and other dishes
• Teacher Tsunko on Noto Island making cod for "Kishu-sai", the festival of fishery.