Sunday:  we’ve been lucky with weather all week.  It’s either been hot and sunny or hot and overcast, but we’ve dodged the threat of rain every day – until today.  So, we had another lazy morning, hanging around until about noon.  But first…

Yesterday, we slept in – caught up on some needed rest.  With no particular plans for the day, we jumped in the car after breakfast with snacks, water, hats, sunscreen, bug spray, and our cameras and headed out to explore.

There was an Italian restaurant in West Guilford called The Corner Cafe that Steve had heard about – good food, a bit quirky.  We like good food and quirky, so our first stop was to check it out – appearance, hours of operation, menu, prices.  It wasn’t hard to find as there’s only one corner in West Guilford!!!  It’s not fancy, looking like a typical country put-together building, and when I saw the hours of operation on the door and didn’t go in, the owner came out after me as I was stepping away to find out if she could help me.  There was no way she was letting me go that easily… I left with a copy of the menu and the advice to call later for reservations if we wanted to be guaranteed a spot for dinner.

We thought we’d drive up to Dorset to browse through Robinson’s General Store, have an ice cream, and watch the boats come and go on Lake of Bays.  On the way, we passed Buttermilk Falls.  We’ve been to Buttermilk Falls before but now it had a special something.  Rick Fines wrote a whimsical song about Buttermilk Falls – basically, the name conjured up fairy tale images to him and he’s now afraid to stop and look at them in case they don’t live up to his expectations.  We stopped.  We’d heard that the Haliburton/Muskoka areas had been hit hard by water this spring with all the rain we’ve had.  But it was still a bit of a surprise to see the left-over sand bags lined up along the lake side of the falls.

   

All that rain, though, made the falls spectacular.

        

   

The Robinson General Store is a fixture in Dorset and quite well known by anyone who has passed through.  It’s full, and I mean full, of stuff – anything from specialty food items, to jewellery, to clothing, to artwork, to bath products… you get the idea.  Actually, it’s quite crowded and a bit overwhelming, as there’s so much inventory displayed so closely together, it’s hard to focus (at least for me).  It mustn’t distract too much, though, as Robinson’s has been around a very long time and I suspect they’ll continue to be both an attraction and a staple for the local community.  They have a very well stocked grocery section and very generous staff.  I was offered (and took) a free fudgesicle (sp?).  I found Steve sitting outside eating an ice cream cone, but he had to pay for his.

Lake of Bays is also a very popular vacation spot and, therefore, busy.  We watched the boat traffic for a little bit before we started to wilt in the heat.

    

About half-way “home”, we detoured up to the Hawk Lake Log Chute, a fascinating peak into history.  This is a man-made chute in which loggers got their product downstream to proper shipping channels.  We’ve also been here before and, again, the spring rains have had an impact.

        

        

We called and made our reservation at The Corner Cafe and were advised to get there as quickly as possible as they were expecting a group of 12.  We were about 20 minutes away. But on the way down, we made a 10-minute stop to visit with a crusty, rubbery-looking creature that was making a cross-road journey…  You never know who you might meet in the country.

       

We walked into the restaurant at exactly the same time as the party of 12!  Fortunately, the owner made a point of getting us settled and orders taken before she had the server move on to the larger group.  The food was excellent, the service (young girl) was excellent, the prices were reasonable.  And, although the owner was a bit quirky, customer service was important to her and to her server.  The group of 12 – young camp counselors from up the road – were seated in the porch at 3 tables of 4.  They asked to be seated inside at one large table which wasn’t immediately possible.  The server was actually the one who determined that it could be done by asking another table of 4 to move so that they could rearrange furniture and make it work.  We were so impressed by their willingness to go to all that trouble, especially for young people who weren’t drinking any alcohol and who were ordering pizzas – the least expensive items on the menu.  This is a place we want to come back to and will highly recommend.

Last night was the first opportunity we had to go down that long flight of stairs, sit on the dock, and watch the sun set.  We also watched fish jump, and something – we think either an otter or a beaver (there’s a beaver dam at the end of the lake) – swim across the bay in front of us.  And, of course, let’s not forget the sounds – frogs, birds, loons.  We stuck it out as long as we could before the mosquitoes drove us indoors.

   

Today, the rain kept up a steady pace until about 6pm, then the sun came out just as we were leaving the grocery store with our meals for the next few days.

On our way to buy groceries, however, we took a trip to the other side of town to dump our week’s garbage, stopped at the college to find out where we were supposed to be tomorrow (we are both back in the high school), then came back to The Heritage Cafe on Pine Street to have a wee bit of lunch.  It’s a quaint and cosy place inside a historical building that dates back to 1881, which is a big deal in these parts.  The walls are decorated with paintings (for sale) from local artists, and there is a diverse selection of magazines to choose from while waiting for your food, which was delicious.

There is an animal farm outside of Haliburton, on Route 1, that has had camels, llamas, and giraffes in the past.  We drove past to check it out and there they were – llamas – older and younger.

       

   

A bit past that farm is the turn-off for Richie Falls, another spot we’ve visited together in the past, and also a popular painting destination that Steve and his class went to last Monday.  The rain had let up for awhile so we were able to get out to enjoy the scenery and the sounds, and to take some pictures.

   

   

       

   

We’re enjoying a pre-dinner drink while the BBQ does its thing, and I’m also enjoying the sounds coming from Steve’s guitar while I catch up on my blog.  It was really a great idea to stay in Haliburton for two weeks this year so we didn’t have to rush right home.  Having this weekend to decompress was wonderful and we’re both rested and looking forward to our musical week starting tomorrow.