The World Is A Book...: A Glimpse Into Sweet Kenora Life...

Friday, 24 August 2012

A Glimpse Into Sweet Kenora Life...

Well, London 2012 was certainly an exhilarating and exhausting experience for Patrick and I. Not only were we getting excited watching the sports- but we were engaging in a challenging sport of our own- flat-hunting. Hunting for a flat in London during the busiest time of the year? I hear you cry. Are you crazy? After the 13th viewed house, I was started to think so- but luckily, it was 13th time lucky for us.

Anyway, enough of that- there's plenty of time to revel in new-flat joy. I want to talk about our fantastic few days in a small lakeside city in the middle of Canada called Kenora- the perfect place to relax after all the craziness before. By travelling immediately post-Olympics, we inevitably took a little Olympic craziness with us to Toronto: there were a fair few Canadian Olympians and sports presenters on our flight. Once we'd left the sports stars behind at Toronto Airport, being pulled every which way for photos with fans, we could say goodbye to the Olympics once and for all, and hello to a few days of Kenora-style relaxation.

Before I even stepped into Kenora, I felt like I had already been there. Patrick was always telling me of the fun summers he and his family spent there- swimming in the freshwater lake, visiting his grandparents' camps, playing with the Vaudry and Gustafson kids, going fishing with his family. However, I was not quite prepared for the rich greens of the surrounding trees, and the utter peacefulness of the lake. It was a landscape that I had briefly seen in Finland, but that was still very new and awe-inspiring to me. From the airport to the camp, Patrick's Grandpa Martz told me how he and his friends had spent a very cold winter, and very hot summer (extreme temperatures in Canada's centre!) making a road from the highway to the camp. Penetrating those deeply-forested woods must have been the ultimate challenge, but if the camp is anything to go by, it was certainly worth it! We were fortunate enough to see the landscape both from the ground, and high up in the air; the tiny aeroplane that we took from Thunder Bay to Kenora offered picture-perfect views of the Lake of the Woods, and the thousands of islands that it contains.

So, I should keep this brief (well, my version of brief, anyway!) and leave you to look at the many photos. Highlights? Where do I start? Smelling that glorious fresh wood smell for the first time, and instantly feeling relaxed. Reeling in my first fish with the help of Jimmy Gustafson, a finalist in a recent prolific fishing tournament. Catching my first fish, after Patrick and I had just swapped fishing reels- every man for himself in fishing! Eating the day's catches in a delicious fish-fry dinner. Relaxing by a wood-fire when the days turned a little cooler. Swimming in the surprisingly warm lake- a bit better than Lake Baikal! Meeting lots of family members and friends that I had heard so much about- Grandpa Bergman, Grandpa and Grandma Martz, most of the Gustafson family...and many more! Seeing wildlife I had never seen before- a groundhog, a loon (no, not my reflection!), a hummingbird, and even a beaver swimming in the distance (which Patrick thought was a bear at first!!). Hearing the loon's unique cry at dawn. The boat incident, where we accidentally hit a reef in the lake, was a little unfortunate...but we caught a few fish at that same reef later on that day to make up for it! Every cloud has a silver lining, and all that.

All in all, it's clear that Kenora life is a very sweet life indeed. Enjoy the pictures!