Big bully

Just a quick pic of Emma with the big bullfrog she caught while fishing the Jock River. And yes, for those of you wondering, it was the only thing we caught that day.

Chillin' at Charleston Lake

Our annual summer trip to Charleston Lake always provides a bundle of great memories with the McMullans. This year we added a few more to the vault - the day trip picnics with the canoe, the campfire stories by the glow of the iPhone, the fish tales (complete with photos), multiple trips to the beach (only 50 feet away), rock jumping, gourmet suppers, and of course the snake catching. Good times.




Fishing was good this year, though maybe we only noticed because this time we actually unleashed the poles for a change. We caught several smallies, some large mouth bass, a couple of pike, and the boy even scored a nice sized lake trout while trolling with Steve along the shoreline. Well done.







I spotted this large northern water snake just as we were leaving our camp for a day on the water. Sara wanted to catch it but mom said we needed to get going. I kept quiet and snapped the pics.



Another year come and gone... I can't wait to book 2011.

Silver at the MIST

The 2010 Mississippi Invitational Soccer Tournament took place over the July 17-18 weekend. The U11 Nepean City cohort is actually split into two teams of equal skill. Both entered the tournament but it was our wee Emma's team (Thunder) that pulled into the finals and "won" the silver. Well done girls!!




PS: After Holland's loss in the World Cup Final I'm starting to think this is the running theme for the month.

Bluesfest 2010

This year flipped through the bands I wanted to see at Bluesfest and crunched the numbers and BLAMMO! I bought the package deal for the entire 12 nights. It was an easy decision as I was well over the break even point with 5-6 nights on my must see list. In the end I sold off nearly every ticket I wasn't using and made even more of my money back - of course that profit margin was cut down drastically with $6 beers.

I managed to make it down for Iron Maiden, Rush, Furthur, John Butler Trio, Gord Downie, John Hiatt, Steve Winwood, Santana, Robert Randolph, Levon Helm, and a few others on the side stages. Here are a few pics...

Non-headliners...





Headliners...

Camping at Watkins Glen

This year we hooked up with the McMullans again and headed across the border for some camping at Watkins Glen State Park. After two back-to-back summers in Cape Cod we decided to try something different. Watkins Glen was the pick due to it's equidistant from both Ottawa and Toronto. As it turned out it was a great pick...


The first stop on our list was to hike the Gorge Trail. It's a very impressive geographical feature complete with hand cut tunnels and a suspension bridge.





Take note that Watkins Glen State Park does not have a beach. It does have a pool but that can get real busy - especially on July 4th weekend. After a trip to the local beach on Seneca Lake, we reviewed the map and decided to head to Robert H. Treman State Park to check out the swimming at the base of Lower Falls in Enfield Glen gorge.





As luck would have it, it wasn't until the very last day that Connor and I discovered a secret swimming hole along the Finger Lakes Trail. After returning back to camp and sharing this tidbit, the rest of the crew decided to join us for a dip in nature's pool.



By trip's end we'd realized that we still hadn't checked out the buzz of the nearby Indy track or taste tested one of the 80 wineries in the Finger Lakes region. Next time...

Hup HOLLAND!!!

This picture was taken following Holland's win over Brazil. It was an excellent match with a very stressful first half. The second half was very entertaining as the Brazilian players imploded and completely lost their composure. For us it was very much like a mini-World Cup final.

We watched the match from a small bar in the Seneca Lodge at Watkins Glen State Park, New York. The owner was kind enough to open it up just for us... unfortunately he was not serving beer at 10am. Nevertheless we were extremely thankful. Cheers.

Hup Holland Hup!!