Spring swimming

Fresh after our return from Murphys Point we hit the road again (wife/mom included) to spend day with our friends the Neills at their river cabin. It was another warm day and despite the chilly water conditions the kids swam nearly non-stop. Even Mikey and I took a plunge to cool off.




It's always fun to visit the Mad Cabin. Nothing to do but chat, swim, canoe, cook on the barbie, and pluck on the six string.



A great start to the summer even though it's still technically spring.

Mad Cabin camp out

Realizing that we had a free night coming up in our schedule we quickly scrambled to make a booking at the infamous Mad Cabin. This is by far our favourite little riverside getaway on the Madawaska River owned and operated by our friends the Neills.

Friday around supper, we loaded up the van (with enough gear to stay a week) and then zipped out to Kanata to pick up Maddie who had been spending the last few days at Grandma and Grandpa's luxury spa and retreat. Finally we were off to Burnstown... well, technically not "Burnstown proper", more like country-living Burnstown. A subtle difference often overlooked by non-Burnstownies.



We arrived around 6pm to warm greetings (though Charlie's were a little wet) and monster hugs before making our way down the hill to the river cabin. Funny sometimes how life's everyday luxuries - hydro, flush toilets, clean underwear - are often the very things you leave behind when trying to rejuvenate the soul with Mother Nature.



Saturday's breakfast of fresh bread, scrambled eggs, and sausage was gobbled up in no time. The rest of the day was spent relaxing on one of the enormous tire tubes or paddling in the handcrafted canoe.





Good times and yet another trip ending in heartfelt promises to visit more often - promises we too often let slip as time chews away at our lives.

"Mad" Cabin hideout

Friday after work/school the kids and I drove up to our friend's cabin on the Madawaska River to stay the night. For me life's all about "windows of opportunities" and as luck would have it our plan to visit conflicted with our friend's plan to actually be there for the visit.

Apparently my half day advance notice conflicted with their plan to go camping at Bon Echo (with other friends I might add). Not willing to drop what I thought was a great idea I quickly modified it to be an adventure rather than a visit.

Luckily our friends are very accommodating and gave me all the advice I would need to "move in" to the cabin for the night. Advice number one, don't mess with the homemade mouse trap (a bucket of anti-freeze in the corner) and number two, be sure to "check out" the new thunder box out back.

After some convincing both kids decided to join me giving mom some alone time to catch up on some school work. We arrived just after sundown and quickly carried our gear down the steep hill to the river. Somehow we managed to get everything down in only two trips (where's my mule?) but as Sara kindly pointed out you'd think we were planning to stay the week. Ha, such is always the case.

This cabin has evolved into something just the other side of awesome. A great multi-level deck, BBQ and stove, lots of natural sunlight, a cozy loft for sleeping, and now a woodstove for those chilly nights. All you would need and a little more.


A game of UNO and some late night NDS...

Saturday morning we woke early to the sound of rain... well what we thought was rain was actually the sound of the cascading creek that crosses the path just metres away from the cabin. Sunshine greeted us as we all took turns at "the box" and then I boiled up some water for coffee and hot coco. Today's agenda? Relaxation.




In the end we left the mousetrap well enough alone and as requested, we put the new open air outhouse to the test. (No thanks necessary guys.)


Shout out to the Neills... wish you were here.