Category: Vacation & Visits

During the second last week of August, we rented a cottage in Tobermory with our friends Michelle and Greg and their kids Eli and Hannah. We absolutely loved the place and found endless things to do.

ABOVE & BELOW: Carly and Fitz out in the “Police Kayak”

 

ABOVE & BELOW: We took a boat and walking tour of Flowerpot Island on the day of the solar eclipse.

ABOVE & BELOW: We got lucky by having some cloud cover during the eclipse — it made it easier to look up at within just a single pair of sunglasses. I took these photos hand-held.

ABOVE & BELOW: Near the end of the week, we took the ferry to Manitoulin Island and visited Bridal Veil Falls and the trail that runs beside the it’s river that drains into Lake Kagawong.

ABOVE & BELOW: The trail was quite charming; we saw lots of fairy doors installed in the nooks of trees and an art installation of metallic family of deer that the kids could crawl all over.

 

On the Canada Day long weekend we took Fitz to the YMCA Geneva Park with our friend Andria and her kid Emmett. It doesn’t look like they were having fun, does it?

 

 

 

In April, the family took a 10-day vacation to Los Angeles to visit friends and absorb some much needed sun.

ABOVE & BELOW: Before and after takeoff.

The first people we visited was Ken and Susan. Ken and Matt have known each other since they were 4 years old. They played hockey and soccer together throughout their youth and went to the same middle and high schools.

Ken and Susan have two kids — their youngest is Kallum who is 3.5 and about 9 months older than Fitz. They obviously hit it off together. Above, they are all smiles because their bellies are full of ice cream. And below, you’ll see that Kallum has a deep love for Star Wars. Obsessive love.

ABOVE: Using the Force on Matt.

ABOVE: Trying to use the Force on Fitz to no avail.

ABOVE & BELOW: Kallum trying to convince Fitz to look for Luke Skywalker.

ABOVE & BELOW: After a first day of settling into the LA lifestyle, we took the kids to Travel Town, a train-themed park for kids in Griffith Park.

 

ABOVE: The garage has been converted into a guest house and the boys loved running in and out of it and hiding from Matt.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz took a shine to Lilah, Kallum’s sister, but got upset when he realized we were about to leave for Gen and Jesse’s place.

ABOVE: One of the first things Fitz did when he arrived in LA was take a few layers of skin off of both knees.

ABOVE & BELOW: Once we arrived in Irvine to stay with Gen and Jesse, we had to find the nearest parks. Luckily, their neighbourhood is full of them, including one that had an old-style tram that Fitzy declared as his own (below).

BELOW: This little park proved that Fitz has very good directional skills. He had been here earlier int he day with Carly and Gen and wanted to return to it with Matt. But Matt had no idea it existed and let Fitz direct him to it. It was about 5 blocks away from where they started and it blew Matt’s mind that Fitz could point them in the right direction having only visited the park once before. Also, don’t be concerned about the how Fitz has morphed into some four legged creature.

ABOVE & BELOW: We visited Newport Beach/Balboa Island, the setting of Arrested Development, one of Matt’s all-time favourite TV shows.

ABOVE & BELOW: We spent a morning on the pier in San Clemente. No sight of Richard Nixon.

ABOVE & BELOW: We spent a lot of time on the balcony of Gen and Jesse’s place.

ABOVE & BELOW: We visited Venice Beach and it’s canals one afternoon. Some amazing places. We also discovered some cool public art on Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice (see pic of Gen below)

ABOVE & BELOW: On our last day, we visited the beach at Corona Del Mar. Fitz insisted on aking sure his hat didn’t fly off so we had to pull up the hoodie. He looked like one of those people freaked out about getting any sun on their skin. But we also saw some amazing outcrops of rocks and insanely huge homes.

ABOVE & BELOW: We went to a student art show for Jesse’s students and got to see a very cool waffle architecture building on campus. At sunset on our last night — we went back to Balboa Island for ice cream.

ABOVE: Of course, Fitz fell asleep on the flight home 5 minutes before the plane landed.

During the first week of July, the family took a vacation up into the Muskoka region at Waseosa Lake just outside of Hunstville. The cottage was perfect — rustic but comfortable. The lake was relatively quiet; there was a dock and small area to play in the water; and the weather was hot but not crazy summer hot.

 

ABOVE & BELOW: As you will see, a lot of photos of Fitz on this trip are of him eating meals. He was a hungry boy since he loved running around the dock, up and down the hill, and chasing Matt in circles throughout the cottage.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz was a reluctant swimmer during the week. But he spent a lot of time sitting on a log right on the shoreline splishing and splashing.

ABOVE & BELOW: Our lone excursion away from the cottage was to Ragged Falls about 25-minutes away and on the western edge of Algonquin Park. It dropped probably 75 metres and had quite a strong current. Fitz seemed to be a little scared of the noise an didn’t want to go to the edge of the rocks to look down.

ABOVE & BELOW: This little table was the focal point of a lot of play time as it allowed Fitz to multi-task: cars could zoom around AND he could keep an eye on boat passersby.

ABOVE & BELOW: Fitz really liked to yell out HELLO to any boaters passing by our cottage. Though, he often yelled it after they had long passed us and were looking the other way.

 

ABOVE & BELOW: More shoreline time and Fitz’s Coppertone commercial reenactment.

ABOVE: We also finished a puzzle. It was probably the only item on Carly’s to-do list for the week.

ABOVE: There was an island right across from our cottage called, get ready for it, Treasure Island. Carly swam across to it a few times during the week.