Wednesday morning, we were in much better shape, so got a little more adventurous with breakfast. For me, it was a fabulous vegetarian omelette with goat cheese -- mmm-mmm! Got a final refill of coffee, and took our cups out onto the lawn, where we found some nearly-dry muskoka chairs available. Don started up a conversation with another happily honeymooning couple, who were equally impressed with Sir Sam's -- his one comment was "I keep trying to think up new things I can ask them, because so far nobody's said 'no' to anything!" I don't think he ever did find that "no"-able question -- I know we never did!
Coffee consumed, we decided to head upstairs to change into some hiking gear, and check out the trails. The housekeeping staff were just leaving our room as we arrived -- one of them bubbled "I know we're not supposed to comment on things we see in guests' rooms, privacy you know, but I saw your John Irving book, and I just love him -- is it new?" (yes it was: Last Night in Twisted River) And so began a delightful conversation with a sweet young woman we never saw again. Unfortunately, Don didn't finish his book before we headed for home, or we would have left it for her -- obviously a big Irving fan!
Just as we headed out to the trail, the raindrops started to fall. Oops! Plan B... back to the room for our books, and onto the porch to read and watch the rain fall softly on the... ok, maybe not so softly... ok, now the wind is picking up a little and... ok, now we're getting soaking wet even on the covered porch! Plan C: bring books inside and watch the storm through the windows. And what a storm!!! The clouds rolling over the lake, the lightning exploding overhead, the thunder rumbling so hard it felt like an earthquake. Mother nature at her finest!
All that thinking of a hike had, of course, made us a bit hungry, so we headed into the pub for some lunch. Perusing the menu, I mumbled something about getting a little tired of fish, and my sweetie -- against my protest -- asked our waiter if there was anything non-fishy on the menu for dinner that night? She went in to check with the chef, and he said he'd whip up something special for me (a good thing, too, since that night's menu didn't even have any fish on it, it was all meat!). For lunch, then, I ordered a delicious salad with almonds and apricots and goat cheese and... all sorts of things I forgot to write down, but they were delicious.
Then it was time to prepare for our couple's massage. Upon meeting our second masseuse, I was a little concerned -- she was a small person with a quiet voice and tiny, gentle hands. While delicately starting on my back, she told me to let her know if she was working me too hard -- I answered "I don't think that's possible!"... at which point, all delicacy was set aside. Ahhh... she must have been exhausted by the end of it, because I don't know how she managed to get all that weight and pressure into my muscles from such a small frame. But she did it beautifully. :-) Once again, we both left the treatment room feeling like happy jelly! We wobbled around for a while, drinking lots of water and tea... until we figured it was cocktail hour.
By this point, the rain had stopped, so we took our beer out onto the lawn and watched the world go by. Local cottager Bill Candy was going to be playing on the patio that evening -- I remembered his name from somewhere, but couldn't remember where. When we went in to the bar for a refill, the bartender introduced us to Bill. I didn't recognize him at all, but after a bit of a conversation, we realized he and Don had played together in a festival several years before. He was ready to start playing, so we headed out onto the patio to listen for a while before our dinner reservation -- he was drawing quite the crowd, and our table was eagerly snatched up by a waiting couple when we headed in for our meal.
We headed down to the wine cellar and picked out a lovely pinot noir. As promised, the chef had whipped up something special for me for dinner! My appetizer (from the main menu) was a delicious cambozola and greens salad. Dinner was pasta with roasted vegetables and goat cheese -- so good that, once again, there wasn't anything left on my plate. Stuffed to the gills, I opted for the strawberries for dessert, although some of the more decadent options were very tempting!
The plan for that night had been to pay a night-time visit to the WaterSpa after dinner, as we had been told that the lighting at night was beautiful and romantic. But the combination of the earlier massage, full bellies and tasty beverages left me thinking that I would probably fall asleep and/or sink to the bottom. Instead, we grabbed a couple of diamond-encrusted scotches (we still weren't aware of the price tag) from Margo and brought them up to our room, calling it an early night.
No comments:
Post a Comment