Manitoulin, Day 3, Monday

First day of classes. I was eagerly looking forward to them, too. The baby was unable to travel to Canada with us and frankly, I wasn't missing the extra work he would have provided. It was wonderful to travel without adding a fussy baby into the 2,000 potty stops we had to make or bouncing a baby while trying to pay attention to classes and take notes. No day at camp is complete without the kids avidly watching the "biffy truck" empty the "biffies". Really. They love it. So, we started off our morning with breakfast and an emptying of the potties. After the morning classes, we had some time in the afternoon for leisure. David was looking forward to the annual teddy bear picnic, Ruth opted to play soccer, and Grace and Byron went along with me. Our destination? Providence Bay. We were joined by our camp neighbors and their girls for an afternoon at the lake. It was a beautiful lake, too. The water was crystal clear and was shallow for a long ways out. Byron was not so sure about it at first, but I made him come out with me (he gave me grumpy looks with every step, but he got over that once he realized that I wasn't kidding-the water was that shallow). We spent a couple of lovely hours splashing around and then visiting while the kids continued to play. We also spotted the Mother of All Leeches lurking in the shallows and I tried to surreptitiously steer Grace away from it. I don't think that she would have been too freaked out by it-rather she probably would have been fascinated by it and I would have been grossed out. It was easily 5 or 6 inches long. I mean, it could have sucked her dry in 2.7 seconds.

Enamored by the Biffy Truck

Providence Bay

Annoying Grace by splashing her beyond her tolerance level