Not quite Riverwood but OK!

Yes, we were supposed to go to Riverwood for a relaxing fall get-a-way, but our weekend didn't quite end up that way. The week leading up to our holiday was plagued with colds and sore throats and poor little Smudge ended up in the ER three times with ear problems and tummy upsets. On her last visit to the ER here in our small town the doctor recommended she be taken to CHEO (Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario) to see a specialist the very next day rather than wait to see family doctors and go through the long route of waiting for an appointment. He thought it was urgent enough that she go to the ER of a big city hospital and be tended to right away. Sigh! AC and I postponed our trip to be on call to tend to Jboy if need be and to be close to Smudge if she had to have surgery. Good news is that surgery is not called for at this time. Smudge has been given a course of treatment to follow, and will go back to CHEO in a month for more tests. Whew!

This left us all feeling rather exhausted so we postponed our trip to Riverwood and decided to take small day trips to new corners of our county, travel down roads close to home that we had never travelled down before, but be home each night in case the kids needed us.

Turns out that this turned into a wonderful fall get-a-way with the added bonus of being able to sleep in our own bed at night at the end of a day full of exploring. What a treat!

The first jewel we discovered was Christie Lake. The way we found it reminded me of our trip to the Grand Canyon. Yes, the Grand Canyon, that huge wonder of nature in Arizona. We followed a suggestion in the tourist guide book and didn't go to the main entrance but took a back road in to view the canyon. As we drove up to it we were travelling along a tree lined road that looked much like any road in Ontario. We turned into a parking lot and once out of the car walked along a little path and, - whammo!! - there before us stretched the Grand Canyon in all its glory. I was stunned at how close it was to the rather boring road we had been zipping along. Oh what treasures await us if we just go off the beaten path and explore a bit.

That is exactly what we did on our first day-trip this weekend. We discovered on the map that we were close to a lake, but couldn't see it from the road so we veered off onto a small path to see what we could see. As it turns out, it was a private road and the owner soon came out to see what we were up to. He was friendly enough, but we could tell that we were not welcome and this was private land. Before he turned us around we took a few pictures of the lake through the trees. Don't know if you can tell from the pics below but we were up on a cliff and the lake was far below us.



The pic below is looking back at the road we took to the spot seen above. It was absolutely beautiful, but not for public enjoyment so we turned the car around and headed back to the main road.
The colours along the roads were not blazing on this day, but we stopped from time to time to take a few pics...


and soak in the beauty.
All in all a good day made even better by the fact that Smudge was OK.

More holiday pics to come tomorrow. Stay tuned.