Saturday, July 27, 2002
Erika had to go off in the morning to get herself certified for "falls" on the job -- a requirement of her union as she often works on ladders and elevated platforms in her work, often holding her boom microphone in precarious-looking positions while on set. So while she did that I went and tried to collect everything together for the trip.
I also helped to coordinate John and Faye's trip to Montreal. John had reluctantly decided earlier in the week that it would be next to impossible to get to Saskatoon and still have any money left to do anything -- or possibly even afford to get back. ;-) They really hadn't realized how far it was to get out West -- when I pulled out my old high-school atlas showing the breadth of the country I think they were floored. I had made the pitch earlier in the week that they should consider heading out east instead. This was reinforced by the fact that pretty much everyone they ran into told them to head to Montreal, as it is a real "party town". I gave my friend Bryce in Montreal a call, and he said he'd put them up for a few days, so they only had to figure out how to get there. Bryce steered me into checking out international student card on their behalf, and on Thursday they ventured downtown to their main office, and now have deep discounts on pretty much everything -- which made John comment that had he known, he would have done it much earlier.
Anyways, this morning I got an email from John's father (my cousin) who asked me to get John to give him a call. Turns out the "bank of Dad" came through for John -- without John having asked for it. Howard in conjunction with John's maternal grandfather have opted to pay for a flight for John and Faye's to Saskatoon and back. So with that finally settled they called for a cab and set out for Union Station and Montreal.
One of things Erika suggested I bring along with us was a batch of Painkiller. So after doing the initial necessary chores I got Annie and Vanessa together and we headed off to get the necessary ingredients: dark rum, pineapple juice, orange juice and coconut cream. I had just finished off making a fresh two litre batch when Erika came in the door, early.
Turns out she and her classmates had opted to skip lunch in order to get out early. I still had some minor packing to do and was castigated for it, which got the trip off to a our start.
Anyways, within half an hour everyone and everything was bundled into the truck and off we went to Pointe au Barille.
It was a long trip, about a half-hour past Parry Sound. We arrived at The Beacon Marina, grabbed a quick meal from a nearby chip truck and waited for Joseph, Erika's Father, to appear by boat. Soon after we finished our meal he arrived, we piled our stuff into his boat and we all took off for his island retreat, "Schengri-La".
Vanessa and Annie’s both seemed to enjoy the fast boat ride, which got us to the island in about 10 or 15 minutes. We arrived within minutes of sunset.
The house is new, and perched on top of one top of what otherwise is a barren piece of weathered rock, the bare part of the Canadian Shield that is more exposed and visible up here. We are staying in the "cabin" which is what is must have been the original inhabitant's cottage.
The cabin has been heavily modified by Joseph's work-crew, but is still rustic looking, though much more "open" than typical.
We put Annie to bed and then had a second dinner with Joseph. ;-) We put ourselves to bed soon after.
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