Hokey Pokey Artichokey Jr.

The consensus last night was to skip ALL but one of the provincial parks today in favour of sleeping in.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Actually, part of this was due to really enjoying the cabin we had, and nobody wanting to leave.  We could have all spent the entire day enjoying the lake, even me.  Maybe next time.

Attempts at a group selfie were made… (notice that I’m not there)

Once the car was packed, we all walked over to the lake (that makes it sounds like it was far away, it was maybe 20 steps) and awarded Crackle with her Trailblazer Gold award (the highest award a youth can earn in Girl Guides of Canada).  For those not in the know, it involved earning 24 badges, and a 20 hour service project.  Pop received hers in June, and Snap will be finishing hers in the coming months.  Big congrats to all three of them!

The only park we all agreed to stop at today was just twenty minutes down the highway.  Potholes Provincial Park was partly chosen for its name (that amused us all), but it was a really beautiful walk through the woods, along a stream and learning all about the ice age and how the massive potholes in the rock were created.

It was hard to get a decent photo of me without dropping me into the hole itself

Sasquatch Pose

We got a signal!  Must type!

Then began the long long drive to Sudbury.  The highway wound along a large river and through the hills for hours.  Movies were watched… something called “Veggie Tales: Lord of the Beans” had me a bit more than puzzled.  Clare informs me it’s a spin off of another popular book/movie that I haven’t seen so I really wasn’t sure what was going on at any point whatsoever, but they all seemed to enjoy it, so I’ll refrain from criticism.  Ok, I can’t refrain… it was WEIRD, vegetables singing and going on about a magic bean and sharing gifts and well, just weird!  Later we watched Lion King 1 ½ and Shrek 2.  That should tell you the kind of group I’m hanging out with these days.

Somewhere around the half way point, we stopped at Aubrey Falls, where we again saw zero falls.  This was meant to be a quick lunch and bathroom break, but I was entertained by one of the most bizarre behaviours I’ve seen yet, and they all seem to think it’s funny that I don’t know what they did.  They were all standing around eating sandwiches (not wanting to sit for the brief time they didn’t have to) and Pop started humming very softly and stepped one foot forward.  She continued this unfamiliar (to me) tune, and put her foot back.  Clare and Robin soon joined in, both humming and moving their feet, which was then quickly joined by Snap and Crackle.  Just as I thought I was getting it, they all turned in a circle where they stood, with their hands up.  Then they continued humming along and doing the same actions with the other foot.  No words were spoken (or sung), and yet it was clear they all knew what was going on.  And then, after another turn-around, they started jumping forward and backwards!  After this final round, they did another circle and then all burst out laughing.  No one explained it.  Nothing.  Just back to eating sandwiches.  Very weird (but of course I had to try and join in).

 A few more hours in the car and we finally arrived at our last hotel for this trip.  Clare and Robin had given the Rangers the task of picking a sit-down restaurant to go to for dinner (as Crackle put it “one without plastic cutlery”).  They spent nearly an hour searching their phones (oh yeah, we were finally back in consistent cell-service territory by about 3 pm, very exciting for all involved), trying to find the perfect place that had something for everyone.  They finally settled on one, and it just happened to be the restaurant attached to the very hotel that we are staying at!  

A quick unload of the car, and everyone put their uniforms back on to walk over to dinner.  You would have thought they’d been back-bush camping the way they were behaving (Clare and Robin included), like they’d forgotten how to be out in public.  They apologized to their server more than once, saying it had just been a long week.  I’m not sure what she thought of us, but we did make her laugh, so I take that as a win.

Whatever!

Hey look, I made it into this one!