The Great Outdoors - 2006 Summer Holidays - Weeks 3 & 4

The fun didn't end there. On the 3rd week of July, we decided to go camping. Cinthia chose Mont Tremblant as our destination. She opted for a small lake called lac l'escalier. We chose the middle of the week in order to avoid week-end campers. We thought that the roads would be clear and we would be able to get there faster. Little did we know that there would be a torrential rain fall with thunder and lightning the day before that would break a bunch of trees and that there would be debris all over the roads near Tremblant. It was an adventure. At least we didn't get caught in the storm ourselves.

When we got there, we quickly set up the tent and headed to the beach. Not much of a beach. There was only about 5 or 6 feet of sand around the lake. That was a little disappointing but our mood quickly changed when we got in the water. This lake was awesome. You could walk and walk and the water was still at waist level. This was really cool. We got closer to the middle of the lake and we had water up to our necks. It was quite pleasant. A bonus to us was that very few people were out that day - probably still drying off from the storm that hit the night before.

We walked, swam again the next morning and chilled by the fire. I must say that day two's fire was much better than the first day. Might have been the fact that some of the wood wasn't dry enough. Cinthia made her traditional camping meal: Spaghetti. We had a very nice time there. I even got to play a little DS while relaxing under a tree.

On our last day, we visited the village at Tremblant. Nice, but too commercial for my taste. I did snap a few nice pictures of the place but can't say that I would ever want to go back there. Nice, but not my cup of tea.

On week four, Cinthia went back to work and I chilled in town. We dropped by my parents for a visit at their cottage and watched a few movies.

On my final week-end, we went in Gatineau Park and took a nice long walk around Pink Lake.

I have to give 2006 Summer Holidays a solid thumb's up. I had never taken a full month off and I recommend it to anyone who can manage it. You can't relax fully in one or two weeks - To really let go and forget about work, a longer period is a must. I am refreshed and much more relaxed as I take on the new challenges of this new job. Long live summer holidays.