love the earth as you would love yourself.

The month of July has been a busy one, especially with a cottage vacation thrown into the mix. This is something that my immediate family has done each summer since the COVID-19 pandemic, but the experience was a little bit different this year. My sister and her family did not come, there was a rented condo unit instead of a traditional cottage house, and there were certain health issues to navigate. I've mentioned in previous posts that one of my loved ones has been dealing with serious health issues for the last year and a half. It has made life uncertain. Unfortunately, this family member was admitted to the hospital a few days before the scheduled vacation and remained there several days after the vacation started. My brother, my husband, and I were at the cottage (or condo) for a few days before the remaining family members were able to make it there. 

Our cottage adventure took place in Fenelon Falls this year, which is the same general area that we have visited previously, but we were in a condo that was located fairly close to downtown. On the first night, my husband and I took a walk and grabbed some groceries. On the second day, we walked around Fenelon Falls, spent some time at the locks, and visited some antique stores. The third day was easily the most exciting, because my brother, husband, and I drove about an hour and a half each way to Santa's Village. This is a Christmas inspired theme park in Bracebridge that my brother and I visited as children. It had been on my bucket list to visit again and we finally made it out there. (There will be a full post on the Santa's Village adventures later on in the week. Talk about a great way to celebrate Christmas in July!) On the fourth day, the rest of the family was finally able to make it to the condo. We mostly got everyone settled in and caught up on some seasonal reality TV shows, like Big Brother.

On the fifth day of the vacation, my mom and I went to a local thrift store and found some interesting treasures, which will be highlighted in a future post. One quick spoiler? An autographed photo of Goldie Hawn. It was such a neat find and I decided it must come home with me and be hung on my wall. In addition to some thrift store shopping, there was some time spent reading, watching movies, and relaxing. My brother took his kayak out and explored the area. My husband and I went out for dinner and treated ourselves to some Kawartha Dairy ice cream. The sixth day of the vacation saw my husband and I drive out to Lindsay for the morning, then we all read, before my brother, husband, and I went to Highlands Cinema, which is an unusual movie theatre with all sorts of collectables, which we first visited back in 2023. (You can read a little bit about that here.) We saw the Minions and Monsters movie, though it turns out that I was the one who enjoyed it most. The seventh day of the vacation was pretty busy. My husband went out fishing while my parents and I went to Bobcaygeon. We met some family members there for ice cream, since they have been staying nearby for the summer. There was a nice dinner to finish off the trip on a positive note, and then the next day, we packed everything up to head back home again. All in all, it was an unusual vacation. There were a lot of highs and lows, but I am grateful for the positive moments spent with my loved ones.

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Have you been able to take a vacation this summer? Do you have anything exciting planned in the next little while?