Ants Go Marching

One thing that you'll never lack for around here is the opportunity to get outside. There is more hiking, biking, swimming, climbing, strolling, floating, boating, camping, paddling, etc. than you could shake a stick at. It's also all pretty close by, to boot. When my parents were here, we drove a whopping ten minutes from our house and got to this glory...

The really nice thing is that these places aren't overrun with other weekend warriors. It's not like 5,000 people are vying for the same two square feet of space and you have to wait your turn at scenic vistas. You can actually get out and enjoy some solitude and only share it furry, four legged (or rattling, no legged) creatures.  This is actually a new provincial park and it's primarily geared for rock climbers because there are faces like this all over the place:

but since those folks need ways to get amongst all the rocks, there are, naturally, hiking trails there too. And although we decided to save our badassness for another day and keep our feet firmly planted on the ground, we spent a beautiful day away from the hustle and bustle of the little city just enjoyed what mother nature cooked up for us. 

We couldn't end our day up in the clouds, though, and decided instead to end it in the water. Pay no attention to those un-hardy folk with jackets on. Two of us agreed that the water was perfectly swimmable. 

 

Jack's thinking that perhaps because hurricane Molly is on premises that someone might forget that he has 20 years and 4 months to go before he can actually get at the vino that he wishes were in the bottom of his glass. 

Here she goes, out into the wild blue yonder.

Picnic dinner

Even John sampled the lake water... and you can see someone flying out of it after, perhaps, a deeper than expected dip.