We’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the time we’ve spent at cottages since we’ve been in Canada. We’ve visited a few different cottages now, and still have a couple of outstanding invitations to visit a few others (I believe the term is Cottage Moochers?) But we were thrilled to bits when Sean and Kim invited us back to their place on Firebrand Island at Muskoka, with a special invitation to bring The Robs with us as well. I thought it was a very generous offer and we were excited to accept it. “Cottaging” really is a very Canadian experience, and we’ve loved being able to experience for ourselves but to be able to share it with our friends from Australia was just fantastic.

You can read previous blog entries to find out more about this great place. It was nice to just be kicking back all day and enjoying watersports like swimming, jetskiing, boating and tubing. The kids spent most of the day in the water, and it was great to see all of them getting along so well. Giles, Emily and Andrew got along with Laura and Megan like they’d known each other for ages.

I hadn’t tried jetskiing before, but really liked it, especially once you got the hang of the hard turns. While carrying Kate and Rob through a series of slalom turns, I managed to flip us all off into the water right in the middle of Lake Muskoka and were all laughing so hard we could hardly climb back on the thing. Ah good times.

Sean and Kim took us all on a boat cruise on the second day, out to Millionaires Row and Muskoka Wharf. Kim’s mum and dad who own the cottage, Clint and Carol, are wonderful hosts and we throughly appreciated and enjoyed the time we spent back on Firebrand.

The final morning was spent lazing about on the dock, more swimming, tubing and jetskiing, before reluctantly saying our goodbyes and heading back to the mainland.