magnetawan, canada

yesterday, i briefly mentioned the five days i spent in miami at the beginning of june, but now i'm going to tell you about the eight a-maz-ing days i spent in a rustic cabin on an island to ourselves on a lake way up north in magnetawan, canada.

sure, it may not sound like the most luxurious and exotic of places, but i can assure you it can do wonders for the soul, spirit, mind, and body.  i've stayed in a log cabin before {my aunt's husband has one in upstate ny}, but it's nothing like this mansion of a cabin on our own island.  kasi's good friend ned's family purchased the land back in the 1900s and built a few cabins on it -- two large cabins and a few smaller guest cabins.  it's been passed down from generation to generation, and kasi and his guy friends have been going up there since high school {coming up on 8 years now}.  it's always been majority just guys, who would come up for the week and shoot the shit {read, listen to music, lay on the dock}, but this year, the girlfriends were invited, myself included:)

i was a little intimidated by the idea of staying in a log cabin for eight days with six guys, after driving twelve hours in a van all together to get there.  the drive wasn't too bad {i slept most of the time -- thanks eileen and alex!} and i was more than pleasantly surprised to say that after those eight days, i felt more of a bond and admiration for these people, instead of annoyance.

ned cooked us gourmet meals every night from vegetarian chili, to tartine {roasted veggies}, to enchiladas, to angel hair pasta with marinated tofu and an asian peanut sauce {amazing! i think possibly my favorite}.  we ate cookies, concocted a new drink everyday from our somehow over-stocked bar, played cornhole, went cliff jumping, waterskiing, canoeing, shaved mohawks, caught up on some reading, traded music, and played banana grams.  it was a much needed vacation, and refreshing experience.  not to mention the lack of internet and/or computers -- which for me -- was the cherry on top.