The Cottage

On my birthday, I was fortunate enough to spend the afternoon at my grandparents' cottage. "The cottage" hold a lot of great memories - I used to spend up to 2 weeks there during summer break, swimming, playing cards & board games & being spoiled by my grandparents. The cottage is on an island in Lake Nipissing, which holds 7 or 8 cottages, 2 of which are owned by my grandparents. You can see more pictures of the place here, when I blogged about my last trip there.

One of the best parts about swimming at the cottage was the beach, which is actually on the property adjacent to my grandparents' & belongs to my grandma's brother. Tiptoeing in off the slippery rocks just doesn't compare to the traction you get in the soft sand. See:

Way more fun when you get to run in! Even for the big kids, like my nephew & younger brother shown here. I think you can tell by their reaction that the water is a little chilly. I only went in up to my knees, walking to & from the beach (going across the water & up the rock instead of through the sand & up the wooded path, which would mean sand stuck to my feet).

While the kids were swimming surfing, a trio of ducks joined in on the fun:

They didn't really appreciate getting chased though... A bit later, lunch being ready, I went to leave; what I failed to notice was that they had made their way to the other side of the beach, right where I was headed. I almost cornered them & one was separated from his mates:

He honked, calling them along: hurry, quick! Before it's too late!

I didn't move, so the other two quickly ran after their friend & they hightailed it out of there:

Hopefully they weren't too traumatized!