Check out the full list: National Geographic Top 10 Summer Vacation Spots
On this list were places like: Patagonia, Argentina; San Juan Islands in Washington State; Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska; and Cardiff, Wales.
But the number 1 spot?? MUSKOKA! 45 minutes from our own front door!! What better thing to do in July, the dog days of summer, than to spend some time in Muskoka. Gord and I took great advantage of the beauty of this area. It is quintessentially Canadian and best described by the Arrogant Worms, a quintessentially irreverent Canadian music group (their genre truly cannot be determined!). This is how they describe Muskoka – “Rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and....WATER!” That pretty much sums it up without even making the tiniest scratch in the perfect surface of a serene lake, shored by cliffs of Canadian Shield granite and the hint of boreal forest to be found just a little farther north (that’ll be August!).
Many people think of Muskoka as the land of “Muskoka” chairs, or “Adirondack” chairs, as they are called in New York State. In our minds’ eye, these chairs are always empty, sitting in silence at the end of a dock, the morning mist lifting off the silent lake as dawn gives way to never-ending sun. And that’s often exactly how it is. Yes, Goldie Hawn, Tom Hanks and other celebrities have huge “cottages” on Lake Joe (that’d be Lake Joseph if you aren’t “from here”) and Lake Rosseau. But over the full expanse of Muskoka, the mansions are small in number, eclipsed in number by the smaller cottages and homes of the year-round residents who never fail to notice that they live in a place that many think of as a sanctuary, a break from the frantic pace of our daily lives.
In the spring, the World Bank reported on its annual analysis of worldwide Internet usage and Canada topped the list. We have the highest number of Internet users in the world in every age group and for both genders. In fact, our usage numbers are so high that they significantly skew the global address, and yet in Muskoka, wireless signals are weak if you can get one at all. And so, this has become an added piece of peace for thousands of us from Southern Ontario who are leashed like crated animals to our Blackberries, our laptops – never a moment away from the beckoning of our boss or of some family “calamity” (I remember a frantic call from a teenager scrounging for pizza moneyJ).
Muskoka Unleashed may make a good branding slogan. We spent a glorious day in our Miata, top down, making our way to Big Chute, the marine railway that cradles boats and lifts them up and over the lock as they make their way to and from Georgian Bay. We spent a week camping (while I went to work each day) at Six Mile Lake Provincial Park. The campsites are dreadful, but the lake is beautiful and we spent every evening out on the water, swimming in water that was a remarkable 82 degrees F. My dad and his wife, Mary, came up for an evening (thanks for bringing dinner!!) and enjoyed seeing some of the Muskoka that you can only see from the water.
It is a magical place...
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