Aquarium & Bar Hop

A lazy morning this morning, with the luxury of a mattress (of sorts) in the tent cabin. We had a hearty breakfast of a CLIF bar each which is my favourite find of the holiday. It also became apparent that the sun had been strong on our last day of paddling, with Ben wearing knee high sunburn socks and v-neck! We said goodbye to Algonquin Outfitters and to our guide Vanessa with a chuckle - being British on immediate arrival at our first campsite I had offered her a brew, which she politely declined having to canoe back solo...divided by a common language as while I was offering tea she thought I was offering beer!

Taxi back to Huntsville for more triple fudge brownie at the Whimsical Bakery before the bus to Toronto. The rather flustered driver was sure we'd be at least an hour delayed before we started due to 'cottage traffic' (those returning from their country retreats for the weekend to Toronto) and an earlier accident. It was more like 90 minutes in the end.

This precipitated a brisk walk from the bus station back to the RCMI, quick change and straight back out for date night at Ripleys Aquarium - entrance, food , guidebook, photo and giftshop voucher for one price. While it was still full of children and still quite busy, it was nonetheless a fun night out. Lots of jellies and sharks and the chance to 'stroke' a horseshoe crab. It was rather overaweing in terms of the Americanised atmosphere which was a shame. The gift shop voucher was put to good use, with a cuddly turtle for me and a vicious cuddly camoflaged shark for Ben...

We called in at Bar Hop on the way home, a grand microbrewery with a great rooftop patio. While Ben tried the home brew, I enjoyed some farmhouse cider and we both took advantage of Sunday's buck-a-shuck to try oysters for the first time.

The kind people at the RCMI are letting us check out at 1pm tomorrow - a long lie-in in a real bed for the first time in over a week!Read more