Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Minaki 2017


My cousins, sister, uncle and spouses spent a wonderful week together in Minaki, Ontario. 


The cousins.

Despite the fact that we live 2,300 kilometres apart, we have very close and loving relationships. When it comes to this group, time and distance disappear the minute we are in each other's company.

Our week was filled with laying on docks, swimming in the river and eating.  We played games, we drank, we went for boat rides.  We read, we napped, we cooked.  We watched sunsets, practiced yoga and laughed so hard we thought brain aneurysms were in our near future. 


My aunt and uncle bought this cottage on the Winnipeg River almost 50 years ago.  You can only get to it by boat. 

The screened-in porch.

The guest cottage.

We travelled up and down the river on the 'party barge'.

A nice place to sit, read and visit.

A nice place to nap.

We spent many an hour gathered on this dock soaking up the rays.

Me 'n my sis.

Dinner for 16 people.  Every single night.

Each evening we'd trek down to the Buddha Bar with drink in hand to watch the sunset.

Minaki sunset.

We swam multiple times a day.

One day we took the boat downriver.  We pulled up onto an island for a 'shore lunch'.  Propane tanks and deep fryers were set up on the rocks.  We had ourselves a big fish fry.

Lunch in the great outdoors always tastes delicious.

A quiet moment on the river.

Another evening.  Another dinner.

Every other morning, Joe would get up at the crack of dawn and bake for the gang.  This day's delicacy was 'pain au raisin'.

Joe's pain au raisin were delicious.

Yoga on the lawn.

Can these two get any cuter?

My cousin Leslie has her own Youtube Channel called 'Just Cook It With Leslie'.  We filmed a segment for her show one morning and gathered to watch it afterwards.

Afternoon hike.

Cheers to another great day.

Shoreline garden.

Caesars were our morning libation.  Check out the time on the clock on the wall!

No one's at the Buddha Bar this early in the morning.

There is NOTHING like an outdoor shower.

One morning I saw over forty Canada geese swimming beneath the train bridge.

My bro bathing in the great outdoors.

Maggie Thatcher and Winston Churchill; guardians of the stairs.

Sister modelling my aunt's vintage bathing cap.

 "Into each life, a little rain must fall."  We experienced some doozy thunder storms.

Rainy afternoons called for Scrabble tournaments.

Waiting for bums to fill the seats.

No dinner was complete without beautiful, heartfelt toasts.

The food this week was out of this world.


Watching one final sunset.

The entire gang.

A huge thank you to Denise, Jean-Louis, Eric and Elaine for hosting our 'Minaki 2017' cousin reunion.  Thank you to everyone for travelling great distances so that we could be together as a family once more. 

It was a week I'll never forget.  

Love you all.




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