Mystery Island

Location: A condo balcony on the 7th floor facing the beautiful Ontario Lake in downtown Toronto.

Mood: Upbeat, where imagination runs wild. The dreamer in me watches the island across the lake and wonders who lives there?

The Trip: A ferry ride with locals, city dwellers, and tourists gets me to the island. What follows is diagonally opposite of what I imagined.

The Toronto Islands are a chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario, south of mainland Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A group of islands just across the downtown area of Toronto. It also houses the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and plenty of yacht clubs.

Huge green spaces, serene and peaceful. If you wish for some activity there is plenty for the kids and if you wish for the sand, there are the beaches. The community that lives there is cut off from the city yet just a boat ride close to the city. A great balance I would think.

A popular tourist and recreational destination. Cycling, Kayaking, or Golfing. It’s yours to choose. Personally, I would bask under a sun umbrella, on a comfortable Muskoka chair, watch the clouds glide, and hear the chirping birds and hyperactive squirrels prance in a world of their own. Maybe read a book or better still write stories or poetries. Nature has its way of giving you cues on what to write about and helping a flow of words that so effortlessly come from the heart.

A day for me at that Mystery island was no more a mystery. It’s a world of its own. It’s a space where you can just be yourself, do as you please, and return home as the sun sets or later only to go back there when the heart and mind need a nature break.

I am glad, thanks to my kids I had my day out on the island. The future is a blank page, I may not be around this part of the city to hop on to a boat and take the trip to my mystery land. Glad I did it now and glad I solved the mystery that will forever be a part of my sweet memories of downtown Toronto.

Life has its ways of throwing you opportunities like a rope flung at you from the sky. Grab it, hold on to it, and let it take you places, nooks, and corners of our wonderful world. Never let go of that rope for you never know, it may not come your direction for a long time.

Cheers to trips – long or short for this is what adds up as chapters that make a life!

Sunset Cove

Wood Winds, sort of made the whole picture real. Winds amongst woods or the other way around. Either way, it was this beautiful cottage on Muskoka lake – Sunset cove.

A long weekend and a family of seven are all set to enjoy nature. The eldest here, being the grandmother all of eighty-five. With a will of a fifty-year-old in every way.

A three-hour drive and we pull into the driveway. A quaint cottage ( Sunset Cove) bang on the lake. We walk into a house, rustic yet modern. Lovely artifacts are all around the drawing room and the walls. A glass window end to end and the lake is yours all through the day and night. During the day the sun shimmers on those ripples while at night, the reflection of the moon and stars set the stage for a night filled with drama. Seated on the comfortable couch on the inside, I am a winner in every way.

The sunrise brings with it promises, to any part of the world. However, at Sunset Cove it’s a promise to connect and a promise to let go. Let go of the stress or anxiety you came here with. The sun puts his hand forward, asking you to hold on to and takes you on a voyage on this serene lake where peace prevails from top to its depth. The peace that never does cease and beauty without fees.

The green landscape all through the drive reminds you it’s summer and summer is the season of color. Color in attires of people, shades of blooms, and above all the upbeat mood in the air.

Kids who have a break from school, adults who want to indulge, or the elderly who have all the time in the world to enjoy life in the real sense. Speeding the boat on the lake gives you a high every time it bounces on the water’s wake. The winds, sun, waves, and serenity of the water, are a perfect combination for a joyride
A bonfire at sunset, music playing in the background, and hot steaming food from the barbeque, a glass of wine make this experience worth one that is edged in memories and will stay there forever.

A late nite drive to literally lie under a blanket of stars – Torrance Barrens Reserve is the space to be for the experience. An experience to feel small, small in this universe where one’s ego and our entity are just a tiny dot in the big picture. Also, an experience to feel blessed to be born on this earth and experience its generous blessings – ground to sky.

Let’s raise a toast to many more outings to the lakefront cottages in Canada. A land of snow, a land of color, and a land that welcomes with an open heart.
Cheers to vacations
Cheers to kids who indulge parents
Cheers to one life to live and
Three cheers to life itself!

Blue Mountain

A trip to the Blue Mountain in a country pristine white in the winter month of February – Awesome Canada and the white the brightest I have seen.

All bundled up and the car well stocked for a 10 am departure from downtown Toronto for a family weekend at the Blue Mountain resort. I, personally from outside this country, and my first winter this trip was particularly exciting. An avid photographer who looks for stories in each frame, putting them down in poetry is what I enjoy most on my vacations.

The route that took us north to Highway 26 west in Barrie and the long beautiful scenic drive under the grey sky and snow filled terrain was a world altogether different for someone like me who comes from a tropical , wet and dry climate with high levels of humidity – Mumbai in India .

The road stretched a distance of over 500 km , door to door where most parts were through internal routes and away from the highways. Beautiful homes , spread across the countryside , surrounded by a white carpet of snow , windmill farms and a few stud farms, I guessed because of the sightings of the tall , strong and sturdy horses braving the cold. An endearing sight it was.

The dreamer in me would wonder on who lived within those homes, so far away from a busy city in a world of their own. Since I come from one of the busiest and noisiest cities in the world – Mumbai this seemed like a fairly land where the silence was deafening and the air the purest , an explosion of fragrance of nature all around. Nature here has worn her best white bright cape and as she flaunts her beauty, she also takes great pride in her other color-filled shades that will follow in spring and autumn.

Long stretches of straight roads , with a mix of curvy humpy in-between bits , merging into the horizon where the sun struggled to peak from between thick clouds was a sight that will forever stay with me for this lifetime.

Arriving at the village , a pleasant surprise awaited us. Children, youngsters and families all happy to spend time at this ski resort , indulging in the sport. This was for me a moment to feel a sense of awe. The trails with inclines that were daunting , the young kids who could barely walk, trying to ski , many more at the learner’s corner understanding nuances of the equipment and others like me enjoying the view , the vibe and the aura that’s filled with positive energy.

A wished to reverse my age clock a few decades behind , which means I would be in my twenties with the grit, stamina and the strength to learn a new sport or attempt to take on the ski trails. However, it was not to be but hoping the younger generation in the family grabs every opportunity to learn and take on the challenges of not just a new sport but life as a whole.

We drive into the parking of a cozy chalet with a view of the golf course that now resembled a skating rink. The greens were buried under the white snow blanket and it seemed as if it was levelled across with no blemish horizontally. Also remined me of a huge spill of vanilla ice-cream. The chalet with a well equipped kitchen and a fireplace in the family room brought in the feeling of togetherness. The cold outside and the warmth inside – a moment to be grateful for because precious moments rare in today’s hectic world and every such second ought to be cherished because it is so precious that no money can buy.

The drive back home was probably not as exciting for me because of having seen the white terrain on the way up . Its a story that will be in my travelogue and in my heart as new vacations take over and my diary is filled with new adventures. Its after all a life where compilations are in the form of good, bad and tough experiences along routes that take you through highways, tunnels , farms , villages, cities , deserts and forests – some seen some unseen and unreal.

An ode to vacations and the joy it brings with it!