Hostelling : Mattawa, ON - February 2004
General Information
The Dionne Quintuplets were born in the early 20th century near Mattawa, ON.
There's also some place called "Myrts" in Mattawa, which serves excellent apple pie (when available), and very good hamburgers.
Mattawa is located on the Ottawa River, which is adjacent to Quebec. They apparently have a 'harbour front', but I suspect it isn't used to catch lobsters, and store big oil riggers.
Trip Logistics
Stayed at the Mattawa Golf and Ski Resort just outside Mattawa, ON.
Directions: North on the 400 from Toronto, east on highway 11, east on highway 17. At the T-intersection, turn right, continuing along highway 17. The resort is 10 minutes along the highway after the intersection, on the right hand side.
Cost: $30 per person per night to rent the 12 person cottage with 11 people. $5 for ski trail use (but is included in cottage rental). $12 for day rental of skis, poles and boots per person. $5 for day rental of boots per person.
Trip Details
Started out from work at 5:00 for Toronto. Although I missed the 5:30 bus, I caught the next one at 7:00, which had me in Toronto by 8:15, which was good. No cute guys on the bus, but there was a random incident prior to leaving the bus station. A number of the greyhound people had been telling passengers, like myself, that there was a Guelph-Toronto bus leaving at 6:30, and an express leaving at 7:00, which would arrive 15 minutes before the G-T in Toronto. Not really wanting to wait around, and being alright with being stuck on a bus, a number of us were easgerly looking forward to this 6:30 bus. Turned ou the 6:30 only went to Guelph that Thursday, and not Toronto. Ah, well. Read my book in the meanwhile.
Eventually got to Toronto, attempting to call my grandparents and ask for a ride to their place (as dragging bag through was not appealing). Er... the cellphone worked, although the huge amount of background noise did not. Ended up taking ze bus anyways, getting into my grandparents at 9 o'clock. Excellent chicken dinner provided by my grandparents, and had a wonderful time catching up on how relatives were doing and how their lives were going and random world politics.
Random incident. I had taken along with me some ground beef for the spaghetti dinner I anticipated making for the Saturday dinner. Although frozen in bags when I left my house Thursday morning, by Thursday evening, it was, understandably, melted. What I had not rather anticpated was that one of the bags leaked (I mean it was ziploc, afterall), and there I was with red-stained white socks, night gown, t-shirt and pants which were also packed in the same bag. Although I chose to hand-clean the clothes that evening before having dinner (as I discovered this as I went to retrieve the ground beef to throw in the fridge), I did, however, borrow use of the dryer as they hadn't quite dried over night.
Good sl33p in the bed that I'd used while living with my grandparents for 8 months. Double bed. Although the matress isn't quite what I was used to when growing up, it's a bit nicer than the one i'm currently sl33ping on. Not picky, but it was a good sl33p none the less.
Although anticipating crawling out of bed at 8am to chat with the early morning rising grandparents, I was awaken around 7am due to 2 phone calls. Apparently these two phone calls were first the retirement home of my namesake, Erika Leu, informing my grandparents (good friends of Erika, who was a nanny/house keeper for them for many years, including when my father was a child), that she was severely ill, and then secondly, that my namesake had passed away. I'm still not quite sure as to how I should handle death, as it's never been all too close to me. A few great aunts and uncles, who I've never much had contact with. Although I recall Erika folding clothing for myself and my brothers differently from what my grandmother in Guelph would do, and recall her as being religious, and kind, I do not feel that I knew her very well. It will mean more to my mother, let alone my father, who had more of an attachment.
As a consequence, my grandmother, Grannie, disappeared early in the morning. Graddad had a dentist appointment at 10 o'clock, so he too disappered in what I would consider fairly early. (Attmpted to go back to sl33p). However, Grannie soon returned, and we decided to indulge ourself by having pancakes and bacon and sausage. Mmmm... good breakfast. :) She was then kind enough to drive me over to the grocery store, where I needed to pick up some stuff prior to meeting up with people at Yorkdale mall. We met granddad en route, and he offered to drive me all the way to Yorkdale. Extremely grateful of all their hostpitality, I accepted, and arrived just outside of the entrance to the "Rainforest Cafe" on the north side of Yorkdale mall.
Waiting/reading my book for only a few short moments on that now obviously bright sunny day, Mark (Toivanen) showed up. We waited for a bit, and then he ventured inside to see if the others were waiting inside. Soon after, he came back out with his mother, Evan (Morgoch), and Mike (Huang) in tow. We quickly packed up, and were on our way by 1:30 to North Bay.
While Mark's mom drove us up to North Bay, the four of us chatted and caught up on things. How was Toronto, what courses are you taking next term, what are they doing to the OS course? Although I was stuffed from the late breakfast, the others hadn't eaten, and although Weber's (some burger joint on the 400) was closed, we continued north to some convience store which served a mean BLT. Although I didn't get one, I was in dire need of bread for Saturday's garlic bread.
To highway 11, we eventually dropped Mark's mom off in North bay with her relatives, and made our way over to Evan's friend's place to drop off something that his dad asked him to drop off. Quick trip to the grocery store for Mark, Evan and Mike. Evan ventured into the fairly busy (given it was a Friday afternoon/evening afterall) Beer store. Eventually we started back en route to the resort.
We didn't quite miss the turn off from the road (although it arrived fairly abruptly), thus arriving as the first load up to the resort. Mike, the owner, was inside the main house (this was about 6, 6:30 - now getting dark - at this point), providing us with key, directions to the cottage from the main house, and then asking we provide him with names, heights and shoe sizes for skiers for Saturday's excursion. He also let us know that he would groom the 6km and 9km trail, which should keep us fairly occupied the following day.
There were four little army bunker looking cabin all side by side: 2 of which, at least, were inundated with ski-doers (ugh! personal opinion: ski-doing is awful, smelly, and noisey). Actually, these were the 6-person cabins (equiped, unlike ourselves, with fireplaces - we were not lacking in entertainment nor warmth however). Our own cottage was behind the two of these. A two-storey cottage: kitchen/dining room, followed by a large cosy living room, and then 4 x (1 single bed, 1 double bed) bedrooms upstairs.
So there was a slight disaster with the gatorade bottle in my clothes bag - I discovered it had exploded when Mark, Evan, Mike and myself were unpacking/claiming single beds. Also was reminded that I'm female. It's excellent to be able to plan in advance for such things. Fortunately there were no excessive cramps to restrict me from skiing on the Saturday. In the meanwhile, Mark had claimed the lone double bed (as there were 11 people rather than 12), and we all finished unpacking. Having been told that Friday's dinner was covered by the next load of people, Mark, Evan, Mike and I decided to start up a settler's game. Settlers game worked well. Must admit that once people started showing up, I attempted to be more social, resulting in my attention to the game decreasing. Raymond (Lai)'s car arrived at 7:30 bearing (Geoff) Pounder, and Daniel (Redelmeier). Most definitely dark by this point, although they had not gotten lost (there were some troubles with signs not being very visible given that it was definitely dark by that point), there were some comments with regards to Bracebridge, a town outside of Gravenhurst on highway 11. According to Raymond, the townsfolk appeared to have never seen a chinese person before, as he claimed to have heard them turning their heads and watching Raymond as the three of them did a quick pit-stop in town. After they settled, and decided to post-pone food making till the last car arrived, the then-seven of us started to play a game called "Bang" as provided by Pounder/Daniel. Kinda neat. Apparently a 'spaghetti western' theme (Italian western?) Kinda neat game. By the time the rules had be taught, and the game played, the third and final car had arrived (around 9 or 10 I believe).
Paul (Ullrich) had driven Albert (O'Connor), Diana (Chisholm) and Phil (Weiner) out from Waterloo, leaving around 3 or 4 o'clock. This car had the unfortunate luck of getting stuck in Friday afternoon Toronto traffic (what with the driving on highway 400), however they'd all arrived safe and sound. Deep fry time! Raymond also made up some fajitas and tacos. Good food! Paul had brought some apple strudel-type thing, which was tested for deep-fry-ability. Apparently too much pastry, but otherwise quite nice. Around 11pm myself, Diana and Albert (and Paul?) made our way over to the main house to see if we could drop off the ski sizes list. Although closed, we were able to point out some of the different star formations that, being so far away from the city, we were now able to see.
I disappeared off to sl33p around 1:30, with the knowledge that the rest were happily playing scrabble and settlers. Although I didn't actually pass out till 2:30, when most of the game players also headed off to sl33p, I was not conscious enough attempt to play any games at that point. Pounder and Daniel, and, I believe, Albert were up into the night chatting about ? which is cool, however, the body seemed to have been a light sl33per, so I recognized that all good people were finally in bed/attempting sl33p around 4am (eeks! so early in the morning!). Pounder, unfortunately, wasn't feeling very well, and didn't get much sl33p as his lungs demanded much coughing from him. What with being in the same room as him, as well as Daniel, neither Daniel nor I were able to sl33p much (esp. after 6:30 it seemed), while our friend was in such discomfort.
Eventually, my alarm went off, and quickly getting changed, I proceeded to dash over to the main house to drop off the ski sizes (I hate the smeel of gasoline in the morning - thank you ski-doers), and returned to add toppings to the cheesecake (I'd made much of it the night before), and start the spaghetti sauce (which I would let simmer most of the day). Albert, who had decided to sl33p on the couch, rather than a bed (due to accessibility to a music system), seemed to not be too disturbed by all these comings and goings, but eventually himself, as well as much of the rest of the house roused themselves and prepared for the skiing (we were aiming for starting out at 10am). No need to wake up Phil/Diana (who shared a room with Evan), nor Mike/Paul (who also shared a room), but it was fun to wake up Mark by beating him with a pillow :D Seemed to shock Raymond when I went into the their room, as he jerked/sat right up when I walked in, although he appeared still unconscious. Silly Raymond :D
Evan, who joined the skiing group, replaced Pounder, who clearly needed to rest his unexpected cold and stayed at the cottage with Raymond. The rest of us made our way over to the main house, collecting skis and boots and poles. Mike the owner disappeared shortly after explaining the trails to get them groomed for us. We followed shortly thereafter. Albert was speedy gonzolas, but all of us, it appeared were having a good time. Did the 6km circuit that morning (which ended with Ping-pong waiting calls, and finally a random snow fight - snow really can be as deep as a waist!).
Lunch back at the main cottage at noon. Ray & Pounder had disappeared into Mattawa, so the rest of us warmed ourselves up, and then made our way back out around 1pm. The 9km was very quickly acommplished by all - the 6km must've been a bit of a warm up for all I suppose - with some excellent crisp, clean breezes, and some beautiful sights, sounds and smells. There were some random moose tracks, and various action shots, courtesy Mark's digital camera. With the exception of Evan's ski pole, we all made it to the end of the circuit safely (I must admit that on the first round, I enjoyed being near the head of the pack, but in the second round really enjoyed pulling up the rear, taking it easy, and being able to look around myself more, and enjoy the depths of the forest, and heights of the trees. Mmmmm.... :) ). Albert, with help, built an incredible snomwan, equiped with mustache, and pipe and horns to say the least. Little bit less snow fights it seemed the second time, but only by a bit. This time even Switzerland (a cute nickname for the usually mild-mannered Mike) decided to join in the cafufful.
Dropped off skis, poles, boots and the $12 for use at the main house around 3:30, and made our way back to the cottage to find Pounder and Raymond having returned. They had their own tale of a place called "Myrts" in Mattawa which served them spectacular hamburgers, and excellent apple pie. Mmmm... (we then later tested this out on the Sunday for lunch, for those who didn't have to leave right at 11am). A shower to wash my hair, and the sweat from the skiing left me ready for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Played another game of "Bang" (complete with Diana's marvelous home made cookies), but then started back at getting dinner ready at 5.
The garlic bread turned out well, as did the sauce and the salad was cheesily easy (cheated, and bought salad dressing). The actual pasta, however, I proceeded in burning. Being somewhere around 6:45 by that point - Paul, Mark and Evan had returned from sledding, and there had been 2 games of bang later, and 1/2 a game of settler's - people helped me with setting up the table, and Pounder was ever so wonderful, and helped me remedy the burnt pasta situation. Not all of it burnt, of course, but attempting to cook 2 kg of pasta in 1 pot doesn't work very well, and the bottom tends to get burned, with the top not being cooked at all. Eventually I started picking out burnt bits while Pounder was great and rescued the remainder of the pasta. By 7:30 dinner was good, by 8 dessert (cheesecake with blueberry sauce) was good, by 8:30-9:30 (given conversation about ? and Albert, Evan and Mark? tackling the dishes) we were set to do something else.
Charades was well recieved by most, with Pounder opting to add suggestions - he eventually warmed up and did some acting later on in the evening :D It was Phil, Diana, Mike, Albert, Pounder and myself pitted against Mark, Evan, Paul, Raymond (who at one point needed to not have the room spinning, and took a break from the game), and Daniel. A couple of flying math terms, some random works, like "Dignity" and "Penultimate", and some less than random parts like "Proctologist" and "Bowl Movement" and "Karma Sutra". All well acted out (with the exception from a couple of hard ones, like "Responsible Government"), and eventually the style changed from random to more math based, and opened up to more of a free-for-all, and the concept of teams disappeared. As the charades moved into naming theorems based on definition (eg. act out the definition, but name the theorem), I kinda started to phase out. Yeah sl33p! Slept very well, which I attribute to the wonderful skiing (go physical exhaustion!). The math charades died down around 1:30am, and all good people, skiers and non alike, got some Zzzzz's (Pounder opted to split the living room couches with Albert on the main floor).
Woke up Mark bright and early at 8:30, and given that I was awake by that point, assisted him with the cheese on egg on ham slices in muffin tins, as well as the chopping of oranges. There were also egg muffins. And Evan's donation of Sunday morning chocolate truffles. Mmm.... excellent breakfast! Dishes were removed (Thanks again, Phil and Daniel!), the house was cleaned, and the 11 o'clock leavers (Albert, Paul and Diana) disappeared to go back to Waterloo in order to make it to their curling game (well, Paul and Albert at least). The rest of us finished packing, and were out the door by 11:30, leaving some stuff to be sacked, and some to be not sacked (like Paul's apple strudel container - which I brought back to uw - and his yummy pumpkin muffins, which Mark brought back to Toronto).
Keys and fees and great thanks were left at the main house, and we discovered a small trail just north of the resort to pass some time (and digest some breakfast) prior to lunch. Discovered a nice bridge, to toss snow into, and start up a hypothetical politics debate. Lots of fun, and lots of cracked ice. Eventually migrated back to the cars (not without first acquiring snow chairs), and discovered Myrts, the good burger joint in Mattawa.
The Torontonians and Waterlooians split thereafter. Daniel/Pounder knew of a faster route to the 400 via highway 95, which we checked out. Returned, in what seemed incredibly quick timing back to Waterloo, with a gas pit stop, and a washroom pit stop en route. Excellent weather through out the weekend. Discussed travelling in general, and DJing in cars, as well as other randoms like Haiti and such. Honestly, I was shocked when we were suddenly just ouside Cambridge. Must've taken us no more than 5.5 hours (got in around 7:30, left the restaurant around 2).
Definitely a good trip, courtesy incredible weather and snow, excellent friends, excellent food, and excellent laughter and conversations.