Grundy Lake Provincial Park, Ontario part one...

Helloo followers, I'm back! I missed you all very much!
Yes, we survived our camping trip and no, not one bear was seen! I'm kinda happy about that! Now, this week I am in Hamilton painting the front porch for my Dad, so instead of blogging about paint fumes, I've decided to dedicate this week to Grundy Lake and all of the culinary adventures we had while in the great outdoors! I have a tonne of pictures, a lot of stories and some great quick and easy, camp friendly recipes to share! Let's get started!
So, we set out on our journey early Sunday morning. We had a three and a half hour trip in front of us and we were excited! Kevin and his family used to vacation at Grundy Lake when he was young, but he had not been back in about a decade. When we got north of Canada's Wonderland on highway 400, memories began to wash over me... You see, my family used to have a cottage in Muskoka, that we built in the early 70's and I had not been back in about a decade myself. We spent so much time at our cottage while growing up, I loved it so much! We would usually arrive around nightfall and my Grandparents would always be waiting for us. We would clamber into the cottage to find a meal waiting. Macaroni and cheese with ham, borscht or my Grandpa's famous pea soup were the usual suspects! All delicious! Then, with full tummies, my brothers and I would go to bed, ready for our fun to start in the morning. Ahhh, good times! Anyhoo, back to the present... Through the Holland Marsh we drove (I remember it would smell like V8 juice at the end of summer!), until the farmland disappeared and we were travelling into Barrie. A quick pit stop for a late breakfast and we were off again. We drove the 400 the entire way, which was a bit disappointing for me, since our cottage was off of number 11. I wanted to show Kev 'Weber's' and all the other landmarks that would trigger my memory again, but that's okay. Instead, it was Kev's turn to tell me his stories and memories about the area. As we kept driving north, we were surrounded by the rocky Canadian Shield, beautiful lakes, rivers and streams, and kilometres of forest until finally we saw the sign for Grundy Provincial Park! Yippy!

We set up our campsite and had a few hours of sun before for the rain and chilly weather eventually showed up. No worries, though! We had a great time playing board games in our kitchen tent, while listening to an easy rock station out of Sudbury on our newly purchased hand cranked/solar radio (the same one my Dad owns, that only seems to play country music while up at the land...). I had a lovely steak dinner planned for us, but that was going to have to wait. Instead, with his rain coat on, Kev started a small fire and roasted us up some hot dogs while I made us the emergency box of Kraft Dinner on the Coleman stove. That's right, we had a box of good ol' K.D.! But not just any old K.D., we are talkin' the Deluxe kind here! Oh come on followers, stop judging me! We were camping! So, after our dinner did it's job of warming us up, we cracked open a couple of beers and ciders. With easy rock in the background, loons calling out over the lake and the pitter patter of rain on our tent, we had fun playing Clue and Monopoly for hours until it was time for bed... What a lovely way to begin our trip!