#395 - At The Trapper's Choice

I slept in until about nine thirty.

I didn’t sleep as long as I imagined I would, but I was up. I sat in bed for a little while and then decided I may as well get up. I could always take a nap at any point in the day.

Part of me wanted to check to make sure Robyn wasn’t having any difficulties with her computer, and it turned out she was having no problems at all.

I made myself some tea and some malt bread toast with some old cheddar on the side for breakfast. There was some orange juice, and I helped myself to a glass of that as well. Orange juice is a vacation treat to me.

I settled in an overstuffed leather chair in the great room and logged in to the Writing Fantasy class to start watching some videos, hoping to glean some wisdom from its frames.

I watched a few and then picked up the chapbook I’d brought with me by Algis Budrys. It was an interesting treatise on how to write a compelling story. He was one of the teachers who taught my own teachers and my mentor. So, I figured the information was worth looking over again. There was one part I remembered about him creating a simple story and then showing how the story could be made to have more meaning and impact on the reader. That was something I felt I could revisit again and learn from.

Part of my fatigue stems from work. My eyes get tired because I am staring at screen all day looking for errors in digital paintings. I could only read some of the chapbook before my eyes got tired and that was with my reading glasses on.

I went back to the videos for a while and often closed my eyes while I listened to them. I was a beautiful day outside with plenty of sunshine. Robyn and I had promised each other we would take walks along the trails that ran through the property every day at lunch. The kiddo joined us as well. We headed up the hill and the path looked unrecognizable because of the carpet of leaves on the ground.

Off the main trail was a hand painted sign with an arrow that read: Hobbit Trail. I’d taken that trail before, and it did look like a place a hobbit might call home. Today it was hard to navigate with all the leaves on the ground, and it was a little more dangerous as well. All the loose rock and tree roots were partially or fully covered from view. But it was still a lovely walk around the property.

Robyn was disappointed with our step count, even though we had done a lot more altitude than usual, so we headed around for a trail that went around the property. There was a steep incline to the start of this trail, and my legs were burning by the time we got to the top. With all the leaves off most of the trees we could see out onto the river better than we had in the summer. It made for a nice view, and it was great to get a better sense of where we were on the property.

We’d talked about going to a local seafood restaurant in town called Henry’s, but after a quick google search, it was said to be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. With the state I was in, I didn’t want to cook dinner, so I set about looking for somewhere else we could go.

There was a decent looking Indian restaurant not too far from the cottage, but I didn’t feel like that would deliver a Parry Sound experience. There was a place called Trapper’s Choice Restaurant and it sounded more promising. I looked up the menu, and it had perch on the menu, so I was already in. The other items on the menu were varied enough so that I thought this place would have something for each of us.

I told the other two that Henry’s wasn’t open on Mondays and Tuesdays, but that we should still go out for supper.

Robyn got back to work, and I could hear the one o’clock meeting going on without me. I also heard my supervisor ask Robyn where I was. She’d completely forgotten that I was on vacation this week. Nothing can make you feel more important than no one noticing you are gone.

I put on my headphones and read the chapbook for a bit. I got to the part where he makes up a little story and shows how it can be improved. I found that part interesting and it was a great refresher. My eyes got tired again and I switched back over to the video tutorials until I’d had enough.

We skipped lunch, so I made some grilled cheese sandwiches using a panini press I found in one of the cupboards. It was a higher end panini press, and it did an okay job of the grilled cheese. They were dryer than they would have been if I’d used a pan, but no one complained, not even the kiddo. A little dollop of ketchup solved the dryness problem.

I was feeling tired and thought I would go back upstairs and take a nap. But I ended up watching an episode of Lupin in bed on my iPad. I had downloaded some episodes so I could watch them and not use up any bandwidth while Robyn was working.

It’s a charming French show and I like it. I almost want to read the fake books that appear in the series. The main character styles himself after the character in the book. They’ve cheated things a bit in this season more than I remembered them doing in the first two seasons, but again because it so charming, we forgive them these offenses.

I went back downstairs to continue watching the writing tutorials until around five. Robyn was done for the day, and the kiddo was getting hangry. We set out towards the Trapper’s Choice using the GPS to guide us as we have no idea where things are in this town. It was about a five to ten-minute drive before we got there. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but the menu hinted at better things within. Behind the restaurant was a mall with a No Frills Grocery, a Tim Hortons and a Popeyes.

The restaurant had the feeling of a mom-and-pop style place and that was fine with me. The last thing I wanted to do was eat at a franchise. All the food is starting to taste the same at these places.

The restaurant was at full capacity when we arrived. There was an older couple waiting there as we walked in and a person came in behind us.

We were told we could be seated shortly if we didn’t mind eating upstairs, and that was fine with us. Actually, it was preferred by us. The stairs obviously would present some issue with the servers, so I could see why they wouldn’t open that section unless they had too.

It was nice and cozy in the restaurant and the upper loft felt homie. I perused the menu and decided on the chicken marsala. I had originally wanted the perch, but how often is chicken marsala ion the menu these days?

The kiddo and Robyn ordered a club sandwich and salad which surprised me, since there were some other great items on the menu. I got us an appetizer of five scallops to start.

When the scallops arrived, we tucked into them and found them to be perfectly cooked. They were served with a sauce that was lovely as well. I couldn’t tell what kind of sauce it was, but it added to the experience.

My chicken marsala was served with mashed potatoes, zucchini, red bell pepper and broccoli. The marsala sauce was wonderful and made the chicken dish a delight to eat. I was very glad that I picked the marsala over the fish that night.

After dinner was done, the kiddo piled up all the plates and brought them down to the grateful servers below. Those were some steep stairs going up to the loft.

We drove over to the No Frills to grab some supplies for the week before heading home. The kiddo and Robyn made me stop at a Dairy Queen. They each got a small Blizzard, but I was still so full of dinner that I didn’t even consider having anything else. And that is unusual for me to not have a dessert when offered.

We drove back to the cottage and waddled inside.

Robyn and I watched an episode of Mobland while cuddling on the couch. She informed me that she had invited her friend Alison up to the cottage for one day and night. This was news to me, but I guess it was no skin off my teeth. Her friend would arrive on Wednesday evening and leave the following night.

The episode of Mobland was another good one. The family flew to Maiorca to evade some unpleasantries back home. It was a real tense and funny episode that we both enjoyed. Helen Mirren and Pearce Brosnan are killing it in this series.

I poured myself a glass of blackberry wine that I picked up back home and brought up to the cottage. I bought it one a whim, but I enjoyed the flavour and the increased sweetness of the wine. It smells wonderful and has a lovely deep colouring as well.

After Mobland we watched an episode of Survivor which was also very entertaining. They sure know how to make things interesting even after more than fifty seasons.

Sleep was calling our name after that, and we headed upstairs to get into bed. I put on my earbuds and listened to some more of The Children of Dune audiobook. At this point, Paul is pretty much out of the story except as a god like religious figure. Rumors that he wanders the desert are common. But the story now focuses on his sister and his twin children. Paul’s sister seems to have a plan of her own and Jessica, Paul’s mother, returns from Caladon to watch over the twins with Gurney at her side.

I am enjoying this third book in the Dune Saga and am interested to see where it all goes.

I think I listened for about an hour and after that I started to slip in and out of consciousness. Time to back the story up and continue it another day.

I promised myself I would let myself sleep in until whatever time my body needed to help it recuperate. There would be no feeling guilty about taking some rest. I was on vacation after all and I had the entire day to devote to whatever I needed to.

I drank a mojito cooler during Mobland and had that blackberry wine, so I didn’t think I would have any trouble falling asleep. The room was nice and cool. Listening to the audiobook had allowed time for the covers to trap in some of my body heat and I was feeling very warm and cozy. The perfect conditions for having a really good sleep were all lined up.

I think I fell asleep almost immediately.

But I woke around four in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. It wasn’t as though I felt rejuvenated exactly, but I was wide awake. In the end I got up out of bed and tried to sneak downstairs. But once again the floors creaked so loudly and the door did the same that I thought for sure that I was going to wake Robyn up.

She slept like a rock and luckily she never heard me leave.

I headed downstairs and watched some YouTube videos for an hour and then watched an episode of Lupin. I decided to download the rest of the season onto my iPad while Robyn wasn’t using the internet.

By six I was yawning again and crept back into bed.

Sleep took me quickly once again.

Until tomorrow.