It’s been a while.. get together?

As I’ve mentioned in past posts, I have three first cousins here in Canada. Sadly, although we don’t live too far apart, we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like. But, we always have such a great time when we do get together. Quality over quantity!

It had been a while since the last time all 4 families had been together so I decided to contact them to organize a well-overdue get-together. We all have busy lives and lots on the go, so although we were close to getting all 15 of us together, 5 were unable to attend (we missed you guys!).

Good times!

We wanted this to be more then just a quick meal at the end of the day, so we planned an all-day affair; starting with a traditional big breakfast at our place in the morning. Nothing like pancakes, bacon, eggs, fresh fruit, and a few other goodies to tie us over for a road trip.

Our province of Ontario is beautiful. With the sun shining and so many options for places to visit, we narrowed our choices to places we could drive to within a reasonable number of hours–this was only a day trip after all. We decided to visit Gananoque [GAN-ə-NOK-way], a small lakefront town in Eastern Ontario about a 3-hour drive from Toronto. Gananoque is a beautiful waterfront community in the heart of the 1000 Islands on the Saint Lawrence River. The 1000 Islands is the town’s biggest tourist attraction.

Lakefront! Islands! How about we take a cruise?

We made it just in time to get tickets for the last one-hour cruise of the day. When I say “just in time”, I mean we literally had to run to the boat because it was about to leave. We were “those” people holding up their on-time departure. Man…we drove 3 hours to get there…it would have sucked to have missed the boat. So, we ran. These things add to the experience and the memories we make as a family :-).

All aboard now, we cruised the narrow channels of the gateway of the 1000 Islands; learning about the islands and the cottages enjoyed by their owners, known as Islanders. This was no Caribbean cruise, but it was such a pleasant trip. We were on the water, with a breeze and the sun on our faces–life is good!

The boat ride made us hungry!

Once our short cruise was over, we were all hungry! We took a walk up the town’s main street to scout out some of the local restaurants. We settled on The Purple House Cafe for some wood-fired pizza. OMG! The service and food were so good! We ate outside in the patio area, sitting at picnic tables set in front of the clay and brick wood burning oven, and surrounded by tiki torches. It was a treat to see our pizzas being made right in front of us like that. If you’re ever in the area, check them out!

Tropical?

Well, our 1000 Islands aren’t tropical and we were on a lake, not the ocean, but it definitely inspired today’s recipe. I was reflecting on our day trip and dreaming of being on vacation when I remembered that I had a bunch of pineapple leftover from yesterday’s breakfast with my cousins. When life gives you ~~lemons~~ pineapple… make smoothies! Let our pineapple smoothie take you to a tropical place…even if it’s only in your dreams. Enjoy the tropics and always eat well, friends!

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