Prairies, Lakes and Friends, oh my!

I'm writing this entry in a very tired but content state of mind - just returned from a long weekend at the lake. Yes, there are lake houses in Canada, and the lakes do melt in the summertime (albeit not until May)!

Today (Monday) is a holiday here, although I'm not sure what for - from what I can gather, many locals don't really know, either. Ben and I only learned of the holiday last week, which meant that our well-intentioned camping trip could not come to pass: every last campsite within driving distance was already booked up! Luckily our friend Angie has a fabulous cousin who invited us all to her family's lake house about 2 1/2 hours north of Calgary. So on Friday night, we packed up and headed north, through prairies and out into the middle of nowhere, until suddenly we were upon an enormous, beautiful lake in a sleepy but oh-so-charming Alberta town.

This was a lake trip in the very best way: not overly touristy with swanky rentals everywhere, but instead with families who have likely passed cabins down for generations, with just the right amount of kitsch to make you feel totally at home. Angie and our hostess are linked through the Italian side of their families, and therefore we enjoyed amazing cooking (and lots of it!) and the best hospitality I could imagine. What a treat to escape the city, enjoy good food and friends, and not look at a television or computer for three days. Bosco came along, too, and I'm pretty sure it was his idea of heaven!

We took a few speed boat trips around the water, laid in 80+ degree sunshine and at night watched a booming thunder and lightning storm, complete with hail, over the lake. Amazingly, we woke up to another warm and lovely day afterward. The weather was so ideal that it was tough to believe our hostess, Meaghan, when she described the winter ice fishing that takes place on the lake. The ice gets so thick that trucks can drive across. I was just in love with the flowers and gardens in the area, too - probably because they reminded me of Danish gardens, which made me very happy :)

I'm constantly surprised by Canada - the multitude of ways to enjoy the outdoors continues to impress me, from hiking, skiing or camping in the mountains, to sitting by a lake in the middle of the prairies, to tubing on a river through the city (which we hope to try next weekend!). Ben and I are now a mere two weeks away from our great road trip of 2009, and I can't wait to see what else is in store for us.