We went to Fern last week, and as
expected, we had a great time. The weather co-operated, for the most part; we only
had rain on one day, and only for a couple of hours. We went to the indoor pool
during that time, so we had fun anyway. The guys went golfing (9 holes) on Tuesday
morning. I got one par, and missed chipping in for birdie (would have been my
first one) by a fraction of an
inch. I got to try my new driver out for the first time — the ball went
left a lot, but it went a lot further than with my old driver. Obviously
going further into the trees is less than ideal, but once I figure out
how to hit it properly, it’ll be very cool. I’m hopefully going to the driving
range tomorrow evening with my neighbour (the guy who made the driver), so he
can give me some tips on how to straighten out my swing.

Back to Fern; a summary of things we did:

• pedal carts and bikes — Nicholas was big enough this year to get the
  carts going
• Gail and I each tried archery (Gail did it two or three times; I think she’s
  getting addicted)
• I played 4-way volleyball twice (I think I’m getting addicted)
• I had casino (blackjack, roulette) and Texas Hold-’em lessons
• Gail went for a walk (2.5 to 3 km) every morning at 6:30 (I was very
  impressed)
• Ryan and I played golf — Ryan did really well, for his second time
  ever on a (non-mini) golf course (his first time was last year), and I got two
  pars in five holes!
• I made it to the top of the “vertical playground”, which is a sort of obstacle
  course that you climb, consisting of rope ladders, poles with wooden spikes that
  you climb, and some tires as well.
• Ryan went fishing and caught a minnow and a catfish

The vertical playground was actually easier than the rock climbing wall that I
climbed last year. Next year, maybe I’ll try the teeter-totter, which is just
your basic see-saw, except that it’s mounted at the top of a 40-foot telephone
pole.

I didn’t manage to get a ride on Jeff’s jet-ski; whenever he had it out, I
was busy doing other stuff. I also wanted to play tennis but never got a chance,
and we didn’t get the lacrosse sticks out either.

We then dropped Nicholas off at Gail’s dad’s place and Ryan off at my
parents’ place on Saturday, and drove home, stopping to see Pirates of the Carribbean in Barrie
on the way. We also stopped at the Colisseum at the 400
and 407 to see Superman Returns,
but the timing didn’t work out, so
we went home. Sunday we saw Superman Returns at the Imax theatre in Mississauga,
and Monday we tried to go and see X-Men: The Final Stand, but the
theatre had technical difficulties and had cancelled the movie, so we went
to see that tonight. Since Saturday, we’ve also rented a bunch of movies, painted the bathroom and replaced the light fixture, installed a new cover on the
bathroom vent (to keep birds from making nests in there like they did this past
spring), and we’re going to order a new garage door this week as well.

I’ll post mini-reviews of all the movies we’ve seen this week a little later.

Gail got me quite a cool present for my birthday this year: a
custom-made driver. Our neighbour makes golf clubs, so one day last week, Gail
told me that he had called, and wanted me to come over and give him a hand with
his wireless router, which was giving him problems. So I went over, and he
informed me that I was not there to fix his router, but to have a fitting for a
custom driver. He measured my arm length and swing speed (85-90 mph), and we
chose which type of head, shaft, and grip to use. (Well, OK, he pretty
much chose all that stuff — he gave me some options, then told me what he
would choose, and I gave him a lot of “sure, that sounds great”.) He came by
Tuesday night with the final product. I wasn’t allowed to swing it, since the
grip adhesive hadn’t finished drying yet, but he said it should be OK by
Wednesday evening. I may have a chance to go out to the range with it tonight
(Thursday), but more than likely, I’ll have to wait until next Tuesday morning
when we go golfing at Fern (see below).
I used to
hate my driver because I simply couldn’t hit anything with it. I entered a
“longest drive” competition at Fern one year, and brought my three iron because
I knew I could hit it farther than my driver (though I was completely smoked by
others who could hit their drivers). I took some golf lessons
last summer, and since then, I’ve had better luck with my driver, When I went out
with my dad a couple of weeks ago, it was actually the best club I hit all day.
But it’s 11-year-old technology now (and that’s assuming it was the latest
technology when we bought our clubs 11 years ago, which it wasn’t), so I’m really
looking forward to trying this new one out.

We go to Fern for a week in August every year — this year it goes from
this coming Sunday (the 13th) to Friday the 18th. We’ve been looking forward to
this year’s trip since, well, since last
year’s trip ended. Fern has a ton
of stuff to do for the kids as well as for us. The kids love the
Playvillage, where they have activities all day, as well as free time to just
play. (Note that the kids don’t stay in Playvillage all day, but there are always
things for them to do.) There are also shows, where they bring in magicians and
musicians as well
as a group from the local wildlife center, and they have a hay ride every night,
as well as a zip line,
a couple of big climbing structures, trampolines, and
mini-golf. For kids and adults, there are tennis and
basketball courts,
three pools (two outdoor, one indoor) and a beach, bikes,
pedal carts,
canoes and pedal boats, a 5-hole golf course, batting cages, a 4-way
beach volleyball court (which is a lot of fun), a rock climbing wall
(yes, that’s me in the white shirt), and a few other extreme sports. You can
borrow all kinds of sports equipment, and they have other sports-related
activities; Gail really enjoyed archery last year.
There are other programs as well, like a cooking demonstration with the head chef,
a woodworking class with the head carpenter, mixology, scrapbooking, and
blackjack lessons, an internet cafe (and apparently the pool area is a wireless
hotspot now, though we don’t plan on bringing our laptops anyway) and other stuff
like that. Oh yeah, and all your food is
included, and is excellent. Another advantage is that dinner time for the kids
starts at 5:30, and for everyone else at 6:00, at which time Playvillage opens,
so you can feed the kids at 5:30, then take them over to Playvillage, then come
back and have a nice leisurely grown-ups-only dinner.

In previous years, we’ve rented jet-skis, but Fern doesn’t rent those anymore.
Luckily, my friend Jeff recently bought one (as I mentioned in in the camping
entry), so we’ll have that to play with next week as well. It’s not terribly
cheap, but it’s not ridiculous either, and we have a great time every year. I
can’t wait.

The week after Fern will also be fun. We leave Fern
on the Friday morning, and head north to Gail’s dad’s place in Sundridge. We stay
Friday night there, and leave Saturday morning sans Nicholas, who’s
staying with John and Jackie for a week. On the way home, we stop in at my
parents’ place, where we drop Ryan off. So from Saturday afternoon until the next
Friday, no kids. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids, but the idea of
going out to a movie without paying more for a babysitter than for the movie
itself certainly has appeal, not to mention not making kids lunches
every day, not fighting with bedtime every night, not worrying
about making a dinner that the kids will actually eat, and so on. Gail and I will
get lots done around the house, see a couple of movies, sleep in on Sunday and maybe
play a round of golf. It’ll be nice.

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