For the past seven years, my parents have rented the same cottage just a few miles up the road from Lost River, Québec… it’s about an hour’s drive north of Vankleek Hill. And they’ve been nice enough to invite my little family to join them.

…basically it’s the lower Laurentian Mountains, dozens and dozens of private lakes, and trees — lots and lots of thick, green forests. Most of the villages in the region were founded by Scots and Irish migrants [link] back in the mid-19th century.

As he does every year, my step-father asked my two boys what they want to eat during the visit. This particular time Quintin, my youngest, asked for 16-bags of sour-cream and onion chips. I’m pretty sure he was joking. Either that or he was just being nine. But when we got there, laid out on the table, were seven large bags of Sour Cream & Onion Ruffles-brand chips. Quintin was very impressed.

Other than that, there was lots of fun in the pool and hottub, and we played a bunch of games. There was also a day trip for the kids to Mont Tremblant [link], which was about two-hours north of the Cabin. The kids and their ‘Pepere’ had fun racing down the mountain in little go-karts, while my mother and I drove for about an hour to the Lachute Flea Market — which is huge, and the little city’s main attraction.

…she, being an historian, picked up some old photos, and an old fashionable cream dispenser. I managed to get some pretty decent photos of the crap on display. It’s worth a day trip just to see what people are selling — there was an entire table dedicated to hammers, another large box filled with multicoloured toy dinosaurs, a pile of Aunt Jemima figurines, and an entire section of Dollar Store crap… I’ll make all of that the next post.

So. Fun was had by everyone.

…anyway, if you’re down with it, just click on a photo to get the carousel going.