Addy in Muskoka

Every June, my husband and I like to celebrate the anniversary of when we first started dating; since we’re married now, we celebrate our wedding anniversary every July, but we’ve never seen the point of giving up the older tradition. There’s a particular activity we have historically chosen to commemorate this June anniversary: “losting,” which means “getting in the car with a picnic lunch, picking a direction, and driving until we don’t know where we are.” The point is to find the weirdest things and have the most unusual experiences along the way, because that’s the sort of thing we find romantic, I guess. Previous losting excursions haven’t disappointed: we’ve stumbled upon an abandoned mill, rearranged rocks on the shore of Lake Ontario, been caught in a ferocious hailstorm, seen a sugar glider at a garage sale (it was not for sale), and found ourselves on a guided tour of a gigantic military submarine with no water in sight. Since we’ve traded upstate New York for the more urban environment of southern Ontario, we’ve had to plan our excursions a little more carefully to maximize novelty and avoid traffic jams. This year, we decided to get out of town and head for Muskoka, a region of Ontario known for its beautiful lakes. Lots of people visit Muskoka in the summer to hike, canoe, swim, and sightsee in the parks and small towns of the region. I’d passed through a couple times, but never spent any time there.

I chose to bring Addy on this getaway because one of the activities I had planned was something she might have encountered in the 1860s: a steamship ride! According to the Muskoka Steamships website, steamers first traveled Lake Muskoka in 1866. (There’s actually a lot more historical information about steamships in Muskoka at that link, so check it out if you’re interested.) Addy and her family would have been familiar with steamers as a form of transportation.

The steamer we rode on was a reproduction in the style of the early 1900s, a time when tourism was booming in Muskoka. Tourism was booming in the early 1900s in a vacation destination south of the border, too: wealthy New Yorkers like Samantha and her family would have taken similar steamers across the lakes of the Adirondacks, a mountainous region in upstate New York, to get to private camps or fancy hotels. In fact, one of Samantha’s mystery books, The Cry of the Loon, is about a trip to the Adirondacks. Someday it would be fun to visit the Adirondacks with Samantha, but this trip to Muskoka was Addy’s time to shine.

Addy, my husband and I claimed seats on a bench on the top deck, but we soon decided it was more fun to explore the ship and stand at the rails to better view the gorgeous scenery.

The interior of the ship was decorated in an elegant style. It had a dining room that served lunch, dinner, and high tea; the meals sounded good but they were pricey, so we opted to skip them. Instead, we stayed on the top deck and watched the little tree-covered islands go by. Some of the islands have houses on them, most of which are luxurious mansions. Real estate in Muskoka is expensive, and private islands especially so, as you might imagine. Apparently, a number of the island houses are summer homes for famous people. I spotted a big sign on one of the islands and grabbed the binoculars we’d brought in order to get a closer look. I’d wondered aloud what the sign said, so nearby passengers were understandably curious when I burst out laughing. The sign said, “PLEASE RESPECT OUR PRIVACY.” Oops. Everyone had a good laugh about that.

Eventually we reached a dock at a town on the other end of the lake. I was alarmed when all the passengers were instructed to disembark. I was fairly certain I’d booked a round-trip cruise, but I’d found the online booking system confusing and it was definitely possible I’d screwed up somehow and stranded us at the opposite end of the lake from our car. Thankfully, this was not the case: there was a bus waiting to take us back to our starting point. Not quite what I’d intended, but good enough.

After our steamship ride, we headed off to find some dinner. First, though, we stopped at a little dock to enjoy a pretty view of the lake. It was raining lightly, but Addy was willing to pose for a few pictures anyway. The soft light was beautiful.

We were only in Muskoka for a weekend and we were trying to relax (not our usual mode of operation on vacation), so we didn’t do a ton of different things. The other highlight of our trip was climbing up the Dorset Lookout Tower. Addy refused to walk up herself and I wasn’t too keen on the idea of carrying her and my camera bag all the way to the top, so she opted to stay down below. She was content to look at the picture I took of the view from the top:

Our time in Muskoka was brief, but fun. I hope we get to come back sometime soon!