Don't Say It's Almost Over!
Wow! It was incredible meeting so many new faces, as the Lodge spent most of the summer - since mid-June right up until this week - fully booked out almost constantly. We had our first post-border closure Guests from the U.S. join us in late August, and it was great to welcome them back once again. We appreciate all of the support that so many Guests have shown us, and look forward to seeing many of you again next year. Also, be sure not to forget that we have two of our cottages winterized (the 2-bedroom Pine and the 5-bedroom Oak) for the upcoming snowmobiling season, or if you'd simply like a fall or winter getaway with a great view. Many more details coming soon regarding that.
We're happy to say that as far as we could tell, everyone followed the COVID guidelines, checking in, registering for contact tracing, maintaining distancing from other groups, etc. It was wonderful fun to hear all the laughter, singing, music and general revelry around the property, as family and friends came to relax, unwind, do some fishing and disconnect.
We appreciated the understanding when we had to refuse early check-in times, due to the lengthy COVID sanitization each cottage must undergo between Guest stays, and we truly appreciate their patience. We're a family-run venture here, and each job is performed by one or more of us personally; there is no outside crew that comes in to assist us. During these pandemic times, that is just not feasible for us, so we know first hand how exhausting (particularly during the heat wave!) it can be to keep things running well.
On a side note, we've been told numerous times this summer that it was a banner year for fishing, with many of our Guests pulling in lunkers from right off our docks! Those who rented one of our 10 fishing boats, or brought their own, related many victorious stories of their daily angling adventures.
Now, perhaps one day soon, we can get out on the water ourselves to verify. We've been so busy here that we've only been out perhaps 3 times all summer.
If you have any pictures or videos of your catches, please feel free to submit them to our Google page or even better, send them directly to us, and we'd be more than happy to share them. We're trying to build up an album of Guest fishing pics, so we'd love to see yours. Also, did you happen to snap a quick pic of 'Captain Jacques' the huge snapping turtle with one eye that frequents our docks? Send it in - he's pretty famous, but elusive of cameras.
We have a bunch of incremental cottage and facility upgrades planned for the next 6 months, and we'll be sure to share them with all of you as they happen. For now, just a reminder to book your vacation for 2022 as soon as you can, to lock in this year's rates before any increases and to ensure you get the dates you're looking for.
Restaurant Update
A huge thanks to all of the Guests, cottagers and our local neighbours for supporting the Restaurant all spring and summer. We had people travel from as far away as Manitoulin and Elliot Lake, as well as Toronto, London, Ottawa, North Bay and Sudbury, specifically to try our menu. There were many weeks when we sold out of pizzas on Thursdays, for Friday nights!
You all made our Friday "Pizza, Pasta and Salad Night" a massive success. And of course, Chef Matt received so many compliments on the rest of his from-scratch menu (like his ground in-house Brisket Burger and decadent Smoked Chicken Carbonara pasta, among so many others) as well, that eventually his natural modesty made him hide in the kitchen once the praise in the dining room got to be too much.
Now that our main season is winding down, and we have less Guests staying with us, we are reverting back to our Fall/Winter hours for the Restaurant, effective next Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. Which means we will be open for both takeout and dine-in for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays only. Our hours will be 4:30pm - 8pm, with the last orders/reservations being accepted for 7pm. As always, to place an order or make a table reservation, head to our Restaurant page on the website. Lunches were just not popular enough to remain open during the quiet season, but if we get enough requests from locals or people that plan to be here frequently over the winter, we may reconsider. Let us hear your thoughts: send us an email, contact us/post on Facebook, etc.
We wish everyone a safe and happy autumn and winter, and hope that everyone is doing their part to get us through whatever remains of this pandemic. We can't wait to tell you all about our plans for the winterized cottages and what we hope will be some great weekend packages for snowmobilers as well as weekend and weekday getaway packages.
The White Family:
Dave, Tammi, Andrea and Geoff
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