We have fallen into a pleasant routine for the end of August and early September. This year there were a few bumps along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Date Confusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As you may have noticed I am now attending the IMC concert at the end of August; if I can confirm a hotel room in reasonable distance from McKellar, Ontario, Mumtaz accompanies me and we continue on for a week of road trip. The IMC concert is traditionally held on the day before Labour Day. This year Labour Day was very late and, honestly, I missed the last Sunday of the year by 1 week; no problem, I managed a hotel room in Huntsville (I thought that it was surprisingly easy but it was actually a week ahead of Labour Day) and had plotted a trip through Algonquin Park, Ottawa and Peterborough. So I checked everything out about 10 days out and realized that I was a week off; no problem, we could do the trip before the concert and I was able to book rooms in Bolton which is closer than if we returned home so all plans were on track. Then as we were preparing for the trip, I checked the web site for IMC and for the first time that I know of, the concert was not on the day before Labour Day but a week before Labour Day. The original plan was actually just fine; we changed our plan to head to the concert then continue the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IMC Concert<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n IMC, of course, is the Interprovincial Music Camp where student musicians from many backgrounds gather for 8 days at the end of summer, audition, are placed in one of 6 groups; and after over 35 hours of continuous preparation present a concert primarily for the parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There have been a couple of innovations since I attended IMC (51 and 52 years ago). They have added choral performances, one for all campers, curated by an expert in First Nations Music, second, optional for campers; or even staff and instructors. It is a good innovation, I didn’t really care for the mandatory performance but the optional performance was outstanding. A second innovation is that there are 2 groups for younger students who have just begun their music training. Both novice groups were excellent. A third innovation was a performance at the end of the concert involving all campers; for years this was Lohengrin, for the last 2 years, it was Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th symphony. The switch to Ode to Joy was carefully handled with the Symphonic Orchestra, playing the original music, all other musicians are playing parts written specially for their relative level. Super impressive, very enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, this year was without a doubt the best concert I have ever participated in or attended. All groups mastered challenging material and performed with infectious enthusiasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Huntsville<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This was my first visit to Huntsville and we enjoyed our time there. We visited Lions Lookout and hiked the Hunters Bay Trail. We visited the Brunel Locks then turned onto a road that led us directly to the Deerhurst Resort but deteriorated into a forest dirt road; luckily we didn’t meet anyone coming in the opposite direction. Huntsville is a pleasant small town in a gorgeous setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Driving Through Algonquin Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was not the first time that we drive the Algonquin Park drive but it has been quite a while. It’s a very well tended and scenic trip, highly recommended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ottawa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As you know, we visit Ottawa quite frequently but we usually try to find something that we have not done on a previous visit. We rode both the rail commuter line and the LRT which was on my bucket list for a long time; and, finally, we took an amphibious bus tour which was delightful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n