May 3, 2009. Baysville, Ontario. The Landscapes.

This place is just beautiful. It is spacious and gracious. The Landscapes is a new development, in fact they are selling phase one and are just beginning to build phase two. For the first time, we have exchanged one week of our interval ownership property in Mexico, to use one week at a similar interval ownership property in the Muskoka Lake area of Ontario. We are about three hours north of Toronto. When you do something for the first time, no telling what you are going to find, but this place is lovely. The organization that operates the exchange is call "The Registry", and all the resorts are supposed to be five star, but you really never know. But this place called The Landscapes is beautiful. Our townhouse type home has three bedrooms and a den, along with a games room and a patio overlooking the lake. Three full bathrooms plus a large full kitchen plus living room and dining room makes for a comfortable home. It is a good thing too, because we have a lot of company coming this week. Now we are set. The refrigerator is full as is the pantry so we are ready to party.

The weather is helping. The temperature today was sixty degrees and sunny, with a slight breeze. No black flies or mosquito's in sight. This area is loaded with lakes and rivers, so the drive up reminded us why we like this area so much. Ken was brought up in Parry Sound, which is on Georgian Bay, a large bay off Lake Huron, so he is partial to the Bay. I like Georgian Bay too, but I also love The Muskoka Lakes. Lake of Bays, Lake Muskoka, Lake Joseph, and Lake Rosseau are lovely lakes with clear water and many cottages. Dave and Irene and Wendy own a cottage on Lake Jo. We love the rocks, these large slabs of granite, streaked with pink and white and black, and we love all the rivers and streams, which connect all the lakes one to the next. We have enjoyed the drive up memory lane. Now we are enjoying this place. It seems such a good idea to share ownership on these properties. The arrangement is that you buy four weeks of the unit at a time, one week in the summer and the other three at other times. Of course you can buy eight or twelve weeks for three times the price of four weeks, but in today's world, staying at the cottage all summer is not feasible, so these shared interval places should be popular. There are storage units in our home here so as an owner you can leave clothes up here, just as we do in Mexico.

This is a pleasant surprise and I am sure we will exchange more weeks for other places over the next few years.