The good news: I did win the "Travel Media Award" (pictured below) for a 2013 Toronto Star roundup of winter getaways across Ontario. (Cue fireworks and/or fanfare.) The key to victory: The story kicked off with a wiener dog (technically a dachshund-husky cross) pulling small children on a dogsled at Deerhurst Resort near Huntsville. In truth, the wiener dog really wanted to do the pulling, but the ropes kept getting tangled and...well...just read the article.
The bad news: Chilli, the seven-year-old tubular canine in question (pictured above), was unable to join me at the awards. Her people informed me that she had a prior engagement with the Society of Canadian Hounds Now Involved in Tugging Stuff Around Lots (or SCHNITSAL).
The good news: In pessimistic anticipation of leaving the awards empty-handed, I hedged my bets by booking a visit to the Scandinave Spa Blue Mountain (pictured below). It is impossible to feel disappointment or stress while lazing in the bucolic complex's steamy pools, sauna and steam room. You might even feel a sense of healthy accomplishment when you plunge into one of the frigid pools that comprise Scandinave's wellness circuit of hot-cold-rest, which can be completed in a Muskoka chair-filled chill-out room or around smoldering outdoor fire pits.
The bad news: Bringing fancy glass statuettes into the Scandinave pool complex is strictly prohibited, even if they are dangling from chunky gold necklaces. Just so you know...