A good way to get behind-the-scenes of a resort is to read its blog. More and more are popping up on individual resort sites linked to Resorts of Ontario. Here are three that I reviewed for this blogpost: Bondi Village Resort near Algonquin Park hosted its annual Island Marathon Swim this week and Nanci Tapley added some great pics to her Bondi Village blog. Three young guests ages 11, 12 and 13 years beat their Uncle James back to the resort dock, swimming a distance of 1.6 km. The kids were delighted that they "won" the race. Now call me a romantic but that's the stuff that memories are made of. So's the video of a bunch of guys making home made maple taffy in the snow. She's also got a link to a really neat wildlife site at Algonquin Park that I had never seen before. [caption id="attachment_137" align="aligncenter" caption="Fawns in the garden of one of the cottages at Bondi Village Resort"][/caption] Recent Scottish guests discovered Beauview Cottages while surfing the net. They knew all about the place and about Muskoka Lakes, Algonquin Park and Huntsville long before they crossed the Atlantic thanks to Gord Bell's blog. I'd call that The Long Tail effect that Chris Anderson writes about. Something for everyone somewhere that can be easily sourced online. Gord's also got a webcam which I think can be a valuable traveler resource provided it's maintained. Gord updates his daily and in early spring when I wanted to know what the ice conditions were like on the Muskoka Lakes, I used Gord's webcam to check. My absolute fave on this blogpost tho' is Gord's video of Snowtubing at Rock Ridge Park. I wanna go!! [caption id="attachment_138" align="aligncenter" caption="Sunrise from the dock at Beauview Cottage Resort"][/caption] This month, Anne Marshall wrote in her Elmhirst Resort blog about Odile Rablat, a gal from France who landed her ultralight at Elmhirst enroute to to Canada's west coast. Wow, that's impressive!! Elmhirst has its own airstrip and regularly entertains pilots from around the world. Some stay over and some as Anne's July 5th post suggests even fly in for an Elmhirst brunch. The resort has its own farm on site so the eggs are as fresh as you can get, and so are the veggies. Steak is a house specialty since Black Angus are bred here too. A bunch of us enjoyed a steak & frites dinner here last winter washed down with some great reds from the resort's million dollar all-Canadian wine cellar. [caption id="attachment_144" align="aligncenter" caption="The wine cellar at Elmhirst's Resort on Rice Lake"][/caption]