midlife, Women issues

End of summer beach day (bikini time)

Did you know that Canada has awesome beaches?

Toronto, where we live, is built on the shores of Lake Ontario, a lake so big you can’t see the other side. The American border runs through the middle of the lake so they share half the lake with us Canadians. 🙂

I’ll give you a reference just how big Lake Ontario is:

We live walking distance from Lake Ontario in the western part of Toronto (called Etobicoke), Canada’s largest city. We have some family who live in Prince Edward County which is located 200 km east of Toronto (near Belleville, or Trenton).

We decided to spend the last summer weekend before school starts up again in Prince Edward County with family. The entire trip took just shy of 3 hours and we were never far from the shores of Lake Ontario.

Here’s how to get to Bloomfield, the town where our family lives in PEC, from our house in Toronto:

We took a highway called Gardiner Expressway along the shores east toward the Don Valley Parkway, a highway that runs north up to the 401, the biggest and busiest and most congested highway which runs east/west across what used to be the top of the city. (The city has expanded north so now the 401 intersects the city.)

We drove east on the 401 with the view of Lake Ontario on our right on and off for the duration of the trip which, according to Google, measures 218 km (135 miles). We stopped for gas once (but not for food or coffee or a pee break, it’s a miracle!).

We only had one minor incident with some bickering children, the rest of the time was relaxing and fun. But, back to the beach…

We spent Saturday at Sandbanks beach which is, you guessed it, still on Lake Ontario.

The weather was perfect, hot but not humid, and yes, I wore my bikini. 🙂

I’ll write a post on that topic another time, but the short version is I really liked wearing it, and not only that, I walked the entire beach with a kid not caring who saw what. This is a new experience for me and to be quite honest, it was liberating to be free of worry what other people thought of my body. Funny how it took me decades to feel confident enough to wear a bikini on a beach… 🙂

My gorgeous child walking Sandbanks beach.
Mom and daughter walking on the beach.
Before the crowds arrived, playing on the shores of Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County.
The water was pretty frigid in Lake Ontario but some kids don’t care…my daughter is a fish!
Lots of tiny, broken mussel shells along the sandy beach.
Me and my girl hanging out on the beach.
Bikini time. 😉

31 thoughts on “End of summer beach day (bikini time)”

  3. You look fantastic!

    I’ve never really thought of Canada as being somewhere to go to the beach — I think I just assumed it would be too cold up North — but that Lake Ontario does look nice. And not too crowded if your photos are anything to go by.

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  4. Glad I read your other post – I almost missed out. We’ve been to Toronto twice. I loved it. We stayed at some place downtown – the Royal York I think. We were there for a meeting. We had dinner in the Tower which was really cool. All that touristy stuff. When I was still dating my wife almost 30 years ago, I went to see her in Ohio and she pointed out at a breaker wall in the lake and said “There’s Canada right there”. I said “Really? It’s so close” and she laughed and laughed. Oh, well. It’s up there somewhere.

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    1. Nice! Toronto is a great city…if only it wasn’t so plagued by all the incessant construction…

      The Royal York is a hoitytoity hotel, it’s called the Fairmont or something now. Some oil people from the desert own it. 🙂 And yes I’ve eaten in the CN Tower too, in the rotating restaurant. 🙂

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  6. I live on a lake that Canada shares with the US as well: Lake of the Woods. The beaches are small but with over 65,000miles/100,000+ km of shoreline, there are many of them and we almost always find one for ourselves. I love a good beach day.

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    1. It’s hard to predict what kind of weather we get in December. We have had many Christmases with no snow at all and others with deep freezes. But the Niagara region is very pretty, as is the northern part in Cottage country. Depends on what you like to do. Do you like outdoor winter sports? Fine dining? Museums?

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      1. Thanks! Train rides, museums, historical landmarks and tours in closed tour buses or boats, local cuisines and markets are all on the wishlist. I would want to see one game of hockey at least if not more, just because a trip to Canada may not be complete without it.

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  9. There are beautiful lakes and shores all across Canada, and I am fortunate to live super close to two lakes. The swim season is brief (June to September) but still can walk and enjoy the views on shore all year round. Super that you have pictures from your beach day that you can share with your daughter in 20 years when they will be priceless.

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  10. There are many wonderful lakes in Canada, and I am fortunate to live super close to two lakes. Our swim season may relatively short but still being able to walk along and enjoy them all year round is a treat.

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  13. Beach days are the best. It took my other half years to come around to the idea of just fooling around on the beach – she grew up doing walking holidays in the hills – I grew up on the beach 🙂

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