Niagara Parkway, Niagara Falls-Queenston-NOTL, ON

(A lovely fall Sunday afternoon made even better by a long drive along the Niagara Parkway + added side adventures with my family.)

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Heritage!

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Trails!

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Food!

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Water!

This ends what is essentially the briefest possible synopsis of Leaf Beaten.

Brock Beach, Wasaga, ON

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So, I missed going summer cottaging by less than a day. No complaints! The forecast called for thunderstorms, & we got clear blue skies.

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Dog Walk: Cherry Beach, Toronto Port Lands, ON

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Sunday afternoons are dangerous without at least one ill-thought-out plan.

So I decided I would investigate a few fellow dog owner reports of a dog park at Cherry Beach. I'm fairly attached to the west end of Toronto: I don't travel east of Yonge very often out of convenience, however, I am sucker for the promise of waterfront, sailboats & clean leash-free beaches, no matter how treacherous the journey.

(It was a fine journey with a lovely end result. The dog beach at Cherry Beach was full of friendly folks and friendly dogs and it was exceedingly spacious. I recommend it if you live nearby, or are looking for new digs for your dog to roam in Toronto.)

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Based entirely on a google map of the Port Lands I also attempted to take Bismarck to Tommy Thompson Park located at the end of the Leslie Street Split, but discovered at the gates that we were unwelcome. Note for incoming googlers: there are no dogs allowed at Tommy Thomson Park, for a list of very good reasons that mostly involve scaring waterfowl.

 

 

Little Red Sailboat

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Spotted this little lady tacking back & forth up & down Humber Bay.

I would like one of these, please.

Swimming: Quarry Road, Wainfleet, ON

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Finding a place to go swimming is a goal of any given summer weekend.

So far so good.

Freestanding Rainbow Over Toronto

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An itty bitty CN Tower dominated Toronto skyline next to a massive every-colour rainbow on a lovely misty day.

Booyah.

Camping: Awenda Provincial Park, ON

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I went solo-camping at Awenda Provincial Park this weekend.  It was supposed to rain, back-to-back thundershowers were predicted, but I went anyway. Aside from one loud late-night storm the overcast skies were mostly perfect. (Meteorologists occasionally invent poor weather forecasts to reward chronic optimists.)

Awenda has a beautiful leash-free dog beach! (And Georgian Bay was crisp & clean & cold for swimming.)

 

 

Welland Canal Time Lapse

Starting in Port Colborne! This makes me awfully homesick.

Documentary: Hold Fast

Hold Fast from Moxie Marlinspike on Vimeo.

Stories of maniac sailors, anarchist castaways, and the voyage of the S/V Pestilence.

Dog Walk: Humber Bay Park West, Mimico, ON

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There is hardly ever anyone at the leash free dog park at Humber Bay West, I suspect this is because it is at the furthest end of the furthest peninsula & nobody lives nearby.

So I usually just watch swans & sail boats & play fetch & get inspired & such.

Canal Days 2011, Port Colborne, ON

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Canal Days is technically the annual Marine Heritage festival that takes place every year in Port Colborne, my hometown, over the August long weekend.

And while there is a lot of excellent marine, and a lot of hearty heritage, the act of Canal Days itself, for someone who was born and raised in Port, ends up being much more like a yearly celebration of life and friends and family than anything else.

This year was no exception.

Only One Way To Go About It

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"If you make up your mind to do something, there is only one way to go about it. Work out your own ideas on the general course you are going to follow and stick to them; stand on those basic ideas and assume responsibility for your actions. You may make mistakes, there may be details in your plan that could have been inproved upon relying upon someone else's advice, but basically it has to be your personal responsibility to conceive and carry out the project." Kodoku: Sailing Alone Across the Pacific - Kenichi Horie

I've been reading a lot about sailing lately. (Starting shortly after getting my first taste of sailing earlier this summer, and hopefully leading to more sailing in the near future.)

 

Day Trip: Toronto Islands, Toronto, ON

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It took me three attempts to finally get on a ferry & to the Toronto Islands. And then a 5k walk from one end to another, many many detours, Lake Ontario swimming, beaches, glorious green, ice cream, amusements, animals, bicycles, boats, boats & more boats.
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And the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse. This is important. The oldest existing lighthouse on the Great Lakes (1808!) & the second oldest in all of Canada.

Still shocked that I made it home at all.

Camping!: Six Mile Lake Provincial Park, ON

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Just got back from a long weekend camping. We were lucky, it was the 100th anniversary of Parks Canada & perfectly gorgeous the whole time. (We had a semi-strict no iPhone/electronics rule, so most of our pictures are on a disposable camera, still to be developed!)

Calm Down

Calmdown

Dog Walk: Stone Beaches, Col. Sam Smith Park, Etobicoke, ON

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Strong wind & blazing sun & thick humid air & cold deep water are pretty much all perfect things, thanks.

Sunnyside Pavilion, Toronto, ON

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Seemed a strange place to beach, but I did I ever beach.

Ice Hike: 4kms out on Lake Erie, ON

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Lake Erie has been frozen for quite a while. My Dad and Uncle have been ice fishing up a storm, apparently it has been a good year. (Over 150 perch so far. What they catch is mostly cleaned, frozen and stored for our yearly family fish fry on Good Friday.)

If there is a place for a long, quiet, undisturbed walk it is out on the ice. Overcast, the temperature hovered around 0*C. Bismarck got to eat whatever minnows he found frozen in the ice.