Heat. Rain. Sunshine. Funnel clouds. Humidity. Cool breezes. More rain. And that's all before 4 pm
And lots to do. Actually, too much to do. Yes, that's a complaint. In any one weekend, hell in any one day, you can have four to six free street festivals of one sort or another. It's a big time management issue. Then add in the fact that this summer on any given weekend you could have at least one major north/south and one east/west roadway shut down and huge chunks of the subway not moving.
You spend as much time figuring out your logistics as you do actually attending a festival
Yay. Summer in Toronto
Still, sometimes, things actually do come together (don't let the TO city planners know this, I'm sure they would work even harder to stop anyone from actually having any fun). This past weekend we decided to take Terra to the beach. It has been a long time. We have not taken her there since Hayley died.
From our new house it's a bit of a haul on the TTC. I never consider driving. Besides the fact that if you want a parking spot you need to be better armed than Rambo and John McClane combined, that's a part of the city where it seems that every other street has been renamed to Road Closed. So, TTC it is, but it takes about 90 minutes each way with a few transfers
Still, it was a nice day. Not too hot, not at all sticky and we seemed to be in a lull between monsoons. So down we go to the place in the world that Terra most loves: The water. And let's be clear about this, Terra likes any water but the fact that there are off leash beaches does not hurt
Catching frisbees is something Terra does like breathing but really, when you are at the Beach the first thing you do is race across the sand, whip through the trees and immediately plop yourself down in the water
We are thoughtful doggie parents, we always bring a toy, frisbee and ball etc, but Terra views the Beach as her very own toy store. It's always easy to find a stick, especially if it's in the jaws of some other dog ... Thank you, I'll take that please
When we say we are going to the Beaches we are referring to the long stretch of beaches that run just south of Queen St, from Ashbridges Bay all the way over to Victoria Park where the boardwalk runs. There are a couple of official off leash areas here, one just south of Kew Gardens down by the rinks and the bocci ball court. This is a fenced in area, scrubby sand and lots of rocks but that never stops Miss Terra. It's busy here but we are rarely permitted to be distracted
If you go east from Kew along the boardwalk, towards the Balmy Beach Club, you'll come to an area right at the eastern end of the boardwalk, just before you hit the RC Harris water filtration plant, you'll come to another offleash area. This one is not fenced and it's quite large, encompassing three beaches with decent sand and easily accesable shoreline. I'm going into detail here because I talk to a lot of dog owners that, when I talk about off leash areas in the Beaches always think of Cherry beach, which is west of these beaches
At any rate, this eastern beach offleash area attracts more people than does the fenced in park over at Kew, due to the fact that the beaches are nicer and there is no fence. Yet it is quieter here, they are further away from snack stands and the boardwalk and the volleyball courts, picnic areas etc. Well they were quiet, until Terra decided that, seriously, stop admiring the scenery and throw the damn stick
After an couple hours of ball throwing and stick throwing and frisbee throwing and Terra trying to pickpocket every dog on the beach of their toys ... it was time to get some dinner. Normally when we are down at the Beaches we go back up to Queen St to eat dinner at a place called Lion on the Beach, they have a patio there where they will happily serve you and your dog. But this day was different, one of those moments of rare serendipity in Toronto .. back at Woodbine, they were have a Food Truck Festival
Yes, an actual festival when we wanted, where we wanted it. Is it masculine to faint? Doesn't matter, I damn near fainted.
There was a live band, kids area, seating areas and several food trucks, including our favorite, Busters Cove. Now, the whole food truck saga in Toronto is a long sad one but I'll go into that at a later date. Suffice it that we were very happy to find them here ... and oh yeh, they were serving beer
Terra does not care for beer. But she showed a great deal of interest in our lobster rolls and shrimp taco's. Her yelling on the beach for toys may be tolerated but yelling for food is never accepted. Still, border collies always have other tactics to get what they want
Here's just a little video of our day at the beach
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