A DAY OF BEACH, STICKS AND EATING FROM A TRUCK

Summer in Toronto

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

SURFER GIRL

Yup, it was back to the Beach. Terra (and Miss Hayley of course) had enjoyed her first beach experience so much, we decided to go back a day later. Our summer here has been so cool and rainy that we've decided to take advantage of every actual summer-like day we get this summer. So Collette and the two girls and I boarded the subway and went down to Lake Ontario

On this day there was a fairly stiff breeze off the Lake so we were getting pretty good swells on the first beach the we went to, the offleash area at Kew Beach, for our fellow Trawnaites. The fenced in area is pretty rocky, and I actually don't like letting the dogs go to that beach, the slippery rocks can make it dangerous. But just to the west of the big rocks is a little gravel beach that is much easier for them to get to. It's a bit shallow here as well, so the waves were not breaking to their full potential

After playing at Kew for a bit, we moved east along the boardwalk to the big, unfenced, offleash beaches over at Balmy. Not only are these beaches much nicer, with fine gravel and sand, they are in deeper water, so the waves were really breaking here. In fact, the drop off was much closer to the beach than it had been two days earlier, the big lake was really pounding that day.

Miss Hayley is not overly fond of this kind of surf. The few times that she will swim, she will only do it if the water is very calm and still, and not too deep. Part of this, I think, is because she swims with her head completely flat on the water, her chin right on the surface. Any little swell will go right over her head and she is not too happy with that. Terra does not seem to have these issues. Not only does she keep her head high as she swims, she is just plain fearless. Miss Hayley is not very ball focused; Terra is, and no amount of water will keep her from snaring her prey.

It was fun to watch Terra figure out the whole surfing thing. She learned to time the waves so she could duck her head to get the stick or ball or whatever it was I was throwing. Once she snagged her toy, she turned her back to the waves and rode them in, paddling just enough to steer, riding that wild surf like a true California surfer girl.

And although Miss Hayley is never going to be a surfer girl, she is beginning to appreciate having her very own water sheep to herd along the shore.

And although Hayley is quite happy to herd Terra along the beach, there is no way the old girl is going to pursue the crazy puppy as Terra crashes through the waves to go surfing once more.

So, another successful day at the Beach. Check out the video to see more of Terra's surfer girl adventure. Maybe it's time to buy her a board and perhaps a new collar: Four Legged Gidget

Surfer Girl from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

TERRA'S BEACH DAY

Well, it was only a matter of time, of course. Before we took Terra to one of Miss Hayley's favorite destinations, the Toronto Beaches. We know Terra loves the water. No, not loves the water, becomes psychotic in the water. In a previous post, I've referred to water (to this point, just the water in her pool) as Terra's border collie crack. But now, at six months old and, finally, a summer -ike summer weekend in Toronto, it was time to take her to the really big pool .. that being, Lake Ontario.

So we loaded up both our girls and headed off downtown to the Beaches. In the video a the bottom of this post, you'll see a bit of the journey. Terra has been on the subway before, but only one stop; this journey is significantly longer and includes two different trains and a bus ride. Terra has never before been on the bus, but she handled it, and the long subway ride, very well. Aside from needing to bark at another dog on the train .. but hey, it's all a learning experience.

So there was little doubt that Terra would like the water, but would she swim? Miss Hayley loves the water, but she is not a swimmer. If Collette or I are swimming she will come with us and in very calm water, that does not suddently drop off, she may swim out a couple of feet to catch the ball, but that's about it. Even when herding water sheep, Hayley cannot be enticed into allowing her feet to leave the earth. Terra, at this stage, was an unknown quantity.

Well, there really should never have been a question. Although Terra was a little cautious about going into the water (caution being a border collie character trait, I would say) it didn't take much coaching. We started her on a beach that was shallow and didn't have much of a drop off. Still, this is Lake Ontario, and there were waves but it did not take much encouragement .. and a tennis ball, to get her swimming, even if it was just for a few feet.

So, we have a swimmer. Which works for Miss Hayley .. her very own private water sheep. Yay.

The nice thing about the Beach, aside from that whole giant lake thing, is the social aspect. The girls always meet friends. Like Cane, a friend from out local dog park.

And new friends, like this sweet Lab puppy, about three months old, that Terra decided would make an excellent hand to hand, death match opponent. It's that kind of magical thing that happens between puppies, they look at each other and this communication happens in an instant: Wanna play? Sure, do you? Then it's all legs and tails and teeth. Or, in Terra's case: I'll lie on you and dominate you till you show me that you can play too then they're off to the races .. or the mixed martial arts cage.

After the wrestling, it was back to the lake. This time, stick in hand, it was not difficult to entice Terra to a little dog paddling .. what did you expect, the butterfly stroke?

Normally when we go to the Beach, we like to end the day by going to The Lion On The Beach, a resturaunt on Queen St. They have a patio off to the side and they are very dog friendly. Not only do they let you tie your dog up to the patio, they provide water for them and usually lots of pets (the hand to fur kind). We weren't sure if Terra was yet up to the task. She would be laying on the street, right by a very busy thoroughfare, with lots of distractions. Well, after four hours of walking, running, wrestling, swimming, even a six month old border collie is willing to relax for an hour or so. Having hand made goodies from the Three Dog Bakery certainly doesn't hurt.

All in all, a very happy successful day at the beach. I'm sure many more to come.

Here's the video, Collette and I and our two girls, cavorting on the beach. Cavorting ... is there a sin tax on that?

Terra On The Beach from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.