My favourite place in all of Manitoba is Grand Beach. It seemed crazy that I hadn't been all summer. We've all been so busy and my friend Kd was leaving on her own adventure soon so it seemed like a quintessential summer beach day wasn't in the books.

However, someone suggested that we squeeze in a breakfast on the beach and we all agreed that that sounded like a fantastic idea. We woke up early, stopped for coffee, drove an hour, lugged our grill on to the beach...and then realized we had the wrong size propane tank... drove to a nearby town, got a new propane tank, lugged our grill back to the beach, and finally enjoyed pancakes with strawberry sauce, bacon, and fresh fruit.

My heart was happy.

By forgoing bridesmaids, I knew that I might miss out on somethings like a proper bachelorette. And that was completely fine with me.

But when two of my close friends suggested a low-key, beach side bachelorette, I was completely smitten with the idea. They brought flowers, stacks of magazines, an outrageous amount of delicious food, a beautiful gift and decorations that they hung from tree branches. I felt doted upon, loved, and relaxed - quite the winning combination. It felt like a little vacation from all the wedding craziness!

Speaking of which, three days!

We are going through a crazy heat wave right now. I want to spend every day at the beach, like I did last Friday!

Nikaela (my favourite local blogger) wrote a lovely tribute about our dear prairie city:

In winter, I wake up to my radio alarm clock warning me about -47 degrees celsius (-50 degrees f). frost bite, hypothermia, loss of limbs. Yesterday that same radio alarm woke me warning me of +46 c. (116 degrees f) heat stroke, sun stroke, etc

Because we are landlocked, because we are far enough north to get that cold, because of a host of other factors I don't understand, we get some of the biggest extremes in the world. It makes for a certain type of personality, I think. In winter we keep going with school/work/life even when we have to plug in our cars and shovel for hours to get out of our driveways. And in summer (because we must take advantage of it, because soon it will be winter again), we play outside with hats and sunscreen and hot dogs and put off getting an air conditioner, when most southerns would look at us like we're nuts. Maybe we are nuts.

my favourite place.

i truly love it. to me there is nothing more quintessentially summer than lying on a towel reading a book, splashing in the water, having hours long conversations with friends, climbing rocks, and roasting wieners as the sun sets over the water.

i have been three times in the last week. i'm praying for a smoking hot september like we had last year so that i can maybe go to the beach three more times. pretty please?

old rhodes.

......................................................................................................................................

 after a few days in the city of athens, we then set off for the island of rhodes. the weather is absolutely perfect -- hot, sunny, and breezy during the day and warm in the evening. while at the beach, we frequently have to pop into the mediterranean to cool ourselves down!

i expected the beautiful beaches,  but i have been most surprised and awed by the "old town" of rhodes. it's a world heritage city that is enclosed by a medieval citadel -- in which people still live! there are very touristy streets with restaurants and shops, but also quiet little ally ways where people carry on with their normal lives; doing dishes, watching tv, racing down the street on a vespa... it's magical! 

*photo of orange building is taken by pip. 

hello, climate change

{picture taken at grand beach}
september 20th, 2009{photo taken in kd's back lane}
october 9th, 2009

three weeks:
from playing on the beach in bikinis to scraping off the car in parkas.

oh dear.