By admin Wednesday, October 2, 2013

I have had such a craving to dig my toes in the sand lately – the sun has finally come out and to me, warm weather and beaches go together. Everyone keeps telling me that I should take my kids to Sauble Beach, the second longest freshwater beach in the world after Wasaga Beach. The sandbar deposits along the Huron shore mean the beach at Sauble is always shallow and warm.  Or go check out the great Blue Flag beaches in Toronto, which is awarded to beaches that meet an international set of criteria. As of last month, there are now 8, including Bluffer’s Park Beach, Centre Island Beach, Cherry Beach, Gibraltar Point Beach, Hanlan’s Point Beach, Kew-Balmy Beach, Ward’s Island Beach, Woodbine Beach. (hard to believe that only a few years ago, you couldn’t put a toe in the Toronto Beaches – they were so gross – now they’re gorgeous and clean! But I just have never been a “follow the others” kind of gal. I decided that we’d spend a day in the Tobermory.

Tobermory is really interesting and different. First of all, its soooo beautiful. Flowerpot Island has these really different and unique geological formations that people come from all over to see. Believe it or not, the largest concentration of orchids in North America is also in Tobermory.  My camera finger was going crazy on the shutter – I really didn’t know what to take pictures of first. Tobermory is also at the centre of the UNESCO Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve. Since there are only 16 of these in Canada, its kindof special to see for yourself what all the fuss is about.

But we’d had enough of the looking around.  We were ready to find water, and lots of it.  Our only issue was…should we do something we’d always wanted to do and take scuba diving lessons near Fathom 5, Canada’s first National Marine Conservation Area? We were dying to see the 22 shipwrecks in what is really an underwater national park. Or…should we hit the beach and finally sink our toes into the sand.  We decided that after all that wandering around Tobermory, we deserved a little break.  We headed to this really cool beach called at “Singing Sands” beach on Dorcas Bay. The water is really warm and shallow so even early in the summer, it’s beautiful. The beach got its name from the sound of the sand blowing over the dunes and the kids really enjoyed trying to listen for the song every time the wind came up.  We asked someone and they told us that this beach was one of the only sandy ones on the northern ends of the Bruce Peninsula.

We finally packed it in after having a picnic and an ice cream cone,  and tired and sandy, we headed home.

There is such a long list of beaches around Ontario, we can hardly wait to try another one.