Our swim

I found a picture, from last year, of our destination islet. As you can see, it’s not quite a Bum’s Rest, but not really big enough for a picnic.

Our big swim

The granddaughter and I had a good swim on our vacation, a  900-metre round trip to a tiny island. The surface water was warm and the deeper water was refreshing.

I mapped our route to get the distance. We figured about 450 metres, and it seems we were right!

Our swim at Eagle Lake Narrows

Unlike our swim a couple of years ago to the palm-tree island in Nottawasaga Bay, this one was not cold enough for wetsuits. Here’s the map for our 2009 swim in Blue Mountain, which was about 550 m each way and not quite straight.

Swim meet

Today we drove to Hamilton and watched a high-school swim meet. It’s the last one before the Golden Horseshoe regionals.

CBC puts Canada on a diet

CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., has launched a web site to help people get in shape: CBC’s LiveRightNow.ca

And there’s a new TV show about an entire village in British Columbia getting together to promote activity and healthy eating: Village on a Diet, which starts tonight. I hope that everyone can get it.

The upshot of the CBC’s investigations is that Canadians are heavier and softer than they think. But I’m in shape! (Round is a shape, isn’t it?)

Wanted: a few good swims

Brownian reminded me that I was in Edmonton for three days and didn’t go to the World Waterpark. In fact, we drove halfway across Canada and back this summer and only swam once.

I was in Penticton and didn’t float from Lake Okanagan to Lake Skaha.

Lake Okanagan canal float

Or in Lake Skaha…

Lake Skaha, BC

Or in Lake Okanagan…

Lake Okanagan, BC, with smoke from forest fires

Or any of the other lakes around there, for that matter.

A small lake in the Okanagan Valley

I was at West Hawk Lake in Manitoba and didn’t swim in the deepest lake in the province, which happens to be a meteor crater.

West Hawk Lake, MB

I was at the Little Britt Inn and didn’t swim in the river, which has otters.

The dock at Little Britt Inn

We stayed in both Wawa & Rossport and didn’t set toe in Lake Superior (which was 9 degrees C above its usual frigid temperature).

Lake Superior with some islands

We visited the salt lakes in Saskatchewan and didn’t swim with the brine shrimp and avocets.

Chaplin Lake, Saskatchewan

…in Massey and didn’t swim in Georgian Bay.

North of Manitoulin Island

Our hotel in Brandon had a pool with a spiral water slide and we just went to bed and slept.

We were  in Lake Louise for lunch and opted for a walk instead of a dip.

Lake Louise in the summer

We bypassed a mountain stream, a glacial river, hot springs, a community pool, and innumerable flooded sloughs in the Prairies, which unusually had water everywhere.

Prairie slough between Swift Current SK and Lethbridge AB

There were a lot of sloughs.

a slough in Saskatchewan

And a lot of inviting rivers…

Similkameen River or Allison Creek

(Well, OK, I would have skipped the glacial river anyway. They’re cold!)

A river with a glacier as its source

It was just rush, rush, rush. We’re just going to have to do it all over again, slowly, with more and earlier stops so we can swim.

Water slide

Water slide, originally uploaded by monado.

The hotel in Brandon was large enough to have a real pool with a water slide.