Barrie, Ontario

On the nicest weather day of the visit, we hopped in the car and drove a few minutes up the road to Barrie. Barrie is a really nice town on Lake Simcoe and we often go over there while in Canada to have a look around. It is a place that I have always really liked, they also have about the best hockey store in Ontario if you ask me...

Here is a nice look out on the lake from where we stopped to have our walk..It starts our quite rocky here, but then moves along into a nice beach front area. There is swimming in there in summer, but as you will notice from our jackets, it was still way way too cold to even think about swimming. The beach area also proved to be a great place for Adam to annoy some birds. Seagulls are something we don't have in my part of Germany, and I quickly recalled that I don't miss them one bit. Horrible creatures.
There is also a boat launching area right here that has a small concrete pier next to it. This of course was the perfect spot for the boys to run along and throw sticks and rocks in the water. Throwing stuff in the water is a great interest of many small kids I have noticed. Liam calls it "Make a splash"
Here is a nice picture of Claudia and Mum at the waterfront. I liked the way the wind was blowing around Claudia's hair. I told her that we should buy a giant fan to always position in front of her when getting her picture taken to make this effect. There is a pretty large playground here too, filled with slides and roundabouts and climbers... but best of all is a big digger for Liam. He monopolized this for AT LEAST 30 min, it could have been much more. When we did finally pull him away, he screamed like a madman until he discovered the joy of throwing handfulls of sand in the lake.
Among the nice playground equipment was something I found a little strange, a very large
plaque that taught kids how to read braille. Not something I had seen in a playground before, but what the heck, learning braille can't really be a bad thing can it?
And here is one just for Dave, who complains I am never in enough photos. Claudia managed to take a decent shot of me sitting on the bench in the park. Too bad I chose that day not to shave and dress in a sweat jacket.