Beaches, beeches

Okay, here we go. I have made a pledge to post at least once a week all summer. The theory is that if I get into the habit of posting regularly, it will become an actual habit.

Yesterday was the first day of summer, and although summer temperatures haven't quite come to New Brunswick yet, I figured I could try to conjure up some summer with a post about beaches. Because nothing says summer like "laying out" on a beach.  (The quotations are because laying out is grammatically incorrect, but it just sounds so much better than "lying out".)

So, my parents were just in town and we got to do some touring around the maritimes. And if there is anything the maritimes has in abundance, it is beaches! We went to beaches in both Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

Our first beach stop was in on the north shore of PEI, in the PEI National Park (map) or close to it. It was a cold and windy day, and right when we got to the beach, it started to rain. Definitely not beach weather. For some reason, I thought it was hilarious that it was JUNE and still so damn cold. I tried to take pictures of myself all bundled up, freezing to death on the beach IN JUNE to share with my American friends. Unfortunately, I am the world's worst self-portrait taker. I attribute this to my freakishly short, T-Rex-like arms. And the pictures weren't really capturing the freezing-ness of the situation.

Then my dad suggested that he just take the damn picture with his iPhone, which actually worked out quite well. You can definitely see how cold and dreary it was on the beach.

The beach itself was quite pretty, and I can imagine it would be delightful on a sunny day.

Two days later, however, we went to a different beach in New Brunswick, specifically Parlee Beach (map) in Shediac, and it was a glorious day!

Parlee Beach (previously coined the most un-fun beach) is on the Northumberland Strait, which boasts the "warmest waters north of the Carolinas" so Dad decided this was the place for him to have his first swim in the Atlantic Ocean.

Apparently, the brochures lied, and it was almost as cold as the Polar Bear Swim in the Pacific Ocean, so the "swim" was very brief due to the numbness of his feet.

I still have not swum in the Atlantic Ocean, but since I live here and could technically do it any time I want, I felt that there was no need for me to go in on this particular day. As I have been informed by a fellow Sackvillian, summer doesn't really come until the end of July. Maybe then it will be warm enough to actually justify going in the water.

Shediac Mini Trip

Our week spent in a hotel in Moncton was a long stretch of boring punctuated by a few fun excursions, such as breakfast at Cora's (the greatest breakfast place of all time) with K & C, our only friends in all of Southeastern New Brunswick. Another of our "fun" excursions was a trip to the beach in Shediac, also known as the most un-fun beach known to man.

This was the sign we saw upon parking and walking in the direction of the sand.


In D's words, "They banned all things that make beaches fun." I mean, not allowing dogs is totally understandable. The alcohol ban is also somewhat understandable, but who doesn't allow kites and flotation devices ON A BEACH. Maybe they should ban children too. How can they justify not allowing things like water wings and life jackets. That has to be against some sort of basic human safety rights or something.

The actual beach was behind some dunes, so we took turns running up the dunes to look at the beach and take pictures. The tourist brochures bragged about the beauty of the beaches in and around Shediac, and noted that they were the warmest beaches north of the Carolinas. And even though there is no fun allowed on the beach, I will definitely be returning to bask in the sun and play in the water (sans any flotation devices, of course) because it was damn pretty.




We had the dog with us, and figured she wouldn't be allowed on the beach, so we were just planning to walk around anyway. So, we started walking along a paved pathway that ran alongside the dunes. We saw some fun sights and had to listen to some rather awful singing coming from the local restaurant.


Only 10 minutes into our walking, however, we were accosted by the beach police. Apparently dogs were not allowed anywhere in the vicinity in the beach, not even on the paved paths or on the lush green grass that looked like it was meant as a doggy playground. They told us we had to return to our car IMMEDIATELY and then followed us for a minute to make sure we were headed for the parking lot.

By this point were were rather disgruntled, but instead of heading home, we decided to check out the boardwalk. We hopped in the car and drove in that direction only to see a large sign indicating that we had to pay to even enter the boardwalk. It was only $2.00, but since we had no idea what was on the other side of the toll booth, and we were pretty sure Nova wouldn't be allowed out of the car, we opted to just turn around. I did manage to snap a few pictures before we were driven out.



We do plan to return to Shediac some day soon without the dog. I will report back when that happens.