Week of June 24th, 2018

Weekly Temperature
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
June 24 June 25 June 26 June 27 June 28 June 29 June 30
High 19 22 25 22 25 33 35
Low 13 7 2 14 16 15 20

Welcome to the start of insanely hot weather.

It’s great to see the beach come alive in the summer. I took lots of pictures and videos the past few days and it was hard to choose favorites. (it’s hard to get a good picture of a jet at distance from a smartphone 🙂 I expect Canada Day will be even bigger next weekend.

Seeing the Snowbirds perform was a treat. When we lived in Ottawa we used to see them all the time, but this is the first time I’ve seem them at Wasaga Beach. CFB Borden is close (as the snowbird flies). I suspect they departed from there, but I’m not sure.

Sunday, June 24th, 2018 – The Snowbird truck parked at beach one – officers and announcers for the airshow perched on top of the truck. They did an awesome job for the #cf18demo as well as the snowbirds show at 4:00 PM.

Below is a short video segment of the CF-18 participating in the airshow.

I met a nice family on the beach two days ago from Quebec. I offered to take a picture of the family together. He very gracious and appreciative. I realized after he might have been with the CFB Bagotville crew participating in the airshow.

As the CF-18 pilot wrapped up his part of the show, you can hear him below speaking to the audience via radio through the loudspeakers on the beach.

The biplane below kind of stole the show from my perspective. Flying upside down over the water at altitudes of 50 feet. Crazy!

Sunday, June 24th, 2018 – picture taken at the beach one boardwalk looking west. All of us camped out to watch the airshow. For my Toronto and Ottawa friends – yes – it was really this sparsely populated. LOL.
Sunday, June 24th, 2018 – I used my better camera to snap a picture of the Canadian Coast Guard vessel far offshore – presumably in case something went wrong during the airshow.
Sunday, June 24th, 2018 – Beach one packed with people watching the airshow, many from the Budweiser beer tent.
Tuesday, June 26th, 2018 – It’s amazing how the beach goes from being completely packed on a weekend to being dead on a Tuesday.
Tuesday, June 26th, 2018 – no signs of the airshow 48 hours later. Great cleanup job!
Tuesday, June 26th, 2018 – Looking toward Blue Mountain from the foot path between 13th street and Shore Lane.
Thursday, June 28th, 2018 – At the start of my walk on Thursday morning exiting the sand dunes near 18 street west of Bungalows on the Beach
Thursday, June 28th, 2018 – looking west from the half-way point on my walk. Collingwood is still shrouded in morning fog on the far shore but it has burned off on the beach.
Friday, June 29th, 2018 – The calm before the storm. Looking east down an empty beach before the long weekend.
Friday, June 29th, 2018 – The beer tent being setup prior to Canada Day weekend.

I’m trying to be careful posting pictures that will identify people personally, but today (Saturday June 30th) was absolutely the busiest day I’ve ever seen at the beach. I spoke to people who patrol the beach daily, and local business owners all confirmed that today was the busiest day any of them have seen. The picture below was taken ~ 2 kilometers from Beach One. People enjoying the beach as far as the eye can see. What an awesome day. I lasted an hour before getting too much Sun and had to get back to my rocking chair :-).

Saturday, June 30th, 2018 – Ontario Provincial Park Beach Patrol heading east back to beach one
Saturday, June 30th, 2018 – An unusually busy entrance to the beach from 18th street.

I stole this picture below from Terry on Facebook – a fellow local beach walker. His picture illustrates the situation on Saturday better than mine. Terry’s PIC was two beaches over to the of where I was at Beach 3.

Saturday, June 30th, 2018 – This picture taken by Terry Dubois. Even as far west as beach five there was not a quiet place at Wasaga Beach on the long weekend.