Some souvenirs from a Saturday out of town

[JeffR]

Spent the day in Oakville, a town about 30 miles west of Toronto on Lake Ontario. I lived here for a few years so I know the town well. Hadn't been back in a while, but Oakville's the sort of place where nothing too dramatic happens very quickly. Still retains a lot of the charm that has made it a favorite movie shoot stand-in for Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, suburban Connecticut or whatever bucolic American paradise a producer wants to replicate on the cheap (notwithstanding that parts of the town are more reminiscent of Bayonne or Pontiac).

Lake Ontario at Holyrood Park, looking west:



Looking east:



Oakville Harbo(u)r at the mouth of the Sixteen Mile Creek:





Ring-billed gulls:





Toronto behind 30 miles of heat and haze:



I'll post some pics of some of the town's historic houses when I get a chance.

[MissHoneychurch]

1. I like the lighthouse picture a lot

the structure of it, the un-eventfulness. Peaceful. Makes me sit down and just relax.

[JeffR]

6. I used to do that often when I lived there.

It's a nice place for meditation. Scary being out there on a stormy day, though.

[Adsos Letter]

2. Real nice JeffR!

Those first two make me think of Trout fishing for some reason. That water looks great...but cold? :scared:

That whole series reminds me of what I like so much about the photography group...getting to see the different environments in which people experience life. We have some good-sized lakes in California, but they are miniscule compared to those oceans of fresh water around you guys.

What a world... :)

[JeffR]

7. One of my favorite things too.

It's as near as I get to a vacation, seeing the locales where others live, work, play and shoot.

And yes, the water is very cold throughout the year. And not as clean as it looks, though cleaner than it was when I moved here. Our dogs get their paws wet in it occasionally, but I don't.

[Eurobabe]

3. Look how clear that water is!

I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie in the late 60s, early 70s, and the water was mud brown all the time. Now you can see through it, it's amazing how the Great Lakes have made such a turn around!

Nice pictures. We loved Toronto when we visited there years ago. :hi:

[JeffR]

8. Things have gotten better, but there's a lot more work needed.

Many of the beaches are still unsafe for swimming for big parts of the summers. Oakville probably has better water quality than we do in the city, because here, we're stuck with a largely Victorian storm sewer system that can't handle huge amounts of rain. It's degraded the city's rivers and creeks over many years, and they in turn empty into the lake. By the same token, apparently the crazy iceheads here were still tossing dead livestock into the bay a century ago, along with God knows what else. So there has been progress.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. wonderful pics...when i was up there last summer it was wierd to not see waves breaking on shore

the lake is so big that it look like an ocean.

[JeffR]

9. It does happen rarely

and it's always nice to be near the water on days like that because it reminds me of the Atlantic, which I was never more than a few miles from before moving here.

It also suffers for not smelling like salt water, but mostly like dead fish, especially during the smelt run.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Very nice, Jeff.

I love all the different shades of blue. :)

[JeffR]

10. There is something about that color, huh?

:)

[TahitiNut]

11. All that water and all those birds ...

... and no Labrador Retriever to enjoy them? Shame. :silly:

(Just thinking back to my black Lab, Bo, and living in Rochester. He loved the lake.)

[JeffR]

12. Had to leave our Lab mix at home, poor guy.

But now that you mention it, there was a real dearth of dogs down by the water out there that day.

On cloudy nights by the lake here in the city, I can see the lights of Rochester out over the horizon.

[Maestro]

13. Very nice, peaceful pics

I like number 2 the best.