A week ago one of my friends called me up to see if I’d like to bring the girls and join her with her daughter at a beach not too far from here. I never think of Montreal as being a place that has beaches that are suitable for swimming, believing I would have to go up north to a lake for that. However, much to my surprise there’s a very lovely beach on the tip of the island called Cap-Saint-Jacques and that’s where we spent the entire day last Wednesday. And I do mean the entire day. She picked the three of us up at about 9:30, we got there by 10 am, and we were dropped off at our front door a few minutes before 6 pm.

It was completely awesome. Neither one of us had anything in particular to rush home for, the day was beautiful and sunny with minimal cloud cover, and the temperature was absolutely perfect – hot enough to want to go in the water (which I did, repeatedly) but without the energy-sucking humidity we had earlier in the summer.

We spent the entire day in and out of the water, my friend and I chatting when the kids would come out to play in the sand, we had a picnic within view of the lake, and I was so utterly relaxed that I’m looking forward to a return trip next summer.

I’d be happier to return sooner than that, but alas, it closes very soon since most of the lifeguards (and I love that they have lifeguards, even though the water in the designated area isn’t even deep) are college students who are returning to school within the week.

The rest of the set is over here on Flickr if you’d like to see them all. Life really is a beach.