Traditions....
I'm a huge fan of traditions.....
When we were kids, every year at Christmas time we'd load up a sleigh with all the neighbours and go for a night time sleigh ride, pulled by two Clydesdales, with us all bundled up in snow suits and under blankets, looking at the stars and hoping we'd see Santa fly over. Every Fall, I make a point of going back to my alma mater, the University of Western Ontario/Western University, for the Homecoming football game and festivities...I still can't believe it's been 12 years since graduation.
One of my favourite traditions though, is the annual trip to the beach with my gal pal Kristy for our birthdays. She's one day older than me and we've been celebrating together since we met in grade 9. I'll never forget our 16th birthday....we arrived home to my house to a Pacer...yes, a car that was older than both she and I at the time, and we proceeded to do everything in our power to get that car stuck in the muck, somewhere on the 50 acres...and get it stuck we did!!
As we've gotten older, we no longer try to get cars stuck (though we still have between then and now...gotta love Country Gals) and we definitely don't get to see each other nearly enough....so when we do, we make the most out of every minute!
This year, for a bit of a milestone birthday for us both, we headed up to Port Elgin (another town that holds lots of memories for us as that was one of our 'go to' lake towns growing up) and Southampton to spend the day with our toes in the sand and the sun on our face. We had breakfast down on the water at a little resto that's been in the Port Elgin Harbour as long as I've been going there (ie. well over 30 years), we wandered out the break wall, down the beach and just relished the time re-living and remembering almost 20 years of friendship!
Port Elgin Harbour...
Port Elgin Break Wall
Get Kristy and I together, even after months of not seeing each other, and it's like we just saw each other yesterday. We are quite a pair of Gemini 'twins', always encouraging one another to dive right into life and get our feet wet!
She has such cute, tiny feet!!
We then headed over to Southampton, driving the lake road between the two towns. It truly was THE perfect summer day to be at the lake.....
Southampton Beach...
Cheers to great friends, Cheers to traditions and Cheers to the memories that those friends and traditions bring into our lives!
RR