Author: JOYE

I’ve just completed my swim! with the aid of a lovely lady who videotaped the experience for me!

The clean white sand, the boardwalk, the green full foliage.

Hello, All

From this point on, my entries will be a mixture of sharing with you my Life Experiences and my Journey to swim the waters of the Best Beaches. The Title will reflect the content of that day’s entries.

So – I did it! After almost three years of dreaming, planning, saving, researching, sharing and visualizing my goal, I swam Grand Beach, Lake Winnipeg, MB!  I left my B&B in Selkirk and headed straight up Hwy 59 to Lake Winnipeg. It took exactly 45 minutes – less time than the trip to Wasaga Beach, Collingwood, Ont.:). I arrived, eager to park my car, change into my bathing suit and jump into the water. I found an elderly couple on the beach, set up my chair and towel and went straight into the water. Glorious!!! Cool, refreshing, clear and not a zebra mussel in site! The water temperature was about 20 C or 71 F. I ventured out a little further and then dove in. I spotted a woman and her daughter in the water and after sharing my story/goal, she offered to record my swim…I went back to my towel, encased the camcorder in a plastic food container and met her back in the water….I didn’t swim for very long or very far, but just enough for video evidence and for me to give a shout out about my blog…LOL.. I started to cry – I couldn’t believe that I was finally at Grand Beach and had achieved one Lake swim.  I went back into the water a few more times and could have stayed there all afternoon.

My Hostess at Evergreen Gate B&B asked for a picture of me in my swim  suit. I had one taken – she wants to post it and share my story on her Facebook page.

Thank you for reading!  Joye

Who am I? How and why am I at this point in my life? For the next few days I’ll share with you my story – the interesting, the joys, the laughter, the love, the hugs, the sad, the disappointments, the anger, the “ah ha” moments and all of the inconsequential moments ( really there is no such thing as an inconsequential moment……LOL).

I am a firm believer that EVERYTHING HAPPENS for a reason – good and bad. I also  believe deeply that every one of us makes choices every day that will either benefit their lives or hinder it.

I was married for just over 10 years, we dated for almost 4 years before we said “I do”. I knew that he wouldn’t be my life partner and he wasn’t. I am a survivor of domestic abuse and I have two AWESOME, KIND, RESPECTFUL, HARD WORKING, HONEST and CONSIDERATE Sons from that union. I struggled as a single parent, raising my sons in a shared custody arrangement. My sons and I butted heads constantly and I was not strong enough to undo all the damage he caused when it came to discipline. Folks – ask yourself – are you “raising children” or raising the next generation of husbands/wives/ employees/ employers/ aunts/uncles/ mothers/fathers?. This type of parenting is what caused the head butting and the departure of my children from my house to their dad’s house.

So now they live on their own, we have a GREAT relationship with a very strong bond and they don’t see much of their dad. His choices were consequences in his life and what goes around comes around.

Tomorrow I will take you for a walk along the path that has been my life and share with you the choices I made to bring me to this point and this adventure, the first of many.

Stay tuned, please join me again.

Thank you for reading, Joye

In a few days, I will be in Manitoba!. My early morning habit of waking up super super early will ensure I have no difficulty being ready for the taxi at 5:15 am and getting to the airport for 5:30 am on Wednesday……..LOL.

My vacation itinerary is already filling up! I am looking forward to learning about the history of Manitoba and supporting as many of the local businesses as I can. I’ve chosen to stay at two local B&B’s instead of a hotel chain- “A Wee Bit of Heaven” in Morden and “Evergreen Gate B&B” in Selkirk. I’m taking a trolley tour in Winnipeg, visiting the Museum for Canadian Human Rights, visiting the Canadian Mint, taking a river boat cruise along the downtown core, will take a drive to Riding Mountain National Park, will visit Lower Fort Garry and the local zoo and spend an hour on horseback at Miracle Ranch!.  Will also spend a day in Holland, MB. My family comes from the Netherlands – have been there. I’ve also been to Holland, Michigan. Now I can say I’ve been to Holland three times! The second half of my week will include a few days at Grand Beach on Lake Winnipeg – the water temperature is about 20 degrees and I’ve been warned of the presence of “eagle mussels” so I’ll have to wear water shoes. That’s different.

Join me on this exciting adventure – talk to you all next week!

Thank you for reading…..Joye

As I prepare for my trip with just 8 days to go, I think back on all those other trips/vacations I took during the various stages of my life.

First Vacation – with friends to Jamaica in the eighties. How simple – I just had to organize my teenage self – no other responsibilities.

Next – my honeymoon to Las Vegas in the nineties. Again, simple – just my new spouse and I.

Now for a little more planning – an International trip with spouse and very young son to visit family in Europe. Quite a lot more planning and an inconvenient layover in Halifax:).

Next – two young sons ( no spouse) and a trip up north for  a week at the beach at a co-workers cottage. How I managed to pack EVERYTHING into my small Hyundai Accent will be a testament to my organizational skills.

Fast forward -Winter 2007 and Walt Disney World, FL  with teenage sons – airplanes, travel insurance, gravol, plane activities ( no phones/ laptops), passport, additional docs to prove my sons are mine ( as I am now separated from spouse and he has joint custody – therefore special forms needed), loads of cash to cover the cost of having to eat in restaurants, et al for all three of us, 3x a day!

Easy Breezy Trips- spa weekends with my BFF’s – London, downtown Toronto, Collingwood.

Now my first vacation travelling on my own – more to follow:).

Today’s entry centers around where I have been and where I would like to go.

In my teens – we spent our vacation time at Bluewater Beach on Georgian Bay. With side trips to Wasaga Beach ( one of the 10 best on the list). I can check that beach off my list……lol.  I’ve been to Montreal for crazy BFF weekends. I’ve been to Ottawa, Quebec, Vancouver, Red Deer. I’ve been to Illinois, New Jersey, New York and the thriving metropolis of Michigan. I spent my honeymoon in Las Vegas. I’ve been to Jamaica and the Netherlands. My last major vacation was in 2007 when I took my kids to Walt Disney World, Florida.

Now the time has come to explore the rest of Canada. Eventually we will make it to the breathtaking islands of the Caribbean – Curacao, St. Maarten, Aruba, Bonaire and St. Tropez (to name a few) by way of a Cruise ship. This is the trip I want to do with my kids.

Stay tuned as I share my life story with you! Thank you for reading. Joye

As I approach the start date of my vacation, I have been sharing my plans with everyone I come in contact with. I can tell by the various expressions from them, that going to thriving metropolis of Winnipeg MB is not their idea of a fun trip. That’s ok- our dreams and goals are ours and ours alone. This vacation has been 3 years in the making and I am thrilled to finally being able to cross one more Best Beach off my list. In my lifetime, I have already swam in and along the beach and cool clear water of Wasaga Beach on Georgian Bay. So technically this will be my second beach, but the first beach outside of Ontario!

I must say too, that lake water is much cooler than the pool at my local Goodlife Fitness facility. There the water is lovely at 85 degrees. Currently Lake Winnipeg is 71 degrees. But as swimmers, we are really a hearty bunch. It takes a lot of motivation, gumption and effort, especially in the winter or even early spring, to leave our cozy homes, comfortable couch and our novel, to head to the pool, don a bathing suit and jump into the water and swim for 45 minutes.

So, when it’s raining outside and people see me without a raincoat or an umbrella, I just simply explain – I swim 4 x a week, rain doesn’t really bother me! I’ve even stood at the sidelines of a football field, as team manager and cheered on my son’s team while it rained consistently. No umbrella, no rain boots – just there in the wet grass……as happy as can be:).

Till next week, and the countdown in days to my flight to Winnipeg.

This is my very first attempt at blogging. Forgive the simple narrative and dialogue.

I want to share my upcoming vacation as I make my way to the 10 Best Beaches in Canada as listed in Reader’s Digest. I will be heading out to Grand Beach in Manitoba later this month. As I love words, I want to develop the skill of descriptive writing in a journal type format. I hope you will join me and will find this blog interesting.

Any blog tips would be welcome and encouraged.

Sincerely, Joye

This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.