Port Stanley, ON

Last Sunday, John, our friends Gillian and Marshall, and I loaded up the car and headed about 45 minutes south to Port Stanley, Ontario. It's a beachy little town on Lake Erie.







Seagulls resting atop Mackie's, a local fast-food and ice cream kind of a place, right on the beach.












Here's a picture from google to help you see where we went.




















This little construction was next to our spot on the sand. It looked like some kind of frightening seagull ritual happened there.






















John tried to get our umbrella secured in the sand, but it was a windy day and the umbrella made a break for it at one point.




























We had perfect weather that day. Of course, we couldn't help making a lot of comparisons to Grand Bend, where we went only a week before.




















One big difference is that the seagull are tamer and a lot more intense at Port Stanley. I barely saw any at Grand Bend, but they were everywhere on Lake Erie.

























For instance. This guy hung out around our umbrella for a little while, until he realized we had no food.























Another one loitered around the opposite side of our spot.






























Another big difference was the wind, that made a lot of waves. It was so choppy that we could hardly stand up in the shallow areas, and we got tossed around like crazy in the deeper part. It was like a ride at a water park, but, you know, real.



















Maybe if it were windier in Grand Bend it would have been the same. I've also heard people in London say that Lake Erie has really dangerous undertow, so I think the waves are more common there.



















The atmosphere at Port Stanley is different from Grand Bend, in that there were fewer teenagers showing off their bodies to each other. The parking was free, and really convenient (bonus!), and, if we hadn't missed our first turn on the provincial highways, we would have made it there sooner. But I think Grand Bend and Lake Huron are maybe more aesthetically pleasing, and the swimming was more relaxing, depending on your preference for waves.