Port Blake Conservation Area has a beautiful beach

My quest to find a better beach took me to Grand Bend today. Let me be honest, I am not, and never have been a fan of the main beach here in Grand Bend for anything other than people watching. It is just too crowded with dippy young tourists, who, while they may provide eye candy and the occasional laugh, tend to clutter up the beach with stupid, and nobody needs that. Plus, the entry to the water is marred with a swath of rocks and small stones. I prefer soft sandy beaches that gently gradually slope to the waters edge. Icing sugar sand that would do the Dominican's rum soaked beaches proud are what I am after. I know it's alot to ask, especially from Southwest Ontario, but I have high standards for my beaches, and that is never going to change.

My ultimate destination today was the beach at Port Blake Conservation Area. Located just north of Grand Bend, the entrance to Port Blake can be found just before the Waterworks Treatment Plant on Highway 21. As a tip, continue past the conservation area entrance, and park on Waterworks Road (The west terminus of Highway 83) to save yourself the $5 parking fee.

Pristine and clean, this beach is way better, and less densely populated than the main beach. It is also worth mentioning that the sand is much better quality, soft, and smooth as opposed to large grained and coarse, it is one of the best beaches I have found in a while. With the added bonus of picnic pavilions, BBQ pits, and public washrooms, this beach is a great hidden treasure, and one that I am shocked that I hadn't discovered until now.

Why I love the beach at Sararas Road

When I was roughly seventeen years old I was introduced to a private beach 10.2km North of Grand Bend by a young lady that I was seeing at the time.  Up until that point in my life, all of my beach time had been spent on the beautiful white sand beachs of Ipperwash, 20 min south of Grand Bend, where my family has had a trailer for at least 30 years.  When you are raised 20 min from a great public beach, and also have a swimming pool in your back yard, there isn't alot of reasons to go looking for a new swimming hole.
The concept of a private beach changed all that for me.  While not technically private, it is far enough removed from the zoo that is the main beach at the Bend that it sees very little tourist traffic.
Located right on Highway 21 between Grand Bend and St. Joseph, the rocky beach at Sararas Road can be found at the bottom of a 40' cliff, well away from the eyes of passing motorists and day-trippers.  The most other people I have ever encountered at Sararas Road could easily be counted on two hands.  Hard to believe when you consider that the main Beach at Grand Bend can see upwards of 80,000 people on a long weekend in the Summer.
Since I have been lucky enough to work in the Grand Bend area for the last 12 years, the beach at Sararas Road has been the site of many wonderful afternoons and evenings spent basking in the summer sun, soaking up the rays and having a blast with my friends and Co workers.  The other draw? Besides being off the radar for tourists, unlike the other beaches in the area, the water at Sararas Road is virtually always crystal clear, and in late July/August, I swear that it is 5-9 degrees warmer than any of the other local beaches.
Some of my fondest memories of this beach involve late night, post show bonfires with the ever evolving gang from the Huron Country Playhouse.  Smores have been roasted, beverages consumed, and many a rendition of brown eyed girl butchered over the wrong 3 chords on a countles number of guitars. Trips to this beach have become a tradition with Playhouse Staff over the years, so much so that I especially enjoy introducing new employees to it each and every season.  Someone has to carry on the tradition once I'm gone...not that I'm going anywhere anytime soon.  One year we even planned an official Drayton Entertainment Social Comitee Day Trip down to this beach where 30+ of my coworkers drove down from Kitchener/Waterloo to spend the day at this specific beach.
Last week we had another opportunity to plan another imprompto trip to the beach at Sararas Road, and it was glorious.  I was the first to arrive at 2pm since my show had been cancelled, but I was soon joined by the rest of the gang.  All told there were  5 Stage Managers, 3 actors, 1 Costume Designer, 3 Technicians, and a Dresser in attendance.  A great blend of old friends and new friends, I couldn't have asked for better company. 
It was about 32 degrees in the sun plus humidity, and the crystal clear water was reminiscent of soaking in a bath tub.  Incredible.  As always, we came prepared with a selection of beverages, tall boys that you dare not drink on the local public beaches, and everyone did there own thing for the afternoon.  Some of the ladies brought books, while the rest of us frolicked in the water and on the sand.  Personally, I hardly left the water all afternoon, and thanks to copious amounts of sunscreen, I didnt burn.  This time ;)  We called it quits as the sun began to set, sinking into Lake Huron in a glorious display that lit up the July sky with a brilliant wash of pink, orange and red.  It was a day I won't soon forget.
A perfect Summer day.

Just a little wind...

While I was successfully  procrastinating  in the office this afternoon, we lost power a couple of times.  Minor inconvenience to most of the world, but when you work in live theatre your show, and your day, tends to come to a crashing halt.  Luckily I wasn't running show, so rather than have to go into damage control mode, I just sat back and enjoyed the lull in the dark.  Luckily both outages were fairly quick and the 2 shows that were running were able to get back up and on track in a timely fashion.
These power blips were tied to some nasty weather.  Here in Grand Bend we're used to BIG Summer storms blowing in, dumping torrential buckets of rain, breaking the humidity, and then clearing up, all in a matter of 30-45 min.  We call them Grand Bender's and they are easily recognizable by the green/black skies and incredible downpours.
We've had a bit of a heatwave down here recently so I figured that we were due for a Grand Bender, and assumed that one of these summer storms was responsible for our loss of power, but after the lights came back on I went out to check the skies and they were clear and blue.  Sure it had rained a little, but nothing compared to what we're used to.
Confused, I went back to prepping for my upcoming rehearsal process.  It wasn't long before I got an update via Facebook that informed me that a friend who lives locally had been told that a tornado had gone through her family's back yard.  I couldn't find anything online from Environment Canada that confirmed her post, but was intrigued.  The back yard in question is really only about 6-8km south of the theatre.
With the work day over, Kat (Author of www.nowopentosuggestions.blogspot.com) and I decided to go see for ourselves.
The photos below tell the story better than I can.  The damage was fairly contained to a narrow 2km stretch.  All of these photos were taken within 500m of the worst of damage.  To my knowledge there were no injuries, and only minor property damage, other than the downed trees.
While I can still neither confirm or deny that it was infact a tornado, there was some serious wind involved!