Hilary visiting again

Hilary is in Fonthill again and this time brought one year old Poncho with her (Shayd follows a week later). Last Sunday Mark stopped by as well after playing golf in Niagara Falls. Mary and Hilary made a wonderful dinner for the four of us...

And after the meal, the the youngsters needed to go for a nap.....

Open water swim

The Welland International Flat Water sports center was built about ten years ago as a legacy project when Ontario hosted the Pan Am Games. Renovations are being made for the hosting of the kayak and canoe races of the upcoming Canada Games (August 6-21). It hosts also several triathlons each year as well as dragon boat races and open water swim races. I just registered for a first for me: 1 km swim on September 11. I swim a few times each week in the YMCA pool 1 km, but in open water it is always a bit rougher with wind, waves and lack of guiding lines at the bottom of the pool. The event on Sept 11 also features 2, 5 and 10 km swim races....

The 1 km swim is in a short loop of 50 m, 450 m, 50 m, 450 m in front of the center's buildings. I will start practicing there during the coming weeks a few times. It is a 10 km bike ride from home, so I will combine the practice swims with a 20 km bike ride (after watching the youngsters doing their races in the triathlon, I have the ambition to do a "Try a Triathlon" race myself next summer; the run might be the problem with my left knee).

Next to the WIFC buildings is a canoe club where Welland kids enjoy summer camps at the moment. Behind there on the photo above a new outdoor sport complex has been built and was recently opened. It offers pickle ball courts, tennis courts, beach volleyball courts and basket ball courts.

Empire is a construction company, apparently the main corporate sponsor for this new complex which offers these courts free to the public, managed by the city.

Built with capacity to host tournaments and events. Here overlooking the tennis and outdoor pickle ball courts. There is also a artificial grass field, maybe for outside curling type of sports...

Backyard

Our very low maintenance backyard - yes, I admit to be a lazy person when it comes to doing work in our house or garden - is looking lush and green after lots of sun and a good day of rain.

The deck will need some work next spring, but continues to be our little resort at home...

Last Sunday was a very nice day with Mark - who just turned 28 - and friends (see previous post)
 

Trying triathlon

Fiona, Carly and Mark + a few friends of Mark & Carly tried a triathlon race in Grimsby last Sunday. They offered what they call a "Sprint Triathlon" (500 meter swim, 25 km bike, 5 km run) and a "Try a Triathlon (350 meter swim, 10 km bike, 2.5 km run). It was very well organized. Next to the registration area was the field were the bicycles were set up, located along the shores of Lake Ontario for the swim.

 

After the swim and the cycling, the racers started their run, where friends and family had nice spots to cheer them on. Not easy to see "who is who" when the racers are in the water....

Mary and Susan had prepared a few funny signs. One of the signs was to be shown to Mark and friends by Carly and her two running partners who all participated in the "Try a Triathlon" event which took place after the "Sprint Triathlon".

Mark finished in a respectable 1 hour and 37 minutes, closely followed by two of his friends and Fiona did also very well with 1 hour 55 minutes.

Carly did the finish together with one of her friends in the race with shorter distances. Afterwards hamburgers and sausages at Carly & Mark's place in nearby Stoney Creek. A very nice day...

Canada Games 2022

The Niagara Region will host this year the annual Canada Games from August 6 to 21. Before that time the organizers have community events such as the Torch Relay in all 11 municipalities of the region. Today I volunteered at one of the relay torch handover points in Welland. Below is "my" exchange point where I had to "supervise" the safe handover of the torch...

The Games have 21 sports events of which 8 will be hosted in Welland (basketball at the Niagara College campus, canoeing at the flatwater center, soccer and baseball among them; also the triathlon). The cycling will be hosted in the hills surrounding Fonthill/Pelham.

 

July summer days

You have to love the warm weather and blue skies of the summer months in south west Ontario. It makes you forget for a while the cold few months between December and March.... Our house in Fonthill is during these summer months as good as any resort in the world.....

Canada Day on July 1 this year was not the nicest weather but still a fun day for many. In one of the municipal parks life music was played all day and especially the young kids had lots of play stations.

 We have Opa Vandenboom over to our place regularly and he loves beating us in Rummikub...