Beachcombing in Ottawa

I love it - we found another secret of Ottawa this past weekend. I really thought I knew most of them but the pandemic is inspiring us to explore every nook and cranny of this city.

This time, it's a very long and pretty beach. For a landlocked city thousands of miles away from any ocean, Ottawa actually has a number of beaches. There is Britannia beach and Westboro beach, near my house in the west, and the beaches of Petrie Island in the west. All of those beaches are on the Ottawa river. There is also a beach at Mooney's Bay, on the Rideau River. But all of these beaches have an artificial, dredge-like quality to them. They aren't really my cup of tea.

So it was a nice discovery when Glosette Girl, Margot and I found a long beach at Constance Bay, which is just within the Ottawa city limits, about 40-minutes from Hintonburg. The beach goes on and on and a lucky few souls have houses that back onto it.*

Only in Ottawa do the words "tuque" and "beach" go together

Even with cloudy weather, the beach makes a nice place for a stroll with nice views of the Gatineau Hills in the background.

Visiting this area really made me think about how, even within a single city, there are so many ways to live from posh, urban hipster, suburban and then, with Constance Bay, cottage-like. Its also enough to inspire me to move and try another way to live. But that just may be my pandemic cabin fever talking :

*maybe not so lucky as this area is prone to flooding.