LUXOMME

We had been trying to decide on a day to take them out since our schedules are always so busy. Very last minute though, we decided to do a family picnic after Church on Sunday. This had been in discussion for awhile on the family whatsapp, so why not kill two birds with one stone.


We made a spontaneous trip to the grocery store after dinner the night before because this was really a sporadic decision to do a picnic and kayak trip. Most of us (my cousins and I) had been struggling between heading over to Niagara for the day or spending it at the beach. I voted Niagara -because no danger of capsizing there-, but clearly lost.










After finishing lunch, we strolled around the beach for a bit. None of us had actually been to one since last year in France at the D-Day beaches. That was more sightseeing though. Here we dug for shells, fed the seagulls, and worked on our tan because my legs were ghostly white.







Tiring of the sand and lured with the promise of lilypads, Coco and I ventured out into the lake in search of flowers.

The journey started off wobbly, but as soon as I realized that the water was literally only 3 feet deep, my nervousness subsided. As my 14 year old cousin put it, I was being silly considering that I have my lifeguard certification, but capsizing really just wasn't fun. Though to be fair, it wasn't really the water that I was scared of. It was the cold and in this case, the bugs swarming in, on, and around the water.











We made our way around the lake a few times before venturing out into the open area. Thankfully, the water we were in was calm and peaceful, save the cranes and seagulls that kept us company. Most people there at the beach were fishing in the water we were kayaking in. There was definitely a lot of life in the water, not sure about fish though.



I don't talk about this often, and it doesn't show much now, but I used to love the outdoors. I grew up digging in dirt and sticking my hand in the lake looking for 'creatures'. There's a lake right outside my house that I used to go to all the time with my neighbors. One of my best memories there and with them is the time we found shrimp and snails in that lake and we took them home as pets. Literally most exciting. Last Summer in France was fun as well, when Coco and I found jellyfish and crabs in a little pond in Normandy.


Despite my initial hesitation, this was a nice break from the city. I spent the whole day detached from my cellphone and laptop, which is always a good way to relax. We spend so much time on our electronics nowadays that we forget how to have fun without them.


I remember playing outside when I was younger; in the playground, on the grass, in the forest. These days, I see children roaming around with their faces glued to their iPads and iPhones. Their sandbox is not in their backyard, but on their screen.


After two hours of paddling and flower harvesting, Coco and I made our way back to the shore taking our spoils with us. We went around seeing who could 'harvest' the most flowers for their garden since there was a surprising number of wildflowers that grew around the area.


Leaving the kayaks out to dry, we made our way back to the beach to dry off before heading out for dinner.







Because Korean comfort food is always the perfect way to end a fun-filled flower harvesting family day.

naomi

Roller coasters. Yes

When it comes to who's the biggest adrenaline junkie, this girl probably wins. Her claim to fame is not screaming on the Leviathan, the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada. Of course, I had to take her up on that challenge.


Again with the last minute decisions, we literally woke up the morning of at 8 am, debated between spending the day downtown or heading to Wonderland, and chose the latter. She bought the tickets online and then drove over to pick me up.

Being the good passenger that I am, I took pictures of her driving knowing she couldn't take her hands off the wheel to grab swipe my camera away.


Neither of us had been sleeping well for days leading up to our little adventure, so we decided that for a little pick me up, we would start with the biggest, baddest ride of all.







We didn't take many pictures after that because we were both too dazed.


Because both of us had evening activities planned, we only stayed for 5 hours, meaning that most of the time was spent waiting in lines. Thank goodness for the amazing breezy weather.

I headed over to Diana's Seafood again, a little gem for those of you in Toronto. They have a lovely restaurant beside the store where you can get your seafood craving satisfied without having to do the dirty work. In my opinion though, the work is half the fun.


It starts off with picking your oysters from the oyster selection. They sit there piled up in the case practically begging you to take them home. I'm going to admit, I'm much better at eating them than choosing them so I usually ask the ladies behind the counter what they recommend and which ones are the freshest. This time we decided to go for an assortment of oysters rather than 5 dozen of one kind.


On our way to the checkout counter, my cousin gasped and pointed at these spiky little balls, half in horror and half in bewilderment. I haven't talked about this obsession as much but I have an equal addiction to these balls which actually aren't as horrifying on the inside as they are on the outside, and definitely taste better than they look.


Handling them is a bit tricky because it will cause you pain if you grip them too hard. Gloves are recommended if you want to clean these yourselves.


Most people don't bother trying to open sea urchins at home because they are either perplexed by how to get the roe out or think it's too hard to pry these open. But all it really takes is a small butter knife and spoon. The easiest way is to dig the knife into the middle and pull out the center. Then slowly break down the surrounding shell until the roe is exposed.


Once you see the yellow begin to peek out from within the shell, you use the small spoon to scoop it out and rinse the black digested gunk out of the urchin.

Then, after an hour of work prying open oysters and cleaning urchins, you're left with this smorgasbord of tastiness. The oysters are simple; a dash of tabasco and mignonette goes a long way and can bring out the saltiness of the sea. The urchins can be eaten as is or tossed in sea salt, olive oil and lemon juice.



I definitely downed most of this that evening along with a dozen cherrystone clams which were a massive pain to open. We bought 100 of them and ended up only opening 60 because they really did not want to be eaten. It got to the point where I became so desperate that I took the clams out onto the balcony to smash them against the cement floor just so I could slip my knife in. Super professional right? I can't believe I'm admitting this.

Cleanliness level probably 0, but innovativeness and creativity +10.

Don't worry, I washed everything thoroughly afterwards.