Lake Winnipeg
Winnipeg Beach is the beach where Manitoba plays. It's the people's playground. Located 76 kilometers north of Winnipeg, for over 50 years Winnipeg Beach was host to thousands of summer visitors who enjoyed the boardwalk roller coaster and dance hall and other attractions.
Today Winnipeg beach has been reborn and feels very friendly. "The park here is so beautiful," according to beach patrol member Mike Limerick. "You have this green belt right behind the grass. And right behind this grass greenbelt you have this beautiful town. It offers great food and places to hang out in I think it offers so much."
Each of Lake Winnipeg's beaches has it's own character. To Limerick, Winnipeg Beach is different from the others. "The people that come to Winnipeg Beach, it's more of a family beach. The kind of people that come here are mostly from Winnipeg. If it's a beautiful day in Winnipeg, you know it's going to be a busy at the beach. It's like a mass exodus that come out to these beaches. Anywhere you leave Winnipeg, within an hour or 2 hours you're surrounded by lakes you're surrounded by cottages. You're surrounded by great things so I think its a really great thing that I can drive 50 minutes and be at the ocean in the centre of Canada or almost the ocean. We're lucky here."
Limerick, was astonished at the shear size of the lake when he first came. "Coming from Lake of the Woods in Kenora coming from a place that I thought was one of the biggest lakes beside the Great Lakes. Coming here working on this beach has really been like being on the ocean. You can't see the other side and I've been to the Caribbean and to Indonesia on those beaches the waves here are comparable."
Limerick is not the only one surprised by this hidden treasure. "At Grand Beach where I've worked for the last couple of years, I've had tourists come from England and California. They actually pick up the sand and take it with them. They'll take a cup and they'll bring it home to show their friends, they can't believe the quality of the sand here. It is rated I've heard in North America one of the top ten beaches."
Collectors Edition
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