Lake Ontario, ON

My Watermark is Lake Ontario.

When I was in grade 9, I moved from my dad’s house to my mom’s house and every Thursday night, my dad and I would go to Lake Ontario and that was our night out together.

We would bring a little bucket, and I would collect shale on the shoreline with him. We would go home after and he would set me up with a little newspaper on the ground, and give me some safety goggles and a little hammer. We would sit there and crack through the layers of shale and look for fossils.

I don’t live in the area anymore, but in the summer-time we try to head down there at least once or twice. We still like to walk around and check for shale, but there’s not as much shale out on the shoreline now.

Everything is always different once you get older. I always remember it being so much more beautiful and huge when I was younger. It also used to take me half the evening to get from one side to the other but now I can get to the end in five minutes.