My name is Sandra Odendahl and I’m from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

My water body is Barnes Lake. It is in Quebec and it is just north of the Ottawa River, about 45 minutes from my hometown of Alymer, QC, just outside of Ottawa. So Barnes Lake was where my family had a cottage while I was growing up until 5 years ago. We had a cottage on this little lake, it was pretty much too small to take the motor boat across. It was the kind of lake more designed for sailing and canoeing.

A lot of my teenage years I spent every weekend up there during the spring, summer, and fall. Blocks of time in the summer at the cottage. It was a whole other world from living in the city, it was a whole other set of friends.

What I remember the most about it is the smell of the lake and the sound of the lake as you were driving up on Friday night. You could smell the water and hear the lake when you woke up in the morning and then of course spend your days and evenings either around the lake or on the lake which was fantastic.