I don't believe in heaven, but if I did, it would involve sleeping in a king sized bed and a lot of swimming. Imagine my absolute delight when a few weekends ago as an early birthday gift, my fella told me to pack a bag with track pants and my swimming stuff, put me in an Uber and handed me an envelope that had a key card to a hotel room. 

And that's how I got to live out my ultimate dream weekend: a king sized bed, and a lap pool three floors up. 

The lap pool at the Intercontinental in Yorkville isn't a full 25m, but when you have an entire pool to yourself, and nothing to do except sleep and eat and swim from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, it doesn't much matter. 

My first swim was Friday night. The pool was empty and perfectly turquoise and the CN Tower lit up every four strokes. When you are used to swimming at the rec centre, dodging all sorts of interesting strokes and various levels of swimming ability, there is something so incredible about finding your own swimming pace. 

Afterwards, I found the sauna and started a brand-new book in the warmth, then ordered room service and ate steak and drank wine in bed. It was the most perfect evening. Post-swim sleep is so very deep (especially when you know there won't be a toddler waking you up at any point in the night!)

The next morning I was up at the crack of dawn (because I have a toddler and my body won't let me sleep in), but I read the entire paper and drank coffee in bed then put on my suit and the cozy hotel robe and padded down to the elevator for Swim #2 (Not even having to get dressed, and taking an elevator to the pool this positively extraordinary!) The pool was empty once again and I swam and swam until my arms ached. Then I hung out in the sauna and kept reading. Heaven, I tell you!

And because my fella is so awesome, and knows me so well, he left swim biscuit supplies in the hotel room, and sushi that I ate post swim, in bed, watching Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel. 

Swim #3 took place in the window between a post-brunch nap and dinner reservations (again, I had the pool to myself until the last few minutes when three siblings played the most hilarious nonsensical game of tag that reminded me of my sister and I oh-so-many years ago) and I 100% had goggle marks around my eyes for dinner.

Swim #4 almost didn't happen because the pool was packed at 9:30am on Sunday (Note: that is prime kid-hotel pool hour! Wait till everyone checks out at 11, or is at lunch around 12!) No 8-year-old wants their handstands interrupted by a lap swimmer no more than this swimmer wants to be weaving around games of frozen tag. I asked for a late check out time and went around 12 at it was blissfully empty once again. My final hotel dip. I swam for longer than I intended because I didn't want it to ever end.

The goggle marks didn't have time to fade before my fifth and final swim of the weekend - my fella got me a pass to the new salt water JCC and a print-out of the swim schedule. It was just a hop skip and a jump from "my" hotel pool and they even lent me a lock.

Years ago I swam at this pool at 5:30 every morning before my hour and a half commute to work. (I don't know how I pulled that off, especially in the winter!) It was a beautiful pool then (salt water! Best!), and it's even more beautiful after this newest reno. I wasn't used to dodging other swimmers after my decadent weekend of solo pool time, but it wasn't very busy and it was still a pretty lovely swim with the late afternoon sun filtering in. 

Near the end of my swim, I broke my own cardinal rule of not talking to swim strangers (because who wants to stand in the shallow end and talk about the weather when there is swimming to be done!) because this elderly gent's goggles were so awesome. They looked like aviator goggles that Amelia Earhart  might wear. Turns out they were from the 60s, and this man had worn them ever since. Amazing! 

Ultimate Swim Weekend complete. It was the most decadent and glorious weekend I have known, one that I will return to for the rest of the winter!