Island Park

As forecast, there was quite a bit of rain off and on this morning, so I didn't go out until lunchtime when, thankfully, it had started to clear. I went down to the dock and found the Toronto Boat Tour company's kiosk to buy my ticket - there are an awful lot of different companies doing tours and trips to the islands, but this was the one I'd settled on, as they had frequent departures, which made it easier for me to get back for dinner, which I had booked for 5.45pm at the CN Tower.

The boat trip leaves from the mainland dock and heads out to the western part of the Island Park, past some of the private marinas that are on the island. Looking back, you can also see the city skyline, dominated by the CN Tower. The tour lasts an hour, but it's half an hour to the island and half an hour back, and you're allowed to split the tour by getting off at the island and catching a later boat back again.

To be honest, the lady conducting the tour wasn't get a lot of co-operation from the passengers on the boat, who were far more interested in talking amongst themselves and taking photos of each other than listening to her, hence her jokes, whilst admittedly older than she was, got no reaction at all, which was a shame, but she carried on regardless. The captain, also a pretty lady, took us around the near harbour area, past the airport on the island - the planes really do come in quite low over the water! - and around to the drop-off point on the island. I think when I return to Toronto, I'll take a water taxi, which is more direct, cheaper and doesn't have a commentary, which won't really by a huge loss, as once you've heard it, you've heard it - and all the jokes enough times!

As you can see in the photos, it was quite cloudy soon after the rain had cleared when I left, but the clouds had started to break and in the end, the later afternoon was completely clear, with just some cloud on the horizon in the early evening.

The Island Park is a pleasant place to wander around. There are lots of floral displays to see, with a whole avenue with flowerbeds. There are sandy beaches around the Eastern, Southern and Western sides, with rocks forming a protected area within which it is safe for people to go into the water. There are rides around the island and many activities for children, which seem to involve payment in the form of tokens which are purchased in advance. There's a miniature railway that you can ride on, guided vintage cars on a short track, a few rides, crazy golf and mini golf, and lots more. As I only had a couple of hours on the island due to the earlier bad weather, I didn't do any of the activities, but settled for walking around.

There are lots of beds planted with flowers - here's a couple of photos of some of them. Being early September, some of the flowers had started to fade and look past their best, but it still looks quite colourful.

The sandy beaches had quite a few people on them, with this being the final weekend of Summer, officially.

I returned to the dock in time for the boat I needed to catch back to the mainland, only to find a smaller boat arrived. The captain told us that the main boat had broken down and that they were sending as many boats as possible to bring people back to the mainland, so I took her boat back. She did a really good job, as she was having to captain and do the commentary without the benefit of a microphone, which was sometimes a bit difficult to hear when the engine was going at full throttle. We arrived on schedule back at the main dock and we were all grateful to her for picking us up - I got the impression that she'd been lined up to do several more unscheduled pick-ups to help everyone get back to the mainland!

There was a lot of noise from jets performing at the exhibition just in western Toronto at the exhibition ground, so we saw several planes fly over, some emitting smoke trails, often in formation. I'd seen them practising a few days ago and we heard them when we left for Niagara too. You can just about see a picture of the Snowbirds (the Canadian equivalent of the RAF's Red Arrows) in the picture of the top of the CN Tower - they're just to the right of the spire, with the clouds behind.

I took some more photos of the Toronto sky line now that the clouds had cleared - you can see how much the weather improved in the couple of hours by just looking at the sky compared to the earlier sky line!

The timely arrival back at the main dock gave me 45 minutes to get up the CN Tower, so I wandered along the waterfront for a bit before heading inland for dinner. There are lots of expensive-looking boats moored here as well as on the island and plenty of cafes and places selling souvenirs.