TORONTO, CANADA

                                                  TORONTO, ONTARIO

Last Thursday we had an uneventful crossing of Lake Ontario to Toronto and tied up at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club for one night.  After settling in, we toured the grounds & bought Hank a RCYC sweater to replace the one he wore out several years ago.  This is the premier yacht club of Canada & has beautiful grounds with flowers all around, several hundred sailboats at docks, and a large beautiful clubhouse.  The club is humming with junior sailors, tennis courts, a very busy swimming pool & lawn bowling on the front lawn. 

The “islands” of Toronto are made up of several man-made islands with a marina & 3 yacht clubs located there.  There are a few private homes, but most of the islands are parks with walking/biking paths, boat rentals, beaches (one nude beach), restaurants, a maze garden, the “farm” & a small amusement park.  Currently, there is a strike going on in Toronto so there is no ferry service to the islands & they seemed so unusually quiet.

We took a dinghy trip all around the islands remembering places we’d been over 20 years ago.  The “farm” where we used to spend weekends is still there, but there are no more docks.  They were removed several years ago & the city didn’t replace them.  When the boys were little we would come here for the weekend & they would spend the entire weekend running around with their friends.  We wouldn’t see them unless they needed money for the amusement rides or they were hungry.

Friday morning we moved over to Island Yacht Club for a couple of days.  This is another lovely club with all the amenities; plus, their launch takes you right to the heart of Toronto’s harbour front.  We took the dinghy across the bay to downtown for a late lunch & a trip to a marine supply store.  Then we dinghied to National Yacht Club where we met George & Helen Cuthberson for a visit.  George is the founder of C&C Yachts & is the one who hired Hank to work for him in 1976.  They’ve kept in touch all the years & still know many of the same people.  These are two remarkable people & we were delighted to see them both.

Back to QAR & chicken parmesan for dinner…….leftovers from the Youngstown Yacht Club & still delicious….

Saturday we took the launch into town & walked the city for hours.  We found the huge & famous St. Lawrence Market where you can buy most any market item.  We got asparagus & bread.  We found a French restaurant for a late lunch – pate & French onion soup.  We didn’t find the West Marine store, but we spent $30 on a cab looking for it!  We got back to QAR around 5 & were pooped!  A light supper & early to bed for us.

Hank found out where the West Marine store is & this morning he took the dinghy in & found that it was ½ block from where we picked up the cab yesterday for our “search” (they had given us the wrong address).  After all that, they didn’t have what he was looking for!  We’ve decided to stay here for one more day & head out tomorrow morning.  I just finished some housework & we’re going into Harbourfront this afternoon to check out what’s going on today….