I’d had enough of my laptop and late afternoon boarded the ferry over to Toronto Island. There are three ferries with three different drop-off points; I chose Hanlan’s figuring I’d start on the right of the island and work my way left.
august 13 2009
Of the three my ferry was the most budget, the others you sit inside on seats. It drops you off right by Porter Airlines.
That’s as close as you can get to the airport. And there on the right is the now-demolished ‘Hanlan’s Point Stadium’ which the airport is built on top of. Back in 1910-ish it was the largest baseball stadium in North America; it held 17 000 people and it was here that Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run. There was an amusement park and hotels and the whole place was the ‘Coney Island of Canada‘ (click that link, it looked amazing).
The baseball team ‘The Maple Leafs’ (we know them as a hockey team now, weird eh) played there until 1925 when they moved to the mainland and the whole place was deleted.
Also here is the Hanlan’s Point Beach, one of only two clothing-optional beaches in Canada; the other is Wreck Beach in Vancouver. What’s even neater to me is that you can swim in one of the largest cities in North America.
I biked over to Centreville then and it is very Keri-ish there. Carnival games, funnel cakes, cheesy rides I’m barely tall enough to ride. They have a zoo too, look:
When that peacock put his feathers up he was taller than I am. And that pig was enormus, like the size of a small car. I didn’t think pigs got so big. When I was looking at the pig I thought, “I wonder if someone in their past life was all, “oh please life, make me famous, I want people to stand around and stare at me in awe” and they just weren’t specific enough in their wishes and so life gave them exactly that and they came back as a pig that people like me stand and stare at.
I ran out of time and didn’t make it to the last third of the island, so I’ll have to go back. And bring my blazer because I wanna explore the RCYC, the exclusive 157 year old yacht club. I’ll also have to bring a dress because they enforce a dress code.
Took the Centreville ferry back when… my Blackberry broke. It was covered in error messages then just shut down. So no photos from what I found on my ride home which was:
– an exciting display of giant photographs of CDN images at Harbourfront Centre
– Tom was back hanging with Charlie. He’d been in the hospital and I was glad to see him looking good and gave him the hug I’d promised
– there is a privately-owned boat so big it has a helicopter landing pad, parked right by the H2O Park that is freaking everyone out.
