I wanna take you to the island...

Day trips-R-us, we took it handy on Friday night and awoke early on the saturday morning to the unfamiliar sensation of clarity and clear-vision.
In an effort to get us and 'out and a-bouut' here in Canada land, we decided that every week or so one of the five of us would pick a trip or place to go. They are in charge of finding out how to get there, opening times etc and whoever wants to go tags along!

So our maiden voyage was under the watch of Captain H. Mac Allister. The ferry out to the Toronto Islands stops it's summer timetable at the end of September so we just made it this year!

Its $6.50 return and is packed to the gills with childrens, bikes and grannies. But wierdly enough, the children of Toronto are not unbearable in large quantities. When I first regarded the rows of under 5' and family dogs crowding around the ferry terminal, my initial instinct was to about turn and head back to bed but they were all remarkabley sweet and mercifully quiet. It was freezing but the wierd thing about the ferry crossing was the lack of salt. I'm used to ferry crossings involving a fair amount of residual salt! An Irish sea breeze whipping your hair and face usually leaves a pleasant enough taste of salt on your cheeks and lips so that you can reward yourself with a discreet but very pleasing lick as you disembark the vessel. But nope, just soft, chilly and altogether polite Canadian lake breeze that doesn't ruffle one's feathers half as much as an Autumnal crossing to the Aran Islands would have.

The sun came out and we hit the paths. Only in rules land aka Toronto would somebody go to the bother of designing, building and errecting a sign to stick in the grass which said...'Please walk on the grass'. And no, it wasn't the result of a crafty teenage graffiti artist who manipualtes a 'P' into a 'B' thus providing much hilarity...'No  Barking'.  I mean it wasn't just a Please Don't Walk on the Grass' with the "Don't" tippex-ed out.This sign was brand new, clean, encouraging and suggestive without being pushy.

We took a trip on the chair lift, swaying merrily over the shallow river and petting zoo. The 'amusement park' that had bobbi jumping for joy turned out to be a under 7s playground with rides designed with smurfs in mind, so we had to give that a miss. Lucky we didn't go over the height restriction for the chair lift. Bobbi said it was the first time she was ever concerned about being too tall for something as we approached the height guidelines at the entrance!

That's what it's like here in Canada and at first I plain despised it. I was mistaking their politeness for insincerity but it turns out they really are that nice. They did a test recently in Toronto where a series of wallets stuffed with cash and credit cards were left lying in random spots around the city.  Something like over 85% of them were returned with everything still there and a number of the returnees were homeless! But anyway back to the welcoming grass.

Well now, it might sound strange but even though we were in a lovely wide open grassy area, it actually hadn't occured to me to walk on the grass. So following it's kind recommendation I did just that and found it very pleasant. Thanks sign!

Further across to the other side of the island, the white sandy beach and blue sunny skies looked like a holiday resort and we sat barefoot on the sand stockpiling on some vital vitamin D for the winter ahead. What a lovely day we murmured and took a full crane of the neck to look around.

'Oh God'
'Look over there...'

The sky behind was black as night and rapidly approaching so we high tailed it across the island  unfeasibly hoping to outrun the encroaching rain storm. We actually managed it and celebrated by renting a 4 person Quadricycle. What a joy. We cruised along the cycle lanes and taking it in turns to steer and headed for the bohemian community that live year round on the islands. They have had to fight hard to keep their residency and were only recently granted the right to stay with a 99 year lease added in to boot.

They are a community of artists, writers and designers. It was idyllic. An absolute dream of a place to live. Right on the shores of the islands with a water framed view of the Toronto sky line. We cycled up and down the small pathways between the rows of houses and marvelled at their quirky front garden sculptures and installations. Every available spot was bursting with blooms and fabulous plants and each unique cottage had a swinging seat or wicker chair on the porch. Even the family pet cats and dogs looked contented beyond belief, lying across our path with a smug expression and a curvy figure.

We got a bit rowdy and started drag racing a pair of middle aged women back to the bike rental stall, and just before we got there decided to do some off-roading...as we fired along about to mount the kerb and cut the corner over some grass we all noticed the large gutter cut into the ground below the grassy knoll.Amid a medely of girly shrieks we managed to throw ourselves out of the bike and stop it before we wrote off the bloody thing completely!

All in all, our excursion was a great success. Next venture is to Niagara  Falls.........