We purchased a multi-trip ticket on the Tiki Taxi Water Taxi. Paul was our driver and he had stories to share! The best one was a story of a petting zoo in the 1800's that was situated along the shore of the lake. Apparently there was a entire whale in a vat of formaldehyde that was a big attraction. But big comes with big problems and the stink of the whale and the juice it was stewing in got to bee too much and something had to be done. Since this was the 1800's the answer was dump it in the lake! That is what they did and the problem was solved. As Toronto grew, the lake side land became more valuable so they started filling in the low spots ands reclaiming more and more land from the lake. Once the new land was settled, infrastructure needed to be set up. Subways tunnels had to be developed and while excavating tunnels, engineers came upon some whale bones. This was a big deal, as the lake has been fresh water for a long time and so when could a whaled have lived in fresh water? Eventually carbon dating placed this whale from the 1840's, so no exotic whale species! We would have heard more stories but we arrived at our destination. Center Island was a hive of activity again, as it was on our first visit, last week. We saw a pair of inviting Adirondack chairs on the bank of long pond. It was a perfect place to sit and watch all of the activities. First we saw a great white heron catch a fish, it was too fast to get a picture of. We saw multiple kayakers, both singles and doubles. There were two open top canoes, one with two people and one with 12 people. That is the largest canoe I have seen yet. I wonder how patient the guy in the back has to be to be able to keep this canoe pointed straight. Then we saw a zodiac inflatable pulling a string of small row boats each with two tine kids inside. No paddles or oars for the tykes, just life vests and giggles. They passed us a couple times and it was obvious that the kids were having a good time. We also saw a large, two level tour boat and we were able to listen to the commentary for a short while. We walked and explored and then came back to the mainland. Here we saw new activities in the park, a softball practice session. Oh boy, did these folks need lots of practice. We laughed out loud watching the missed catches, the balls rolling all the way out of the park and the general lack of athleticism. The sailboats were thick. Lastly a nearly full moon shared the evening skies with us.
Our Tiki Taxi Driver Paul, with tall tales of dead whales.
Our front row seats to all the activity
Just freshly fed
Visitors to Heron Land
Canoes and kiddys
The adults in a huge canoe
Side by side, a dozed folks inside
An a-mazing Maze
Swimming was popular
A garden to explore but watch out for the guard buzzard
Guarded by a metal buzzard
A fancy art gate
Blue beauties
Good details on the buzzard
Looking over the guests to the garden
Thanks, its good to know
Looking out over Lake Ontario
A wide open beach
With some beach art
Nice tree shadow
A memento or an offering, this pile of hydrangea and other flowers was quite beautiful?
A little hit and catch
It seems simple but it was not!
Maybe the largest group of sail boats to date
Regatta?
Mr. Moon
Close up!
Out of the clouds on a clear night
It has been 67 days since we began our Migration.
