6th and 7th Week, July 23-Aug 2

The end of previous post we had left the Port of Cobourg and on our way to the town of Oshawa. The marina at Oshawa had been closed for several years so we continued on to Whitby. There wasn't much at Whitby and have no pictures of it. We spent one night at Whitby and then on to Toronto. This pic is of Marina Quay West. We stayed tied to the wall next to the "green" park there for four days.. It was the best location in our opinion for a boater, walking distance to downtown. At the far right in this picture you can see part of the Blue Jays Dome Stadium (the Rogers Centre).

In this picture, Marina Quay West is at the far end of the runway and to the left. Just $82.00 Canadian a night.

The first night we went to a Jays ball game. They played the Cleveland Indians and won. There were 8 home runs hit that night so lots of action. We enjoyed the first game so much, we went back the next day to an afternoon game.

The CN Tower is right next to the Jays stadium; we were only about 8 blocks from there.

Lots of buildings to take pictures of. This was the old city hall with gargoyles on the tower. They give tours of this building and we tried but like airport security, they wanted to take my jackknife, so we declined.

We were told that Montreal used to be the banking capital of Canada. However, after Quebec tried to secede, the banking capital of Canada moved to Toronto. This is a picture of one of the many banks.

We went shopping at Eaton Centre which is in the heart of the city and partially underground.

We went to the Toronto Performing Arts Center by subway to see Jersey Boys. It is a Broadway musical about the life of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

We took a dinghy ride around the harbor (in the rain). Toronto has a large harbor with islands that you can only get to by ferry. There are quite a few marinas on the islands.

There was a strike of city workers that had been going on for about 8 weeks - garbage collectors, park workers, golf courses, ferry operators, swimming pools - all shut down. It was all over the news of the satellite dumps the city had set up with stacks of garbage. The news made it sound like the strike was hampering tourism, but we found the city to be clean and very nice.

Leaving Toronto and headed west to Oakville. We are going around Lake Ontario counterclockwise.

As you can see, Oakville is a very narrow channel with three yacht clubs. The first two you come to are sailboat yacht clubs, one on each side of the river. Fortunately for us, past these two yacht clubs and the two bridges in town is the Oakville Power Boat Club that welcomed us. Being a reciprocating club, the first night was free and subsequent nights were $25.00. Spent six days here. We arrived on Sunday, just beating a powerful storm. We tied up and went up to their club and had drinks with a number of very nice club members. Monday we rented a car to go to Chicago and see our new grandson, Michael Blake Mazza. He was just 4 days old. We stopped in Lansing on Monday night, spent the night and headed to Chicago first thing Tuesday morning. Spent the day in Chicago with Holly, Mike, Bella and Blake. Left Tuesday night, stopped in Lansing and slept between midnight and 4am and drove back to Oakville. Oakville is located about halfway between Toronto and Hamilton on the northwestern end of Lake Ontario. 25% of Canada's 30 million people live in this area. Oakville is a small upscale community. I can't remember being in a small community that had more million dollar plus homes. We rode our bikes throughout the old part of town; there were placards on many of the homes indicating circa early 1800s, who lived there and what their occupation was. Most of these homes are of ornate brick construction; so far, in our travels, many of the communities have this style home. A three-mile stretch east of Oakville along the waterfront are many, many mansions. Quite a few of these estates were fenced in with guard houses; one, we were told, was Canada's second largest private residence.

Oakville Power Boat Club

Phil and Beverly Myers. A very gracious couple we met at the club. Had drinks with them a couple of nights and they treated us to dinner in Oakville.

We really enjoyed our stay there. The club was established in 1953.

Then on to Hamilton, a town of 500 thousand. This is a statue commemorating the immigrants that settled in the area. This statue is located in a park that is in front of the CN Railway station (no longer used).

The railroad station built in 1933 is now used for wedding receptions and social gatherings. We happened to ride our bikes up to the front door to look in and a lady opened the door and offered to give us a private tour. It has a beautiful period interior.

Again, many of these Canadian communities have these beautiful old brick homes throughout their towns. This is one in Hamilton.

Hamilton is an industrial town with, literally, miles of commercial piers. This one was just adjacent to Harbor West Marina, where we stayed. If you look close in the background of this picture, you can see U.S. Steel.

We took a tour of this, a World War II Canadian destroyer, HMCS Haida. It is 337' long, 37.5' wide, carries a crew of about 240 men and has a top speed of 36.5 knots. It served World War II through the Korean War. It was a self-guided tour and we had, virtually, unlimited access to the ship.

We rode our bikes about 4 miles one way to the Museum of Steam and Technology. We got there about 3:45 and they closed at 4. However, they did take time to show us the main attraction, two early 1800s steam-powered water pumps that was housed in the original building that served Hamilton's drinking water until 1913 when these two steam-powered pumps could no longer keep up with the city's water demands. These pumps were replaced by electric motor pumps. The water is pumped from Lake Ontario up to an escarpment reservoir several miles away just like it did in the past.

We also went to a performance of Cirque du Soleil.

In our next post, we will have a couple of pictures of Harbor West Marina in Hamilton.