In July, Toronto hosts one of the best jazz festivals in North America (left). Despite its bustling metropolis, the city offers visitors and residents alike beachfront views and stunning sunsets (right).
We pull in late in the day and dock at Bluffer’s Park Marina. Three or four yacht clubs share the basin with this public haven. A glass and steel building sports fine dining on the top level, and Dogfish Pub, a friendly unassuming place, sits right beside the water. To the north, cliffs rear up precipitously. In the harbor just to the east is Cathedral Bluffs Yacht Club. The name couldn’t be more appropriate. I imagine castle walls, sandstone skyscrapers and, yes, cathedrals. I look west and those same bluffs fall away into the sunset, silhouetted and purple in the fading light. I scan the western horizon: Nothing but a smattering of trees hovering like mirages beneath violet skies. And the lake. Not a skyscraper in sight. Late on another day, one of the last fair weather days of the season, my friend Kevin and I plied the waters west of the city. We watched the sunset; we stared at mansions on shore, nestled in the shelter of autumn-painted, scarlet- and pumpkin-colored trees. The sun glittered on the crystal walls of the city, gilding them the color of a late-night campfire, transforming them in a lightshow to crimson, then lavender, then indigo beneath a cotton-candy sky. Kevin looked at me and grinned. “We own this lake,” he said. Back on our dock we watched the stars grow in the sky. We fired up the Force Ten on the transom of Soggy Dollar, rocking gently on H Dock at Port Credit Harbour Marina. Five signet swans glided across the water to beg for food. A leaping salmon broke the surface of the yacht basin. This is one of Lake Ontario’s biggest marinas, but tonight Kevin and I shared the docks with no one. “So much for Big City Boating,” I said. Then I threw some steaks on the barbecue. r PhOTOs By ONTArIO TOurIsM
Seasonal & Visitor Dockage Harbourfront Centre Marine Dept. 235 Queens Quay West Toronto, ON Canada M5J 2G8 marine@harbourfrontcentre.com harbourfrontcentre.com Government Site Partners
Toronto, Canada
Marina Quay West: 416-203-1212 Marina Four/John Quay: 416-203-2620 Pumpout Info Line: 416-973-4148 VHF.ch 68 Corporate Office: 416-954-5596 Corporate Site Partner
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