Toronto Islands, one of the city’s best kept secrets

For those looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Toronto Island Park provides an idyllic escape.

Just a 10-minute ferry ride away from downtown lies the 550-acre park made up of several small islands. It is teeming with activities to suit any interest.

“There’s truly something for everyone on the islands from wee ones right to seniors,” said Warren Hoselton, parks supervisor Toronto Island. “We have lots of trails you can just walk and meander through. There’s beautiful formal gardens, there’s bikes rentals and boat rentals. ... We have four blue flag beaches ... we have Centreville for kids, we have Far Enough Farm there as well.”

There is also a public marina, Franklin Garden for children, a clothing-optional beach and several other beaches, playgrounds, green space for picnics, soccer or Frisbee, picnic tables and an idyllic residential community on Algonquin and Wards islands for people to meander.

The islands used to be a vibrant community complete with 8,000 residents and a main street with businesses. A park since 1956, today there are just a little more than 250 homes remaining, a few restaurants, a school, a fire and ambulance station and a haunted lighthouse.

To reach the island there are three ferries that leave from the ferry terminal at the foot of Bay Street – one heads to Hanlan’s Point, another to Ward’s Island and the third to Centre Island, by far the most popular destination.

There are restaurants and patios with a view of the Toronto skyline, as well as plenty of greenspace for picnics. During the week corporate picnics and day camps are a common sight while on the weekend the crowds of couples, families and friends come out, but Hoselton said there is so much space one can always find a quiet place to relax.

Ontario Place features variety of attractions

Tom Vanderstoop first came to Ontario Place in 1972 with his daughter. Earlier this month, he returned with the next generation: his granddaughter.

“Things aren’t quite the way I remembered it, but it’s still a lot of fun,” said the 62-year-old, noting, “It was a lot cheaper then, I can tell you that.”

When Ontario Place opened in 1971, adult admission was $1 while kids got in for 50 cents. This year, those ages six to 64 pay $33.50 for a Play All Day pass while seniors and children ages four and five pay $17.75.

But considering gas prices these days that may still be cheaper than heading out of town for the day.

“You don’t have to spend a whole tank of gas to get down here,” Ontario Place spokesman Nick Kondrat said. “And if it rains continuously for one hour, our guaranteed weather program gives you the opportunity to redeem your Play All Day pass and come back any time in our operating season for free.”

The 96-acre park was built on three man-made islands along the Lake Ontario waterfront just west of Bathurst Street. It has a number of rides and attractions, geared mostly for kids.

The Tree House Live stage, where entertainers from Tree House TV make daily appearances, was packed with toddlers on a Monday afternoon earlier this month.

“A lot of the kids know the entertainers from TV and CDs. When they come here, it’s a big treat for them to see them in real life,” Kondrat said.

Next to the stage is Soak City, billed as downtown Toronto’s only water park.

“There are four exhilarating water slides,” said Kondrat. “Rush River Raft ride is one that could fit up to four people per raft for those who don’t yet have the courage to go down by themselves.”

The Zero Depth Water Play area is designed for the little ones. “Toddlers can run around there, and you don’t have to worry about their safety,” said Kondrat.

About a million people visit Ontario Place every summer, including those who arrive by boat.

“We have a marina,” Kondrat said. “Boaters from all over North America can pull their boats right up to the marina and dock for the day or for the season.”

Ontario Place also features Cinesphere, the world’s first permanent IMAX theatre. The golf-ball shaped structure is six storeys high, holds 750 people and can be seen from Lake Shore Boulevard and the Gardiner Expressway.

The Atom Blaster is a foam ball free-for-all. “It’s safe mayhem,” said Kondrat. “It’s an enclosed room full of thousands of foam balls where kids can shoot them at themselves, each other and their parents.”

Other attractions include a large outdoor climbing structure called the H2O Generation Station and a log ride called Wilderness Adventure.

Ontario Place is open daily until the Labour Day weekend.

Visitors can pet stingrays at zoo

On a typical summer day at “Canada’s premier zoo,” Puppe, who had a “fabulous and 40” birthday party last September, gazed out at the water along one edge of the orangutang habitat, while Budhi, one of her young daughters played on a platform nearby.

Over at the Kids Zoo, Eva Papachristu, 9, was discovering how a stingray feels -- “slimy.”

The Ajax girl and her brother Alex, 8, reached down to rub some cownose rays as glided past in the shallow water of Stingray Bay, a special attraction at the zoo until October. A couple of the animals, distant relatives of sharks, reared up, as in anticipation of being touched.

Camille Humphries, 7, of Pickering said she knows the 30 cownose and southern stingrays in the tank are friendly. The barbs on their tails are trimmed like fingernails, so they are safe to touch.

Samira Niemeyer, 11, from Stouffville, was lucky enough to feed the stingrays. When they suck food from between your fingers, she said, “it feels like a little vacuum cleaner.”

At the Great Barrier Reef exhibit in the renovated Australasia Pavilion, moon jellies ungulated in the low light, moving to a current that took keepers months to create.

At the Aussie Walkabout nearby, Robbo, the dominant male of a group of western gray kangaroos, lazed on a little hillock, totally unconcerned with the humans strolling on an open path through the enclosure he shared with some Bennett’s wallabies, a pair of emus and some other guests, Canada geese and a hungry groundhog.

At the zoo’s African Savanna, keeper Krisztina Mosdossy fed a male Masai giraffe named Stripes carrots from a bucket, which the creature received with a long black tongue. Females Twiga and Ginetta were nearby in a separate enclosure.

Such giraffes, Mosdossy told a watching crowd, live about 30 years in captivity and less in the wild.

You won’t find a cat house or a monkey house at the zoo, because the 16,000 animals of 491 species are grouped together by geography, like they could be in the wild, said Katie Gray, public relations supervisor.

One is these groupings is called Indo-Malaya. It is in the Indo-Malaya Pavilion where the zoo will celebrate Orangutang Awareness Weekend Aug. 8 to 10 for Puppe and the zoo’s other endangered Sumatran oranguatans.

But besides the animals on display the zoo is also involved in endangered species protection and in promoting conservation. This is the Year of the Frog and Gray said the zoo wants to get people involved in helping to keep Earth’s threatened frogs (the Americas Pavilion has several, including the blue poison dart frog) from disappearing.

Construction is underway on a new polar bear and Tundra Trek exhibit which may be ready by next August.

Zoo admission is $20 for adults, $12 for children ages four to 12, $14 for seniors (except Seniors Day on September 8, when seniors get in free. Stingray Bay -- A Touching Experience is an extra $3 for ages four and up. Parking is $8.

The zoo’s 710 acres on Meadowvale Road in Scarborough north of Highway 401 is surrounded by Rouge Park, one of the largest urban green spaces in North America. The main zoo parking area is a short walk away from park trails and a wetland at the foot of the former Baere Road landfill.