July 13 – Art Festival, Rubber Boots, and Queuing up for the Islands

Until now, I hadn’t done any writing on this trip - the days had been too full with activity, so this morning I was up early and sat in the cockpit with my laptop piecing together the previous days’ events. I had considered not writing about this one (as I have done on previous trips) but once I get going it comes fast and feeds my compulsion to document, to record, to create, to write.

The sun had returned with a vengeance and it was going to be upwards of 30 degrees today. We took the tender into the city and walked up to Nathan Phillips Square where the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair was in full swing. We visited every artist stall and saw some incredible art pieces, everything from paintings of fruit bowls to elaborate sculpture, blown glass, silk prints, and abstractions of all varieties. But for me, the most powerful art statement came when I passed a dude on the street in rubber  boots wearing a shirt that read, “I hate rubber boots”. Big cities = interesting people doing weird things.

We had an ice cream then wandered the city for a while. We passed a clothing store called Brandy Melville that must have had a hundred girls queued up in a line outside waiting to get in, and they all looked just like Stella and her friends. Another huge queue formed by the Pirate Taxis headed out to the islands, but this one was packed with outrageously dressed gay dudes, undoubtedly headed for Hanlon’s Beach, the nude and primarily gay beach on the islands where you can let your eggs hang free and your willy swing in the wind.

Ana and I returned to the boat for a little chill out session, then hit the pool for a cool down, then took a long and slow dinghy ride through the islands under the protection of our wide-brimmed hats. We passed by one of the ferry terminals and I was shocked to see literally a thousand people or more rammed into these cattle herding stations waiting to catch a ferry back to the mainland. This is why you visit the islands during the week.

After a late dinner on the boat we settled into the cockpit to plan out the next few days, but I wasn’t much help as I fell asleep instantly.