Teena in Toronto: Toronto Islands, Toronto, ON

Gord and I spent the afternoon and evening on Toronto Islands ... it's been many years since I've been there.

The Toronto Islands are a chain of 15 small islands in Toronto Harbour. On the islands are parkland, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, yacht clubs, Centreville Amusement Park and beaches.

You can get there by ferry or by water taxis. The ferry is about $9 each return but is jammed and there's usually a line-up. The water taxi is $10 each and faster ... we've never done it before and have wanted to so that's what we did.

Gord and our driver, Mario

Great views of Toronto from the taxi!

There are three spots they can let you off ... Hanlan's Point, Centre Island or Ward's Island. We asked to be taken to Hanlan's Point and then we walked to the point.

The islands have been flooded the last couple of years and still are

Tribute to Ned Hanlan

Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a professional in Maple Leaf Park
on Hanlan's Point in 1914

Then we headed towards Centre Island.

One of the paths to the clothing optional beach ...

Another path to the clothing optional beach

The rest are mandatory clothing beaches

There's Gibraltar Point Lighthouse.

To get there, though, we had to get through some flooding on the road.

And there's the lighthouse. Begun in 1808, it is the oldest existing lighthouse on the Great Lakes and one of Toronto's oldest buildings. It was deactivated in 1956. We did a tour of it in 2012.