After a busy weekend of
painting the porch (we're almost done!), taming the gardens, laundry, and other not so fun chores, it was soooooo nice on Sunday afternoon to go boating on Hamilton harbour for a few hours. This was the first time either of us had ever been on the waters of the harbour and it was pretty neat to see the city we love so much from a new perspective.
The weather was absolutely perfect and the harbour was filled with boaters. The first thing we learned...all boaters wave when passing...weird, but friendly. Hey look! There's Williams...the perfect place for a beer and a panini after a boat ride, trust me!
As we headed for open water we passed Rafaga Unleashed (the sail sculpture) by artists Veronica De Nogales Leprevost and Edwin Dam. And there's the
Hamilton Harbour Queen...apparently even people on a tourist boat will wave as you pass.
We passed by the
HMCS Haida and yup, people touring WWII destroyers wave too...
Nobody waved at us as we passed the steel mills...probably because many of the workers have been laid off or locked out. It was pretty neat to be able to see the mills from this perspective though.
We made it out as far as the Skyway Bridge (you know, that bridge you Torontonians go over on your way to Niagara Falls, from which all you see is steel mills, leading you to assume that's all Hamilton is...a bunch of steel mills). After that we turned around and headed back to the docks.
One last stop - the Marine Discovery Centre. This was a museum up until a few months ago when the Federal government shut it down. The building was designed by the
Zeidler Partnership and is a great example of Canadian architecture. Thankfully, there are plans to re-use the building as a restaurant and event centre. Considering the views the building has, this seems like a good fit.
There you have it, Hamilton's harbour! Now that we know people with a boat, I'm looking forward to lots of lazy Sunday afternoons on the water this summer. It felt like we'd gotten away to cottage country or something...but were never more than five minutes from our house. Even though we aren't taking any vacation time this summer, I think the boat and the harbour will do just fine!
1 comment:
I didn't know they shut down the Marine Discovery Centre! Wish they had planned to convert it to an event centre before we had gotten married - I wanted our wedding to be there so bad!
That part of Hamilton is my favorite, and I haven't been there in such a long time. We should get together soon the four of us and have a cool drink at Williams!
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