The 'Beaches' section of the
(Waterfront trail) is also known as the Martin Goodman trail. I have
previously covered portions of this trail before (see
'Martin Goodman' and 'Ashbridge Bay' in this blog) In the summertime, the Toronto beaches come alive with swimmers, sailors, sun-bathers and almost anything else you can think of that can be enjoyed in or near the water. The Boardwalk runs along Beaches Park, Kew Gardens, Kew Beach, Woodbine Beach to Ashbridges Bay. Unfortunately, the remaining 50% of the Beaches trail is all on-road. (approximately between Kingston and Silverbirch Avenue to Kingston and Birchmount in the east).
Sunday July 29th, 2012 marked the last day of Toronto's 24th
International Beaches Jazz Festival. I thought I’d include this as it was an important event in Exploring Toronto. It ran from July 20th until the 29th, and had over 100 bands some old, some new who had their own flavour of Jazz. 
Around noon time, Kew Beach stage blasted out with an upbeat Romanian-Gypsy style of jazz music from a group called Lemon Buckets! I was surprised to hear this kind of music in a jazz festival. They are considered relatively new to the Jazz world, but they're young, energetic and extremely talented with their instruments!South of Kew Gardens playing on the The Latin Stage near Woodbine Beach, was the Latin Jazz Ensemble . These gentlemen would be considered established. Their stuff was kinda cool with that Latin-Salsa flair and very relaxing kind of music, but not really my cup of tea as far as music goes! :) Although, it was kind of neat to see a couple get up and dance to it.
Not too far westward along the Beaches trail past the Kids park and Woodbine Beach swimming pool was the Big Band stage. Far more dancing was seen here to the sounds of the Big Band era played by an established group called the Jazz Mechanics. A couple of hours of jazz music is enough, and the day was still young. Like any annual festival it brings in plenty of money to the hosting cities, and an opportunity for local business to market their wares, and a chance to get their names or products out in the world marketplace. Even if you didn't get a chance to check out the Festival at all, you can mark your calendars for next year. Be sure to check out Lemon Buckets, they really are a very unique and fun group!
Where there is any large group of people, there are always police officers standing by in case of any trouble, and being in a large city like Toronto, that's no surprise. What I am puzzled about is, where does Spock fit into all of this? Well he had his phaser on him, so guess that made us all safe.
