Haunted Barrel Works

Our family has had a tradition of visiting the Toronto Islands every summer since as far back as I can remember. It's an oasis in the city, and only an eight minute ferry boat ride from Harbourfront. The parklands are majestic, and many go for bike riding, picnics, the beach, and frisbee golf, but the main draw is Centreville; a turn-of-the-century styled theme park on Centre Island. It's definetly not Six Flags, but for young families or those who like it on the mild side, it's packed full of charm.

Naturally, I  look forward to Haunted Barrel Works the most. This dark ride was built in 1970, and few things have changed, but somehow it never gets tired. If you ever have the chance to pay a visit, it's well worth while- just avoid weekends when the crowds descend on Centreville like a plague of locusts!

Real antique barbed wire display. All date to the 1800's.

It's tricky to get any great pics or video since the stunts trigger when you are pretty much on top of them (and everything's behind plexiglass- terrible glare), but I did find a pretty good job on the youtubes;

It was even disguised for this episode of Goosebumps- A Shocker on Shock Street (late 90's):

And to make things even better, we picked a gorgeous site yesterday for our late evening picnic, just when a million bats decided to have their own dinner. We watched them fly across the night sky through the clearing in the trees until it was time to catch the ferry back. Always a beautiful trip... can't wait for next year!

view from the picnic table :)