Why is enjoying the Islands so hard?

When I was a kid, I had friends whose houses had fancy living rooms and dining rooms that were off-limits.

- EDWARD KEENAN

Visiting the Toronto Islands seems more complicated that it needs to be, with visitors having to run through an Amazing Race Toronto obstacle course to get there, enduring the cost, crowding and queues of the ferries and their docks, Edward Keenan writes.

Sometimes, the furniture was covered in sheets of plastic to protect it from dust and wear. Sometimes, the rooms’ entryways were barred by baby gates or even velvet ropes. In one case, a whole main floor was kept unused: the family used the kitchen and living space in the basement in-law suite instead.

These were the rooms where all those families’ best stuff was located. Antique furniture, cabinets of fine china, lush rugs. All of it kept safely away from the people who you’d most expect should benefit from it.

I guess the idea was that if the Queen or the Pope popped by for a visit, they’d have a suitably elegant setting ready to go. To me it seemed a big waste. Like buying the expensive ingredients for your favourite dish and then letting them grow frostbite in the freezer waiting for a big enough occasion to serve them.

I mean, who is your home for? Why pay for rooms your family and friends don’t use? Why splurge on upscale furnishings you never let yourself enjoy?