Cruising the Great Lakes, the Canadian experience

Visitors can enjoy the breathtaking view of Niagara Falls, one of the stops on Haimark Travel’s Great Lakes cruise. Photos: TNS

Sizzling fillets and red wine. An outdoor table above the ship’s fantail. A hot sun tempers the cool breezes of early evening and turns the ship’s wake into a molten silver stream touching the pink-and-red sunset. Dark waters ripple as far as the eye can see.

The Caribbean? The Mediterranean? Not exactly. We were on Lake Erie, believe it or not, midway through Haimark Travel’s luxury Great Lakes cruise aboard the Saint Laurent. The 210-passenger, small-ship cruiser offers summer trips with boarding and disembarkation points in Chicago, Toronto and Montreal.