Slow Travel allows for more Strollin'

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Toronto Reference Library

This trip to Toronto was organized with no goals or expectations other than living in Ryan & Ben's nice Midtown Toronto condo while they were away in Spain. As a result, it has been a quiet relaxing trip where we get up each morning and after coffee and tea and an eventual breakfast, we decide what we want to do. What a great way to travel.

Pharmacy Building

Regis wanted to go to Chinatown for a dumpling lunch today. Ryan and Ben have taken us to a wonderful little basement restaurant called “Yummy Yummy Dumplings” which Ben claims makes the best Chinese dumplings, and he should know. I decided to work a few of my Toronto attractions from Shawn Micallef's “Stroll” book into todays outing.

Our first stop was the Toronto Reference Library. Pierre Burton researched many of his novels here and apparently, the inventors of the game Trivial Pursuits got most of their answers from the extensive stacks here. I did not stop to do any research, but I was impressed with the building. Built in 1977, it remains an active bustling place,and the design reminded me so much of Halifax's “New” library with its open airy central atrium. Although this building might look almost 40 years old from the outside, it is ageless inside. The building is well used with most tables and

The Narrowest Park

study areas full. I saw street people watching the news and students doing serious research as I explored the building. I was disappointed that unlike Halifax's new library, I was unable to go outside up on the upper floors to enjoy the views out over the city.

From the library, we wandered down Bloor St.; one of Toronto's major avenues and here you can find every major designer label's store, Gucci, Holt Renfrew, Brooks Brothers, Louis Vuitton, etc. etc. etc.

My goal was University Avenue and the thinnest park in Toronto. The Stroll book describes the median between the North and South traffic as an interesting walk. It really is a thin park, with benches, fountains, gardens and memorials to people I did not know, and you have be careful, because Toronto traffic zooms by on both sides, but, some people have figured out that it is a secluded if not quiet spot for lunch or just to be alone. It is not an easy walk however, because the median is intersected along the way by a few streets, and Toronto drivers are not “Walker Friendly”, so you sometimes have to cross to one side, then cross the intersection and then get back over to the median. I probably wouldn't have stuck it out except I wanted to experience it as described in the book, but it did make an interesting 'stroll'.

Along the way we stopped at the Pharmacy Building at the University of Toronto. This building was constructed with large spheres suspended inside the building used as lecture and study spaces. Although probably not the most effective use of “Space”, it was a really interesting building and I am

glad the Stroll book suggested we go there. Also interesting was the curved mirrored surfaces of the Hydro Building just a short distance away. As with any large city, Toronto always has another cool building to keep your architectural interest.

The Hydro Building

And yes, we managed to find Yummy Yummy Dumplings and their lunch offerings were as good as recommended.

Ridin with Dad!

Distillery District

Down in the East End of Toronto there is an interesting shopping and entertainment area called the Distillery District. A series of buildings from the old Gooderham & Worts Distillery have been restored and repurposed for craftspeople, artists and performers. The buildings were designated as a heritage site, but rather than restoring them as a museum, the buildings have been restored and converted to stores, restaurants, pubs, artists studios, and performances venues. As you wander around the district you can find lot of interesting shops, places to eat and drink and information about the history of the buildings. Most of the buildings have artifacts from the original distillery scattered about. The overall affect is interesting and makes a great place to explore while visiting Toronto.

While I was there I enjoyed taking some pictures and I've included a few here.

Walking The Beltline

It was raining today, but we have spent time in Scotland, where it seemed to rain each and every day, so we decided to venture out anyway. Our plan was to walk the Beltline Trail which runs close to Ryan's condo.

The Beltline Trail is a trail that runs east/west through Midtown Toronto. It utilizes the converted railbed from the old Toronto Belt Line Railway which was a commuter line established in 1890, but closed two years later after being unable to turn a profit. The city bought the rail line and tore up the tracks creating the trail in 1989. The trail is aprox. 9 km long, and joins with the trails through the the Mud Creek Ravine trail system and past the Evergreen Brickworks park. The trail ends in the neighbourhood of York at Eglinton West.

A Lovely Place to Walk

We joined the trail at the Yonge St. Bridge which crosses the Davisville Rail yard not far from the condo. Here we met the amazing train-spotting dog. As we came up to the bridge I saw a little dog eagerly peering through the railings looking for the subway trains which runs above ground here. I stopped and commented to his owner about his interest in the trains. She said it was his favourite activity. As the train approached, his tail started to wag eagerly and when the train roared under the bridge, he frantically ran to the other side and watched the train disappear into the station. Once the train was gone, he contentedly continued his walk.

Street Art Along the Way

The nice thing about this trail is that it is a narrow strip of green running right through Toronto, passing various neighbourhoods, including some amazingly huge houses worth many millions along with apartment blocks and many ordinary neighbourhoods. Along the way, the trail is intersected by a number of roads where you have to stop and cross when traffic allows, but you are then back into the lovely green walkway. The trail is well used and we met with many people and a number of dogs besides the amazing train-spotting one. Doing most of my walking in the friendly green space of Shube Park back home, people here in Toronto were taken back by these strangers greeting them with a “Good Morning”. Although obviously not the norm here in Toronto, most people smiled and returned with a friendly greeting as well.

A "Selfie" on the trail

The section of the trail we used ended with an enormous brick sound barrier at Allen Ave. Apparently you can cross this busy road and find the trail on the other side, but we took this as a spot to turn back and we continued our walk along the busy Eglinton St. Back to Yonge st.

Although prepared for rain, we managed the entire walk without getting wet until we got back to the condo, so it turned into a very pleasant morning walk.

Yard Art on the walk home

Nuit Blanche

Dundas Square

In Halifax they have an annual “Art at Night” event called Nocturne, and we have enjoyed exploring the Halifax art scene during his event. Our son researched things to keep us entertained while using his condo here in Toronto, and he discovered that Toronto has a similar event called Nuit Blanche (Sleepless Night according to Google Translate). Last night we took the subway downtown and explored some of the art exhibits scattered around the city. The event went on all night so the transit system also ran all night.

Flashing Cars

It was a warm night, and we started our evening at Dundas Square, Toronto's version of Times Square. As you emerge from the Subway, you are instantly surrounded by illuminated buildings and billboards reaching into the night sky, and amazing crowds of people. Dundas Square is always busy, but this event multiplied the crowds tenfold. We picked up a nice map of the event showing where all the art installations were. The organization of the event was excellent and there were lots of volunteers handing out maps and advice.

Radical histories

The actual artistic installations were not so good. The first one we found in Dundas Square was simply not working. It looked impressive, but was supposed to be illuminated mirrors which was not happening. Next we went to see “Places Between” which was supposed to be “a collection of photographic stories centered around the domestic sphere”, But what I saw was a projector projecting random photos on a house window. We then walked down to Nathan Phillips Square where we discovered that Torontonians have a lot more patience for standing queues than I do. Most of the exhibits here involved waiting in lines for hours. There were even long lines for the commercial exhibits which had set up around the Art installations. One of the Nuit Blanche installations that was impressive was called “Radical Histories”. The artist had covered the front of Toronto City Hall with used Jute bags sewn together. The artist had traded new bags for used one from vendors in street markets in Ghana and fastened them all together to create this huge fabric mural. Although I'm not sure how the theme of Radical Histories ties in, it was an impressive display. The other interesting installation was a row of unmarked police cars with their lights flashing; it doesn't sound like much but with all the lights flashing at different times made for an interesting sight.

Although I must say I was disappointed in the art of Nuit Blanche, I enjoyed the evening. It was a huge social event with everyone there to see and be seen, some dressed in their finest or their most outlandish, and I enjoyed just wandering around watching the natives of Toronto in their element.

Toronto's People

Strollin'

A Toronto Parking Lot

Although Toronto is a city full of cars (I saw a Rolls Royce, an Aston Martin and Porsche all in one parking lot), it is not a city where I'd want a car for general transportation. You just do not need one, the transit system is great and will get you almost anywhere. Toronto's transit system is constantly improving, and every time I visit it seems to work better. In addition, there is UBER and LYFT if you need to get somewhere the transit system does not go. As a result, when we come to Toronto to visit our son and his partner, we prefer to fly in and leave the car at home.

When our son moved to Toronto he discovered a book called “Stroll” about walking in Toronto and I have been using it to find interesting places to explore in the city. On a previous visit I used the book to explore the Toronto waterfront.

Regis (Sarah) found her street

On our first day here I decided to walk down Yonge St. to try to find the new Alfa Romeo dealer to get some swag to wear while having fun in my 82 Spider, and I used the “Stroll” book to make the walk more interesting. It pointed out an interesting old cemetery hidden down an alley at one of the busiest intersections in the city. Although a small cemetary, it was once a very busy spot, and houses over thirty thousand souls. Unfortunately I could not actually get in to explore, but at least I was able to find it. I also visited what the author called “The world's fanciest liquor store”, a converted and restored train station. Had to purchase a bottle of wine, but their selection is so amazing it is always hard to choose only one bottle. We also passed the Staples store which occupies the former home of the Pierce Arrow Motor Car showroom. It looks like a boring “Big Box” store at first until you look closely and notice the ornate gargoyles which have survived the various renovations since 1939. I probably would have walked by all of these interesting buildings without the suggestions from Stroll.

The downside of “Strollin” is that we walked over 15 km, so the next day was spent relaxing and recovering for our next stroll, an evening trip downtown for Nuit Blanche, a nighttime live art show all over the city similar to Nocturne in Halifax.

Waiting for lunch to arrive

Have You Been to Meat Cove?

Meat Cove from he end of the trail

I knew where Meat Cove was, and drove by the sign for the road to Meat Cove, but in 50 years of living in Nova Scotia I have never made that turn and actually drove to Meat Cove. This year while spending a week in Cape Breton, I finally visited this community.

According to Wikipedia, Meat Cove is a fishing community located at the most northern tip of Nova Scotia. I discovered that this is partially true . . . .

The road to Meat Cove branches off from the Cabot Trail at Cape North and is very much a “Secondary Road”. It twists and turns up and down through the highlands along the coast. Starting out paved it becomes dirt than paved then dirt then paved and finally dirt into the community. In places there is a shear drop off the hillside with no guardrail on the side of the road. Although the road does not actually “end" in Meat Cove, it deteriorates into a rutted washed out track requiring more ground clearance than my Camary provided.

Beer & Seafood at the Chowder House

Although Wikipedia called this a “Fishing” community I would say this was more history than current fact. There was no fishing wharf, no boats and no fishermen. There is a campground perched on a cliff and a restaurant along with a few houses and that is about it. There is actually little evidence that there was ever much more there; if fact, the cove is so small there is not room for much more. Listings say there are 65 residents, but that must include people living on the road into Meat Cove.

Regis taking in the views

The fact that there is little here did not seem to matter on the day we drive to Meat Cove; arriving at the end of the road we had a difficult time finding a place to park to have lunch at the little Chowder House restaurant across from the campground, there were that many people here.

After a delicious lunch, we took the server's advice and followed a unmarked but well used hiking trail to an elevated headland which gave a wonderful view back over the area as well as both the Atlantic Ocean and The Gulf of St Laurence.

Then we walked down into the cove itself to discover a beach covered with Inukshuks. It looked like all these little statues I saw on this summer's drive to Lac Seul had been magically transported here to Meat Cove. Leaving the cove I discovered another hike this one a boardwalk along the river leading down to the cove. I took the hike while Regis went to retrieve the car.

BUT, I'm still not sure why it is called Meat Cove?

Wow Inukshuks Here in Cape Breton

The Optimistic Ontarian

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Derek's Fireworks over the Lake

Alisha's fiancé Derek loves fireworks, and he has become quite an accomplished pyrotechnist. His firework shows have become very popular among his family, and he always puts on a spectacular Canada Day show at the family cottage outside Thunder Bay. Since we were visiting, we received an invite to the event this year. In fact although we had intended to head home sooner, we were told in no uncertain terms that we HAD to stay for the Canada Day show.

The weather has been pretty good for the entire trip, and although there has been some rainy days, they really haven't spoiled our vacation. However, the weather forecast for the Canada Day weekend did not look promising, with rain predicted for most of the weekend. Determined to have a good fireworks show, Derek decided he would set them off on Saturday if it was a good day rather then waiting for Sunday and hoping for a break in the forecast rain.

Arriving at the cottage with a car full of fireworks and a table built especially to safely mount the various rockets, cherry bombs and massive firework cakes on a floating dock out in the lake, Derek was informed that the show was scheduled for Sunday, because guests had been invited and could not come on Saturday. When he expressed concern about the rain, his father assured Derek that the forecast called for rain all afternoon, but clearing by 5:00 pm. Now coming from Nova Scotia where even Cindy Day rarely gets the forecast that accurate, I had to share Derek's concern, but his dad was confident.

Sunday dawned with cloud and dark skies on the horizon, and by noon it was raining; “See, just like the forecast said.” was Derek's dad, David's optimistic response.

The Fireworks Table

By 2:00 pm, it was no longer raining, it was pouring, but David checked his phone and reassured us that it was still supposed to clear by 6:00 pm.

At 4:00 pm, the driveway was washing away, the downspouts could not longer handle the deluge of rain, and you needed both a raincoat and an umbrella to go outside. “Don't worry”, David assured us, “The weather forecast is saying it will clear by 7:00 pm.”

It was still raining at 6:00 pm, but not so hard, and perhaps the skies to the west might be a bit brighter. “Yup, we're good, clearing is expected by 8:00 pm” David claimed when everyone pointed out the continuing rain.

Well, David was right. By 8:00 pm, the rain had stopped, and Derek hurried outside to quickly get everything organized and set up. By 9:00 pm, there was actually some blue skies, and they towed the now almost prepared floating dock out into the lake for Derek to complete final preparations.

At precisely 10:00 pm, under a beautiful darkening blue sky, Derek set off an amazing 20 minute firework show. Everyone agreed that it was his best show ever, and David's optimism proved as accurate as the weather forecast.

Ready to go - rain stopped