Day 5: Toronto Kid

It was a full day in Toronto and a long one. As the trip goes on I'm finding my entries getting progressively longer, and finding that I'm wasting a lot of time on blogging when I could be out on the town. Maybe that will change as we venture farther from the civilized world, and there is not as much town to go out on. Anyway, for now there's a lot to get to, so let's get to it.

After getting up and out at the crack of 11, we started the day where every good Canadian does.



And then proceeded to the one place where every good Toronto tourist should start.



Now I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I did have a great time seeing the place, because where else will you see a team Mexico jersey close-up?



I also got to play a little "interactive game" to see if my goaltending skills could still pay the bills. They do not.



We finally got out of that place and continued wandering through the city, seeing the "old town" which has ironically been mostly redeveloped over the past few decades. We kept going by establishments in a chain of "Flatiron and Firkin" bars. It's a firkin freehouse. They like to say "firkin" a little too much, and I don't think it's quite as funny as they seem to think it is.



We had a little artistic tour, as we encountered this sidewalk painting accompanied by a series of chalk-written personal messages from the artist to ... well, Toronto I guess.



We also went through a sculpture garden which only seemed to have one sculpture in it, supposedly the winner of some sculpture competition. Here it is from what is, presumably, the front:



And from the back:



I don't think I'll ever fully understand art.

Finally, we made our way down to the waterfront. We found a place where people were learning to kayak, and it reminded me of the weekend before last.



There are ferries along the waterfront going to the island parks, which have recreational areas such as amusement parks, playing fields, and according to this map we saw, a variety of different beaches.



We didn't go to any clothing optional beaches, but we did go to this "urban," and probably clothing non-optional, beach along the waterfront, which is something I'm going to see if we can try to do back home.



From the waterfront area I also caught view of Toronto's mandatory urban monument to its own insecurity.



Up from the waterfront I saw one of the most enormous urban condo developments I've ever witnessed, and I have a pretty big one going on in the city where I work. We wandered into the sales office to get a look at their demo units, which were apparently not for viewing by the general public, since they were behind a solid sliding door with a keycode lock.



Since they weren't impressed by the fact that I'm a city planner, and I didn't feel like filling out a form giving my name, address, income, and other personal information so that they could show me around and cast disparaging looks at me, we decided to move on. Needless to say, these are on the upper side of scale.

Further up the street we entered Chinatown, and there was that phallic monument again.



Apparently, in Toronto's Chinatown, there are fruits and then there are fruits. This guy has both.



Around the corner was Kensington Market, the more bohemian section of town. We were surprised and delighted to see who we thought might be the Mayor (and some later internet searching confirmed probably was) taping a promotional spot.



He did a few takes of a short shot where he was saying something along the lines of, "If you want to experience the diversity of Toronto, Kensington Market should be your first stop." It made me feel good to be there. Also, though his cameras weren't showing it, he was standing outside a place called "Chocolate Addict."



And we were all surely getting a nice contact high from the nearby "Hot Box Cafe"/"Roach-A-Rama."



We whiled away the rest of our time in Kensington looking at the beautiful red snapper.



Even further uptown from there, we found ourselves in the institutional parts of town. First we saw the famous Ukranian Center of Canada: Ontario Chapter.



And across the street from that I think was some kind of college.



I admired the college for caring not only about keeping its streets safe for pedestrians, but doing it in the most adorable way possible.



I also admired the way Canadians exhibit their entrepreneurship without losing their sense of irony.



Around the corner a bit we found the very august Department of Household Science, which would not be so funny if the letters were not so Romanized.



We then took a loop around Queens Park, looking at some picnic tables that have seen better days ...



And some black-haired squirrels that are apparently only fascinating to me.



We went through an underpass from the park, and I found myself in a place that seemed oddly familiar.



And around the corner from there we saw an institution that probably wins the award for the simultaneously cutest and saddest sign.



However, of all the institutions we visited today, this one was undoubtedly the best:



It was a long day of walking, so after a short rest, we decided to take a ride down to the big mall, where we ate at a big place called "Mr. Greenjeans." It was very empty, the decor was strangely retro-extravagant, and the food was OK yet unremarkable, but we get to watch harness racing and pro wrestling on TV, so it got my thumbs-up.

We decided to go back in a bit early, but no trip to Canada would be complete without seeing the Queen. And by that I mean looking at the outside of the theatre where the Queen musical is playing.



A few hours worth of blogging later, and that's about it for Toronto. We're going to try to get an earlier start out tomorrow, but I'm not sure how that will go, considering the group of young, loud, presumably party-happy people who checked in on our floor of the hotel today. We'll be out of the Provinces and back in the States tomorrow, so check in for what will probably, hopefully, be a shorter post.