Retired Nomads - Part 2 : Toronto, Ontario - City Tour

July 13

We had a city tour today since we have already been to Niagara Falls. We waited outside of the hotel for our 8:00 pickup. It was a van for 7 of us. “The sisters” had taken the tour to the Falls! It was a nice group today with a single guy and 2 other couples that were a lot of fun.

The guide was very personable, and it was clear from his comparisons that Toronto wants to be New York City. We started at the Old city hall, Toronto sign and then to CN tower for the elevator ride to the top great views of the city. The Old City Hall was designed by Designed by prominent Toronto architect Edward James Lennox. He used a lot of gargoyles to look like animals and humans. The guide said many were to represent the representatives that worked there.

clock tower on Old City Hall

it would have been nice if the guide had us go across the street to get a better photo of the whole building

small market on the way to the Ontario sign

homeless man bathing in the pond

Next, we went to CN Tower since it just opened for the day, and he wanted to avoid the crowds.

Roundhouse

Rogers Center Baseball Stadium

CN Tower

colorful picnic table area on a rooftop

They still like to say they are the tallest building. It really is a tower not a building. Burj Kkalifa in Dubai currently holds that title. Lots of caveats about freestanding vs not. The guide said the Burj is not free-standing, The Burj says yes, they are. Whatever....

After that we visited the “underground city” as our guide put it. PATH is the name for the underground area that houses stores, restaurants and hotels and a great way to get between train stations without being out in the elements. Obviously not needed on the beautiful day we had today.

art in the underground

part of the hotel there, a Hilton I think - they raise bees in the enclosed garden

we drove around and visited the various ethnic areas of town

There was a large homeless camp in the park and this cart was parked near the road. The sign says "Lost in a wildernesss of pain, all the children are insane - Spare change?"

The Market we visited was awesome. It was St. James Market, and it was full of wonderful meats and cheeses and pastries as well as some shopping areas. The guide recommended the butter tarts, but we preferred the chocolate ones we found later. The meats and sauces you could get there as well as the lovely fresh produce, would be a great thing to have here. Maybe there are markets like that in larger cities here in the states like NYC or LA or Chicago, but not in most of the areas here.

different fillings in butter tarts - we got 2 different kinds and split them

Caviar

deep dark sticky chocolate custard tart

wild boar

buffalo, rabbit, venison, alpaca, kangaroo, ostrich, wild boar, Emu, duck & crocodile sliders

bilk ground meats - same choices as the sliders

thighs & tenderloin parts of meat

beef cheeks and veal

Veal kidney, duck liver ground rabbit & emu

Ground Elk, Kangaroo, Venison Oso Bucco

duck fat

confit duck legs

tomahawk steaks

Porcini & shallot butter, Black truffle butter, anchovy butter, garlic herb butter

octopus

bones anyone?

After the market we took a cruise around the harbor islands on Lake Ontario with great views of the city.

waiting for the boat

people doing the Edge Walk on CN Tower

inside the boat

swans

Mallard Duck

Canada Geese

Anhingas

As a bonus our guide took us to an old distillery that has been converted into a funky shopping, dining and bar area. Very cool area. Normally, they only do that stop when the weather is too bad for the cruise. Gooderham and Worts Distillery was once a gristmill and distillery in the 1800’s

Today, more than 40 buildings from the nineteenth-century complex remain intact. The stone distillery, rack houses, and other buildings now accommodate office, retail, and residential spaces connected by courtyards and pedestrian avenues lined by trees, planting beds, and Victorian-inspired lampposts. The guide said that for Christmas it looks like a fairytale decked out with lights and decorations.

Gooderham and Worts Distillery

me checking out the inflatable chair

sculpture made of locks

art made of locks - the artist was selling the locks and then he writes your name on it and hangs it

the 2 couples joked that he probably wiped the names off and resold the same locks every day

It would have been a great place to grab lunch at one of the many restaurants, but our tour was over.

We were dropped off at our hotel and we dropped our things and then headed out for a late lunch.

We just wanted something light and dropped into the Soup Nutsy. Play on words of Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi. Since it was later in the day they were out of a lot of soups, but we found 2 to try. Very good.

West African Senelalese Peanut Chicken

chili

Then we walked back to the harbor area for a nice long walk along the harbor and had a BeaverTail.

We wandered back past the CN tower and people were lined up for the Blue Jays baseball game. We saw where the Maple Leafs play hockey and the Hockey Hall of Fame which we didn’t have time to visit. The Blue Jays were on a one game winning streak. (still loyal fans) Later that night on TV we heard they had fired the coach and were replacing him, after they finally won a game…lol.

cute black squirrel

We went back to the hotel and relaxed until dinner, before going to a loud sports bar called The Loose Moose. We split Mushroom & Truffle Oil burgers and salad. Both were most excellent. It was fun watching the various videos on the big screens.

the Loose Moose

cute cow sculpture

It was getting cooler out and sprinkling a bit on and off, so we went back to the room to get jackets and then went for crepes at O’Frenchy. Never did find it. Nothing at the address listed so Greg called and they said they were inside another restaurant. Went down some stairs leading to it and came into a pool hall bar. If they had them there, we didn’t think we wanted them. Apparently, they share a kitchen and it’s takeout only. Not even a sign.

We wandered back to the hotel in search of dessert and finally grabbed ice cream cones at an ice cream truck. They were actually pretty good.

Earlier we stopped at another THC shop and got some chocolates, and they were much better than the gummies. I don’t think it was the delivery system, but rather the ratio of THC to CBD. (virtually no CBD)