Toronto

I just realized that some of the posts that I thought I had published earlier in the trip were still labelled as drafts.  I have now posted them so you may want to go back and catch up on more detail of our trip since we left Winnipeg.  Sorry about that!

We are still here in Toronto, having a lazy, around home day at Walt and Ingrid's.  Shon has had an oil/lube done and a new battery put in the truck.  Glad that it showed signs of not starting while we were here, not in the boonies somewhere!  We took their grandsons to a large urban park, Rouge Valley, today and had a picnic along the river after walking through the forest.  It is much cooler and more pleasant today.

Walt teaching Mason about nature along Highland Creek

Chris and Shon at Mill St brewpub

CN Tower at night

Yesterday, we picked up Chris -Shon's son - from work and took the subway downtown.  We wandered through town to the new-old Distillery district, an old industrial area being re-imagined as an urban neighbourhood full of galleries, restaurants and shops - like Vancouver's Yaletown.  We had dinner at a brew pub there then wandered back to the downtown core and up Yonge Street, the centre of Toronto's life after dark.  Great people watching as Toronto is very multicultural.  I love seeing cityscapes at night as I am more likely to look up and see the buildings than in the daytime.  I agree with Chris though that Toronto as a whole isn't my idea of a dream city - it lacks the natural setting that Vancouver has and the soul/spirit that Montreal exudes.  However, we have seen some natural areas that most tourists would never find and I am enjoying fresh raspberries from Ingrid's garden and red cardinals flying through the trees.  The traffic I won't miss - Highway 401 has 16 lanes through the city!!!i