Ontario

Winter fun in Toronto

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I have grown fond of taking a quick winter trip each year to escape what can feel like endless darkness and cold in Saskatchewan. Given the extremes of living on the prairies in winter, it means just about anywhere else for a short visit will be less harsh. Well, not so fast this past winter. I booked a four day visit to Toronto on account of my current boycott of the USA and the fact that a direct flight holds a lot of cachet when traveling across this country in the dead of winter. While my flights miraculously went off without a hitch, I clearly picked the wrong days to explore Toronto as I was hit with more winter weather and snow than I would see in Saskatoon for almost the entirety of the winter season.

My visit got off to a lucky start as I arrived in Toronto just after the first blizzard had cleared away and with my flight there being the first in about a day and a half to not be canceled out of Saskatoon into Toronto. As I waited for a street car to take me to some craft brewery exploring, there were blue skies above and a reasonable amount of fresh snow on the ground.

Queen Street West in Toronto
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Across Canada, Chewy’s last trip

/ Greg / 1 Comment

After moving myself to Saskatoon to take a new job in early April, I returned to the Maritimes to pick up my wife and our dog for a 4,000km, seven day car trek from her family’s home outside of Fredericton, NB to Saskatchewan. I had missed my wife and dog something fierce for the six weeks. When I left them in Halifax at the end of March, before leaving our home to catch an early morning flight, I made sure to say a special goodbye to Chewy. He was suffering with some health issues, and I wasn’t sure I would ever see him again. Fast forward six weeks and a number of vet trips later, Chewy was there for me in New Brunswick.

The night I surprised him with my return, he jumped on the sofa beside me and laid down on top of me.  Our dog likes to be close, but not too close, so I could tell he really missed me. And the next morning, he wouldn’t let me out of his sight, even camping outside a bathroom up a steep flight of stairs to make sure he could be close. On this early morning, he had no idea the adventure he was in for…

Chewy in Nackawic, NB

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A morning of sharks, eels and blue lobsters

/ Greg / Leave a comment

My Dad was pretty stoked to visit the new aquarium on our visit to Toronto.  I’ve never been much of an aquarium guy.  Honestly, when I walk around one, I’m pretty much thinking, “I wonder how that fish would taste?”   Maybe I shouldn’t visit these places around lunch.  But I digress…  The Toronto Aquarium was a pretty cool attraction and captured my interest enough that it made me pretty excited to visit the New England Aquarium on my recent visit to Boston.

The main feature at the Toronto Aquarium is their shark tank.  But they first tease you with a whole host of interesting sea life.  One of my favourites was the steely eyed wolf eel:

Wolf eel

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Jays games with Dad

/ Greg / 3 Comments

I’m having a pretty good year of seeing baseball so far – a couple of early season games in Chicago, a recent game in Boston, and back in May, my Dad and I took in three Blue Jays games in Toronto.   This is the second time over the past few years that we’ve moved into my sister’s downtown apartment while she was away, stocked up the fridge with a few days supply of Steam Whistle, and then spent most of our time down at the place formerly known as SkyDome.

For the first of the three games, the Phillies were in town to start a short two game series.   Dad and I were camped out way up in the 500 level with vertigo-inducing seats:

With Dad at Jays game

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Escape to the islands

/ Greg / 1 Comment

When my Dad and I were in Toronto back in early May, we weren’t treated to great weather for the few days there.  It was unseasonably cold and windy, so we were lucky the Jays games we went to were played under the dome.  We did get one relatively nice afternoon to make a trip neither of us had before.  A quick walk from my sister’s condo (our home away from home for this trip) is the ferry over to the Toronto Islands.   Shortly after departing downtown, this is the view back toward the city… pretty nice!

Toronto skyline

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Another return from Toronto

/ Greg / Leave a comment

It’s not quite an annual tradition, but my Dad and I try to make it up to Toronto as often as we can to take in some Blue Jays games and check out a few sights from around the city.   Lately, we’ve been pretty solid good luck charms for the Jays, and it was no different on this trip with the home team winning two of the three games we saw.  We also seem to inspire the best in Edwin Encarnacion on our visits.  He might want to include some free tickets and a plush downtown condo for us in his next contract negotiations.  Here he is circling the bases after one of three monster home runs he hit while we looked on:

Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre

A second trip to Toronto in 2014 for me, this was a really nice three days with my Dad.  There was a lot of time at Rogers Centre for the games, a trip to the new aquarium at the base of the CN Tower, some time over on the Toronto Islands on a pleasant spring day, a visit to the St. Lawrence Market and more than a couple of ice cold Steam Whistle beers enjoyed while just generally hanging out.  I’ll write more in the coming weeks on a few new to me experiences in Toronto.

A world of food in Toronto

/ Greg / 1 Comment

A trip to Toronto for me is always a chance to sample from a world’s worth of cuisines.  On this last visit, I managed to to squeeze in some pretty tasty Spanish, El Salvadorian, Mexican and Venezuelan meals.

Spanish: Patria

The food of Spain isn’t the only allure for me, it’s also the art of tapas that draws me in.  I always struggle picking something from a menu, so tapas works perfectly for me.  Patria, on King St. West, is a relatively new Toronto restaurant and was the place my sister picked for her birthday meal.  The food and wine were lovely, and we had a nice cross section of tapas.   Marcona almonds, chorizo, manchego, pan con tomate, roasted peppers, some interesting Spanish wines, and much more…. good times!

Tapas at Patria

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Hockey night in Toronto

/ Greg / 1 Comment

I’ve spent a lot of time in Toronto.  Leisure visits, countless in/out trips for work, a longer consulting engagement where I had an address and actually received postal mail for a period of time.  I know Toronto well enough that on the Yonge-University subway line, for most of the downtown stations, I can tell you which subway car to get on so that when the train stops, you’re right across from the station exit you want.  But up until this recent trip to Hogtown, I had never experienced the quintessential Toronto event – a Leafs game.

I had been in the ACC one time before for a Raptors game, but I still got to the arena early so I could look around.   It’s a really great rink.  I would soon learn that even from the upper deck, there really isn’t a bad seat in the house.  I wanted to catch a little bit of the pregame warmup from a good seat, so I made my way down to the lower level:

Centre ice at the ACC

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Toronto to start 2014’s travels

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Kicking off my 2014 travels is a trip to Toronto for the better part  of next week.  It’s another mixed work and vacation trip: a couple of days with my sister (her wine club and a new Spanish restaurant will occupy much of our time together) will be followed up by a few days on course at U of T.  I’ll be taking in a slice of Canadiana one evening as I see my first Leafs game, which is a bit of an embarrassment given how much time I’ve spent in Toronto over the years.

No matter how many times I get back to Toronto, there’s always something new to discover.  On this trip, I think I’ll be spending a bit of time wandering around in search of public art yet undiscovered by me and a journey to a couple of neighbourhoods I’ve yet to visit.  That being said, if the polar vortex still has its grip on Hogtown, I may just elect to find a cozy coffee shop or bar to while away the hours with a good book.   There’s something liberating about a couple of vacation days in a place that feels so much like home and a place you know you’ll keep making return visits to.   With crossed fingers that Mother Nature allows my travel plans to proceed as planned, here’s looking forward to Toronto and the start of a great year of travel!