Toronto ‘art’ findings

Staying downtown Toronto after turning in our rental car was all about walking the streets. It gave us an opportunity to walk past a variety of ‘fun’ things. Like these ants. We were waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green, looked up, and these were found near the top of the brick building. There were at least seven easily seen.

Shortly afterward we came across this painted butterfly on an apartment building.

We were headed towards a quirky neighborhood called Kensington Market – a distinctive multicultural neighborhood in downtown Toronto. It is an older neighborhood and one of the city’s most well-known. Now, I’ll be frank, I was expecting a ‘market’ not really a neighborhood, so we didn’t realize we were in it until we walked through it. 😦 We turned around. We saw interesting and quirky places, both to eat and shop, but I also found some artwork. Here was a streetlight. Or do you call it a street lamp? Or what?

Outside one shop was this photo spot – which I believe sold cannabis. No, I did not partake.

One gentleman was sitting on his front porch and had several metalworks along the side of his house.

Praying mantis?

Looking up, saw this cat – BTW, not alive.

There was ‘traditional’ graffiti found in a few places – mostly along alleyways. Every time I looked at this, I found some items not seen before. Literally, e.v.e.r.y.t.i.m.e I look at it. While I was tweaking a few statements before hitting ‘publish’ – found more new things.

We did find a little chalk-art and I loved the fish. I only captured these 5, but there were 2-3 more ‘swimming’ around. They were leading people into their aquarium attraction. Art with a purpose – I like that.

This flower and hummingbird was cute and had an ‘X’ to mark the spot for the best photo angle. Yes, it made a difference. 🙂

The last outdoor artwork seen was this rock sculpture at the airport – cute. First, I thought it was waving ‘goodbye’ but now I think it is one of the individuals that guide planes in and out of their gates. Your thoughts?

Besides walking the streets, eating and drinking were another aspect of our laid-back visit. That is coming up next.

Ginny

Toronto Bound

The idea was to spend some intense, well-planned & organized days in Niagara Falls, Canada and relax in Toronto – basically minimal to no plans. And we had g.r.ea.t weather for our time in Canada! There was supposed to be a number of days with rain, but literally it only rained the day we left. So what did we do? We walked, ate, drank and repeat for several days.

The fun thing about countries that don’t celebrate the US Thanksgiving holiday……….they are already prepping for Christmas! Toronto was no exception. Our first night we first ran into this holiday moose. Well not literally…

Holiday decorations were popping up around the town with a number of city planters turning into bits of holiday color.

Loved seeing the dried lotus pods in these planters.

No visit would be complete without a shot of their space needle, the CN Tower. We didn’t go up but got a quick shot as we walked past. As you can see, we had wonderful blue skies during our visit.

We were on our way to the Toronto harbor, part of Lake Ontario and I tried to get Adrienne out on a canoe or kayak – no such luck.

We were fairly close to a top-rated Toronto Chocolate company, SOMA Chocolatemaker, and we stopped for a taste and WOW – it was some of the best chocolate that I’ve tasted. I could have bought one of everything they had! My backpack was several pounds heavier after leaving – just saying.

No trip would be complete without stopping at a Tim Hortons. What is a Tim Hortons?

Founded in 1964 by Canadian hockey player, Tim Horton and a partner, it is now a multi-national coffee house and restaurant – Canada’s largest quick-service place. They have +5400 restaurants in 15 countries and are based in Toronto.

That was a quick overview of our initial exposure to the city but more is coming. Stay tuned.

Ginny