And now, let’s get back to recounting the details of the great Canadian Adventure, shall we? Because I gotta tell you people about Memoire et Racines, not to mention GBS, but I ain’t skipping ahead!
Our last day in Toronto involved less wandering around than the two previous ones, in no small part because we needed to keep some time free for solarbird to get back to Chez Cow and prepare for her house concert! But that said, we did have a good wander about through the late morning and early afternoon.
The first stop of the day was at the Ontario Legislative Building in Queen’s Park, so that cow could drop off tasty Montreal bagels for a friend. On the way, Dara and I spotted various amusing signs out the windows of the bus, so I took pics. I was disappointed that “Dragons and Skulls” did not in fact sell either dragons OR skulls–it was apparently a defunct Chinese gift shop. “Adult Movie Pet Food” just made me giggle on general principle for the juxtaposition, while “Cabbagetown” made both me AND Dara giggle and think of Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s cabbage vendor NPC!
A very disappointing sign
This was the sign of a small shop near Cow's place, which turned out to have been a former and now closed Chinese gift-type shop. I was rather disappointed that it had not in fact sold either dragons OR skulls.
A very confusing sign
"Adult movie" and "pet food" are not concepts I'd ever thought to see juxtaposed!
A very awesome sign
Dara and I both saw "Welcome to Old Cabbagetown" as we went by this place on the streetcar, and we both IMMEDIATELY thought of the cabbage seller in "Avatar: the Last Airbender" and "Avatar: Legend of Korra"! Apparently this is where he wound up after CabbageCorp folded!
Once we got to the Legislative Building, we peeked into the lobby, as far as we could get in the building without joining one of the formal tours, and we did snap a few pics while we were in there. There was nice art on the walls as well as the ceremonial mace used by the Legislature.
At the Queens Park legislative building
We stopped briefly at the legislative building to drop off bagels for a friend of Cow's, and we had just enough time to set foot in the front foyer and snap a couple of pics. This was some of the art hanging on the walls.
Also at the Queens Park legislative building
This is a symbol of office and looked awfully impressive.
More art at Queens Park
This was on the opposite wall from where the mace was being displayed.
The Queen's jubilee
This was the display case celebrating Queen Elizabeth's jubilee. To wit: oh right, we're visiting a monarchy!
After that we wandered through a bit more of the park, specifically cutting past a building that cow told us was the medieval studies building for the University of the Toronto. There was a neat sign there all in Latin–and how many signs do you see on colleges anywhere, TOTALLY IN LATIN? I also rather liked an ivy-covered arch nearby.
Then we cut over to the Village, Toronto’s LGBT district, and I snapped more pics of urban art that caught my eye on the way. We stopped at Glad Day for books (where I picked up a potentially interesting novel called Three, mentioned in my last book round up post). We stopped for yogurt (which was tasty). We popped into a candy store (where I giggled at the sight of an ancient Six Million Dollar Man lunchbox, which I recognized because my brother had had one of those when I was a kid!). And we stopped to look at an AIDS memorial, which was touching.
The only sign I've ever seen in Latin
Once we were done dropping by Queen's Park in downtown Toronto, we cut through the U of T campus and specifically past the medieval studies building. Where we found this sign in Latin! I have no idea what it says, but hey, Latin!
The arch at the medieval studies building
This was a nifty arch near the sign in Latin.
We can rebuild our lunch
Why did I take a photo of a Six Million Dollar Man lunchbox? Because we stopped in a candy store on the way to Riverdale Farm, and the candy store had ancient lunchboxes, and I saw this one, and recognized it from when I was a kid!
AIDS memorial
We went through the Village, Toronto's LGBT district, on our way to Riverdale Farm. They have a touching AIDS memorial there, one to which they add new plaques every year with the names of AIDS victims. This was the first set of plaques.
More urban art in Toronto
I liked this mural, and this bit was only a portion of the full thing stretching along an entire block.
One more bit of urban art
I liked this one, especially the meta-ness of a painting of a hand painting a painting!
But the thing I liked best about this particular day’s wandering was Riverdale Farm. I hadn’t ever encountered an urban farm before, and it was really pretty neat to be able to wander through a farm right in the middle of a major city.
Rooster
A very proud-looking rooster at Riverdale Farm.
Uninterested chickens are uninterested
These chickens wanted nothing to do with us and our cameras.
Suspicious rooster is suspicious
And this rooster did not look amused with our shenanigans!
Pair of geese
A white goose and a black goose. I liked the contrast!
Tiny rooster, big noise
This tiny rooster was doing his damndest to cock-a-doodle-doo louder than the one back in my first farm picture in this set!
Tuckered-out pigs
It's hard work being pigs. Zzzzzzzz.
Hey! Do you have food?
This turkey, on the other hand, was highly interested in us. At least up until the part where it realized we did not in fact have food.
Feeding time for the horse
The horse seemed generally uninterested in anything but noms.
Also feeding time for donkeys
The donkey wasn't any more interested in anything besides noms than the horse, really.
Hi Cows!
"Cows are my friends!" -- GIR
These cows are not so friendly
But considering that it was hot and humid and about to rain, I don't blame them for seeking shelter!
A very tiny Rapunzel tower
We had no idea what this was for until we got around to the other side, and saw a sign talking about chemical storage. Which was a way more prosaic use for this structure than I was hoping for.
Once we were done wandering around the farm, the weather took a turn for the worse–and just as we made it off the bus near Cow’s place, it finally opened up raining. I’d brought my raincoat, thankfully, so I didn’t get too wet. Dara was not so lucky!
But it was all good, because the rest of the day pretty much went to Dara’s house concert. Attendees If and Sarah were very fun to chat with (and I in particular had great fun talking to Sarah since she works for Kobo and I was pleased to be able to yak about putting Faerie Blood up on Kobo’s new Writing Life site), and they took well to Dara’s music, particularly “Sad Muppet”! A very nice way to round out the Toronto phase of our trip!
Day 2 of the Great Canadian Adventure involved more wandering around through Toronto, and in this particular case, that meant that our fine host cow took solarbird and me along Queen Street towards downtown Toronto. The plan was to stop and have lunch and hang out for a bit, until it was time to meet up with Susan, my Le Vent du Nord fandom friend!
Queen Street was a good walk, not too strenuous or long, especially given that I’ve done comparable walking daily getting to and from work. There was a lot of construction along the route, but there was also some nice art, like the animal mural we found under one particular bridge! And I gotta say, I really like the random bits of under-bridge art we’ve seen in Toronto so far. Apparently Toronto’s bridge trolls are quite artistically inclined!
Art under a bridge along Queen St. in Toronto
This was part of a neat mural under a bridge that we saw as we were walking to downtown Toronto along Queen Street. Snapped this shot because moose!
More art under the Queen Street bridge
This was another bit of the mural under the Queen Street bridge. There were actually quite a few panels with other animals, but I only got to snap a couple pics!
I didn’t get shots of all of the animals on that mural, but yeah, it was very pretty.
We eventually wound up at a place called the Distillery, this neat little walkable market area down near the lakefront, with a lot of nice old brick buildings. At the Mill Street Brewery pub, we stopped for some very tasty lunch. There were super-tasty pretzels with sea salt, and this day’s venture into Cider Science brought us Thornbury Cider. Which was tasty, a bit sweeter than the stuff we’d had the night before, but still not quite as intense as Strongbow!
At the Mill Street Brewery pub
We had lunch at the Mill Street Brewery pub, part of the Distillery in downtown Toronto, a nice little walkable area with some great old buildings and shops. The pretzels at this place were super-delicious.
Another shot of the Mill Street Brewery
I really liked the look of this place, along with the pretzels!
Actual brewing tank at Mill Street Brewery
One presumes actual beer was being made in there!
Then we wandered more around the general Distillery area. We stopped in a tiny sake shop, which was awesome. The guy at the counter was very knowledgeable about the various sakes they were selling, and Dara and I did “Tasting Flight”, which was small samples of three different kinds of sake. We wound up buying a bottle, and Dara was particularly happy to be able to swap a bit of Japanese in conversation with the gentleman.
And we found some seriously neat skiffy-esque sculpture!
Art at the Distillery
This is an outside shot of a big sculpture at the Distillery. I had to play with the pic a bit since it didn't come out terribly bright--I'm still trying to get the hang of doing proper pics on the iPhone!
The Distillery sculpture up close
This is the same sculpture as the previous pic, just a bit closer.
A player piano at the Distillery
I was amused by the statement above the keyboard. Also pretty sure I would not have been able to fit the piano in our luggage if I'd played it!
OHNOEZ MARTIANS
This was another sculpture at the Distillery and seriously cool-looking. I totally thought of War of the Worlds.
More skiffy sculpture at the Distillery
This one was also very cool--from the front, a very scary-looking head. From all around the sides, the texture of the thing made it look like the body of the creature was slowly disintegrating!
After the Distillery, it was time to head to the St. Lawrence market and meet up with Susan! Cow parted ways with us at that point, but it was great to meet Susan face to face. It was not surprising to me in the slightest that one of the first things she did was hand me one of the smaller posters for the Le Vent du Nord show she arranged, hee!
And it was also not surprising that the boys of Le Vent du Nord were one of my and Susan’s primary conversation topics. But we also yakked about Doctor Who, since Susan was wearing an adorable “Doctor Pooh” t-shirt–think Pooh with the Tom Baker scarf–and about audio equipment, Toronto, our various personal histories, the St. Lawrence market we were wandering through, and more.
The market, by the way, is worth mentioning just because it reminded me a lot of Pike Place, only more vertically oriented rather than sprawling. Much of the same kind of stuff sold therein, only involving a lot more maple snacks. I bought maple candy and icewine candy, the latter of which I hadn’t heard of and which proved to be tasty.
We wandered around the University of Toronto campus a lot, too, which was a nice place to walk. By the time we got there, though, a thunderstorm was rolling in–and neither Dara nor I had thought to prep for a thunderstorm! Dara didn’t have her umbrella, and I didn’t have my raincoat. DOH. Taking shelter from rain did however find us a neat arch with a WWII memorial.
On the U of T campus
Dara and I met up with my friend and fellow Le Vent du Nord fan Susan, and for a few pleasant hours we ambled around downtown Toronto and yakked up a storm. Part of our ambles took us through the University of Toronto campus. I saw this building and thought it was pretty.
The University of Toronto has a castle?
A tiny castle but a castle nonetheless!
A darker shot of the U of T castle
I had a hard time getting this one to come out. By the time I took it a thunderstorm was rolling in, so the ambient light had gone down considerably.
WWII memorial on the U of T campus
We ducked through an arch on the way across the U of T campus, trying to get out of the rain, and we found this WWII memorial. Nice.
The other side of the WWII memorial
This was the opposite site of the memorial under the arch.
The plan HAD been to take Susan to dinner, but we wound up blowing the time we had available just by talking and wandering! We did at least have a chance to duck into a cafe–again, to hide from rain–and drink hot beverages and yak more. But eventually we had to return Susan to the subway so she could scamper back to Uxbridge by bus. And Dara and I made our way back along Queen Street, heading back to Chez Cow!
On the way, we saw a spaceship building. I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t an actual spaceship.
Toronto spaceship building
This was a building Dara and I spotted on the way back up Queen Street after our ramblings through the U of T campus. We both thought that bit in the middle totally looked like a spaceship, and I for one was a tad disappointed that it didn't actually take off.
It got to serious raining by the time we made it off the streetcar, so we ducked into the first open restaurant we could find, a pizza place. Which had perfectly acceptable pizza, and a friendly waiter who told us he was from the Yukon and that he quite disliked the bit of Toronto he lives in, but that he quite LIKED the bit the restaurant was in! I.e., Cow’s neighborhood, Leslieville. We are so far in agreement on the excellence of Leslieville.
It continued to be quite thunderstormy as the night progressed, to degrees I haven’t experienced since I was a kid, or since Dara and I were in Orlando for the Worldcon in the early nineties. I dreamed of lightning as I slept. And I’m told that Toronto really needs the rain, so it’s all good.
Today, though, I’ll be heading out with my raincoat!
So yeah, the Great Canadian Adventure has begun, folks! and I made it safely to Toronto last night, after a surprisingly relaxed and groovy jaunt out of Sea-Tac. Thanks to kindly running us down to the airport on his way to work, we got there super-early and had acres of time to kill. We wound up walking all up and down all the various wings of the airport, and even stopped for 15-minute massages at a massage bar in one wing. Which was beautiful and relaxing, and which is something that should be done more often before flying, I feel.
We also looked at various bits of airport art. Most of this are of a big mural we found at the end of the A wing, which looked really cool with the sun coming down through it, and I quite liked the sleeping figures at the top. For comparison, though, I also present the dubious brown bits of sculpture that we wound elsewhere in our airport wanderings–sculpture that wasn’t particularly improved by the proximity of similarly shaped white pieces hanging from the nearby ceiling.
Left edge of the mural in Sea-Tac airport
This is the left edge of the big mural that Dara and I found in the Sea-Tac airport!
Mural art in the SeaTac airport
This is part of a large mural in the A wing of the Sea-Tac airport. Dara and I found it wandering around waiting for our flight, and I thought it looked really neat with the sun coming down through it!
Right edge of the mural in the Sea-Tac airport
This is the right edge, top part, of the Sea-Tac mural in the A wing of the airport. I like the sleeping figures at the very top.
Right edge of the mural in Sea-Tac
This is all of the right edge of the mural at Sea-Tac in the A wing of the airport. It's a darker shot but it shows the whole right edge of the piece.
Dubious airport art is dubious
More art in Sea-Tac, but unlike the mural, this really just made me go 'wut?' It was only slightly less dubious in conjunction with the similar white sculpture pieces hanging nearby, which I didn't photograph. But still!
And we wound up having all this time to kill at the airport even given the madhouse that SeaTac was, thanks to mechanical failures and flight cancellations. We got a baggage fee waived even though Dara’s bouzouki was oversized, and even the security line was surprisingly quick and painless; neither of us got dinged for the full-body scanner, thankfully.
The flight was a bit bumpy, but we made it in okay, and Canadian customs was also quick and painless. came to meet us and escort us back to Chez Cow, and then we popped back out again to go get a very late (by local time) dinner at Cow’s nearby preferred pub. We had lovely service from the Croatian bartender there and got to try a local cider, for the first volley in this Adventure’s objective of CIDER SCIENCE! Verdict on the Waupoos: a good light, dry cider, not as overt in flavor as Strongbow, but that stuff’s hard to beat. The fish and chips were tasty as well, and we eventually keeled back over at Chez Cow around midnightish.
Much to my amazement, my brain popped online around sixish–i.e., threeish Pacific time. And I was astonishingly awake and have mostly remained so all day! When the HELL did I turn into a morning person, anyway?
But today was relaxed and groovy, an overall theme for this trip. We wandered out through the Leslieville district, had some nice lunch at a Japanese place, and then a lovely walk along the beach of Lake Ontario. Internets, this is the first time I’d ever been to one of the Great Lakes! And the sheer visual size of it just blew me away. I’m used to Lake Washington–which, don’t get me wrong, is no tiny pond–but even with Lake Washington, I can see the distant shorelines way down at the other end.
With Lake Ontario, though, there’s nothing out there but blue horizon. The weird thing, though, is that it looks like it ought to be ocean, except that there are no waves and no tides, and the air doesn’t smell like salt. It was great fun to wade down into the beautiful clear water, though, and see some tiny wriggling mini-fish. Here’s the shots I got of the lake!
The beach at Lake Ontario
The beach at Lake Ontario, on July 24, 2012!
More of Lake Ontario
Goodness, Lake Ontario is big.
A bit of the Lake Ontario boardwalk
Very nice walking on a sunny day. Especially if you're a doggie.
Lake Ontario is still big, and also, swimmable
A lot of people were out splashing around in the water when we walked by!
Nearby curving shoreline of Lake Ontario
This bit really just kind of put into perspective for me exactly how big this lake is.
Rocks on the shore of Lake Ontario
Beautifully clear water!
Downtown Ontario as seen from the lake
Looking this way, we could see some nifty buildings and the spire of CN Tower.
Our evening went to Ethopian food for dinner, and then a casual stroll got us back to Chez Cow. I got a couple more pics on the way! I giggled at the No Hockey sign, but also the Traffic Calming one, because apparently the local streets just wanted a nice relaxing cup of tea. The mural and the tunnel, though, those were awesome. And the tunnel totally makes me think a scene of some sort ought to take place in it.
A sign I did not expect to ever see in Canada
Wait, there are actually bits of Canada where they DON'T want you playing hockey?
Park mural in Ontario
This is a pretty neat mural in a park we walked through as evening was falling.
Tunnel to a bad place
This is actually the short tunnel right next to the mural I took a picture of, but as we were coming out of it and I looked back into it, it totally looked like some sort of fantasy scene should be taking place there. Maybe it's the tunnel into the Spirit World in Spirited Away. The iPhone's weirdness with low-light conditions only enhanced the effect, too!
We are closing this first day in Toronto with experiments in margaritas and vodka. And tomorrow there will be meeting of fellow Le Vent du Nord fan Susan!