A Quick Trip to Toronto

As I’ve said before, my favorite part of traveling is meeting so many open-minded, intelligent, interesting people, both locals and my travel companions.  I cherish the friends I’ve made on my trips – and if they happen to live in an interesting place that’s close to a Major League Baseball stadium, so much the better!

Earlier this summer, I went to Cincinnati to visit two wonderful people (Kelly and Peg) I met on my trip to Southeast Asia and catch a Reds game at Great American Ballpark.  Over the past couple of days, my younger son and I headed to Toronto to visit two other wonderful people from the same trip (Shari and Rob) and, of course, take in a Blue Jays game.

Much of Toronto looks like any other large financial center, with towering glass and steel buildings and choking traffic.   But there’s lots more to the city than business (including, I’d say, more cannabis dispensaries than Starbucks and an inordinate number of dental clinics; I’m not sure if the two are somehow related.) 

It’s a cultural mecca with a diverse population, a vibrant feel, and lots of non-financial things to do, including a couple of funky, fun neighborhoods that I’ll talk about at the end of the post.

We were fortunate to visit during the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), an extravaganza of rides, craft beer and food trucks, artisans’ stalls, musical performances, and a convention center packed with vendors of almost anything imaginable, from cheap medical supplies to really cool socks (I have a thing for socks) to beautiful handicrafts. 

We got there a few minutes before the 10:00 opening, beating the crowds (it draws two million visitors over its two-week run), and wandered around for a couple of hours. 

The food trucks looked fantastic, but we made the mistake of eating breakfast at a Tim Hortons before we went.  TH might be a Canadian institution, but breakfast was disappointing. if I had it to do over again, I’d’ve skipped breakfast and feasted on banh mi tacos or Indian fusion from one of the food trucks, washed down with a beer from … Cowbell Brewing Co.  (Someone goofed big-time; how is their slogan not “More Cowbell”?!)  I didn’t try a Cowbell, but I did have an excellent lager from Creemore, a local brew with a beautiful golden color.  Neglecting one of the cardinal rules of travel blogging, I didn’t take a picture, so here’s a photogenic but anodyne Molsons.

After the CNE, we headed to Ripley’s Aquarium, just across from the Rogers Center. It’s not as spectacular as the aquariums in Baltimore or Monterrey, but the displays are well-presented.  The highlight for me was a cleverly designed moving walkway that winds through a glass-enclosed tunnel in one of the major enclosures. 

From the walkway, you have a clear view of the sharks, sea turtles, and colorful fish without having to edge through the crowds. 

One particularly interesting display, for me at least, featured lots of beautifully strange jellyfish.

One of the final rooms (before the ubiquitous gift-shop-you-must-walk-through-before-exiting) houses a fascinating array of pumps, pipes, filters, and monitoring equipment – a behind-the-scenes look at how the aquarium works, which I haven’t seen elsewhere.

If you like aquariums it’s worth going, even with the steep entry fee ($50 adult, $33 seniors and ages 6-15, $15 ages 3-5; all prices in Canadian dollars). 

Adjacent to the Aquarium, the CN Tower rises 147 stories into the air and offers panoramic views of Toronto and Lake Ontario.  There are two observation levels.  A general ticket ($45/32/16) gets you to the first level, 346 meters above the ground.  Thar level also has a small glass floor allowing you to look straight down.  For an additional $11, you can go another 100 meters up to a smaller observation platform. 

The views are impressive, but to me, the experience isn’t worth the price.  If you do go, buy tickets in advance and visit in the morning.  By afternoon, the entry line is several hundred people long. 

Note:  After the fact, I found out you can buy a combination ticket for the aquarium and the tower at a significant savings ($77/52.50/25).  At that price, I think both attractions become more … attractive.

On to baseball:  I warned Rob and Shari before the game that there is a statistically significant correlation between my attendance at a ballgame and the home team losing.  In fact, I’ve thought of asking teams for “protection money” to stay away – “awfully nice team you got here; it’d be a shame if something unfortunate happened to it.”

Notwithstanding my track record, and undermining my hope of an additional income stream, the Blue Jays won.  I enjoyed the stadium; the sight lines are good, the fans were into the game, and it’s very easy to enter and exit. 

As promised at the beginning of this post, I’ll wrap up by urging you, if you visit, to head to two of Toronto’s more intriguing areas.  The first, the Distillery District, is a wonderful example of historic preservation used to reanimate an urban core. 

The old distillery buildings now house restaurants, bars, and galleries, and there’s live music and cool public art.  We had a very good Mexican meal at one of the restaurants, El Catrin Destilería, 18 Tank House Lane.

The second neighborhood is Yorkville, a boutique-intensive area where visiting celebrities apparently enjoy hanging out.  (I didn’t see any and, in all honesty, probably wouldn’t have recognized them if I had.)  Like the Distillery District, it’s chock-full of places to eat, drink, and shop, window- or otherwise.  I can recommend a spot called Sassafraz, 100 Cumberland Street, where we enjoyed several delicious small plates (more accurately, the food on those plates), accompanied by perhaps the best sangria I’ve ever had.

After a whirlwind couple of days, we bid farewell/adieu to Toronto with many fond memories and perhaps a couple of additional pounds.  Many thanks to Rob and Shari for being wonderful hosts.  Travel truly is the gift that keeps on giving!