Yonge-Dundas Square: There’s always something going on here.
Nathan Phillips Square and City Hall
cool nail mural in city hall
Check out the relief created by nails of different sizes.
Live and late-braking!
Had to stop in just because of the name.
Royal Ontario Museum
ROM: the Crystal Gallery
Toronto’s iconic CN Tower
humorous depiction of fans at the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays
on the other side of the Rogers Centre
A cement mixer in support of breast cancer awareness. Now, that’s a statement!
A henge at Harbourfront Park. Those are the Toronto Islands in Lake Ontario, just off shore.
in Yo Yo Ma’s Music Garden
view to the north from our apartment
We’ve arrived in Toronto and are loving city life! We’re in a fantastic Airbnb rental on the 27th floor of a tower in the Church-Wellesley area of downtown. This is one of our best rentals ever!
Our first day: walking tour of Old Town, the Entertainment District, the Financial District, and the Harbourfront.
first stop: St. Lawrence Market
We love these European-style markets, chock-full of fresh foods.
Couldn’t resist a peameal bacon sandwich, known to those of us from south of the border as Canadian bacon.
Toronto’s Flatiron Building
humorous trompe-l’oeil mural on the back of the Flatiron
stumbled across this delightful park—Berzcy Park—behind the Flatiron Building
adorable dog fountain!
the pinnacle–the almighty bone!
Five bonus points if you noticed the cat on the fountain!
This photo of Belleville is courtesy of TripAdvisor
With so many “rocks” sticking up out of the St. Lawrence River, which qualify as islands?
Interesting factoid: To be considered one of the 1000 Islands, an island must be above water for 365 days of the year and it must support at least one living tree. By these criteria, there are 1864 islands in the 1000 Islands. The smallest is Tom Thumb Island, on the Canadian side of the border. It has one tree and only a few square feet of land that stay above water all year long.
No island is bisected by the border between Canada and the United States, which is why the border through the 1000 Islands region is so jagged.
photo courtesy of Omegatron
Just Room Enough Island, aka Hub Island, is the smallest inhabited island. It’s in the US 1000 Islands. Funny, but the name of the family that owns it is Sizeland.
A few highlights from our walking tour of Gananoque…
Riverview B&B
Months ago, when I was planning this trip, I was looking for a place to stay between Lake Placid and Toronto. We wanted to see the Thousand Islands area, but I didn’t know any of the towns along the St. Lawrence River. So I played Airbnb roulette: Pick a town anywhere in the vicinity—Kingston, Ontario, say. If you don’t see anything you like in Kingston, keep zooming out on the map until you find something. That’s how I found the Riverview B&B in Gananoque. Ganawhat? Doesn’t matter. Just put your chips down and spin the wheel.
The Riverview was a bit difficult to find only in that our GPS (some of you may remember the obstinate Rita from previous trips) disavowed any knowledge of Thousand Islands Parkway where the B&B is located. How can that be? It’s a major thoroughfare along the river! With Rita in a huff and not having cell service in Canada, we were on our own. (What did we do before Smart Phones?) Fortunately signage was good, and we were able to find the parkway, which, by the way, is spelled “1000 Islands Parkway.” Hence, Rita’s attitude.
The B&B, the former Lansdowne House, stands out like a manor house in its rural community just east of Gananoque. It was a large, stately home that has recently been remodeled into eight spacious guest rooms, plus a large suite for the owners. It also has a fitness room, a breakfast room, and a beautiful rooftop terrace. Relieved that we had at least broken even on our bet, we dropped our luggage and headed in to town to explore.
What an adorable town! Gananoque—or Gan, as locals call it—is just our speed: small, picturesque, quiet, and oh-so friendly. There are several scenic walks through the town of approximately 5000 which highlight some of the elegant homes built during Gan’s heyday as a major transportation hub on the St. Lawrence. Perhaps it’s fortuitous that river traffic was later diverted to Kingston, a city of over 120,000 today, so that Gan could retain its 19th-century charm.
We started at Tourist Information, where a pleasant woman educated us as to Gan’s many highlights. Primarily, it’s a launching point for boat tours of the 1000 Islands. Rather than being cooped up with tourists feeding seagulls for five hours, we opted to see the sights of the town on foot, starting with the Ganonoque Brewing Company which, as luck would have it, was right across the street from TI. We enjoyed a very talented (humorous, as well as musically endowed) duo performing in the brewery’s diminutive Beer Garden while we washed down the dust of the road.
at the Purple House Cafe
A couple saw us reading through our TI brochures and asked if we were looking for a place to eat. Not particularly, but we would take all recommendations. Purple House Cafe, hands down. Just a pleasant stroll away, Purple House had a sweet stone patio with a wood-fired pizza oven out front. The weather was perfect—sunny and a warm 75°—so we enjoyed a delicious pizza while playing a rousing game of dominoes. Board games are part of the ambience. It just keeps getting better. Winner, winner, pizza dinner!
Bendominoes, bendy dominoes
my new friend, Monty
crossing the St. Lawrence River into Canada at Ogdensburg, New York
entering High Peaks territory
Our next stop northbound was Lake Placid. I really didn’t know what to expect. A lake, of course, and who can forget the 1980 Winter Olympics when the US hockey team upset the Soviet Union? But do tourists come here? Maybe not; I couldn’t find an Airbnb rental within 100 miles.
Turns out Lake Placid is quite the tourist destination in summer because of the beautiful Adirondack Mountains and the lakes. The Main Street area is adorable, with lots of cute shops and yummy restaurants with lake views. And there are three craft breweries! But physical activity comes before beer. So what to do? When in doubt, seek out local knowledge.
I approached the woman at the hotel reception desk. “If you had only one day to spend in Lake Placid, what would you do? Where is the ‘wow’?”
She didn’t hesitate. “The High Peaks.”
Adirondack Mountain Club trail
The High Peaks are a cluster of 46 mountains in the Adirondacks, just south of Lake Placid for the most part, that are over 4000 feet in elevation–or so they thought at the time they came up with the designation. If you climb all 46, you are eligible to join the Adirondack 46ers club.
mountain flora
She recommended three easy-to-moderate hikes, at our request, in the High Peaks region. We chose to summit Mount Jo. I’d never summited a mountain before! I mean, how many mountain summits do you know of that are moderate hikes? Jo isn’t one of the High Peaks, but at 2876 feet its summit offers great views of 17 of the Big Guys.
mountain fauna–the third snake we’ve seen on this trip [so far]. Anyone know what kind?
at the summit
For much of the hike up, we were climbing a dry, steep stream bed like stairs. It must have been a waterfall during the Spring snowmelt! Not too bad though; it only took us an hour to summit. And the view was spectacular, especially of Heart Lake in the valley below. The hike down? Well, let’s just say that the longer path was only mildly easier. We had our hiking sticks with us, so we were able to save our knees, but my quads hurt for days afterward.
And the black flies! The only good thing I can say about them is that they distracted me from the steep descent. We had purchased a natural bug repellent from the information center, which worked well around my bare legs, but apparently my hair product was just too intoxicating. By the end of the hike I looked like a measles-riddled crazy women, with bites all around my hairline (despite my repellent-doused hat) and an extra-special, bulbous bite smack dab in the middle of my right cheek.
Heart Lake
Despite the flies, mosquitos, and sore quads, it was great to get out-of-doors and give our dormant hiking boots some exercise.
elevation gain on our hike: the descent was only mildly gentler than the ascent
