toronto.

woah this is late. oh well, what can you do? sometimes i don't like being on my computer. since our trip i have spent a lot of my free time cooking, baking, biking, and doing yoga. all awesome things, but i have neglected this blog a bit. sorry bloggy!

over the long labor day weekend paul and i drove to the beautiful city of toronto. we had such an amazing time! it's a great place - super multicultural (50% of the city's residents were born outside canada!) and incredibly vibrant. it felt similar to chicago, but with a touch of new york. here are a few highlights.


this is a plaza that was right across the street from our hotel. on our first day there we sat down with coffee and just did some people watching. it was awesome how torontonians (?) seemed to really engage with their public spaces. so often in american cities people just pass through parks and plazas, but in canada all different types of people were spending their time in their public spaces.



there were phone booths everywhere! it was one of the first things we noticed. for a while we were confused, but then we realized that with such a large international population there are probably a lot of people who use phone cards. we had fun playing around with them though.


chinatown in toronto is jam packed and super cool. we were walking around this part of the city when it was super early so we didn't really get a chance to try any food, but there were still a lot of sights to see.


meat on a truck.


a store front in kensigton market early in the morning.


(pretty much) the national dish of canada - poutine. fries + gravy + cheese curds. how is this not in chicago? that is a hearty midwestern dish if i've ever seen one.


exploring a city greenhouse.



a beautiful cemetery we spent an hour or so strolling around.


a kick-ass mural on an otherwise nondescript street.


the distillery district - a foot traffic only little neighborhood that is full of markets, boutiques, food, and theater. a touch touristy and odd because of that, but still really cool to see.


one of the first ever flat iron buildings.


a touching aids memorial.


an ever so perfectly canadian traffic sign. so polite!

tomorrow... niagra falls.