A FUN HOLIDAY WEEKEND IN TORONTO

This past weekend was a long holiday weekend in Canada celebrating Canada's Birthday on July 1.  There were lots of activities happening in our city, so we got a public transit family pass for $10 which allowed us to hop on or hop off the buses, subways and trolleys as much as we want for 24 hours.  We felt we were on vacation visiting a world class city and 

seeing sights we may have missed in our daily life.

Of course, window shopping is always a fun thing to do in any city.  I loved this sign of Lilliput Hats and I will be showing these little hat treasures that are 

created in this popular shop in an upcoming post.

And we walked along the Mink Mile and enjoyed all the windows in the high end shops.  This is from the Chanel window.  Love the necklace.  

Having breakfast at an outside cafe among the beautiful trees and next to a wonderful old building along Bloor Street

 was a fun way to start the day.

Then we headed to the Distillery District which has the beautiful old warehouses that use to house famous whiskeys like Canadian Club but is now a center for many artists and lots of outside cafes.  This particular restaurant had very interesting chairs from which one

 could enjoy a drink or two.

Then we took the famous Red Rocket (trolley) down King Street when we saw a picnic in one of the parks where people were enjoying free hot dogs and hamburgers to celebrate Canada Day.  There was a jazz band playing and it was fun seeing groups of people from all walks of life in Toronto enjoying the afternoon.  There were quite a number of homeless people there as well and it was so lovely seeing 

the people mixing together and enjoying the day.  

Toronto is a very special city in that way.  It's a very open and welcoming city for people from all walks of life.  It's this aspect

 that I love so much about this great city.

This huge building is downtown in the financial district and it blows my mind to stand and look up at these tall bank buildings.  The banks in Canada are one of the safest 

financial systems in the world.  We as a country have been fortunate that our economy has not been affected as deeply as most countries around the world.

At night, we headed to Little Italy to enjoy some pasta and sit at an outside restaurant and watch the world walk by.  This area in Toronto has some fabulous new restaurants with lots of interesting shops popping up throughout the district.  We had dinner at one Italian restaurant and then walked down the street to go to a Sicilian cafe for dessert.  

Have you ever had a cannoli?  Very sweet but very good.

National Post

On Sunday, Toronto celebrated it's diversity with the Gay Pride Parade.  Our Pride Parade attracted a crowd of over 1 million and a good time was had by all.  

The Toronto Pride Parade is the largest Pride parade in North America and the third largest in the world.   It was my first Pride parade and it touched my heart as again my city 

showed it's acceptance of all people.

Yea Toronto.