Day 14 and 15: Toronto

I've gotten to spend quite of bit of time (relatively) in Toronto and have really fallen in love with this city and it's people. This town loves it's arts and supports it. For example, The circus that KGD helps run has quite the healthy audience that keeps coming back even though they don't advertise. There are a ton of performing arts organizations all over town representing a wide variety of styles and they all seem to be doing well. The nightlife seems particularly active outside of theater as well.

KGD, Marc, Hillary and I went on a field trip to Kensington Market which is best described as a more authentic version of NYC's West Village. They had awesome thrift shops and I came away buying a shirt and two pairs of pants. I could have easily spent a lot more money and had to remind myself that I didn't have a job. Everything was reasonable and offered a much wider selection than anything we have back in the Bay Area's second hand shops. The neighborhood was filled cool shops and cafes. There was this car on thew street that acted as a planter box.

And a great raw food cafe that had a true living garden on the roof.

This over priced painting spoke volumes to me.

as did this street poster

While relating my cheese curds fascination to Hillary, she clued me in to Poutine, a local variation on Gravy fries what come with Cheese Curds. As you will remember, I had Cheese Curds in Wisconsin, Deep Fried Cheese Curds in Michigan, and now I needed to complete the Curd Trifecta with Poutine. (pronounced Poo-tin, btw) We hunted the city for the best ones, and came up short, only finding gravy fries with shredded cheese in several places. This one had what is called Montreal Smoked Meat on top. It looks gross, but it was quite delicious.

My second full day here I opted to play tourist and went to the CN Tower, one of the "seven wonders of the modern world" Much like The Empire State Building in NY, you can pay them a bunch of money to ride an elevator to an observation deck, unlike the Empire State Building, there was only one teller, and I wasn't hassled and hustled at every opportunity to buy some other deluxe package or map variation.

one of the nice things about the CN tower is that they have a section that has a glass floor so that you can see all the way down. I loved watching people freak out over their fears of falling while in a very safe environment.

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking the streets of Toronto getting a pretty good feeling for the town. I rode the subway for a spell and then walked back to KGD and June's house. Later that night we went to Dirty Bingo hosted by a Drag Queen who gave out sex toys as prizes. I won an inflatable sheep, but gave it to KGD since I was playing his card at the time. I have always loved Bingo. When in Vegas its my game of choice and it was nice to see another variation on a game that I keep thinking I need to have at my bar on slow nights.

Tomorrow I'm off to Niagra Falls and then to meet Liz Abram, my sister's best friend from High School who lives in Buffalo. While there I'm going to try and see the home Ani DiFranco's label Righteous Babe Records and eat some genuine Buffalo Wings before the long drive to my childhood home in Staten Island. Once ther I will have driven Coast to Coast and will have gone the furthest away from Oakland before turning back and driving home. I see Justine in less than a week and I'm very excited for that. It's about time that I get to share in this adventure with someone I love. I can't wait!

written by

JRadhirsch on September 15, 2008 from Toronto, Canada

from the travel blog: The Great American Road Trip

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I am so amazed at this blog. Guess I wasn't expecting Toronto to be so amazing! Amazing, yes, but not SO AMAZING. Local circus boy does good, living roofs, car planters (OMG RECLAIMED CAR PLANTERS!!!), the CN Needle with glass floor (I wanna ride on the Jesus-Christ-I'm-Gonna-Fall floor!) and their desire to protect American war protesters. AWESOME. Beyond "that's cool" awesome. Awesome in a "and that's how we saved the world" kind of way. Hooray for Toronto and hooray for Canada for having Toronto in it. Further exploration will be necessary.

Have fun at Niagara Falls! Throw a barrel for me! (Preferably sans human.)

written by

Justine Smith on September 16, 2008

*Mushy public private stuff to follow**

I miss you too. Four days and counting.

written by

Justine Smith on September 16, 2008

GAH! I seriously got vertigo while looking at the pics of the CN Tower. Yes...I'm a total p*ssy and am terrified of heights. But I bow to your magi since you were able to stand on the glass floor. Whoot! Whoot!

And PS -- Awwwwww! You and Justine are soooo cute! I love it..."mushy stuff to follow". You two rock!

written by the Zote on September 17, 2008

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