A Distillery and a washout

Another beautiful blue sky and an hour on the motorway network to Toronto and a cruise around to find parking near the Blue Jays stadium. We headed off in the direction of the CN Tower, skirting the Railway Museum with its miniature children's railway, towards the historic Distillery district, original the site of industrial units now used as a microbrewery, craft shops and restaurants. Ol hailed a taxi and 10 minutes later we were there.

Distillery district

First stop lunch at a micro brewery – 2 huge 'Starters' for us all to share. Ang and I left the men to another beer and headed off to look in a couple of the boutique galleries. The prices were also 'boutique'. A shop selling old household nik naks was asking $135 for a rusty old bird cage; $595 for a 1960s office stool! Mental note – if your shop is in a 'trendy' area you can ask silly prices. The jewellery, clothes, ceramics were lovely and were very unusual but, even taking into consideration the time taken to make them, they were hugely over priced (small filigree metal work earrings at $245).

Waterside

We headed off towards the lakeside from the Distillery district on our way back to the stadium. The whole area is being rejuvenated with high rise apartment blocks under construction on the edge of the lake. As we neared the centre some of the development had been completed and included a lovely water park and sandy beach area.

Blue Jays Stadium

An early meal at Wayne Gretsky's restaurant full of hockey memorabilia, before the game. We noticed that the roof had been closed – did this mean they expected rain? Well we didn't bring the Blue Jays luck. They lost 16-0 in a three hour game with Oakland Athletics. It was a great experience. The height some of those balls reached before hurtling into the crowd was impressive! Heavy rain greeted us as we reached the exit. What to do as none of us had coats or an umbrella? In the end Rick suggested we go back into the stadium and walk round to the Radisson Hotel and get a taxi. He wasn't the only one with this idea ,so Ol volunteered to get the car and meet us there. Within a quarter of an hour we were back on the motorway with sheet lightening illuminating the skyline as we left the city and buckets of rain making it a tricky drive for Ol. Home safely and in bed a little after 1am!

A Distillery and a washout

Toronto, Canada