Trip to Toronto: Niagara Fucking Falls

I never thought I would go to Niagara Falls, but I did, and I can report that it is awesome.



I'm not saying that you need to go there, but I'm saying that if you're ever spending some time in Toronto, you need to go there.









Doesn't this boat ride look fun?







Yeah, baby!





Niagara Falls is conveniently located next to wine country.



Cheers!

Trip to Toronto: CN Tower

The CN Tower is tall. It's the "tallest freestanding structure on land" in the world or something like that.



They put in a glass floor to freak people out and encourage them to do weird stuff like lying on their bellies in public.



I could not step onto the glass. It was too high, too scary.



But being that high up didn't put me off my appetite.



We're not normally "eat at the top of the CN Tower" type of people, but we did want to see the view, and the meal included "complimentary elevation" (normally $21.49 per person not including taxes).



Plus, how often do you get a chance to enjoy a bottle from the world's highest wine cellar?

Trip to Toronto: Kensington Market

The owner of Model Citizen recommended that we try La Palette, his friend's restaurant in Kensington Market. OK!



Kensington Market is a cute little neighborhood that kind of reminds me of Eugene, Oregon. People are always protesting something here, but they're also enjoying gourmet French food and some of the best empanadas in town. Their Wikipedia entry has a section called "Marijuana Culture." ("Visitors to Bellevue Square Park between Augusta and Denison will sometimes see (or smell) marijuana cigarettes being smoked.")





As Chuck noted last week, there's been some guerrilla gardening in this neighborhood this month.

I didn't notice any of the little Celosia planters, but I did see this car full of plants right outside the restaurant.





We're scoping the place out for dinner later in the week, and just order some terrine and red wine.







We return to La Palette a couple days later and get a full-on grillade. This one's horse, bison, and elk. It's all really good.



While we eat, a bike parade goes by.





Then a woman starts to pose on the lawn on the car. (A photographer is out of frame.)





But this crazy dude starts harassing her. Toronto's Asshole #2?

Trip to Toronto: Parkdale

Wednesday we took a street car to Parkdale, the new cool-cat neighborhood in Toronto.

Until then, I'd thought that Torontonians were nice to the point of being deranged. A couple of times I accidentally brushed against someone in a restaurant or stepped on someone's foot in the subway or whatever, and I said, "Oh, I'm sorry." Their reply? "No, I'm sorry."

But this guy on the bus was not like that at all. After he grumped his way to his seat right behind me, he announced to no one: "Looks like everyone's riding today instead of working." A little bit later: "Smells like somebody needs a bath!" He then ruffled his newspaper, sort of hitting me on the back of the head with it.

A Torontonian asshole! I had to snap a picture of this rare creature.



We got out in Parkdale, where ritzy hipster hotels, boutiques, and bars sit next to social services and old churches.





The Gladstone is one of those fancy hotels where each room was decorated by a different artist. We later met one of the artists who designed on this room. (And Chemical Wedding folks, if you still read this blog, I want you to know that he asked about the bag you made for me.)





The Drake is even fancier than the Gladstone. We checked out the cafe.





This is the side of a wedding rentals van.



The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is government-funded and free to all visitors. And when we were there, they were showing an artsy porno, "Give Piece of Ass a Chance," in the back. That's right, free government porn. O Canada!



We also checked out the neighboring Edward Day Gallery, which had an exhibit of photos by Andy Summers of the Police in the '80s.



The Police were in town that week, and the Globe and Mail had three pages of stories about how Sting attended a yoga session at the Downward Dog Studio.

Trip to Toronto: Street Art

The street art in Toronto is a million times better than that in Seattle. Here's a photo I took of an average piece.



If you're in the mood to follow a link, compare that to this piece that Seattle's The Stranger recently found noteworthy.

This must be one of the pieces that was sanctioned by the city. I love it.