Toronto, Take Two

One of the things we decided on day one was that we were going to do the city bus tour. This enabled us to see the city and get it's history while also using the bus to get to several points of interest without using our car. An added benefit was finding out about areas we perhaps wouldn't have visited otherwise.

On Wednesday we visited two of those places.  First, we stopped at St. Lawrence Market, one of the oldest under-cover markets in Canada and recently named as the best fresh food market in the world by National Geographic Magazine. NGM is right... it's amazing! Henry and I loved walking around seeing all the vendors and their glorious food. It made me want to go home and cook a big fresh meal with the best ingredients, but alas, we're living in a hotel so there's no cooking for me.

The kids got treats at one of the bakeries.... the girls split a cupcake while Ryan found a cookie right up his alley - one with M&Ms all over it. 

I, on the other hand, searched out a bakery in the basement of the building that sold macarons. I've been pining for them since my visit to Paul's in May. 

After taking in the St. Lawrence Market, we headed over to Toronto's Distillery District, a pedestrian neighborhood made up of boutiques, art galleries, artisan shops, a chocolatier, Sake brewery and local brewery. One of the rules of the distillery district is that no franchises are allowed. Everything you find is unique and interesting. Henry and I probably could've spent half a day here without kids in tow. They were troopers though and let us get through a few shops before heading into the brewery for lunch. 

We walked through Mink Row - Toronto's version of Rodeo Drive - showing the kids the expensive shops. They asked to go in Prada to look at the bags. (Thank goodness we'd prepared them for a day of window shopping!)

We finished out the day on a river cruise that came with our bus tour. It's a great way to see the city skyline and relax after a long day of walking.