A Saturday Stroll

Saturday brought gorgeous weather so we took advantage of the day and headed out to explore the neighbourhoods that will be our new home come April 30.

Our first stop was the King Street Design District in historic Corktown. We browsed in each amazing store and looked for ideas for our new condo, finding a potential a finalist at EQ3.

We then headed into the magnificent St Lawrence Market,  to get some smoked salmon and fresh bagels. which we enjoyed at a picnic table in the sun.

With our tummies full of yummy, we then headed south into Harbourfront, to snake along the waterfront in the blazing Spring sun. It looked like plenty of other Torontonians and tourists had the same idea, walking along the boardwalk and checking out the views south across to Toronto Islands and the canyon of condo and bank towers to the north.

Needing a break from all the walking we stopped off at Biermarkt to enjoy a Belgian-style German white called Hopf and some giant house-made pretzels. Exhausted and ready to head home, we hopped on the streetcar and rumbled back to Liberty Village. We can't wait to be in our new place!

A Good Friday Grand Tour

Although not our original intention when we left in search of brunch on Good Friday, we ended up walking for hours around the downtown core.

After some unsuccessful attempts to take in brunch at some of our usual places, due to congestion, we stumbled across Parkette. What a wonderful discovery! I had a delectable two soft-poached eggs and braised ham hock on a bed of perfect polenta, while Mark had their unique take on a club sandwich: Cornish hen, pork belly with tomato and mustard emulsion.

We then walked up Queen West into Entertainment District, up Spadina through Chinatown, and then crossed into Kensington Market, where we took in the smells, sights, and chilled vibe of Canada's answer to Pike Place. We then kept going west into Little Italy, where Mark had some gelato and an Americano, and found ourselves amongst throngs of Italian-Canadians lined up for the annual Good Friday Passion Procession. We decided to stay and watch the sombre procession of Jesus going through the stations of the Cross. It was very moving and we were impressed with the crowds and the reverence.

Once the procession was done we headed south back to West Queen West, via a walk through beautiful Trinity Bellwoods Park, and decided to go for a drink. We ended up at a brand new bar called Samuel J. Moore, located inside The Great Hall. We ended up having two cocktails each, and shared 24 oysters and a charcuterie plate. Our appetites stoked we headed over to the Ossington Street strip to get a tower of seafood (featuring shrimps, oysters, and snow crab) at Rock Lobster. 

Satiated and tired we headed home to chill and watch the last two episodes of season 2 of "Game of Thrones". A good Friday indeed.

My God, It's full of...

Photo Credit: Jennie Suddick, 2012

Last fall I attended an awesome exhibition of work by Ryoji Ikeda at DHC/Art in Montreal. A colleague snapped this photo of me checking out one of the installations, and I thought I would share it with you.

A Powerful Voice for Equality!

Movin' on Up

Well we're movin on up,
To the harbour side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up,
To the harbour side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

We have some breaking news--come April 30 we'll be moving into the heart of downtown Toronto, into the Harbour View Estates tower, located within the CityPlace complex.

CityPlace is a recent planned urban community bordered by the Fashion District and Entertainment District to the north-west and north-east respectively and Harbourfront to the south.

The accompanying photo shows the south view of our new building, which is where our future unit is way up on the 42nd floor. We'll have windows in our living room and bedroom overlooking the Harbourfront, Toronto Islands, and Lake Ontario.

One of the biggest draws to the building is the 30,000 sq-ft "Super Club", which offers a 25-metre swimming pool, a full-size gymnasium, jogging track, whirlpool, cardio, weight and conditioning rooms, a squash court, bowling lanes, a billiards room and an outdoor tennis court. There's also a 20-person theatre, an indoor golf simulator, a karaoke room, an Internet cafe and a juice bar.

In addition to being a mere 15-minute walk from work I am excited to be moving super close to two dear couples who live in the area (we're talking 5 minutes away) and being able to easily walk over to the St Lawrence Market, Corktown, and the Distillery Disctrict, three of my favourite areas in the city.