Chapter 15

Today we spent the whole day in Toronto. First, we drove to the St. Lawrence Market. It has lots of food stands with cheeses, fruits and vegetables, and beautiful looking baked goods. Tom is eying the 3 kinds of butter tarts available!

We looked around there for a while, then headed to the nearby distillery district. This is the largest collection of Victorian industrial buildings in North America, now turned into shops and cafes. It was interesting to see what the buildings used to be.

There was also a display of brains decorated by artists, as Alzheimer's awareness.

We walked back downtown, and to city hall plaza. (This is old City Hall)

Here's why we came to Toronto!
(New City Hall behind)

We walked back into the financial district, and met Norm and Mary, and Stefan, for lunch at a noodle shop. Everyone really liked their food, and we chatted with them until Stefan had to go back to work.

We walked over to see Nora's residence from the outside. We could go in the lobby, but no further today. One of these is Nora's room.

Here's where Stefan works. TD has several buildings in downtown Toronto.

At Stefan's suggestion, we went into the TD building, On the ground floor is the design center, where we saw various things designed in Canada, including the Blackberry, the fastest bike, the floor polisher we had when I was young, a hairdryer, and a barbecue.

Also inside the building is the old Toronto Stock Exchange, which has cool Art Moderne murals. Fun fact: it was the first fully air conditioned building in Canada.

We walked back to the car, past the dog fountain, where Nora found a cat.

We dropped Nora off at the university, so Chantal could help her get her student card, while we had tea and walked around the campus.

We met back up, and drove out to Missasauga for an Indian dinner with Chantal's parents. Apparently, Toronto has the second worst traffic in North America, after Los Angeles. We've been in a lot of it!