Tourist in My Own City

Hello friends! After a bit of time away from this here blog, I have decided to come back with a vengeance! (Seriously, I have so many things – ahem, vacations – that I want to post about but the pictures are sitting idly on my computer and the words are floating around purposelessly in my head!) My goal for this summer is to contribute to the blog more, but I’m not making any promises – I am teaching summer school, after all!

Anyways, I wanted to share some of my adventures from a few months ago! After our exciting fall wedding, Dangerous Dan and I decided to go on a miniature, extremely tame “honeymoon”, right in our own city. Instead of flying halfway around the world to celebrate our love, we decided to simply take public transit down to Toronto!

It’s pretty clear that I love food, and Dangerous Dan and I took the opportunity to try some cool restaurants. Here are some photos and a quick summary!

Planta Burger was our first foray into vegan fare, and everything was super seasoned to the point of excess, so it wasn’t a fantastic first meal for our staycation. Thankfully, our luck changed at dinner – Nana was a delicious Thai restaurant that Dangerous Dan really enjoyed with a very cool-looking interior that is supposed to be reminiscent of a busy Thai street! The sign outside is in Thai, so we actually walked past the restaurant a few times before realizing it was what we were looking for. Finally, Pow Wow Cafe in Kensington Market was the perfect place for a spot of brunch! It was my first time eating at a restaurant which specialized in Indigenous cuisine, and the Ojibway tacos were hearty and delicious and pumped me up for a day of exploring Toronto!

And now, for the food-unrelated part of our little trip! We visited Centre Island and rented bikes so we could explore. The beach was so calming and the views of the city were beautiful. Some exciting sights on the island: Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, Franklin Children’s Garden, and an abandoned Centreville Amusement Park (closed for the season!). We even biked right up to a fence to watch planes take off and land at Billy Bishop Airport!

We ended off our weekend trip by wandering around the West Queen West neighbourhood, browsing the Drake General Store and taking in the art at the Gladstone Hotel.

Thanks for a lovely weekend, Toronto!

Toronto in the Fall

This past weekend, I trekked all the way down to exciting Toronto to enjoy some delicious meals with friends. I thought I would celebrate fall by taking pictures of the city, even though it was SNOWING that morning.

I was slightly disappointed by my pictures, and not just because I used my silly phone to take them!

What I’m trying to say is, when you’re surrounded by buildings on all four sides and there aren’t many trees around, it’s hard to tell that it’s fall. So I basically just took pictures of things that I could’ve just taken pictures of at any other time in the year, and nothing was really very special about them.

I also snapped this shot accidentally as I was trying to hide my phone so that I wouldn’t look like a tourist:

Also, Kingston in the fall.

Cape Cod and Boston: FUN

It is now time for a very long overdue post. I went on my trip to Boston and Cape Cod during Canadian Thanksgiving, and I still haven’t written about what I did there! (Though to be fair, food is a lot more important.) So here is what I did!

On our way to Provincetown (at the tip of the cape), we stopped at the Salt Pond Visitor Centre. I’m not sure what we were planning on looking at while there because the government had shut down and so the centre was closed, but we walked along a salt marsh (hence the name) and it was beautiful.

We spent our first afternoon in Cape Cod in Provincetown. It’s a great little beachy town with lots of dogs, old people, and colour! (I did not take any pictures of old people or dogs, but I promise there were a lot of them! And that water fountain in the picture below is specially made for people and their canine companions.)

We had planned on going on a Sunset Sand Dune Tour that night, but due to the government shutdown (again!), we weren’t allowed to go on the dunes. We looked at them though. And then we sat on the beach and watched the sunset.

And just for fun, here are some government shutdown signs.

In Hyannis, we went to the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum. It was mostly just personal photos of the Kennedy family, as well as videos and newspaper clippings chronicling JFK’s life.

My family and I also visited Martha’s Vineyard. We took the ferry to the island and hopped onto a coach bus for an island tour. I got really bus sick and so I slept for most of the ride (which really defeats the purpose of a bus tour), but I did hear the driver list all the famous people who have homes on Martha’s Vineyard. We got off the bus in a small town called Aquinnah, which boasts a lighthouse and a cliff. According to Wampanoag myth, a giant named Moshup killed whales to provide food for the people, and the cliff is red and black because of the whale blood and the coals used to cook the whale. (To be honest, I didn’t really see the red and black on the cliffs; I think I was still groggy from my sleep.)

And now, a picture of beautiful Boston to end things off!

P.S. What I ate on my trip.

Kingston in the Fall

School has been crazy and I thought I’d be able to post these beautiful photos while it was still fall, but winter exploded and snow is everywhere and people are wearing giant coats. So I’m going to post pictures of fall while it is wintertime.

We can’t—or I can’t—hear the song of a bird simply as a sound. Its meaning or message (“That’s a bird”) comes with it inevitably—just as one can’t see a familiar word in print as a merely visual pattern. The reading is as involuntary as the seeing. When the wind roars I don’t just hear the roar; I “hear the wind.” In the same way it is possible to “read” as well as to “have” a pleasure. Or not even “as well as.” The distinction ought to become, and sometimes is, impossible; to receive it and to recognize its divine source are a single experience. This heavenly fruit is instantly redolent of the orchard where it grew. This sweet air whispers of the country from whence it blows. It is a message. We know we are being touched by a finger of that right hand at which there are pleasures for evermore. There need be no question of thanks or praise as a separate event, something done afterwards. To experience the tiny theophany is itself to adore.

– C.S. Lewis

I made soup!

It is fall, and fall means soup.

Even though I love to drink it, I have never ever made soup that doesn’t come from a can. But my housemate makes soup all the time and assured me it was really easy to do, so I just went for it!

I put onions, celery, carrots, garlic, pork loin (chicken was too expensive that week!), and water all into one giant pot. And then I just left it there with the stove on. And then my soup was done! I also made some macaroni on the side to add into the soup (so that it wouldn’t get soggy).

I had a lot of leftover soup, so I froze it and put it in the freezer, nicely separated into small portions. It’s lasted for weeks!