Getaway in Toronto: Happy accidents

“You want a picture with the artist?”

Sure, why not? I’m sure most of the people who see the decorated blue bike outside the art gallery stop to take a photo, but I can’t imagine she’s there for all of them.

I asked her name. She said Allie. Or maybe it’s Ally. Or Aly. I didn’t ask her to spell it.

We were in The Distillery District, a former “derelict collection of Victorian Industrial buildings” that had been turned into a collection of art galleries, studios, shops and restaurants. Someone was doing some wedding video and photography there.

It has actually been there almost 20 years, but we hadn’t found it on either of our previous trips to Toronto. We probably wouldn’t have found it this time, either, except we couldn’t get a reservation the previous night for dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Instead, we made lunch reservations, which got Suzi looking around to see what else was in the neighborhood, and she found The Distillery, Lunch was good, and The Distillery was cool.

Before either was the Saturday farmers’ market at St. Lawrence Market. It was another one that until the morning, we never knew it existed.

Everywhere you looked, people were selling meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables and just about everything else you can imagine. With that much action, it was important to find a way to catch someone’s eye.

The afternoon was going to be the Hockey Hall of Fame. I’ve been a couple times, and wasn’t dying to go, but it would be a good way to spend the time before our evening appointment at the CN Tower.

Except we rested a little too much at the hotel and it closed an hour earlier than we thought, so going for a half-hour was going to be pointless.

What to do?

Wander down toward CN Tower and see what we could find.

What we found was Roundhouse Park, a collection of classic trains on display.

We like Canada and we like trains. That’s a formula that has worked in the past, and it did again.

The CN Tower looms over Toronto. Even from the farthest reaches of The Distillery, you can see it.

Shortly after sundown, it looms over the lights of the early evening. All those lights are activities — including the lights of a plane landing where we had the day before — and if you look at enough of them, surely there were lights for people settling in.

Back on the ground, while surely some people were headed home, for most, it looked like the activities were just getting started.

Kevin Hart was playing Scotiabank Arena.

There’s either a wedding in our hotel or a lot of wedding guests were staying in our hotel.

No doubt the night would be full of dates, parties and gatherings at bars.

As for us, we were ready to call it a day.

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