oops we did it again...

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sand in the city...

our days open day continued by the water. quite a few boats were docked and you could go tour around them and check things out. unfortunately, they weren't going out on the water.

 we want a boat :)

aye aye captain.

after all the doors open stuff was finished, we went over to sugar beach, a small man-made beach with views of both water and the city, and adjacent to the sugar factory (shown here), hence the name. 

the sugar factory to the left.

where we plan to rent a little 2 person boat this summer. can't wait.

for some reason, my camera got turned on the 'soft' effect..

i'm betting these pictures are not what people think of when they think of toronto. little did you know we have a harbourfront, real beaches, and man-made beaches that are literally minutes away from the hustle and bustle of the entertainment district. such a peaceful area of the city.

behind the scenes...

both saturday and sunday was 'doors open toronto', where "it gives people an opportunity to take a peek behind the doors of  nearly 150 architecturally,  historically, socially, and culturally significant buildings across the city", which are normally closed to the public, or not free. during these 2 days, it was all free. we wandered around the city for about 6 hours on saturday and went into maybe 10 different places.

 historic fort york

 they were making some cookies and cakes with recipes from hundreds of years ago.

bye fort york, onto the next stop.

 one king west, grand banking hall. beautiful wedding venue ;)

 downstairs in the vault.

vault door; 4 feet wide, weighing in at 40 tonne. 

bank of commerce ceiling.

next: at redpath sugars. that's a mountain of sugar, yes.

 if you're wondering about the smell? amazing.

 i can't remember the name of this, but it was a workshop that fixes old trains.

 a brewery.

 dylan volunteered me to try on the jacket. i fill it out well.

it was a long, but awesome day. it's pretty rare to see in these places, and of course, we only saw a small fraction of what was open, but it was very cool.

work it out...

we've been here for 1 month now and i'm taking full advantage of the amenities. my favorite it probably the gym. i went to the gym regularly about 7 years ago (me and my mom went to the same gym and we always went together for the year we had a membership). i've dabbled in (and complained about) both yoga and jogging. but the gym, that's something i can stick with. i've been going pretty often the last 4 weeks, and because of that, i treated myself to a new pair of workout pants. right now, i'm just sticking with 25 minutes on the elliptical (my favorite), and some of the arm and leg machines. once i get back upstairs to our place, i do some lunges and squats. i literally just have to take an elevator down...i can do it! plus, i wake up really early for no reason (between 6:30-6:45am every day), and what else is there to do at that time? bonus is that's when the gym is the least busy.

bring it!

mostly, i just want to continue to be able to eat things like this ^^

(the above doughnut is a salted caramel & spicy pecan from glory hole doughnuts. i don't think the picture really conveys how big it was; we split it. it was quite good and very fresh, however, the customer service needs some work.)

such a beautiful sound...

most years we try to make it down to the beaches to see the victoria day fireworks. it's one big spectacle where a huge chunk of the city gathers on the sand and watches the sky light up. the fireworks were beautiful and they're always fun to see.

but what's not fun is the whole getting home after the fireworks, along with like, 100,000 other people. toronto transit (in any form-buses, streetcars, and subways) just cannot match the demand of how many people go. it becomes an absolute nightmare, and then add in the people who choose to drive and the streets become completely gridlocked. subways are rammed, cars/streetcars aren't moving (& they're packed like sardines) and good luck getting on a free shuttle. any other time we would have walked a bit until we left the crowds behind and then got on a streetcar, but you know, about 5 minutes after the fireworks ended, the clouds opened up and it POURED. the streets were a disaster, as everyone attempted cover with jackets and whatever they had. we stood there for a bit, unsure of what to do. obviously public transportation in the near future was out of the question and so was walking, it's just too far. we managed to catch a cab just out of all the craziness. had we caught the cab in the mess, i can only imagine what our toll would have been.

it was raining gold dust on the crowds here, or at least it felt that way.

secret garden...

i really do love the neighborhood we're in now. it's a different one from the one i lived in for 5 years, but i think i love it even more. so much of it reminds me of certain specific areas in the east village in nyc. and obviously with my obsessive love for that city, that makes me happy. we'll be walking along the street and i'll say to dylan, "this spot right here reminds of when we were sitting on that corner stoop drinking our coffee last year!" or "this street reminds me of that street in nyc." obsessed. yes me. plus, we're so close to the water and it just makes for great walks with the dog. it just smells like summer.

 the music garden.

 happy 6.5 years to us! (yesterday. we don't celebrate half years, but it dawned on me and i wished him a happy half anni :))

 boats + a plane taking off.

 clearly this dog was having an awesome day. (stolen from dylan's instagram ;))

the little one.