St. Lawrence Market & Woofstock

 

St. Lawrence Market was named World's Best Food Market by National Geographic in April.  So, to state the obvious, we had to go.  Lucky for us & Helena, the largest festival for dogs & their owners in North America, Woofstock, was taking place right next door on the same weekend!

The dogs were almost as plentiful as the people.

Helena loved it when this little chihuahua licked her fingers.

The best part of Woofstock was this vizsla, a Hungarian hunting dog, who played fetch with anyone & everyone, but especially little girls.

After this, Helena fell asleep & we surrounded ourselves with delicious food.

Fruits & Vegetables

Fresh Pasta & Sauce

Meat from near & far

(In this picture, you see ostrich, emu, camel, kangaroo &Australian kangaroo - don't ask me the difference between the two!)

Olives galore

Bakeries that reminded us of Paris

Amazing Antipastos

We ate so much delicious food.  Here's the list: the above pasta, a chocolate lava muffin, a fresh fig, a peameal bacon sandwich, cherry bombs (cherry peppers stuffed with feta cheese), a chocolate croissant, a butter tart and samples.  Despite the fact that none of us love pasta, the dish shown above was the best food we had and it was amazing.  Fresh ravioli - and by fresh I mean rolled out and then immediately boiled - with a sauce made up of marinara, alfredo and pesto.  The sauces were not mixed, causing each bite to be a little different.  I will either eat this dish or purchase this dish to eat later every time I go to St. Lawrence Market.  OH SO GOOD.

A Day on Toronto Island, in pictures & captions

On the ferry

Enjoying the pier

So much sand!

Picnic

Just having fun with Grandma

Wading, walking, splashing in Lake Ontario

Tree Climbing

And look at all the grass - a real present for our city eyes.

Mother & Son

Drinking lots of water

Two tuckered out parents

Fanda, short for Fat Panda

Helena has a six year-old friend who is extremely generous and after a playdate always asks if Helena wants to borrow a toy.  Last time it was seven animal masks.  This time it was Fanda.

Small Group Friends

John & I have been incredibly fortunate to be involved in wonderful small groups ever since we got married.  For most of the last year we have been hosting one at our apartment every Wednesday night.  There are seven us, four being two engaged couples.  We were privileged to go to one of their weddings this past weekend and are going to the other's wedding this coming weekend!

Jesse, Andrew, Emma & Maria

I just love weddings, always will and always have.  They're such joyous occasions.  

 

Check out their wedding favors - M&Ms with not only words but their faces!

Photo taken by Christa

It was fun to be out all afternoon & evening with my hubby - brought us back to the good old days of college!  Helena got to spend the time with her good friend Holly.  Aren't they adorable hanging out in the ottoman together?  The day was full of giggles for the two of them!

Doors Open Toronto

Toronto has a wonderful weekend festival each year called Doors Open.  During that weekend around 100 architecturally interesting buildings or sites are open to the public and it's all free.  It definitely gets people - including us - to go out and about.

This year we visited four buildings - a museum, a church, an assurance company, and a judicial building.

1) Gardiner Museum - A large ceramics museum that is just a few blocks away from where we live.  Seemed like a great time to visit it as I don't think we'd ever pay to go in & having Helena with us meant we might have to leave after just 5 minutes!

A few fun things that we saw:

Suitcases.  Amazing that both are made of clay and yet one is SO REALISTIC and one isn't.

 An orchestra...

...made up of monkeys.  The sign said these were incredibly popular in the mid-1800s - strange.

My favorite view from the veranda on top :)

2) Church - nothing that amazing.

3) Canada Life building - The lobby was used in the movie "Cocktail" with Tom Cruise.  Nice.

But the draw of the building was the observation room on the 17th floor.  It supposedly had a great view of Toronto so we wanted to get up there.  After we got up there, we realized that it's not really much higher than we live.  Still not used to living in a highrise!  Anyways, the view was better than ours so it was worth it.

4) Osgoode Hall - This place has intrigued me from the first time we walked by.  It has a beautiful wrought iron fence surrounding it and the grounds make it look like a palace.  It actually houses a variety of judicial committees.

To be honest, it was a bit disappointing on the inside.  The below room was BEAUTIFUL with original mosaic floors but otherwise really just a big building.

Helena loved Osgoode Hall on the inside, however, as there were many staircases to walk up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and - you get the point.

The grounds were great - shade and so much room outside for running around.

That's right - she's a runner now!