A month and a half ago, my daughter Sarah and I planned a trip together before she headed off to college. As I mentioned before, we wanted to go some place that would provide us with the biggest bang for our travel buck-a unique destination that would be relatively easy to get to.  We decided on Toronto.Ontario and  it turned out to be great choice. Our direct flight from Albany, New York took about one hour and, as I’ve already written in a few posts, the city offered many diverse and unique attractions.

Beyond the places that I’ve already noted, we also enjoyed several other points of interest including the Distillery District. The original site of  the Gooderham and Worts Distillery, architectural buffs should love this small village-like area because  it is said to represent the largest and best preserved collection of Victorian Industrial Architecture in North America. Sarah and I learned so much about this part of the city when we were invited to take a great walking tour given by Segway of Ontario.  Click here to learn about this area’s rich history.

Eventually this distillery closed and was transformed into a top movie location where X-Men, Chicago and Three Men and a Baby have been filmed. A collection of boutiques, galleries, live theaters and restaurants have been added including Archeo where Sarah and I were happy to be invited to have lunch with Vanessa  Somarriba of Tourism Toronto.

A great finish to that day was being invited to another part of Toronto to dine at Starfish Oyster Bed & Grill.

This cozy restaurant featured a unique assortment of oysters from around the world shucked by World Oyster Champion, Patrick McMurray.

We were told that, in June of 2010,  McMurray broke his own oyster-shucking record, separating 38 oysters from their shells in under one minute.

And as very nice end to our vacation, we traveled to West Toronto’s Junction Triangle.

 

This up-and-coming area has been recently gentrified and is dotted with over 200 businesses. There are  great cafes such as Locomotive Coffee and The Beet Organic Cafe as well as unique stores including Metropolis Living with its quirky collections and SMASH which carries vintage materials. This area’s calendar of events includes a music festival on September 21, 2013 and a pumpkinfest on October 26, 2013.