Yo friends and family, it’s your latest instalment of “What’s Katy and Mitch Up To?” Today was a busy day with… yep, you guessed it, lots of walking! We ambitiously set our alarms for a reasonable hour and laughed at that choice in the morning as we turned them off to continue sleeping. When we eventually lugged out of bed and got ready to leave it was time for some food. We had a brilliant recommendation from friends of our who live here in Toronto. There’s a few people we met back in 2016 on our boat cruise of the Croatian islands. Since then we’ve kept in touch and have seen some of them sporadically. They mostly live in Toronto so have given us lots of tips and places to eat and things to see while we’re here.

We walked to a small but famous place called “Aloette” since Mack (Canadian friend) had told us it was the sister kitchen to Canada’s number 1 voted restaurant. We arrived and there was no queue which we thought was brilliant until we asked for a table for 2 and they informed us it was over an hour wait. So we booked into one of the few lunch spots left for tomorrow and set off to find somewhere else to eat. We knew we were heading west towards an area we had been told had lots of shops, resteraunts, breweries and a general good vibe. We stumbled across a healthy fast food type place that did delicious salads and healthy burgers etc. It was called “b.Good” and I would advise anyone to add it to the top of their eatery recommendation list.

I was deceptively full after my meal. I kept thinking “how can I be sooooo full after a bowl of kale” until I realised it also sprouted copious amount of quinoa which is high in protein and is a known superfood at keeping you full.

We then headed for Ossington, the area Mack told us would be great to walk around. It much reminded us of the suburban streets in Toorak, Melbourne as it has lots of overhanging trees mixed with suburban houses and independent boutique stores ranging from startup clothing to fancy ice creameries.

From here we marched towards a known park in the city that is popular with the locals. I can’t put into words how far apart these places are, we really don’t mind because we need the walking to counter all the eating, but let’s just say we were happy to sprawl out in the park for a good rest of the legs.

Toronto is massive. Much like Sydney in that there’s lots to see and do but they’re all so spread out and it’s impossible to hit all the best spots in 5 days. But we’re certainly trying!

The park was full of dogs people lazing about in the warm sun. Remember Marijuana is completely legal here so a lot of Canadian parks are also full of people “chilling out” 🤘🏼

There’s a biggish island just off the main part of Toronto aptly named “Toronto Island”. We had heard it was great to ride a bike around and walk through the parks and see the beaches so that was our next stop. After our much deserved rest in the park we strolled through a new part of town towards Toronto Island. We came across these renovated historic gates that were apparently erected to show mutuality between the Canadians and the Milanese (Italy). They were massive and in such a random spot but worth a photo of course.

WE THE NORTH is the slogan for the Toronto Raptors basketball team so you can imagine it is plastered all over the city 🙂

Eventually after much walking through parks and taking photos of chipmunks and petting all the dogs that would allow it, we came to the bicycle hire place right before the ferry that takes you over to the island.

The very nice (as usual) Canadian man in the bicycle shop informed us that most of the cycle track on Toronto Island is flooded. We weren’t happy but decided to hire the bikes anyway and ride around the outside of the mainland part. We had a great time not really knowing where to but got some great views of the city as we were aimlessly pedalling like lost tourists do.

Yes, they’re my newest Lululemon shorts. 3rd lulu addition and wallets feeling a lot lighter, but they’re great 🙂

We stopped at various random spots when we felt a picture was necessary. Also I hope all you readers appreciate the action shots of us riding. I nearly went through the wall of that cave trying to get a cute candid photo of Katy effortlessly cycling away. That wasn’t the only time either, I severely overestimated my cycling abilities to start with- I think maybe Vancouver game me a heightened sense of confidence 😂 I sped off cycling one handed with my phone in the other trying to get pictures of the surroundings and nearly ended up in a group of unsuspecting pedestrians. Lesson learnt 🚴🏼‍♂️

After we cycled for a long while we eventually handed our bikes back and made our way back to our apartment for a shower and to get ready for the baseball game. Yesterday we bought tickets to a Toronto Blue Jays game that was being played tonight against the Los Angeles Angels. After rushing home, showering and getting ready we were running late to leave for the game (in true McSporran fashion). We rushed through the businessmen and actually caught up with Mack in person for the first time since we’ve been here. He has been busy working but was on his way home from work and intersected us on our walk to the arena. We’re meeting up with he and others tomorrow night for dinner/drinks.

We made our way to Rogers arena which isn’t too far away, it’s right in the city but still a 30min walk when it’s busy with people and stopping for traffic lights. We managed to get in the gates in time before it started but the first ball had been thrown just before we could make it up to the nosebleed section. Second row from the front of the top section. These were our seats.

The baseball was great. Obviously being my first time I had a ball “pun intended” it’s quite a long drawn out game similar to cricket. I can see how I’ve heard from some people that it’s not their cuppa tea but I could appreciate the skill of it. We saw a few home runs and some skillfull defensive plays. My sports attention span is a little longer than Katy’s but eventually we decided to leave and apparently nobody stays till the end. This was also compounded with the fact that the Blue Jays are having one of their worst seasons in history- I didn’t think they were that bad but people kept saying their performance tonight was good for them so maybe I saw them at their best. We left about 2/3 way through the game which they went on to lose as expected. We were there for over 3 hours so as I said they can be long games.

Also, I had to purchase a Blue Jays had as a memory. Katy already had one from her last time in Toronto so I had to get one of my own 🙂

I really really enjoyed the baseball. It was exactly how it’s portrayed on tv and in movies. They do the dance cam and all the extra entertainment in addition to the sport you’re watching. I really relished the experience and I’m happy to have seen what it’s all about.

Another big day tomorrow

🤙🏻 M