This morning, we headed down to Toronto Harbour to take a boat cruise around the harbour and its nearby islands. On the way I saw a cool reflection of the CN tower in a nearby building.

Like all good things in life it was a case of “But first … coffee”. So I was grateful we spotted place called Aroma Espresso Bar on the way. It was much more than a coffee joint, doing delicious cooked breakfasts as well. So, we tried their take on Smashed Avo.

Smash Avo, with egg, and almond flakes, and an egg, and ‘fries’ – not French fries, but little chunks of fried potato. Brekky was great, coffee was good (8/10 on the iScott Coffee Scale), and then we were all set for the boat tour.

There was, of course, also another opportunity to get yet another photo of the CN Tower. It really does dominate this place.

While we were waiting, saw this amusing sign in a shop.

After a short wait it was time for the tour – I guess they didn’t have too many people booked for this one as we set off in a little boat usually used as a water taxi – I think it seated about 20, but we didn’t have that many on board. But that doesn’t matter, it floats, it moves, it did everything that it needed to do, and we had a good tour with an interesting commentary. We were also lucky that we had another day of excellent weather – it reached about 21 degrees during the day but it felt warmer. Anyway, time for photos!

Around the small islands, there were tons of cormorants, everywhere. Apparently they are an invasive pest, with poo so toxic it’s actually killing all the trees as it all get absorbed into the soil. They say they’re taking measures to reduce their numbers … but judging my the number of them around it’s not exactly working.

One of the islands also has a small airport on it – one of the planes flew pretty much right over our heads as it came in the land, we also saw another one a further away. As we were coming back in toward the end of the cruise.

After the tour we went for a bit of a walk, and there was this ‘interesting’ bit of town street where you had to stand in the exact right spot while you were waiting:

If you were standing in the narrow dark grey strip toward the right, you were safe. Otherwise, you’re going to be whacked by a tram running on the left, or struck down by a truck on the road to the right. Still, we managed to wait for the lights to change without getting squished, but the tram sure did feel very close as it whizzed by.

Right near the CN tower, there’s a train museum. I didn’t go in, but I did get some photos from the outside, where the ‘roundabout’ they used to use to get trains into all their sheds is still in place since the 1920s.

And here’s the real non-museum train line with some odd-looking double-decker carriages.

We went back to our room, and next minute, BEEP! BEEP! AWOOGA! AWOOGA! Both our phones and my watch all started blaring out a loud siren noise as this turned up on the screen.

Gotta say the test sure was successful – not quite as alarming as a 4am fire alarm or whatever, but sure couldn’t be missed! So yeah, successful test, I guess!

For the afternoon, we decided to re-visit an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant that was bloody marvellous back in 2018. It was a little bit out of the way, and my phone said the best way was to take the subway. It also showed that not far away, was an IKEA. We were ahead of schedule, so IKEA first, dinner second. Easy!

The IKEA was a baby one, and really warm inside too. I think Toronto probably excels at keeping everyone warm when it’s -10 outside, but it gets to 21 and nobody knows how to spell Air Conditioning 😀 Still, we had a quick wander around the mini=IKEA. Sure enough, what can I say, it’s an IKEA, prices seemed pretty comparable to Australia.

This however was nice to see – never noticed an equivalent at an IKEA back home.

Dinner was just a short walk away, to Spring Sushi. It’s all All You Can Eat and so, having skipped lunch, it was a case of Challenge Accepted! It was just as good as we remembering it from last time. They sit and iPad on your table and you just keep ordering stuff. (But don’t overdo it else you will be charged extra for uneaten food, and rightly so).

Perhaps more important was the number of items ordered.

Don’t worry, most of these dishes were tiny, like two little Takoyaki balls. Understandably after all that, we weren’t hungry any more…but not to the point of overdoing it and feeling ill, we stopped in time 🙂

Just across the road was a huge shopping centre we took a brief wander through, probably lucky to cover even a quarter of it, but it did have an Apple Shop so of course had to get a picture. Because Nerd.

We went back to our room, and I was glad to have a chat with my Dad over FaceTime.

I then waited for the sun to set – around 8:30pm. Nice to see the city at night, and the CN tower as it lights up in Red and Blue.

That’s about it for today. The holiday is slowly approaching its end, but not yet! Let’s do it again tomorrow.