Day 5: Niagara Falls and Toronto Road Trip

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Sun rays shining through clouds with the sunlight, trees and clouds reflecting in water, Toronto Islands, Toronto, ON, Canada

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ChinatownKensington MarketMarket 707Toronto Islands

We started our day at High Park. I had high expectations for this park based off of reviews and it didn’t disappoint us – it’s a lovely, large park (398 acres) with a nice variety of trees, flowers and sections to it.

High Park is open 24/7 and is free to visit.

Click here for information on what you can see and do in High Park.

Click here for information on the gardens in High Park.

Click here for a link that provides a map of High Park.

Click here for information on how to get to High Park with various forms of transportation and where you can park inside the park, and when the parking lots are open. Parking is free inside the park.

Next to the parking lot we parked at is the Grenadier Cafe.

We were hoping when we first started planning this trip that the cherry blossoms would be in peak bloom at the park, but we knew from checking a very helpful website as we got closer to our trip time that the cherry blossoms would not be in bloom, well at least not the Sakuras. A kind person regularly updates that very helpful website to let people know the status of the cherry blossoms. There is one type of cherry blossom tree that blooms later than Sakuras, and those were in bloom when we were there! There are much less of that type of cherry blossom trees in the park, but there were plenty to enjoy anyways.

We started off from the parking lot in search of cherry blossoms and it took just a couple of minutes to find some as well as other pretty flowers and plants.

We came upon the Rock Garden, which is an area that has a bridge (I think two bridges) going over what would have been a creek with sections that would have had small waterfalls, but there was no water in it unfortunately. There was also a small pond that was dry as well. The area was still pleasant, but I’m sure it’s much nicer when there’s water in the water features. There were several squirrels and chipmunks scurrying around this area of the park.

Then we walked to Grenadier Pond and saw a cool looking tree. The pond was very peaceful.

Nearby was a hedged in area with small flower beds that were each filled with tulips.

We came across more cherry blossom trees in bloom – they are so pretty! And then a pair of geese with goslings, and back to Grenadier Pond, and more tulips, and more cherry blossoms in bloom and a nice variety of lovely trees, of which there were plenty to enjoy. There was also a nice variety of birds to enjoy throughout the park as well.

The next site we walked to was the Maple Leaf floral display.

Maple Leaf Floral Display in High Park, Toronto, ON, Canada

Near the Maple Leaf floral display was the Hillside Gardens Reflecting Pools.

Hillside Gardens Reflecting Pools, High Park, Toronto, ON, Canada

Then we walked to the animal display. I have such mixed feelings on this part of the park. I love animals (I think most people probably do as well) and while I enjoy seeing animals, I hate to see them in small areas. I hope the animals at High Park are happy and healthy. They did look like they were being well cared for. The animal display is also free to visit.

After the animal display we headed back to the car. We couldn’t find signs to help direct us, so we started walking until we found a dirt nature path. We still don’t know if it was the right choice, but it led us to the High Park Children’s Garden & Teaching Kitchen. There’s a small parking lot there as well as restrooms. From there to our car we came across various plants and some more pretty flowers.

In all we spent about one hour and forty minutes at High Park.

We were getting hungry, which was perfect because our next destination was Chinatown for lunch!

Again we used SpotHero for our parking. We parked at Chinatown Centre Garage at 222 Spadina Ave; the parking garage is underneath Chinatown Centre. The price was good and the location was convenient. It took almost 30 minutes to get to Chinatown from High Park with traffic; we arrived in Chinatown a little before noon.

We had plans to try food from a few places throughout the afternoon. Our first stop was Juicy Dumpling. On the way we checked out a Chinese bakery called Hong Kong Island Dum Sum House that had a nice selection of sweet and savory baked goods that looked tasty. We might try their food the next time we’re in Toronto.

We passed several restaurants on the way to Juicy Dumpling that caught our attention.

At Juicy Dumpling I ordered the pan fried mini soup dumplings (pork) and my husband ordered deep fried dough stick. I loved the soup dumplings!

Then we walked to Bánh Mì Nguyen Huong. On the way we passed more restaurants that we were interested in trying, but we couldn’t try any of those places because we already had plans to try food at other places.

At Bánh Mì Nguyen Huong we bought one pre-made bánh cuốn, which was $4.00, one bánh mì, and one order of chả giò. The bánh mì was just ok; we enjoyed the other two items more than the bánh mì.

We visited Yin Ji Chang Fen. I had read really good reviews about their noodle rolls and their congee. I ordered the shrimp noodle rolls and they were the most bland noodle rolls I’ve ever head. My husband ordered their chicken and mushroom congee and it was bland as well. My husband makes a really good chicken congee!

We checked out Kensington Market, which is not actually a market, it’s a neighborhood with homes and businesses, mostly food places, that has a sort of hippie vibe to it; at least that’s how it felt to me.

We grabbed some food from Rasta Pasta for later that day. We put it in our ice chest in our car to keep it from going bad. When we ate it later that night in our hotel room we were so glad we had bought it – it was delicious! And it went really well with one of the dark beers we had bought in Niagara-on-the-Lake!

I said earlier in this story that we had plans to try food from a few places throughout the afternoon, and I wasn’t lying! Our next destination was Market 707, located at 707 Dundas Street W. This market is mostly about food. Shipping containers have been retrofitted to become small food and retail establishments. There is a decent variety of cuisines – sweet and savory – for sale. Most of the places were closed when we were there, but the place I wanted to try – Kanto by Tita Flips – was open!

At Kanto by Tita Flips I ordered the pork lumpia, which cost $6.50 for 10. They were similar to chả giò. They were good but not great.

From Market 707 we walked to Little Italy to check that area out.

Next we headed to Koreatown. We walked west/northwest on Palmerston Blvd to get there because it looked like an attractive street. It has Edwardian style homes with attractive iron street lamps.

We had planned on us eating Korean food for dinner in Koreatown, possibly at Imonay House Restaurant, but when we got to Koreatown we weren’t hungry enough for a big meal after all the food we had eaten throughout the day.

I thought trying a croffle (a mix of a croissant and a waffle) for dessert in Koreatown might be fun, but neither of us felt like it when we got there. Maybe next time we’re in Toronto.

Instead of Korean food, my husband ended up getting a chicken gyro pita wrap at Souvlaki Place. He really enjoyed it. I liked it too.

Then we started our walk to get on a ferry to the Toronto Islands. On the way we passed the Toronto Railway Museum. They have some cool looking trains you can see for free outside of the museum, but we didn’t go inside the museum.

Click here for a website with lots of information on the Toronto Islands. Near the left of the page in the link you can find links to pages about many different topics on the Toronto Islands.

There are three ferry docks on the Toronto Islands – Wards Island, Hanlan’s Point and Centre Island. We took the ferry to Wards Island so that we could see one of the two housing communities on the Toronto Islands.

From what I’ve read the ferries can get so busy at certain times that you might miss one ferry and have to wait for the next. There was plenty of space available on the ferry we took to Ward Island.

Our ferry left around 6 p.m. and it took about fifteen minutes to get to Wards Island. It’s a pleasant ferry ride.

The photos below are of the ferry dock area on Wards Island.

Next we walked through parts of the housing community on Wards Island. There is a small garden in the housing community near the water called Deenie & Freda’s Garden that was nice to see. I enjoyed seeing the homes as well.

As we headed toward Centre Island we passed a marina.

As we continued on, there was an area with lake water on our right. We saw a beaver swimming in the water; when it saw me coming over to get a photo, it swam quickly under the water. I got a quick photo of it though just before it went under! The following photos are of the walk from the marina in the photos above until just before we reached the pier.

The following photos are of the pier and the area around the pier.

Next we walked the Avenue of the Islands Gardens which is a nice looking area that has water features (which were empty when we were there), flowers and trees. On our left was the William Meany Maze, a hedge maze made with black cedars. The photos below are of the walk down the Avenue of the Islands Gardens to the bridge that leads to Centreville Amusement Park.

Centreville Amusement Park is a small amusement park for kids around 3 to 10 years old. There are over 30 attractions and a number of eateries. A few of the attractions are for adults and children. There is no entrance fee and the attractions are on a ticket basis, where each attraction requires a certain number of tickets. They also offer day passes and season passes. The park is open seasonally.

The park was closed when we were there, but it was open to explore because there is no entrance gate to the park; in fact Centreville Amusement Park is a passageway to get from the pier area we were at earlier to Centre Island. There was hardly anyone there when we were there so it felt like an abandoned amusement park. I tried to take at least one photo of every attraction and restaurant. Hopefully my photos give a good feeling for what this quaint amusement park has to offer.

Next we walked over to Olympic Island for sunset photos. The clouds prevented a great sunset from happening, but we enjoyed the sunset that was given to us. After checking out a few photo spots on Olympic Island, we headed over to the Centre Island Ferry Terminal which is on Olympic Island.

The following photos are from our ferry ride from the Centre Island Ferry Terminal to the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. The ferry was jam packed, but we were fortunate to have been one of the first ones in line at the terminal so we got a great spot at the front of the ferry for our ride back. It was a pleasant ride back with a great view of the Toronto skyline lit up at night.

Next we walked back to our car that was still parked in Chinatown, and passed through the Toronto Entertainment District on our way. Then we drove back to our hotel. It was a long day with lots of food and lots of walking, and both of us were tired!

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