Before my trip, I had no clue what there was to see in Toronto except the CN Tower, and Niagara Falls, which I had already been to. Luckily, this reddit post helped me find few places less traveled.

Royal Ontario Museum

It’s a museum that displays different elements of world culture, art, and natural history. Think British Museum, but much much smaller. One thing the ROM has that a lot of museums don’t are dinosaur fossils! There other exhibits showing world history and culture as well.

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Located on the University of Toronto campus, this library is Canada’s largest repository of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts in Canada. Among its collection is a copy of Isaac Newton’s Principia from 1687.

Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada

This aquarium is exactly what you’d expect. Lots of different kinds of exotic sealife, sharks, manta rays, etc. The main exhibit is a giant water tank that contains these animals, and a giant conveyor belt takes guests all around. It’s a pretty good aquarium for those who are into that kind of thing

Casa Loma

This is one of the few “château”s in Canada. It was the largest private residence ever built in Canada and was the former residence of Sir Henry Pellatt, a former Major-General in the Canadian Forces. Now it has turned into a tourist attraction. The museum shows off similar things to what one would expect at a European castle: cool architecture, fancy decorations in just about every room, paintings and other art, antiques, and a garden.

And of course, a giant wine collection.

SkullStore Oddity Shop

This place is SUPER out there. This is a store that sells the skeletons of random animals, the skin of snakes, human remains (bones, preserved brain, etc.), taxidermy, preserved bugs, etc. All cruelty free and legally harvested apparently. Half of the store is an actual shop selling these strange items, and the other half is a free museum of even more weird things that aren’t for sale

The Half House

This half a house just sits on the side of the street like any other building. There isn’t a sign explaining why this is, what it’s doing there or anything like that. According to this site, it’s part of the remnants of the neighbourhood that once was here, where the owners at the time sold only half the house, and so the rest of the community developed around it.

St. Lawrence Market

This place felt similar to something like Granville Island in Vancouver, or Pike Place in Seattle – a farmer’s market positioning itself on selling fresh local meats, seafood, produce, etc. It’s a bit out of the way from the downtown core, and when I went, it was almost closing time, so it wasn’t very busy.

The one thing this place has over other farmer’s markets I’ve seen (at least in Seattle and Vancouver) is the variety. If you zoom in on that picture, below, you’ll see what I mean.

Restaurants

Toronto is Canada’s largest city, and therefore has a lot of offer in terms of food. Of all the places I ate at, these two places were definitely the best.

La Palette

This is a French style restaurant near the Kensington district of Toronto. It’s got an interesting selection of game meat, which was the reason why my buddy and I went. They’ve also got a good selection of wine and staff that are knowledgable about it.

For those wondering, horse doesn’t have a strong flavour like beef does, and it chews like super tender beef. Elk on the other hand, tastes kind of like steak with a bit of gaminess, and is actually quite hard to tell the difference unless you’re someone with really sensitive taste buds

Diana’s Seafood Delight

This place is known for their quality oysters and sea urchin, and also precisely the reason why we were there. They have a selection of different oysters from different areas, but if you gave me a blindfold and asked me which oyster was which, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Photo albums:

• Toronto
• Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada
• Casa Loma
• SkullStore Oddity Shop
• Royal Ontario Museum

The outside patio seating on cobblestone roads has a nice “European feel” and the architecture of the buildings surrounding it definitely add to the atmosphere.  Store and restaurant labels being in French also makes the atmosphere feel a lot more foreign (but luckily most people in Montreal speak English).

As I have learned throughout my travels, there is always a nice church in the historical part of town, at least in this case, a basilica.  This one is called the Notre-Dame Basilica or in French, Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal.

The inside is also quite different.  I remember a lot of churches like to use ambient light to keep the interior illuminated but the main congregation hall seems to be closed to natural light except for the two windows in the ceiling.  There is a lot of “blueness” in this basilica, which I don’t think is very common.  As usual, the altar is filled with statues of religious figures.

After that, the next destination was Mount Royal, which is one of Montreal’s largest greenspaces.  There is a large artificial lake where people like to go for runs or just casual strolling.  There is also an observation area that looks down the mountain toward downtown Montreal.

A raccoon even tried to join us at the observation area.  Poor raccoon…was probably hungry too.

That night we had a nice dinner that was a partial family reunion.  I think about 15 people from my father’s side of the family came.  That was probably the first time we’ve ever all got together for a meal in a long time.  The meal was also made better by the presence of my cousin’s 15-month old daughter (first cousin once removed?).  I think the last time where everyone got together (at least partially – I wasn’t present for that one) was in the summer of 2009 when one of my cousins got married.  We all asked about one another and how everyone was doing since we hadn’t caught up in a while.  We ate for about an hour and talked probably for another 2 or 3 hours.  It was a nice get-together that doesn’t happen very often.

More photos here

Rib Fest 2012

I don’t really know why this exists, but I do know that the ribs here are absolutely delicious.  Since it was the last day of the rib fest, some of the vendors added more servings for each meal purchased (at least that’s what my cousin thought who said that they don’t usually give so much).

We ordered a pulled pork sandwich, a bunch of ribs, chicken wings.  Would have been nice if there was some veggies to balance it out, but it was delicious so I can’t really complain.

After the meal, we made our way to the boat tour of Thousand Islands.

Thousand Islands Boat Tour

I actually wondered whether or not this place actually had a thousand islands.  I was tempted to count, but let’s be realistic.  That wouldn’t work.  It would be easier to just check Wiki, and according to Wiki, the Thousand Islands area has 1864 islands.  Hmm, I guess it’s true.

One of the nice things about these islands is that rich people buy up the land on them and build houses on them that are only accessible by boat.  This adds to the scenery quite a lot.  It’s better than seeing just random islands with trees on them.  With houses, suddenly the view becomes a lot more interesting.

To top it off, there’s an actual castle on one of these islands.  It’s called Boldt Castle.  It is an unfinished castle that was originally meant as a private home for a really rich family – the Boldt Family.  It was never finished because of the of the George Boldt’s wife.  Tourists can still tour the inside of the completed part of the castle though.

After the tour, we drove back to Montreal, where we’d spend the next couple of days.  After a good rest, the next destination was Old Montreal.

More photos here

Parliament Hill

Because of Canada Day, a giant stage had been set up for shows throughout the day.  For Canada Day, many people came out wearing red shirts and so looking at the giant crowds of people, there was a sea of red.  The streets were filled with people taking part in the day’s festivities.  Street vendors sold Canada Day apparel such as mini flags to wave, vuvuzelas (I can’t believe people still buy these things), etc.  When we arrived at Parliament Hill, a ceremonial presentation of the Changing of the Guard was happening.  There was so many people that we couldn’t even get close.  We could only see it on the big screen on the concert stage.  From what I saw, it’s similar to the one that happens at Buckingham Palace in London.  From the events schedule, it said that the Parliament Motorcade would be pulling in at around 12pm.  It was still early at the time, so we continued walking around the city to see more of the sights.

National War Memorial

This memorial is dedicated to all Canadian dead of all wars.  This memorial is located in Confederation Square, and commemorates the First and Second World Wars, as well as the Korean War.  In front of it, is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  There is also a Ceremonial Guard present at the site.  On top of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, many people showed their respect by placing a mini Canadian paper flag over the tomb.

Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it connects Ottawa to Kingston.  It’s been around since the early 19th century and people still use it today.  Because of its antiquity, the mechanical system for opening each lock is purely manual.  Students are hired during the summer to open and close them.  Apparently, people use this enough to keep this place in operation.

Parachute Show

As we were leaving Rideau Canal, we happened to see a parachute performance happening.  Soldiers jumped out of a plane and performed tricks on their way down.  I tried my best to take some pictures with my camera, but the zoom just wasn’t good enough.

Parliament Motorcade

As it got closer to 12pm, we went up to the main avenue in front of Parliament Hill to watch the Parliament Motorcade pass by.  Many people were already there waiting for the same thing.  Policemen stood along the side of the road making sure that nobody blocked the streets.  The Prime Minister came in a motorcade of black cars, but the Governor General came in a horse-drawn carriage with the RCMP in traditional attire.  And since I haven’t been keeping up with Canadian politics, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen the Governor General.

ByWard Market and Obama Cookies

ByWard Market is a farmer’s market that is located in Ottawa’s French and Irish communities.  To show its Irishness, there are a lot of Irish pubs present in this district.  On top of that there is a bakery called “Le Moulin De Provence”, that sells something called “Obama Cookies”.  Apparently Barack Obama once stopped by this bakery to buy cookies for his daughter.  And ever since then, there are posters of Obama everywhere in this bakery.

At this point, we were all tired from our lack of sleep the night before, so we decided to rest up a little bit at our cousin’s place.  I got a nice two-hour nap.  Felt pretty refreshed afterward.

Canada Day Concert

In the evening on the concert stage on Parliament Hill, there was a concert.  We went there early to see if we could get some good seats, but then on a day like this, it was pretty difficult.  We lay down our blanket on the grass and just talked until the concert started.  We got a little more caught up among the cousins with what we were all doing (jobs, school, etc. – the usual stuff).  Fishing live grenades from World War II was probably the most memorable thing.

Probably the most note-worthy part of this concert was the fact that Simple Plan played.  I didn’t even know they’re Canadian.  I’m not really a fan of Simple Plan, but it was still cool hearing a famous band play live.  As the concert went on, I felt tired again and somehow fell asleep.  I was so tired that I managed to sleep through the concert music.  I didn’t think it was possible.

At the end of the concert, the fireworks started.

After the fireworks, the crowds left the premises in an orderly fashion.  The parents went back to the hotel, while the younger kids stayed at our cousins house.  The next day, we would tour the inside of the Parliament building.

More photos here