O Toron'o!

We were told, by someone who recently visited Toronto, that Canadians pronounced it without the last t.  Did they?  I couldn't tell.  The only time I noticed was when one of the guides of a walking tour said you could tell he wasn't originally from the city because he pronounced Toronto with a t.  That's it.  Everyone else I meant called it ToronTo.

The very heart of our vacation was spent in this magnificent, diverse city.  We were here from Saturday night until Tuesday morning.

We took three walking tours of the city.  They all met up by the old city hall, where we waited for the guides to show up.

Walking tours are great ways to see cities.  They were free, except for a voluntary tip at the end.

We did a ghost tour Saturday night, a tour of Old Toronto Sunday, and a tour of Graffiti Alley on Monday.

Part of the Ghost tour took us through the Pride event going on in Toronto that weekend.  It was several city blocks and had tons of people - many families and friendly, open people.  There were booths by many commercial ventures, including banks.  Churches had booths there, and many of the local churches had banners of rainbow flags and words of support.  It was a real and joyous celebration.

This was a "haunted house" on the ghost tour, now being used as a restaurant, and was lit up in rainbow colors to show its support of the Pride Festival.

The ghost stories we were told were interesting but not compelling if you were trying to bolster your belief in ghosts.

Myself?  I don't believe in ghosts, but I have seen them.

Ponder that for a few minutes.

Benjamin was fascinated by the fact that Canadians buy milk in bags. I guess it's more environmentally sound, or maybe they just like it that way.  I don't know, but it is true.  We done seen it.

A highlight was a walk from our motel to a big city park.  Lake Ontario is like RIGHT THERE.

The park had dozens and dozens of volleyball courts.

This is the one day that was slightly overcast with a drizzle of rain.  It was the only day we wore our jackets.

A favorite part of the trip was just sitting by the lake, watching the water, the wildlife, nature.  Man, am I getting old. 

That's Benjamin sitting on the bench.  Trust me.  I soon join him, putting away my phone and just enjoying the bug-free beauty of the day.  No, Canada is not always bug-free during summer days - mosquitoes are more persistent and aggressive than in Georgia.  But this was a breezy, overcast, rainy day, and the bugs stayed away.

Our last tour was of the city's graffiti.  This is from the last mural we saw, an artsy rendition of the city's name.

Another arty Toronto sign!  It's sad, but that's a picture of me sucking my gut in as much as I can.  Sigh.  I got a lot of work to do.

Not pictured was our Monday night visit to Second City Improv.  A real highlight of the trip, this is the troupe where such talents as Martin Short, John Candy, Catherine O'Hara, Gilda Radner and so many more of our finest comedians, trained and became first-rate.  Well, they still got it.  I have never enjoyed improv so much!


Next stop - Prince Edward County!

Not Prince Edward Island - Prince Edward County.  They're different places.  Trust me.