Hockley Valley Hike

On the first weekend of June my sister asked me if I wanted to go on a hike somewhere with her. We originally planned to just go to a park in Toronto and wander around. Sara had been looking at a website earlier with different hikes in and around Toronto and decided she would like to do the Hockley Valley hike mentioned on the site. We drove up there, parked the car at the small lot by the hike entrance and wandered onto the trail. It is part of the Bruce Trail that goes across a large portion of Toronto...either that or it was one of the side trails off of the Bruce Trail...

It was a really beautiful hike. It took us less than an hour and it was a loop that took us right back to the entrance so we would be close to our car at the end of the hike. The trail was through a small, thin-treed forest. We went at a terrible time because it was close to dusk and the mosquitoes were so awful! We didn't bring bug spray and we were both wearing shorts and a tank top. If we had planned to leave Toronto from the beginning we might have thought to bring some supplies and dress a bit better for hiking, but it wasn't until we had driven a bit that we decided to leave the city. While we were walking, the bugs weren't too bad, so we just kept moving at a brisk pace. Whenever we stopped to take pictures we ended up jumping around and then running away, haha. 

The forest and the trail was beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice. It was very peaceful. I would love to go back and do a longer hike there. The sunlight streaming through the trees in the forest looked magical. I wish I could have taken longer to stop and admire everything and take more pictures, but the mosquitoes kind of ruined that...

For some reason there was this super old car in the middle of the forest on the trail...I have no idea why it was there or how it got there or anything! It was pretty weird!

This is me on one of the stand thingys with stairs that helps you get over the fence...haha. These things have a name but I don't know what it is....

This hike was really nice even though it was quite short. We passed a few people on the trail but not very many, we felt pretty alone for most of the hike which was kind of nice. After doing this hike, I looked into the Bruce Trail a bit more. I could not believe some of the beautiful scenery around the trail, especially further north at the Bruce Peninsula. I knew I had to see it in person....but that is another entry!

Toronto Zoo

At the beginning of June, my husband and I spent a few hours at the Toronto Zoo. The last and only other time I was there was about 6 years ago when we visited Toronto, before we moved here. It is a really nice zoo! There are a lot of different animals to see and it is just a nice way to spend a Summer day. I didn't take that many pictures but got some of my favorite animals there haha.

My favorite was this polar bear. He was so cute! He had this little circuit that he would swim in. He would fall onto his back in the water and just float towards the wall where he would push off of it with his cute little paw to go back to where he started his swim from and then he would flip over onto his paws and start again. It was adorable and so fun to watch! I wanted to keep him. 

There was a nice little enclosure full of butterflies which was really cool! 

One of my other favorite little guys was the baby giraffe, it was sooo cute! I love giraffes in general so it was really cool seeing the baby!

Actually, I had a hard time deciding if the polar bear was my favorite or if the penguins were my favorite...They were African Penguins I think. They were so fun! You could watch them from above and see them walking around or you could go below and there was an aquarium-type wall where you could see into their swimming area and man can they swim! It was so cool seeing them swim around under the water! 

I know this is way too many pictures of swimming penguins but I just love them, haha. This wasn't a very exciting post, I should have taken more pictures! It was really fun though! The funniest thing was probably the fact that they had raccoons on display. We see raccoons almost every day outside of our house so we thought it was pretty strange that they had a display for them, haha. There are more than 3 animals at the Toronto Zoo...I am just not great at documenting...

Casa Loma & St. Lawrence Market

St. Lawrence Market was one of the items I crossed off of my Explore my City list recently. I think I should go back now that Summer is in full swing. It was a weekday when I went and the weather was not great. I think more shops would be open now that it's a lot nicer out, especially if I went on a weekend. Despite a lot of the shops being closed and the small amount of people there, I really enjoyed St. Lawrence Market. There were so many food options it was ridiculous! Basically any type of food you can think of you could probably find there. You can also buy fresh groceries there, lots of fish and seafood and delis and butcher-like shops. I went for the fish and chips while my sister had sushi. I also had a latte from a tiny little coffee shop which was delicious! I wish I would have taken some pictures while I was there. I will have to make sure to take some next time I end up there!

Another thing from my Explore my City list was going to Casa Loma. It was really cool! I did not end up taking any pictures inside, I actually liked it better from the outside! If anyone is reading this and doesn't think they want to spend the money to explore Casa Loma, you should at least go there to see it from the outside and check out the gardens surrounding it. There was some beautiful furniture inside though, it might have been more interesting had we opted for the audio tour. The tunnel walk to the stables is really interesting. There are old, dark pictures all along the tunnel walls with really sad descriptions...pretty neat to see. I want to go back just to explore outside. We didn't go far into the gardens because we were really hungry so we didn't want to spend too much time there and we wanted to see the inside since that is what we paid for.

From the outside, this place is like being in a fairy tale. It's beautiful and magical. I will definitely be back. Wandering around the gardens is a very cool, free thing to do in Toronto! I love it! 

Toronto Island

I went to Toronto Island with my sister at the end of May. We drove down to the Harbour area and walked over to the ferries. It was a really short ride but I loved it, I love being on the water. On the way to the island we had beautiful views of the Toronto skyline, but they were probably even better on the island itself.

We walked across to the other side of the island where there is a nude beach and then a regular beach, walking that way it seemed like we could walk straight across to downtown Toronto, it looked so close behind the trees! We stepped onto the beach for a bit just to check out the lake from that side. It was very windy, choppy, and filled with sail boats. It was pretty cool to see. My sister and I have decided we really want to take a sailing lesson someday, or at least get onto a sail boat! I think I would add that to my 30 Before 30 List if I were to redo it. 

There is a cute little theme park on the island, with tiny little rides for young children and overly priced snacks. We did sit down in one of the restaurants to have some food and a couple of drinks though. It was my first time sitting out on a patio this summer, it ended up being pretty cold by then but was still a nice experience! There is an old lighthouse that has a cool story, apparently the lighthouse keeper was murdered there and his body was never found. People say it is haunted now. We could have actually gone inside the lighthouse but there was a huge lineup so we decided we would rather spend our time discovering the rest of the island.

It's a very cute, calm little island and the views of Toronto are just beautiful but it's not really a place I would go back to anytime soon. It seems to me like kind of a one-time thing to do.