Dan & Julie visit Toronto for a concert and some sight-seeing

It started with browsing concert listings. Julie noticed that Sheryl Crow was on tour and said that was an artist she'd like to see sometime. One of the dates was in Toronto, and Dan said that was a city he'd like to see sometime. Before long they'd booked concert tickets, flights, a hotel - plus baseball tickets - for a quick 60-hour visit to Canada's largest city.

Arriving on a Friday night, they checked into their hotel near the airport, navigated public transit downtown and strolled around the Harborfront area. On their way to the Rogers Centre baseball stadium, they checked out the outdoor Toronto Railway Museum and had dinner at one of the restaurants in the former Canadian Pacific roundhouse.

Despite being fans of the AL East rival Yankees and Orioles, Dan and Julie enjoyed watching the Toronto Blue Jays play the Texas Rangers - and win in exciting, come-from-behind fashion, 6-5.

 

On Saturday, the couple took a ferry across Toronto's Inner Harbor to Ward's Island, one of a group of islands that have a mix of parkland, small residential neighborhoods, an amusement park and a small airport. They strolled through the park, had lunch at a cafe alongside the main harbor, and walked through a neighborhood of quaint old houses before ferrying back downtown.

Making the most of their limited time, D&J then checked out the shops along the cobblestone, pedestrian-only streets of the Distillery District, with music in the background from a bandstand in a central plaza.

Then it was time to call a Lyft to get to the opposite side of the city for dinner and the Sheryl Crow concert at the Great Canadian casino complex. (Side note: The only highway through downtown Toronto, the Gardiner Expressway, seemed perpetually jammed.)

Photo from Great Canadian Entertainment

On Sunday, they continued their tourist-ing by returning downtown and visiting the Royal Ontario Museum. They spent the morning in the First People's gallery with its collection of native artifacts, including canoes and kayaks, and part of the afternoon in the Earth's Treasures, Dawn of Life and Dinosaur exhibits.

After a walk around nearby Queens Park, they said farewell to Toronto, and they and their tired legs headed to the airport.

See many more photos, including trains, canoes and dinosaurs

Doug's summer travels through the Midwest

Rock Maze trail

Doug and his camera took a rambling trip through the Midwestern U.S. this summer, visiting cities and towns, natural wonders and man-made oddities. He took a zillion photos, of which a curated collection can be viewed in a Google album here. Here are a few highlights and Doug's commentary on the trip.

"I started in western MD with a trail I never knew existed, the Rock Maze trail, something I'm surprised we never found in all the time at Arrowhead. It is an interesting rock outcropping which is great for kids to climb on. 

"Went through 13 states; added 4 new state highpoints, 10 peaks and three new National Parks to my been-there list. 

"Walked on the race track at Indy and saw Airstream trailers be built. 

"Had over a dozen really good local IPAs. Dipped my own bottle of Maker's Mark Whiskey. Ate in the oldest bars in WV and KY. Crossed the Ohio five times and the Mississippi 9 times (in central Minnesota near the headwaters it meanders so, yes, I'm still on the east side of the river.) 5,892.5 miles specifically, and the Toyota Highlander has now been in 46 states and has over 200,000 miles on it, still going strong.

US 35 crosses the Ohio River

"Drove on State Line Road south of Union City, IN/OH where folks on the left side of the road had Indiana plates on the cars in the driveway and folks on the right side had Ohio plates. There are lotsa places in the country where your neighbor is in another state, but this was obvious. If your mail box is across the road, you have to walk to another state just to get your mail.

"Went through some towns with interesting names including Coolville, OH; Twentysix, KY (they spell it out); Coon Valley, WI and Gnaw Bone, IN. Then the whole set of those named after something else: Cuba, MO; Lisbon. ND;  Athens, WI; Sparta, WI; Atlanta, IL; Virginia, MN; Boston, OH, El Paso, WI; Nashville, IN; Richmond, IN; Delaware, OH; Fargo, OH; Indiana, PA. Then there was Farmersville and Farmer City IL.; Murphytown, WV; New Douglas, IL; Webster, IN and Andrew, IA. Also traversed Winnebago, MN, Winnebago, IL and Winnebago, WI. FYI, Winnebago Campers are made in none of these places, they are made in Forest City, IA.

"During the trip I spent a lot of time not on interstate highways, although I did travel on quite a few. North Dakota has some stellar unpaved roads, straight, well graded and 60 mph is not out of the question. Some states have paved roads which aren't this good. On the little roads, you see more of the country, what people decorate their house and yard with, what they drive, and what "toys" they have too. Lotsa white Ford pickup trucks in Minnesota. Wisconsin allows ATVs on public roads. Michigan reinforces the roadway at snowmobile crossings (the trail is snow covered, the road is not.)"

Here are a few more photo highlights. The full album is definitely worth seeing! You may need to be signed into a Google (Gmail) account in order to view it.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio

Sunset at Grand Marais, MN