Adventures in Toronto I

We just returned from spending a few days in Toronto, Ontario with Mary and Dave. We were complete tourists, with tickets for the double decker "Hop on - hop off" bus to get us to all the major sights. And by major, I mean this one:   

The shoe museum had a history of shoes on the bottom floor, then exhibits about particular styles or time periods of shoes on the other three (yes, three!) floors. We had just finished touring the Casa Loma Museum, which had no air conditioning, just a few fans to move the record-setting 100 degree heat around. So the air-conditioning made this trip worthwhile. On a positive note, there was a display of mocassins and other native American footwear which was pretty interesting. But not much in the way of men's shoes, so no pointers for me.We weren't allowed to take flash pictures in here. I think the shoes feel that they lose some of their sole when you take their picture (sorry).   

I don't remember where we were when Ann took this picture. I seem to have blanked it out of my memory.    

 Donatello's was a very nice Italian restaurant not far from our hotel in downtown Toronto.  No pictures of mutant turtles on the wall, so that was a disappointment, but people said the gnocchi were very good. We walked there, but cabbed back. It had been a long day of walking, and I couldn't have taken another mile long walk at 9 PM. For some reason, the rest of our party was not as interested in where we went to dinner as I was. Priorities, people!   

One of the coolest things about Toronto is that at several places in the downtown area, there is a public piano like this one. Anybody can step up and play whatever they want. People listen while they walk along, or stop and listen for a while. We tried to get Mary to play outside of the Royal Ontario Museum, but she declined. I think she was worried that Dave and I would sing along.    

And through it all, we got to use Canadian money. When the museum admission people said "That will be $35," we knew it meant we needed two flying monkey bills. and we would get back three coins, which we were unsuccessful in unloading before we left Canada. If you are headed to Canada, let me know. I'm like a no small fee currency exchange in Wauconda.