Toronto's China Town, Streetcars, etc.

Starting our day with a hearty breakfast

Oh, I am so very behind in my blogging! We have been doing neat things every week since my last post, and taking tons of photos; but I've been so busy with the next things (and the daily "to do's" that I haven't really reserved much energy for blogging. As our return to North Carolina comes closer, we are feeling the pressure to use our spare time for sight-seeing as much as possible.  Let's see now, it was back on August 21st when we decided to go see Chinatown in Toronto up close.  Our plan was to each dim sum, buy a trinket or two at one of the market stalls, and  . . . Oh!  and ride a streetcar!

We learned that there are underground stops on the streetcar lines!   Who knew!!  So getting onto a streetcar directly from our subway train was easy, if slightly rushed.

Here's one streetcar viewed from another streetcar.  I prefer them to buses (better smell) and to the subway (better views).

Our first stop while wandering around Chinatown, a mall.  Lots of garish pinks and gold gilt and cheap plastic toys for sale everywhere, so Emily was in  seventh heaven.

Just one of the cool sculptures down Spadina Avenue (if I'm remembering  correctly).

A Western Style Lion

There was some really neat mural art on a lot of the buildings

This photo really doesn't capture the vast stretch of frenetic human and vehicular traffic at the intersections there.

Ever had to get back to your parked car in under a minute? 

We thought these were great!  We didn't try one, as you bring your own helmet (and we couldn't imagine taking our chances on these city streets - particularly with Emily.  But we got to see a young girl return one.  The LED's on the front of the bikes flashed as she approached the bike station.

One of the day's projects was to look for dragons - thereby acquiring luck!  We admired the ingenuity of this particular one!

No idea what a lot of this stuff was.  

More luck!

These were for sale at a lot of places.  For picking your ears!!!

I think those red, hairy things are dragon fruit.  More luck?

What American can resist a broken English sign?

Now we've reached the end of the Spadina streetcar line, and wearied of navigating the shopping crowds, decided to head toward the lake for a bit.

There's a landing strip on the Toronto Islands, so watching the planes come in is neat!

In an earlier adventure, we were at the top of the CN Tower, and I looked down and saw these tiny yellow things that looked like yellow mushrooms!

A nice sort of market/museum, dedicated to pets (and pet merchandise too).  We went in, met and petted a few dogs, and read all about a hero dog named Tippy, who rescued a child from the Niagara River.

An Eastern Style Lion

By lunchtime, we had reached the outskirts of Chinatown and weren't really in the mood to re-enter the hustle and bustle, so our plan to find Dim Sum will have to wait till another day.