Our good friends Janice and Peter got married in Toronto in October. David had never been to Toronto, so we booked six days to hang out with old and new friends and explore Canada's biggest city. Toronto is a very livable city. It might not have headliner tourist attractions, but what it does have is walkable, bikeable neighborhoods with a diverse population and great food. Just don't come in winter. :)
We stayed with friends in an AirBnB near Trinity Bellwoods Park. It's a really cute neighborhood just a couple miles from downtown. The weather was beautiful - mostly cool sunny days, and the trees were vibrant with autumn colors. This Toronto wedding blog post will start with two pictures of squirrels, and end with a picture of a world map. Because, why not?
Most of the squirrels in Toronto are black...
... but the park next to our AirBnB is famous for its white squirrels. We spotted one!
The main way to get from our AirBnB to the city was along Queen Street. This street is lined for miles with small commercial buildings with apartments above. Most of the shops are locally owned independent stores, which made it really cute. David found a vintage video game store and walked away with a few prizes. We also found a Japanese import store and bought a couple of really beautiful ramen bowls. It's nice to visit cities with corridors like this!
Queen Street, right near our AirBnB, was vibrant and bustling.
I'm not sure what they sell here.
A coffee shop sign. This was before the election. No comment.
As a city, Toronto feels like a mix between Chicago and New York. You often get views like in the next two pictures where it really feels like a big city. But with only about 5.5 million people in the metro area, Toronto is more similar in size to metro Atlanta. It's really amazing how much impact design has on how a place looks and feels.
One major complaint we had about Toronto was transportation. It's pretty hard to get around Toronto if you want to go further than a mile or two. They have really limited subway lines and the rest of transit is in-traffic street cars and buses. We ended up walking really long distances, which we're generally fine with since the weather was nice, or relying on uber. With the good exchange rate for American to Canadian dollars, uber wasn't so bad...but we still ended up stuck in traffic quite a few times. They do have a fairly comprehensive bike share and a few nice cycle paths.
View of the north end of the city's skyline from the University of Toronto.
The interesting architecture of the Royal Ontario Museum.
Chihuly exhibit at the ROM. This was a beautiful exhibit.
A huge new residential building. Condos are sprouting up everywhere in Toronto.
Of course we had ramen!
After exploring the Royal Ontario Museum and finding lunch, we met up with some folks for the first day/night of drinking. We started by some bars near the CN Tower and made our way gradually back towards our AirBnB. Toronto has lots of great bars and a real beer culture, so Paul was enjoying himself!
View of the CN Tower behind Union Station.
The top of the CN Tower doesn't fit in the frame. It's still the tallest structure in North America, not including radio masts.
We went to a lot of beer places in Toronto. This one was Bar Hop, where we had some excellent stouts and IPAs.
Surprise bachelor dinner, with lots more beer!
The following day we wandered around town a bit more and found some great Korean food. Toronto has tons of expat enclaves, including a Koreatown lined with restaurants and shops that reminded us of our trip to Korea. While there we found a restaurant that serves dalkgalbi (something we haven't found in Atlanta). It's basically chicken with cabbage and rice cakes (tteok) in a spicy gochujang sauce that's cooked in front of you! Yum!
After lunch, we met up with a group of the guys and the groom to throw axes for fun at BATL (we'd love to see a place like this in Atlanta). Axe throwing is surprisingly fun and we made a tournament out of it. Unfortunately, we didn't win...but didn't do too shabby!
Our AirBnB was in a cute residential neighborhood.
Koreatown was a short walk away.
We found dalkgalbi, one of our favorite Korean foods!
The official bachelor party started with an axe throwing contest. Yes, axe throwing.
David was better than Paul.
The axe throwing and tournament went on for about 2 hours. In case you were wondering, axe throwing can be dangerous...but luckily no one lost a toe or finger in the video below. :)
After the axe throwing, the bachelor party went out on the town for drinks and food before rejoining with the ladies for karaoke and more booze. So much drinking...you guys, you don't even know...
Downtown Toronto at night.
Private room karaoke!
The next day was still a full day before the wedding so we took time to explore more of Toronto. We found entire streets with tons of graffiti art, similar to Atlanta. We also found our way to some boxcar restaurants that included great poutine, which google tells us is probably the national dish of Canada according to a recent "poutition" to the government.
Here's a cool fish mural we found. There's a lot of street art in Toronto.
That evening we were scheduled to join the wedding party for a rehearsal dinner down by the waterfront at Amsterdam Brewery. Due to previously mentioned transportation issues, we opted to just walk the two miles. There are lots of parks close to the lake and trails and beautiful green-space. After dinner, we wandered around downtown more with the wedding party and friends and found our way to a few more fun little bars and pubs.
A nice little park near the waterfront.
So. Much. Beer. This time at Amsterdam Brewery.
The view of the waterfront from the rehearsal dinner venue.
The next day was the big day! Janice and Peter's wedding! Since Paul was part of the wedding party, we just hung out with Peter all morning while he got ready and everyone figured out how to tie a bow tie. Early in the afternoon we took an uber over to the bride's AirBnB across town for them to officially get hitched ahead of the reception and "fake wedding" at the distillery district. The venue was really amazing. The space was cute and there was a beautiful outdoor area filled with flowers and lights and brick/cobblestone flooring.
Practicing tying bow-ties. Craig figured it out eventually, thanks to youtube.
A giant groom bib, to avoid food spillage. Necessary.
This was the official wedding. Shhh, don't tell anybody!
The venue was awesome. And the rain held off!
Cute!
The bride and groom in the distillery district.
We heart Toronto!
Really cool paper flowers made out of maps.
This is 100% candid.
Peter and Paul!
Janice and Paul!
The first dance.
Does every Canadian wedding come with a midnight poutine bar?
Post-wedding festivities. I love this picture. It was 5:30AM.
After a super late night, our last day in Toronto was mostly just resting up and detoxing from days of drinking and eating. We got together with the wedding party for brunch at the Craft Brasserie and Grill and we managed to meet up with Andrew and Brad, some of Paul's roller coaster friends back at the distillery district, for a final dinner.
We had time to squeeze in a little more beer with our friends Andrew and Brad - our final meal in Toronto!
Our AirBnB had a world map for guests to stick pins in for their home city.
We had a fantastic time at a beautiful wedding in a beautiful city. Congrats to Janice and Peter!
After leaving Duluth and driving through Wisconsin on our tour of the upper great lakes, we arrived in the upper peninsula (UP) of Michigan. It's a beautiful and sparsely populated area. Although it makes up nearly 1/3 of Michigan's area, it contains only 3% of the state's population. In the 1800s the copper and lumber industries thrived in the UP, and a lot of Cornish and Scandinavian immigrants moved here to work. The area still shows this influence, with Cornish pasties (a type of savory pastry) everywhere, and signs for businesses with Scandinavian names. Water is everywhere - the UP is sandwiched between three great lakes, and has countless small lakes and streams. Our first stop was Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, in the western tip of the UP. Because of the rugged terrain, this is the one part of Michigan that was never logged, so the forests are old growth northern hardwoods. We took in the scenery along Lake Superior and the Lake of the Clouds and took a short hike along the escarpment trail. It's a beautiful area and we'd love to return to explore more of the park.
Reflection of clouds on a small lake we drove by.
David standing by Lake Superior.
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.
Lake Superior just barely visible on the left, Lake of the Clouds on the right.
The Escarpment Trail in the Porcupine Mountains. It was a beautiful trail on a beautiful day.
US 45 starts in Ontonagon and goes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
We briefly stopped in Marquette as well. It's the largest city in the UP.
Marquette has a cute downtown and waterfront park.
We stopped for a quick beer at Ore Dock Brewery in Marquette.
Our lodging for the night was one of the most unique places we've ever stayed - an active lighthouse! Big Bay Point Lighthouse was built in 1896 and still has an active coast guard beacon at the top, although these days it's entirely automated. The bottom two floors are run as a bed and breakfast. We had a great stay and it was neat to see the remote coast of Lake Superior on Big Bay.
See, it's historic!
The inside has been restored and re-purposed as a B&B.
The view from the top of the lighthouse.
We weren't sure if lighthouses here are even necessary thanks to GPS, but here it is...with a little LCD light.
Paul's a lighthouse keeper!
Some kayakers paddling past the lighthouse trail.
David practiced skipping stones again.
Another fantastic Michigan sunset.
And another great local beer! We picked this one up in Duluth.
The lighthouse at sunset.
It was also wildflower season. Our whole trip was colorful.
One last view of sunset over Big Bay.
For our final day in the UP, we made a quick stop for a hike to the off-the-beaten path Big Pup Falls, then continued on to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Driving down a dirt road to get to the falls.
Big Pup falls. It was in the middle of nowhere. We hoped to see some otters, but didn't find any.
We made a quick stop for shopping in Marquette. The bike rack is a bike!
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore runs for 42 miles along Lake Superior in the middle of the upper peninsula. 200 foot tall sandstone cliffs rise out of the lake with a series of caves, arches, and coves. It's really a breathtaking place, and the best place to see it is from the water - so we booked a sunset kayak tour. We had a great view of the rocks and were able to kayak in to several small lake caves and through arches.
As an added bonus the lake water wasn't freezing cold this year! Since the lake didn't freeze over last winter (in fact it was so warm there was almost no ice on the great lakes at all) the water temperature was nearly 70°F. Even if the water were cold, it would still be a lot of fun, and we highly recommend you kayak if you visit Pictured Rocks.
The cliffs are impressive.
The rocks are stained with minerals as groundwater evaporates on the surface.
Whew, glad we weren't around when this big chunk fell off the cliff.
The cliffs tower over the other kayakers.
Some of the beaches on Lake Superior could almost pass for the Caribbean.
The stream at Mosquito Beach had a cool cascading effect over rock terraces.
Hiking up the stream at mosquito beach before continuing our kayak tour.
This little cove near mosquito beach was gorgeous.
Selfie time!
Greece? Nope, Lake Superior!
The color of the water was incredible. Check out that transition to deep blue at the drop-off.
We got back in our kayaks and paddled right through Lover's Leap Arch.
One of the iconic images of Michigan.
Our guide took this picture of us.
There we are! I guess taking centered pictures wasn't on the guide exam. :)
The cliffs changed colors as sunset approached.
Sunset kayak selfie.
It was a beautiful and peaceful kayak trip back to the starting point.
After our kayak tour, we were starving and devoured a pizza in Munising before driving to our hotel in Escanaba, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Our final day was mostly spent driving, but we had some time to make a few stops along the way. We passed though Green Bay and drove across the width of Wisconsin back to Minneapolis for our flight out.
We briefly stopped at Bay Beach amusement park in Green Bay.
We also drove by Lambeau Field, home of the Packers.
Chippewa Falls was cute in a "rust belt" sort of way.
We drove past a picturesque field of sunflowers.
David in the sunflowers.
Our short trip from Minneapolis to the UP and back was jam packed and there were still a lot of things we didn't have time to do, like Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, the Keweenaw peninsula, and the Mackinac Bridge. Hopefully one day we'll return.
