We slept until 6:30 am this morning which was unusual. Went down for another yummy breakfast of oatmeal with cranberries, bacon, orange slices and a bagel with cream cheese. Very nice. Everybody including the news was talking about the heavy rains yesterday. Power was out in parts of Toronto, the subways were flooded and trains were stranded. We were lucky to only have been stranded under an awning for 30 minutes. Today Bruce Bell took us on an architectural tour of the King Edward hotel, the underground PATH, some old banks converted to hotels and the St James Cathedral of the Church of England. It was beautiful. He gave us a delightful tour of the significance of each of the stained glass windows including one by Tiffany. Next we went to the old St Lawrence Hall which used to host opera and ballet. Final stop was the St Lawrence Market, an outstanding market of food vendors offering all manners of fruits, meats, cheese and vegetables. We had a very unique sandwich from the Carousel Bakery called the Pea Bacon Sandwich. It was a Canadian Bacon piled high on a bun and served warm. Very unique and very good. After lunch and a dump we headed to the harbor. We took a street car and then a 509 bus with an interesting Russian bus driver who called us his friends. At the Harbor we walked along the waterfront looking at the tour options until we settled for a tour leaving at 1:30 PM for $18 each. We met a tour group of Austrians on board. Nice people, going home to Austria today. We had a lovely skyscraper narrated tour and then into the Toronto Islands where it was calm and peaceful. Coming out we took a 509 then the 510 bus to King where we did a Trolley to the St Andrews station to the College Ave station where the Marriott is that we're staying at. Five Delightful things about today: 1. The crowds of the rush hour subways and how we waited for 3 trains as Bruce kept predicting the next will be air conditioned and empty. 2. The remarkable continuous underground shopping center known as the PATH, 3. The incredible array of fruits, meats, seafood and prepared foods known as the St Lawrence market 4. The Russian Bus Driver who took us as his charges and delivered us to the Harbor, 5. The peaceful cruise on the the Empress of Maricopo tours
For dinner tonight we met in the lobby and then took the subway down near the St Lawrence market. We had a nice dinner at HotHouse. We shared a wine and each had Salmon. I had a nice thick piece of Salmon and a chefs salad. Desert was a Lemon Sorbet. After dinner Lib and I wandered around admiring the architecture and the old buildings.