We had the chance to play tourist for a day in our old neighborhood in Toronto earlier this week. Here’s our 24 hours in Toronto!
We have a few shoots booked in Toronto over the next little while and we decided that maybe we should take the opportunity to stay for an extra night on at least one of those little trips. We realized that we hadn’t been back, just the two of us without the kids, since we moved away and we really just missed walking around the streets of the city. We planned it out with the goal of wandering around as much as possible during the few short hours we were there and we both found it be so energizing even though we put in a good 20 000 steps that day! The kids just wouldn’t put up with that at this point in the game, I’m pretty sure. We’ve tried on past trips and it did not go over well. 🙂 So here’s a little summary of our mini getaway!
Where We Stayed
We chose the location of our hotel and the restaurant where we had dinner super carefully so that it would force us to walk down through all the areas we used to spend so much time in back when we first met. We ended picking the Yorkville Royal Sonesta for its prime location, access to good coffee, and the view out of the window. The view was amazing. We were directly across from the Royal Conservatory of Music and we could see people coming and going from the building with their instruments as well as people practicing violin in tiny lit-up windows until late, late at night. It was just interesting and kind of magical to capture little glimpses of everyday city life now that we live out in the country so far away from it all. Definitely get one of the city view rooms if you stay here.
I didn’t get enough photos of the hotel room, but it was lovely. There was a very big desk area, but I really enjoyed the sofa + table set up they had for a cozy little work station option. Side note: I’m pretty sure the room had an iron, I just didn’t make use of it, obviously. Oops 🙂
Pictured above: Sweater | Pants | Shoes | Earrings | Necklace (Mine is the 11mm in green jade on a gold chain from about 13 years ago, which isn’t available anymore, but same thing.) | Bracelet
Where We Ate
We did a quick stop for oak milk lattes at Sorry Coffee Co. right near our hotel before we headed out for our longer walk. I have to say that the lattes were outstanding, but the cafe is so so tiny and really better for a quick 5 minute fuel-up. Definitely not the place you want to go if your goal is to read a book for hours over a cup of coffee and treat. It seems like Goldstruck across the street would probably be a better place for that, but we were so tight for time that we didn’t get a chance to visit there. Next time!
I can’t say enough good things about LOV on King Street, where we had dinner.
LOV is entirely plant-based, but the portions were definitely filling and there were so many great choices for both little me and for Chris, who obviously likes something a little more hearty. A great, super approachable place to go if you’re interesting in trying some amazing vegan food, especially if you’re nervous that eating at a vegan restaurant might leave you feeling hungry afterward.
And the decor! It was so funny because the restaurant is almost set up to be photogenic on purpose. It’s quite bright and there’s a beautiful back drop for a photo basically everywhere you look. The lighting is great and it was hilarious to watch everyone who entered take out their phone to start taking pictures, just like I did when we first walked in.
Pictured above: Sweater | Pants | Shoes | Similar, more affordable bracelet | Earrings
Any establishment that prioritizes shelf styling is A-OK in my books. 🙂
Where We Explored
Our aim was to walk by Chris’ old apartment right beside U of T where he lived when we met, walk some of the beautiful quiet neighborhoods around there that we realize now we didn’t appreciate nearly enough at the time, and hopefully make it by OCAD, where Kennedy’s thinking about applying next year. It’s funny how you always see OCAD pictured like this and it seems like it would be such a loud, bustling place.
it’s actually surrounded by tree-filled streets of apartment buildings and there’s a big park right behind it. I never realized how comfortable and liveable that area really is and it made us feel hopeful that this will be somewhere Kennedy might really enjoy being.
I can just never get enough of these Toronto residential streets with their Victorian style row houses and their tiny, very full gardens.
Did we take a picture in front of almost every pretty old doorway we walked by around U of T and Yorkville? Yes, yes we did.
Pictured above: Sunglasses | Top | Jeans | Sneakers
We definitely got our steps in that day and we racked up over 17000 steps in just a few hours that afternoon. We headed back to the hotel fairly early since we were really there for work and needed to be fresh for the next day.
Our shoot was in a tiny, perfect condo right downtown near the baseball stadium. Here’s a little sneak peek. We loved it and I think Chris would have offered to buy it on the spot if the homeowner had been there. 🙂
We definitely love our lives in the country and all of our trips to outdoorsy places, but I think this trip has made it clear that there are things we miss about living in the city too, and we should definitely make a point of going back and visiting a little more often.
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.