A little bit about me – well, by day I run the Content Team at b5media, which coincidently happens to be right in the heart of Toronto near Queen and Spadina. I’m an avid amateur photographer and a lover of fine food, wine and music. Originally from all over the United States, I moved to Canada over ten years ago and (minus a two year stint in California) have enjoyed my home here ever since.

As the winter inches closer and closer, we’ll be putting on our mittens and paying special attention to all of the wonderful activities and events around the city…despite the chilly winds and inevitable snow. There is so much to explore – so let’s get started!

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Do you know to see great art, listen to fantastic music, eat delicious food, and mellow out over a beverage with friends?  Do your friends ask you for suggestions about what to do on the weekend?

If you have a passion for your city, and would like to share it with others, The Toronto Traveler wants YOU!

We’re hiring a blogger to take over duties here, so if you’re interested in taking over those duties email me expressing your interest and providing links to other relevant writing.  Convince me that you’re the right person for the job.

Knowledge of Word Press and photo editing is preferred.  Blogging experience is nice, but is not as important as passion for the topic.  Pay is a monthly base plus traffic bonus.

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (TOAE) can easily claim to be one of the oldest annual traditions within the City of Toronto.  It’s certainly one of the oldest contemporary traditions, with 2008 being the 47th year in which the exhibition is being held.

One of the reasons that people tend to find the TOAE so special is the fact that it is a rarity not just in Toronto, but across all of Canada as well.  It is an exhibition taking place completely outdoors, allowing people to walk around one of the biggest outdoor squares in Toronto, taking in the great weather as well as the beautiful works of art.

The TOAE takes place in Nathan Phillips Square, which is located in the heart of downtown Toronto.  It’s about equidistant from both the Queen and Osgoode Subway Stations and is around many other Toronto attractions, allowing you to easily combine a visit to the TOAE with other events you might want to visit on the same day.

Admission to the TOAE is completely free and the exhibition will be held on Friday July 11 (10 AM to 8 PM), Saturday July 12 (10 AM to 7 PM) and Sunday July 13 (10 AM to 6 PM).

Overall, it’s expected that around 500 different artists will be showcasing their works at the various displays available around the square and the styles of art are expected to encompass everything under the Sun.  Many of the artists will be recognizable to people that follow the art industry whereas many of the others will be complete unknowns or alternatively students looking to make some cash to help pay the next year’s tuition.  It’s this melding together of the known and unknown that is one of the reasons that this year’s exhibition is expected to draw over 100,000 visitors during the 3-day event.

More information about this event is available on the TOAE 2008 website, including a list of artists, gallery of past events and contact information.

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Hot Dogs and Meal Trucks, Oh My! - While no fast food option is particularly good when it comes to getting a good and nutritious meal, there are certainly ways to save time while improving on going to a fast food restaurant.  This post discusses some options that you can pursue along that road.

The Toronto Traveler Celebrates World Cocktail Week – Have you ever had a Toronto Cocktail?  How about the fictitious, yet hilarious Toronto Toddy?  Check out recipes for both in this post!

The Toronto Traveler’s Submission to the b5media Travel & Culture Theme Day – Take Toronto’s best known landmark and combine it with a well placed ambulance in order to get a picture that captions itself, no editing needed!

Happy Victoria Day from The Toronto Traveler – Victoria Day’s a very important holiday in Canada, so naturally no post about the City of Toronto would be complete without an acknowledgement of this great holiday!

Start off your day with Free Pancakes in Toronto – Pancakes are delicious and posts about them are fun to read

Well, the above five posts certainly represent my most memorable experiences with The Toronto Traveler in May.  What about you?  Do you agree with the above choices?  Disagree with them?  Have other suggestions that you’d like to put forward?  Feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you liked about this month and what you’d like to see moving forward into June.  The more feedback I get, the better I can make the blog for my readers.

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Okay, so I’m a little bit behind the ball here since Victoria Day started about 19 hours ago (my time) and ends in about 5 hours, but I still felt it important to convey best wishes on a holiday that is important to Canadians, although not necessarily celebrated in earnest by any other country in the world.  While there are other countries such as Scotland that do celebrate Victoria Day in some areas, all of Canada celebrates it and that makes it an important topic for The Toronto Traveler.

Speaking Victoria Day like a Torontonian

While Victoria Day is most definitely the official title of the holiday in Toronto, you’ll also hear it referred to on a frequent basis as the May Long Weekend, because it happens to be a federal statutory holiday in nine provinces and three territories, with Quebec also celebrating a provincial holiday at the same time.  Other more colloquial ways to refer to Victoria Day are May Long, May Run and The May Two-Four, in honour of the term we use for a case of 24 bottles of beer!

The History of Victoria Day

May 24th is the birth date of Queen Victoria, the first sovereign of Canada after confederation in 1867.  Before that however there was already a tradition of celebrating Victoria’s birthday as in 1854 on May 24th over 5000 residents of what was then known as Upper Canada gathered to celebrate the Queen’s birthday.

In 1901, May 24th was declared Empire Day throughout the British Empire, although because each new sovereign had a different birthday, chaos tended to ensue with people not being exactly sure when each successive yearly celebration of Empire Day would take place.  Eventually, Empire Day became Victoria Day and was settled as being on the Monday on or before May 24th, Queen Victoria’s birthday.

This way the day would be known well in advance every year and there would be less confusion on when to celebrate it.  Incidentally enough, Victoria Day as a holiday often coincides with Memorial Day in the United States, although this year the two dates will be missing each other by a week.

Celebrating Victoria Day

The best way to celebrate Victoria Day in any part of the city is fireworks!  And indeed, there are many public places within Toronto that have fireworks on this day as well as many individuals that go out to open areas and light fireworks of their own.  If you keep your eyes peeled to the sky once twilight and night hit the city, you should definitely be able to see one sweet show.

There are also parades in many cities on Victoria Day, the most famous of which takes place in Victoria, British Columbia.  That city was named after the monarch, so it seems only fitting that the largest parade happen there each and every year.

So once again, The Toronto Traveller wishes you all a very happy Victoria Day!

Photo Credits: Flickr, Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Who says Toronto isn’t a city where you can kick back and just have some extremely silly fun?  I admit that when I first heard about this event from a friend of mine I was a bit skeptical, but as I started doing some checking around I discovered that it’s no joking matter.  There actually is going to be a gigantic pillow fight in downtown Toronto at the end of this month and anyone that wants to participate is invited to do so!

Event Details

Event: Pillow Fight Toronto 2008

Location: To be decided.  Make sure that you E-Mail the Organizer in order to be notified when the exact location has been determined.

Time: The event is on May 31, 2008 and starts at 7 PM, going until the sun sets.

More Information: You can either e-mail love@newmindspace.com or check out the Facebook profile for the event.

Event Rules

I don’t think anyone can claim to be an expert on gigantic urban pillow fights (I certainly am not), but it seems like there are a number of problems that could crop up during such things.  Well, the organizers of the event seem to be thinking along those lines as well, which is why the following rules have been put forward:

- only soft pillows are allowed

- make sure that you are very light on the swinging, because many people will be doing it at once

- only people with pillows and without cameras can be targeted for swinging

- make sure that you remove your glasses before participating in the pillow fight

- a signal to start will be given, before which no swinging is to occur

- make sure that you take your pillow home with you

- by participating in the event, you are agreeing to clean up twice the mess that you made

Those appear to be all of the rules that they currently have in place, although if you e-mail the organizer and get yourself on the list for updates, you’ll be well informed about anything else that comes across the wire.  It certainly sounds like a fun event though, so definitely think about going if it sounds appealing to you.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Toronto, like many of the other cities, is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of many different pools around the city.  Swimming is a great exercise to pursue if you are in the city not only because it is extremely fun for the whole family, but also because swimming is considered one of the best forms of exercise you can do; it works all of the muscles in your body.  This combination of fun and fitness makes it the perfect tourist activity and in Toronto during the summer there is no dearth of places for you to go if you’d like to swim.  The swimming areas in Toronto are divided into four distinct areas, each with its own set of rules and opportunities.

Some General Rules

Here are some general swimming rules to be followed when you are in one of the city pools:

- Those with serious medical conditions should consult a doctor before swimming and should also have someone with them that understands their condition; they should also notify the lifeguard before entering the pool

- Children seven years of age or older need to use the change room of their own gender, unless special arrangements are made with the pool staff beforehand

- No street shoes are allowed in the shower or in the deck areas and a pre-swim shower is recommended in order to keep the pool clean

- Using devices like cell phones is prohibited anywhere in the change room or washroom

- Children 5 years of age and under must have at least one adult supervising per two children; Children 6-9 years have that ratio at four to one unless they can pass the faculty’s swim test in which case they may swim alone.

Different Pools

There are dozens of different pools across the city (both indoor and outdoor) available to people that are interested in grabbing a swim.  The city catalogues their pools through the use of four different regions.  The links below will lead you to a listing of pools and special events being put on by each region during the upcoming summer months:

Etobicoke Region
East York Region
Scarborough Region
North York Region

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

The Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art galleries in the world and the current construction that is proceeding on the building will make it even bigger and better.  According to their website, when the construction is finished there will be over 110 galleries in the building.  While I’m not entirely sure how many were there before the construction started, I know from being there personally that it was nowhere near that amount.  The construction has been going on since October 7, 2007 and for the whole time that the construction has been proceeding, the gallery has been closed to visitors.  The latest update puts a rough date of opening in the fall of this year, but no firm date has been set.  For more information on this, check out the Art Gallery of Ontario Director’s Message.

Art Gallery of Ontario Location

The Art Gallery of Ontario is located at 317 Dundas Street West, which puts the gallery between University Avenue and Spadina Avenue on Dundas, right near Beverley Street and McCaul Street (MAP).  You can easily get to the Art Gallery of Ontario from Dundas Subway Station, which is located at the intersection of Dundas and University.  From that point it’s only about a three block walk west to get to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Art Gallery of Ontario Collection

One of the main reasons that the Art Gallery of Ontario is famous is the fact that it has one of the largest collections in the world.  Before the renovation started, there were roughly 70,000 pieces of art in the collection and they spanned the course of history from approximately the year 100 AD to the present moment in time.  In particular, the Art Gallery of Ontario has focused on promoting Canadian art to people both inside the country and those visiting.  This is why two out of every five pieces in the pre-renovation collection were from Canadian artists.  Canada has had many famous artistic talents such as the Group of Seven and Emily Carr.  There have also been rich artistic traditions amongst Inuit living in Canada and that tradition is displayed proudly within the walls of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Transformation AGO

Transformation AGO was a project that was envisioned by a new board of directors at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  Their aim was to create a bigger and better version of the gallery that so many had come to love.  Indeed, looking at the construction over time shows that the physical building appears to be getting larger and that definitely bodes well for the insides which pre-renovation were stuffed full of artistic works.  The main goal of the transformation is to add new art, create new collections, add volume to the building and increase the overall exposure that artists can get through having exhibits at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  While construction has been long, it is also close to being over and the executives are promising that what you see when it re-opens will be more than worth the wait.

Photo Credits: Personal Collection

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Believe it or not, there actually is a World Cocktail Week! It’s celebrated by the Museum of American Cocktail in New Orleans and it will be celebrated from May 8th to 13th as the best mixologists around will create their best confections in New Orleans in order to dazzle and tickle the taste buds.  Thanks to my excellent associate over at The DC Traveler, b5media’s Travel & Culture Channel will be celebrating this event through a collective blogging effort of which this post is a part.

Toronto actually does have a real cocktail named after it, although apparently it happens to be more popular in the United States than in Toronto.  I only heard about it when doing the research for this post, but maybe some of you have come across it before.  Here’s what it takes to make a Toronto:

- 2 ounces of rye
- one quarter ounce of Fernet Branca
- one quarter ounce of simple syrup
- two dashes of Angostura bitters

Directions: Place all the materials together with ice, stirring together and then straining into the cocktail glass once stirring is complete before flaming a disc of orange zest into the cocktail, dropping it in afterwards.
Of course, people that know the city well might come up with a different recipe for the quintessential tongue-in-cheek Toronto cocktail and that might look something like this:

The Toronto Toddy

- 1/3 cup of imported tea
- 1/3 cup of bitter tasting beer, flavoured by a disappointed Leafs fan
- 1/3 cup of sweet-sounding promises from local politicians
- a dash of arrogance
- two parts multiculturalism
- two parts envy from the other Canadian cities (wink)

Mix together well, but don’t sweat it if there are still chunks floating around in it when you’re done.  There’s always the next one!
Whatever cocktail happens to be your preference, make sure you check out the other blogs in the channel to see what they come up with for World Cocktail Week.

Photo Credit: Flickr

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Photo Credit: Flickr

Hot on the heels of the new Subway Sundays series at The Toronto Traveler is Media Mondays.  This series will take a weekly look at one news story from that week that I found relevant to tourists in the city, helpful to people that are new to Toronto or have not lived here for a long time or just plain interesting for one reason or another.  It’s my eventual hope that this continual look into current themes and goings on within the city of Toronto will help you connect with the city on a deeper level.

This week’s winner is a piece done by City News called How To Drive Safely Following A Flood.

What did I find interesting about the piece?  Well, essentially this is a type of reporting that you don’t see very often in the media.  Other news outlets such as CBC and The Toronto Star did cover the weather problems that have been going on in the city in recent times, but they also neglected to mention on a large scale what people visiting the city could do to help themselves.  City News has a way of covering the news that lends itself to this type of helpful article and that is one of the things that I like about that news organization.

All of the tips are good, but their main tip of “Don’t drive unless absolutely necessary” is definitely something to take notice of.  Stay away from flooded areas unless you absolutely have to go (and if you read this blog because you’re visiting the city, chances are you can cancel an event and just chill out at the hotel for awhile) and also take note of the last two tips which state what one and two feet of water can respectively do to most automobiles.  SUVs aren’t immune to this type of thing either, so be very wary if you need to go somewhere that is in a flooded area.

Post from: The Toronto Traveler