Category: in canada

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foooood in canada

breakfast restaurants

why is it so hard to find a place that serves good, hearty breakfasts where we’re from? i *love* the fact that you could get up at any time in north america and a meal with eggs and carbs is just around the corner.

so naturally, we indulged quite a bit while in canada…

the formula seems simple enough: bottomless mugs of coffee, plus some form of carbs (pancakes, waffles, toast, potatoes, fruit), bacon, and most importantly, eggs — lots of eggs, in all their configurations! in short, brilliancy on a plate.

our european breakfasts feel almost dainty in comparison. these are proper thousand-calorie meals that will keep you full for the rest of the day. personally, i think i’d probably be ok with having a single one of these midday and call it a day…

although i love our toasts and pastries, i think we could use more of this in europe. if i did not already have enough stuff on my plate for a few lifetimes, i would open a place like that (complete with a flock of chicken in the background to supply the essential ingredient).

if anyone wants to do just that, i’d probably volunteer to beat some eggs! :D

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in canada

kayaking in toronto harbour

when i wrote the list, i added “kayaking on the lagoon”, thinking it was time we took to the waters in the ria formosa… but it’s one of those things that is so close by, you never get around to actually doing it.

fast forward to last month, there were were in toronto, and our friend lynda mentioned that you can kayak to the islands in front of the city, and how the best view is actually from the water… so we rented one, strapped on some life jackets and went for it!

turns out, kayaking around in a busy body of water while trying to avoid the airport exclusion zone and dodge the big ferries isn’t as easy as it sounds. i confess i panicked a few times… but it was well worth it for the view. all those skyscrapers against a backdrop of water and blue skies! we parked the kayak for a while and just took it all in.

the view of the city from the open water was the highlight of this adventure, but we also enjoyed cruising between the islands in very uncoordinated zig-zags. kayaking is not easy, and at some point we broke the rudder in ours, making the return a tricky challenge. must practice more!

we stil plan to go kayaking on our own lagoon someday, but for now i’m happy to tick this goal off the list with a flourish — we did it! :D

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in canada

comfort maple

we always check atlas obscura when we’re somewhere new, just in case there’s something unexpectedly cool around the corner, you know? it was there that the boy found about this special tree, so we did a little detour on our way to the niagara falls to see it.

the comfort maple is supposedly the oldest sugar maple tree in canada. it’s so big, i had trouble making it fit on a photo! this is how far back i could go without trespassing a neighboring field.

the sap from sugar maple trees is used to make maple syrup, for which canada is famous. our friend lynda explained to us that the sap needs to be collected at just the right time, between late winter and early spring, when it’s still cold but not too cold and the tree is beginning to pull the sugar reserves stored in its trunk and roots. the water is later evaporated, to distill the goodness.

although it’s “just” 500 years old (and thus a baby compared to our local olive tree), it’s still a majestic tree and i hope someday we can see it in all its autumn glory!

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analogue wednesdays in canada

analogue wednesday #155

walking around toronto.

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in canada

jumbo!

you see the name jumbo everywhere — from planes to supermarket chains… but do you know where the name comes from and how it came to signify something huge?

as the logo of brands sometimes hint, jumbo was a big elephant claimed to be around 4 meters tall and marketed as “the biggest in the world” at the time. he was born in sudan in 1860, taken to a zoo in paris, then transferred to another zoo in london and from there bought by an american showman in 1882 to join his circus. the toured the US by train, earning a lot of money to the circus company.

sadly, he died just 3 years later, in the town of st. thomas, ontario, after being hit by a passing train one night. one hundred years passed and the name stuck around, so the town made a life-sized statue of jumbo to commemorate the centenary of his death. it’s still there, a roadside attraction that helps us remember this giant and his sad story.