Zeus got me up around 3am and I mostly stayed up. We are staying with friends, Joel & Tim, who have lived in this house over 20 years, and in various parts of Canada for most of their lives. The rest of the household got up about 6am. We had breakfast together then Tim left for work. I worked until about 9am, then Ash and I discussed what we would do with our day with suggestions from Joel.

We left after 10am and made our way downtown.

We said several times on our way to the house from the airport on Saturday that Toronto seems to have “many downtowns” – meaning we’ve seen lots of clusters of tall buildings that made us wonder if they were downtown. Eventually we learned to look for the CN Tower and that solved that. But one of the things we’ve appreciated about Toronto in general is interesting architecture. And above is just one example.

We made our way to the ferry terminal to catch a ride to Toronto Islands – a series of small islands in Lake Ontario about a 7-minute ride away that are managed mostly as a park system, although about 650 people do live there and we came across one school.

And one of the reasons given, maybe strangely, to go to the islands by some of the travel articles we read, is the unparalleled views you get of the skyline. So you’ll likely get a few of these :) Notice that the 2 towers on the far right of the above photo….

…are the same towers on the far left of this one.

The islands weren’t crowded on a Wednesday in questionable weather, so we enjoyed the wide, open spaces. Especially Zeus.

Zeus chasing geese.

Looking back at downtown.

There’s a beach along most of the far side of the islands facing the lake. Here’s “another downtown” for you. I believe this is New Toronto, which is about 12 kilometers south of  The Downtown.

A beautiful fishing pond. I was afraid Zeus was going to jump in but he didn’t seem to interested.

A pretty glimpse of beach and lake through a clearing in the trees as we made our way across the islands.

We stopped at a Greek grill for lunch around 12:30pm. Chicken gyros and fries. Hit the spot.

We walked to the far edge of the island from there, about another 30 minutes. There are 3 ferry docks – one on each end and one in the middle – so we’d started on one end and worked our way to the other. The ferry was getting ready to leave when they saw us approaching and thankfully held it for us.

We got home after 2:30, rested some then showered and left again just after 4pm to meet Joel for coffee and meet some of his friends. We went to Second Cup. a place we’d walked by the day before when we were at the gay village. We left there around 5:15 to meet Tim for dinner.

And here’s the four of us – that’s Joel to my left and then Tim – at Enoteca Sociale. This is their favorite restaurant in the city. This counter that we’re sitting at requires a reservation and we were lucky enough to get one midweek even though we didn’t make it until Saturday night. At all of the other tables you order from a menu like normal. This is the chef’s table, where you get what he wants to serve you.

We started with olives, sourdough bread, and probably the best focaccia we’ve ever had. That’s a very good olive oil in the tiny pitcher to use as a dipping sauce. It was a perfect start.

First course was baby zucchini stuffed with ricotta then tempura fried. Wow.

Scallop crudo (raw) with oranges, chives, on streaks of a kind of hollandaise, olive oil and salt. Another wow.

A linguine type pasta piled high, with a pecorino cheese sauce and shaved truffles.

This was probably everyone’s favorite bite of the night: lemon ricotta ravioli in a mushroom sauce and shaved parmesan. Tremendous fresh flavor in every bite.

Crispy roast chicken, pickled zucchini, with celery root paste and a spicy relish. They provided a knife but you didn’t really need one, it was super tender.

A simple salad, mostly a palate cleanser at this point.

This was our view for the entire evening. We watched them make a good portion of our entire meal. We talked to this guy quite a bit but somehow never got his name. There were only 4 people working a busy kitchen and we were impressed how clean, and organized they were.

The heart of the kitchen to our right, with head chef Nico running the show. He served everything to us and explained what was in it.

This is the dessert that was planned and was served to Joel and Tim. I had a bit of it but don’t remember what it was now lo these 10 hours later!

We had seen them finish off tiramisu earlier and Ash wanted to try it so that’s what we got. Served in a big coffee cup with almond cookies.

By far the best meal of the trip. Joel and Tim said this might’ve been the best meal they’ve ever had here, and this was their 3rd time here just this year. We were quite satisfied with it.

Today is our last day in Toronto. We have an early flight out tomorrow so will head towards the airport this evening, turn the car in, and stay in a nearby hotel. Beyond that, we don’t have much of a plan. Will see what the weather is doing once the sun comes up and go from there.