We live 2 hours from Toronto. My hubby and I used to go there from time to time: visit friends, for a specific event (like visiting an art exhibit or Aquarium), for YLF gatherings (OK, that would be myself only )...However we suddenly realized that after living that close to Toronto for 16 years we do not know it as a city at all! It is really weird but it looks like we did not plan to explore it because it is so close and we can drive there for one day we did not really consider it as a vacation spot. Over the years we saw more of Chicago, Washington, Boston and Montreal than we ever saw of Toronto. Heck, it appears I know Paris and Lisbon much better than this great city which is almost in our backyard!
So when I learned that our son ( who moved to Toronto last fall) is going for a week to New York I decided that we can stay in his downtown apartment for a couple of days and do some exploring this Christmas holiday season - and so we did!
We had a blast and those 48 hours we spent in Toronto felt like much longer time to us. The weather really cooperated too - it was above freezing, no snow and no rain - more that Canadians can hope for in the end of December!

This is what we did and what I wore :
pic 1 - Friday afternoon
This outfit was worn on the drive from London to Toronto, then a sushi lunch with our son before he had to go to an airport and then on the walk through the waterfront and downtown area. My purple London Fog trench was worn over this outfit and was warm enough for that mild December afternoon.
pic 2 - Friday night
In the evening we had a lovely dinner with my former co-worker in a nice Thai restaurant and then took a Go train (another new to us Toronto experience) to meet our other friends and went to a salsa dance club together. I wore my black man coat from Danier as it was much colder during the night.
pic 3 - Saturday morning and afternoon
This outfit was worn for 7 hour exploration walking tour. It took us through downtown to the beautiful University of Toronto and then to the Bata Shoe museum. We liked it very much and spent about 2 hours there. I love shoes but I have never thought how important role they played in human history. The last exhibit we saw there was "Fashion Victims: The Pleasures and Perils of Dress in the 19th Century" which was really fascinating. Then we had a lovely lunch in the Annex and walked all way back to our old downtown apartment through a Kensigton Market and Chinatown.
pic 4 - Saturday night
In the evening we went to see a play in the Entertainment District - "The Heart of Robin Hood". It was quite fun and we had a good time. I wore my black wool coat on top of this outfit as the night was quite cold.
pic 5 - Sunday morning
On our last 0.5 day in Toronto we explored an old downtown, antique market at St Lawrence and the restored Distillery district which has brick paved streets, cool art galleries, shops and restaurants. It was a colder day so I wore my black wool coat again. We had a nice lunch at the Mexican restaurant in the Distillery district and then hot chocolate in the cafe there (mmm... hot chocolate with chili pepper - warms you up in a cinch on a cold winter day!) I wore this down vest instead of the coat on the drive home, It appeared to be a very useful addition to my wardrobe so far!

I think it was my first vacation trip when I packed so much variety in clothing for only 2 days and also the first one where I did not agonize over this selection when packing.

My hubby and I enjoyed our short vacation very much and decided that it was only first of our Toronto vacations - there definitely will be more to come!
Thank you for looking and sharing my experience in Toronto - recapping it here is almost like experiencing it all over again!