We slept in a little, then wandered through the streets of Toronto. Eventually we took the subway and then walked to the CN Tower. It was rainy in the morning, but that had cleared and turned into blue skies- how lucky is that?

The CN Tower is really tall- the observation deck of the Space Needle is around 520 feet. The highest observation deck of the CN tower is at 1465 feet! It was easy to see all of Toronto, plus about dozens of miles in each direction. If you go, make sure to pay extra for the "Sky Pod", which is the higher observation tower. The views are better, and it's enough smaller that it is easy to walk around to get the 360 degree view.

After the CN Tower, we took the subway and streetcars to the Kensington Market area. It's right next to Chinatown, so it's a mix of Asian shops and hippie recycled-clothing shops, among other things. We bought some exotic fruits at an Asian market- hopefully Tamara will photograph and blog about them.

These shops are in old storefronts and somewhat run-down buildings. It's obvious that their rents are low. It made me realize how that is something most US cities are missing- the variation in uses that comes from somewhat run-down buildings within the city center. Jane Jacobs says it is important for cities to have the variation in building qualities- not just within a city, but within every block. The flavor of a place like Kensington Market wouldn't exist if the buildings were fancy and rents were high, and that would be a shame.

We then took a streetcar back near our apartment and went through the malls at Yonge Street. Tamara found a place with fantastic gelato, and I bought a replacement mouse and some socks. By early afternoon, the blue skies were gone and it even began to rain. I guess we went up the CN Tower at the right time.

For dinner, we went with Peter to a nice Mexican place, then went up to the apartment rooftop and took some nice night photos of the CN Tower.