My First "Doors Open" Toronto Experience

Hello Readers!

It's been a while. Admittedly, I've been lazy, but here I am! Alive and kicking, in case you were worried.

This weekend was "Doors Open" in Toronto. Places that are normally private were open for the public to walk around and join in on tours to see what goes on behind those private, closed doors. There were tons of places open across the city, but I only started the trek around 1:30pm, so I didn't get to check out all the places I was interested in. You can check out what was offered to the public here.

I started the afternoon off at MaRS Discovery District (www.marsdd.com), on the South-East corner of University and College, on the fourth floor at Richard Florida's Think Tank. I'm not sure I entirely understand what it is they do there, but from what I do understand, they discuss and research urban planning at a sub-national level, looking at city parks, streets, etc. It was a really cool space, not to mention the building. Really spacious and modern.
The next stop was the Carlu at College Park. I had been here before for Jessie's Bat Mitzvah, so I sort of knew what I was getting into, but it was interesting, nonetheless. The Carlu is located on the South-West corner of Yonge and College, and was designed by architect Jacques Carlu. Inside, there are a variety of rooms used for chic events, including a large concert hall. The interior is quite beautiful.
The next stop was Queen's Park Legislature, which was less than impressive. Albeit, I've been there before on school field trips in high school, but there was a fee to go in on a guided tour, and as soon as you walk in the doors, it is roped off unless you pay. It was to my understanding that "Doors Open" was for the public to enter freely into buildings that they couldn't necessarily walk into on any given day, so I was a little disappointed.
After a short walk, we arrived at The Gardiner Museum. This museum is absolutely beautiful, located one building South of Bloor on Avenue Road on the East side. Although I am not the biggest fan of pottery (not that I know much about it), the artifacts were pretty cool and the layout of the museum is stupendous with magnificent terraces all the way around the building. I have also heard good things of the restaurant on the rooftop, Jamie Kennedy @ The Gardiner. On the first floor, there is a really cool sculpture, comprised of three vases that are subtly unique. I urge you all to check it out, because it is a very interesting and wicked optical illusion! I won't give it away, I'll just leave it up to you to find out for yourself :)
After a quick stop for coffee, we headed to the Japan Foundation, located on the second floor of The Colonnade, just East of Avenue Road on Bloor, which we were told is the only one of its kind in Canada. The foundation contains a public library with a wide array of Japanese literature, Manga, Anime, Japanese-related print and audio-visual aids in English, French and Japanese. The foundation also boasts a gallery space where the "Passage to the Future" is being exhibited right now. The washrooms were also pretty neat!
We then hopped in a cab and headed to CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), located on Queen Street West, at the foot of Ossington. We were incredibly eager to get to this tour by 4:00pm, but we missed it by ten minutes, so we decided to give ourselves our own tour. I have passed by this building several times in taxis on my way to The Social and always thought of it as the landmark for "we're almost there!!" As we stepped inside the front doors, we sort of regretted our decision to take a personal tour, but kept walking out of curiousity. We walked down what seemed like an incredibly long hall and hung a right, where we ended up in an enormous community centre. There was nobody there and we got kind of creeped out, so we headed down a different hallway in hopes of finding something a little more fascinating. I am not entirely sure what we were looking for (slash don't really want to say it....), but we got pretty nervous. After trying a few doors - which were locked, funnily enough - we walked briskly back to the front doors we came from.
After that strange experience, we decided we would make one more stop at the Drake Hotel. We chose to opt out of the tour and headed for the well-known Sky Yard (the Drake's infamous rooftop patio) for some early evening cocktails. I had the pricey ($11.00) Mojito, which, to be quite honest, was not the best Mojito I've ever had. The mint was crushed up into tiny pieces which flew up the straw with every thirst-quenching slurp, resulting in little mint pieces in between my teeth. The combination of dark and white rum left a strong alcohol taste in my mouth, rather than the telltale sweet taste of a well-made Mojito. After waiting so long for a seat, as the patio was full, we snagged a seat with some kind people who were generous enough to share their booth with us. Unfortunately though, after having sat down for five minutes, we were approached by the manager and told that our side of the booth had been reserved, and we were relocated to a tiny seating area in a small corner of the patio. The food items on the menu were expensive, the cocktails were overpriced and the 35-something crowd was boring. Suffice to say, my Drake Hotel experience was not one I would boast about.
There were many, many other places I would have loved to have seen, but my day was most definitely well-spent! I am looking forward to next year's "Doors Open" for sure!

I promise it won't take a century until my next post again, I have some photos I am waiting to upload to my computer so I can start blogging about some restaurants I have been to in the past little while!

Until next time, my virtual readers...........