Open Doors Toronto

On Saturday, Pat & I went to Toronto with some friends to take in Open Doors Toronto. I've been to the Open Doors in Hamilton before, but this was the first time I took advantage of Toronto's close proximity to us. The capital city is only an hour's drive away, there's no reason for us not to explore more often!

Our first stop was the horse palace at the Exhibition Place. There was a sequence of shows being put on (we saw the Governor General's royal guard & some carriage riding) & we got to meet some of the horse up close & personal in their stalls. This one was my favourite:

There were a couple of extremely large horses in the 2 stalls near the rear - I mean, horses are big - but these 2 were HUGE!

Next we went to the waterfront to see the Trillium - a 100-year-old, steam paddle ship.

It was pretty cool & the breeze off the water was nice. We even saw a few swans:

After some lunch, we went to our 3rd stop - my favourite. The Coach House Press.

Of course I was so mesmerized I didn't get any pictures. But I did get to take some things home with me, so I'll show you that. The printing press was in this incredible, tiny old shop. The vintage machines were awesome - a linopress, a neat folding machine, an enormous cutter. Upstairs, the books they print were for sale - I snatched up a blank red notebook that I had watched them make during the tour.

After that, we tried to go to a ceramics museum & an arts & letters club ... but both places were only open the Sunday of Open Doors. Boooooooo! But by that time we were pretty tired, so we decided to just head home. All in all, a great day! I'll definitely drag Pat back next year!