Happy Wanderers Pt. 2

The boys don't know it yet, but they live in what the brochures call The Gallery District, which right next to The Fashion District, in what used to be one of the seediest districts in town (if you'd told me when I was in university that one day I'd be living west of Queen, I'd have assumed it meant I'd finally hit rock bottom as a skid row bum). But in the nearly nine years since we'd first set up our modest little domicile here, the King and Bathurst area has become the society page's ground zero for trendy clubs, haute cuisine restaurants, tony clothing stores, and bloated condo development. Now, if only a person could get a decent bagel...

With the weather having changed into something tolerable and vaguely seasonable, we decided it'd be better if everyone got their Vitamin D from the sun and not out of a pill or a dropper. Lidia took Nathaniel and Carter to the drop-in centre hosted by the public school just seconds from our door, where toddlers ran free with the reckless abandon of Tokyo extras from an old "Godzilla" film, but babies were certainly welcome (I saw a box of "Batman Lego" in the window, so it already has won my approval).

Friday, during my lunch break, we took the boys on a stroll to the local TD Bank branch (ordinarily, "big whoop", but our tax returns had arrived that day, and not a moment too soon), and then once around Trinity Bellwoods Park, which offers a pool, several playgrounds, art camps, and above all, enough open space to make us forget that in actuality, what our home offers by way of a "yard" is about the size of a bath mat.


Saturday's glorious temps inspired a more ambitious afternoon trip--a mighty haul to Lakeshore to check out the marina and the park. The boys slept through most of it, of course, but I'm sure they soaked up the ambience of seagulls, barking dogs, and the bells of annoying cyclists.

Huddled in their car seats, they're still capable charming strangers wherever they go--while we were waiting at the (insanely-long) stop light at the foot of Strachan and Lakeshore, the driver of a car (with Connecticut plates) called out to us from her window, telling us that we were so lucky and asking if they were boys or girls and their ages. So a note to bums to usually beg for change at this intersection : you want people to roll down their windows? Strap on a toddler...