This is our first visit/exchange to Toronto. We've been hoping/ wishing for an exchange to TO for yrs; it was on the top of our list for a Canadian vacation. Fortunately for us, we were contacted 14 months ago by some Torontonians who were delighted to do a home exchange to Southern California. So an instant match was made. This marks our 24th exchange, our fourth to Canada. We've exchanged with one Van couple and two Vic couples in 2008 and 2009 respectively. If you are bored, you can scroll down my name and find the extracts of those holidays.

Be warned, I cannot locate a spell check on this computer, so be prepared for lots of misspellings and tons of typos!

We left LA on a cool pleasant day -flying a third empty plane. Fortunately for us, we secured the seats next to two toddlers, aged three and fours years. Although adorable, their wandering on the aisle, pulling at seats, and making screeches and occasional crying sounds were less than melodious, but I think if we had not booked so far in advance we would not have had the pleasure of being seated so close to them and to the long queue of toilet goes leaning on our seats.

However, it was only 4 and a half hour flight, and compared to the long hauls we have taken to Europe, it was incredibly easy. No food was offered, though they did come around and offer us some tea or cold drinks. We packed some peanut butter sandwiches, so we were prepared not to go hungry. Movies were $3 extra for headphones, but I was happy with my Kindle (first time using my birthday gift) for travel and played scrabble and read or occasionally stared straight ahead like Elaine's Puddy on Seinfield.

Our home exchangers suggested we use the limousine service to get to their home. BTW, the walk from the plane to the baggage area was amazingly long, though it felt good to get a little movement in our legs after the flight, but we were the last to retrieve our luggage. I had a moment'spanic when I saw the revolving luggage carousel empty, but there they were, our two black bags adorned with bright red and green ribbons. I have no idea how other people had gotten there ahead of us so quickly. The limousine ride (in a Lincoln) was great, smooth and quiet and within 30 minutes ($54 with tip), we were at our home exchangers' home.

Our home exchangers' relatives were waiting for our arrival to give us a brief orientation, point out things, which I'm sure we immediately forgot since it was around 10:30 or 11:00 pm, but it was very kind of them.

The home is quite large, very lovely, reminds me of the Scottish home we stayed in Dundee, lots of similar walnut or oak (?) wainscotting. All the flowers and shrubberies are wonderful, all in beautiful colorful profusion. So nice to see so much greenery. By summers' end Southern Californan looks a bit brown and wilted, There is a beautiful tree across the street from our home exchanger's home that is already transformed from green to gold and orange, especially this morning with the sunlight shinning through it. Just beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing more of autumn leaf changes in the next five weeks.

We walked over to Yonge Rd, a lot further than we planned (10 blocks, maybe?) looked for a small market, a restaurant for an inexpensive lunch and just a look around. I like the feel of the neighborhood, it reminds me of my grandparents' area in the 50s and 60s back east. Everything is low scaled, not too corporate feeling, though I did noet Restoration Hardware and a few other similar places, but no high rises or strip malls. Very nice. Lots of people on the street walking, shopping, and at the cafes. The weather was perfect, not rainy as predicted so that probably brought people out. We picked a small Italian pizzeria recommended by someone we met on the street. It was not very good, maybe an off day, so I won't dis it here. I'll give it the benfit of the doubt, since the local says it is usually pretty good. Benefit, the service was polite, ambience was nice and it was only about $20 plus tip for lunch. Could not find a small market, I'm sure there was one around, we just missed it.

We then walked over to Engleton Street (I probably have that name spelled wrong) and found a couple of markets, bought some fruit, cereal, soy milk for my husband, but could not find real peanut butter without additives, just want peanut butter with no palm oil or sugar added. Will have to go back to the health food place we saw on Yonge Rd. Anyway, we have enought to get started for tomorrow.

Still learning our way around this house, figuring out how to use the stove, finding the potholders, even a glass. It's odd how differently people set up their homes; it's always a mystery for a few days reaching up for a glass, finding it in a lower shelf, or a pot out of reach. I'm sure people go through the same minor challenge in our home,too.

Welcome to Toronto. From what you are saying, it sounds like you are in a wonderful area... that is if you meant Eglington Ave.!!
How long will you be in Toronto? IT's a beautiful time for the trees turning. YOu may be close to Leslie and Eglington. There are beautiful parks there ... on the north west corner, entering off Leslie Street. Serena Gundy park.. and you can wind your way up to Sunnybrook Park and Edwards Gardens ( at Lawrence and Leslie. )

Enjoy the city. I'll be anxious to read what you've been up to.

Silly me. Your title says 5 weeks. Ignore my question!

Hi Kodi - I'm sure I must mean Eglington ave!

We have to find a food market, figure out the transportation system, and then our exploration can begin. The neighborhood is so pretty. I just love all the trees, shrubberies and flowers. Just looking around is great fun. It is so different from LA.
My home exchangers' friends tell us we are in North Toronto, once upon a time, this area was a separate city, but now is part of greater Toronto.

I'm not sure where you are.. but if you are near Eglington, Publlic transportation will be very good. I think you will probably know , the subway runs north and south on Yonge St. There are buses along Eglington that go to the subway.

I haven't lived in the area for years, so can't help much when it comes to shops or restaurants. I live 25 miles outside the city now. I love where you are. The house sounds similar to what my parents had.

I'm not sure if you are east or west of Yonge Street. If you are east, You might like to wander down Mt. Pleasant , south of Eglington. There are some nice shops there.

Avenue Road north of Lawrence is wonderful too.

Welcome!

I only know of two Restoration Hardware stores in the area - one is on Yonge near Broadway but there are high rises around there, I lived in one years ago. It sounds like that's where you are though. There's an indoor mall just at the corner of Yonge and Eglinton with a supermarket.

(FYI: It's Eglinton Avenue, not Eglington, it runs east and west from Yonge. And Yonge Street, not Road.)

Here's the provincial colour report - http://www.ontariotravel.net/publica...ourreport.pdf/
Lots of time yet to enjoy the colour on city trees.

If you have no plans for today, it's Word on the Street - a book fair. http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/toronto

In Queen's Park and outside the Museum at Bloor and Avenue Road, 11 till 6 - take the subway to Bloor stop, walk a few blocks west.

Morningglory, thank you. OF course I knew it was Eglinton.... I must have been tired last night.

Hi and welcome, annetti!

If you really are in North Toronto and relatively close to Yonge and Eglinton, then you're right near me! Your description of your house sounds quite like mine as well and the wood is probably gumwood (which I'm dying to paint!). Our house was built in 1927 and that's probably close to the age of your neighbourhood.

Re your peanut butter quest, there's a health food store called Noah's on Yonge a few blocks north of Eglinton on the east side. They may have what you're looking for. If not, it's certainly worth a short trip by TTC to go to Danforth Avenue where you'll find Carrot Common and a big health food store called the Big Carrot. Then you can take a nice walk eastward along Danforth to Pape and back visiting the nice shops and maybe stopping in for lunch or dinner at one of the many Greek restaurants there. Our favourite is the Pantheon which is on the south side of Danforth at Chester.

Here are the websites for the two stores:
www.noahsnaturalfoods.ca
www.thebigcarrot.ca

And if you tell me what kinds of restaurants you enjoy, I can recommend some in the neighbourhood.
gtg

Thank you, goddesstogo. Our home was built in 1931 per owners' relatives. It's very pretty and immaculate, though not built for today's electronic needs such as the big screen TV or a stereo system, not a problem for me, but my husband finds the rooms small. I imagine the rooms were built for radios,just as the small garages were built for the one car family, an anomaly nowadays, maybe less so in Toronto, but in my Californian neighborhood, there is a car for every member of the family of driving age, sometimes more than one car per person. My next door, a single woman has three cars!!

I think the homes are charming and attractive, not a relic. Don't paint the walls; enjoy the woodwork. Think how difficult the paint would be to remove once you changed your mind. You'd never get the wood back to its original condition.

Back to Toronto, we have discovered Noah's, bought some veggie burgers there today and at a greengrocer nearby some produce. While at Noah's I knew there was something else I wanted and of course, remembered the peanut butter 15 blocks later.

Yes, we'd love some suggestions for restaurants. We are hardly foodies, but we love Italian and if you know a great pizza place (we seldom indulge), we would love a recommendation. We tend to eat vegetarian, me more so than my husband. I will occasionally eat fish, but that's about as high up the animal chain I go, never shrimp or lobster or any of their relatives. My husband will occasionally eat chicken.

BTW, someone mentioned the big carrot to us today at Noah's. Yesterday, a clerk as Noah's sent us to a very mediocre Italian place and we chose another mediocre Italian place today. Not much luck there, but better than anything Italian I'd get back home locally. Unless, I'm in LA, I don't waste my time on Italian back home, but I know there are zillions of good places here, we just need to be pointed in the right direction.

We don't have a car and right now, it feels dreadfully inconvenient to lug things from the supermarket to our house. We must be at least 10 blocks or more from a small market. Also, I have to keep remembering, I can't buy wine at the local market and always think about it, when we're 2-3 blocks away from the wine stores and are too fatigued to walk back. I certainly would enjoy a glass right now! And then carrying it seems tiring, too. Well, we'll get our stamina back and once we learn to use the transit system, we'll get it under control.

We bought a week transit pass (starts tomorrow) and now must decide where our first excusion should be. I pulled out our Fodor's Guide, but it is a bit daunting and I am not sure where we shall start our tourist exploration. We have spent a bit of time exploring the local streets and shops near by, and are ready to board a bus/subway and see more.

One of the pleasures of home exchange (no hotel bills breathing down your neck), there is no rush to see everything that must be seen immediately. We tend to be very leisured travelers and take our time, probably by some people's timing, we are very very slow seeing only one sight or maybe two in a day whereas someone else would see it in two hours, but then we often don't get started until noon. We are very slothful.

I have forgotten to thank Morningglory and Kodi. We found the indoor supermarket you mentioned, but missed the book fair.We always enjoy wandering around book fairs. Our home exchanger has a wonderful selection of books here, just the kind of stuff I enjoy reading.( It can be a hit or miss when you arrive at someone's home, some people have vast collections and others not a book in sight.) I need not have loaded my Kindle down.

I remember your planningmonths ago. You've managed to get yourself about as far from neighborhood stores as it is possible to do in Toronto. If I remember correctl;y you'renorth of Eglinton, betweeen Bathurst on the west and Avenue Road on the East.

I'll post a half-day see "Real Torontonians" tour for you in the next day or two.

BAK