Take in Old English estate homes and elite schools, then lunch with a well-heeled crowd in tiny Forest Hill Village.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 2013.
TIME:
Hello! What a perfect day! After an unbearably hot week, we finally have a nice pleasant day with a gentle breeze. Perfect for a walk. Today we are taking on Forest Hill. Driven through parts of the neighborhood before but have never truly explored it. So lets see what all the fuss is about!
We are fortunate to have such fine weather! Mon has been sick for the past few days too, so I bet she's been longing to get outside and explore! We are once again joined with Sean! He lives near this area, so he'll be giving us some of the ins and outs of this neighbourhood.
On y va!
Look at those smiles!
The next day, Alma would cut her hair and regret it. So lets take a moment to mourn the loss of such a fabulous head of hair..... (hehe thanks, mon!) (just to be clear, I do like Alma's new/old haircut. It's cute!)
In other news, my tank top is actually green, but it looks blue in these pictures.... Am I going crazy?
Hey look, we're not alone. Sean's with us today. He does currently live in the neighborhood.
(oops... sorry, I should prolly be reading ahead before writing)
1. Upper Canada College (200 Lonsdale Rd)
The Georgian-style boys-only preparatory school has been educating
UCC. Hmm.... it's a also a boarding school...... and modelled after British prep schools.... Makes me think of a famous British boarding school for magic.... where students learn to fly, and cast spells, all while receiving an education in an old castle..... Ms. Cackle's Academy for Witches, from the beloved book "The Worst Witch"! Ha, Alma! Bet you thought I was going to say Hogwarts.....
Hehe! So... Saying Hogwarts after the fact doesn't count then...?
The entrance to the large campus.
It's not my crappy picture, the road is quite wonky. What is their $30 000- 55 000 tuition going towards?!
The school has quite the reputation for academics and athletics. Educates students from kindergarten to grade 12 (always think schools like that are weird - an 18 year old sharing a school with a 3 year old). They also have the IB program (which I teach - though at a much more accessible school).
They're watching us. This is the first of many cameras that will capture our image in Forest Hill.
Sean giving his approval to drinking fountains!
There needs to be more around the city!
Wanted to get a shot of the athletics building on their campus.
Haha! Sean's thirst is really quenched!
Oh, Monica. I'm a bit of a moron. At first glance I thought Sean's shirt was the Coca-Cola symbol upside down. He corrected me - it's in Hebrew. Oops. Forgive my ignorance blog readers.
After leaving the campus, we continue on our walk. The next portion of the walk takes us through the posh neighborhood to admire the homes that are well out of price range.
Fancy lettering
String beans?!
We think not...
Sean does want to eat one though.
Sean was not impressed by this handrail. The homeowners association should be all over this one.
... amongst other violations!
like an unkept hedge...
grass not up to golf course standards...
and so on and so forth...
As we walked, we decided to choose our `homes`. I can`t remember who`s this is. May be mine... the one I chose was blocked by a lot of foliage but I don`t remember taking a picture..... Is this yours Alma?
Nope this one is Sean's
Is this yours Alma?
Nope...
you took this cause of the tree.
According to Sean, this is a plane tree
I remember seeing this type of tree in Brugge and thinking that it kinda has a "camo" look with it's patchy bark.
Is this yours Alma?
It's strange cause i think it is, but I honestly don't remember :S
As expected, in neighborhoods such as these, there are a lot of nice cars. Porches, BMWs... family cars are fancy SUVs. So can you imagine our horror when we caught sight of this Toyota minivan!? Does the homeowners association know about this?
Mon's snottiness comes out!
We talk about the "what ifs" of Mon, if she had gone to a boarding school!
2. Bishop Strachan School (298 Lonsdale Rd)
The oldest boarding school for girls in Canada.
My mom wanted me to go here. My brothers both went to St. Michael's College (another boys private school in Forest Hill) but I didn't want to go to school far away from home. Did enough of that in elementary school.
They appear to be adding in a new building to the campus.
The campus is much smaller and not nearly as impressive as UCC.
Took this picture for the tennis balls.
Sooo Babe Ruth!
Sean was very tempted to take this tool that he found @ the construction site but opted not to.
Babe Ruth would be proud.
Play on!
Monica and Bishop Strachen look good together!
This can totally be the Hart house...
or Massey College...
Sean claims he didn`t do this. Good thing he returned that tool. Who knows what kind of lawsuit they would have worked up against him.
3. Grace Church on the Hill (300 Lonsdale Rd)
...which is mentioned in John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany
Good book. I'm a John Irving fan (my favorite being The World According to Garp). I believe the author lives in the neighborhood, or at least did. In a Prayer for Owen Meany there are a few scenes detailing his narrator running around the neighborhood. And if I'm not mistaken the narrator also teaches at Bishop Strachan.
Another little anecdote about the book. My friend Alberto read this book in high school and loved it. He wasn`t the biggest reader, but this one he really enjoyed. We talked about it a lot. Then when he was done, we made Jonathan get the movie adaptation (Simon Birch) from Blockbusters (he worked there) and we invited ourselves over to watch it at Jonathan`s place. Even though he had no interest. And then Alberto turned into me and started comparing the book to the movie and criticizing the changes.
Mon really soaking up the church and reminiscing the good old times!
I bet the church looks really nice at night with the stain glass windows lit up with those spot lights!
Watching Mantracker has taught me well...
bunny tracks!
This is not on the cards...
Sean takes us to a haunted apartment building!
Reading the old apartment dwellers...
Sean wants to take this dilapidated building and make it new!
some spit and polish is all it needs...
According to Sean.
The tiny Forest Hill Village. It`s barely a block.
I thought it was longer than this...
Sean brings us to What a Bagel and introduces us to some pastry that I can't recall the name of... but it was delightful.
YUM!
4. David's by Day, Buzz by Night (413 Spadina Rd)
To enjoy gourmet sandwiches or challah French toast....As the name suggests, it morphs from café to restaurant come nightfall, though its hard to imagine more of a buzz than what builds at breakfast and lunch.
Took us awhile to find this... because it doesn`t exist anymore.
It`s now a Hero Burgers. Did some research it closed down quite a few years ago. 2008 I believe. From what I read, good food. Busy location. Kind of crowded (lots of tables). And the space ratio to washrooms may have been the reason for losing their liquor licence, which then led to decline in customers, and the eventual closing. This is all speculation by bloggers of course.
Too bad, we wanted to eat here.
5. Lonsdale Gallery (410 Spadina Rd)
... to shop for art books and magazines and to view thought-provoking works of art
I like that black and white photograph to the right of the parachuters.
All the venues on this walk were off this road (Lonsdale). Thought I should include the sign.
We ate at Aroma. It was good. Can`t go wrong with a sandwich.
Look at Alma rocking those Google sunglasses.
Alex would be proud
We walk back towards Sean`s apartment. Sean takes us through the St. Clair- Spadina reservoir - one of his favourite sites. Perhaps our Casa Loma walk will officially hit this site.
ooo i miss my hair...
In case that other house wasn`t mine, there`s always this one. With a little entrance for midgets and the mole people.
We didn't take a picture of it, but there were a pair of fancy semi-detached (million dollar) homes with adjoining garages too. Alma and I are debating getting them. Instead of texting each other, we're going to learn morse code and communicate by tapping on the walls.
Ooo! Finally. A lawn ornament. A dog that I have named Rusty.
MONICA's RATING: Hum.... An enjoyable day. Nice walk. Pleasant but not incredibly interesting. Not sure how to rate this one. No desire to come back. Not much to the village other than Sean`s Jewish deli.....3.25 I guess.
Alma's Rating: Yeah, I guess there isn't much to this walk... it was nice walking through the neighbourhood tho... Even though it did feel like we were being watched by the constant surveillance cameras around! Maybe if the cards gave us more info about the owners of these houses? Some famous celebrities or something?! or maybe more info about the neighbourhood in general, I'd appreciate it more. I didn't think I was in this area before, but in fact Alex and I trekked through here last year... when we walked from Harbourfront to Downsview.
Anyhoo... I give his walk a 3 and most of that is due to good company.
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