TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Sunday in Toronto with Friends, by Cecilia Brainard

I've visited Canada before -- Vancouver, Montreal, Quebec, Canadian National Parks -- but never had the chance to spend time in Toronto until today. Toronto is a young modern city, peopled by a lot of immigrants (50% according to one guide), and probably because of this, it's quite vibrant, with a lot of energy. I like Toronto. The city is sprawling and has interesting sections. It has high rises and old 1800s buildings, and right now there's a lot of construction going on. I would say Toronto has "attitude." It has a nice university, it's own castle, lovely old churches, a movie and entertainment industry, and a thriving tourist industry.

Today we had dim sum in Rol San Restaurant in Chinatown, which TripAdvisor has down for a high rating of 4.5. The dim sum was really good; favorites were siomai, spare ribs, eggplant, beef slices, and various dumplings.

After dim sum, the five of us -- Chit and Albert Acayan, Evelyn Del Rosario, Guia Lim, and me -- took the Hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus to see the city. It took two hours to complete the circuit and the tour gave us a good idea of what Toronto looks like.

Along the way, we shopped in an antique weekend market and found some treasures including English bone China teacups and a Limoge cake set.

We also visited the lakeside and listened to Indian music and the Toronto Harmonic Orchestra entertaining the promenaders. It was very pleasant and by the time we headed back to our part of town, it was past 5 p.m. At that time, we decided to drop off our purchases in the hotel and go have a lobster dinner.

Now, we are packing for tomorrow's trip to Montreal and another adventure.

Stay tuned for more!
All for now,

Cecilia