Toronto: West End
Gladstone House Hotel spells art, from the moment you walk in the doors. The entrance doors consist of rainbow reflective glass so you’re actually not sure what you’re walking into until you’re in the chic lobby. From here, get taken up to your room via a hand-operated shaft elevator. Each of Gladstone’s rooms are unique, featuring art and design by local artists. Our Queen Studio room featured carefully composed pieces by deaf artist Peter Owusu-Ansah. The hotel was enthralling to walk around and each floor had its own social area where you could rest with a book or play a game of pool, and there is even a fitness centre. Pets under 50lbs are welcome; treats are given at the front desk and they are allowed to remain in the room alone. Fetchy pet store is just across the road if you run out of food, and Trinity Bellwoods Park, with off-leash area, is a short walk away.
A few minutes’ walk along Queen St West from our hotel is vegan café Hello123. They are certainly pet-friendly. You can access the sheltered, heated patio from street level. What’s more, the food was delicious! I had a tahini bowl with tempeh and a Blueberry Winter mocktail. It was a large portion too so don’t worry about going hungry - I just wish I could have fitted in dessert!
Our main reason for visiting at this time of year (early May) was to catch the cherry blossoms at High Park. This is a popular reason for visiting and so it was a busy day at the park – luckily we managed to find some on-street Green P parking. Parking inside the park isn’t available at weekends or on public holidays.
Both the cherry blossoms and the magnolias were in full bloom and made for gorgeous photos. Apart from this, there is lots to do in the park. Your dog is allowed at the zoo and the Grenadier Café patio, however Rita and I headed to the dog park and the off-leash corridor which transverses the park. This encompassed a mixture of sandy and paved paths, and access to a creek for cooling off. For those hotter days, the “dog hill” has a water tap and paddling pools. I loved being able to take a proper walk through the park and allow Rita to do her own thing.
Next to High Park and just opened this year is Throw me a Bone, a raw food shop for dogs. Although we didn’t purchase any raw food, there was a small assortment of toys and treats. Rita got a “Toronto Maple Mutts” puck toy and some freeze-dried beef liver.
We were lucky to catch the final weekend of the Lumière: Art of Light exhibition at Trillium Park. This free outdoor night-time experience was developed by local artists (one of whom, Tonya Hart, also designed a room at the Gladstone). This year’s theme was renewal. My favourite was The Fantastical Book Garden by Courtney Spence, which featured a curated collection of inspiring literature. The Bioluminescent Being and Umbra Transit were also very striking.
Umbra Transit
Breakfast for us took place at Impact Kitchen. They were very dog welcoming, evidenced by the water bowls outside. They also don’t mind you bringing your pup inside while waiting for your food. Although the outdoor tables are on the pavement, it still feels tucked away. Impact Kitchen is a health-focussed Toronto-based chain, developed by a personal trainer and nutritional expert. The Toronto marathon actually took place on this day and it was popular with the runners. My chai seed pudding and banana-date smoothie certainly fuelled me up for the day – with a coffee to-go, of course!
Next up was the Humber River Recreation Trail, and the rain could not deter us! Luckily it was mostly paved or gravelled, so although we got wet, we didn’t get too mucky. This trail runs along the Humber River, so we parked at the Old Mill (Etienne Brulé Park) parking lot at the south end and walked up to James Gardens and back. This took us an hour and a half and we passed a couple of educational boards en-route. Rita enjoyed watching the ducks and marvelling at the bridges.
