HTO Park – Natalie the Explorer

I wrote in May that I had my first blogger date with Ann, a fellow Canadian blogger from the West Coast. Following that fun date, I reached out to Joanne, another fellow Canadian blogger in Toronto. We agreed to meet on a Friday in July for a walk along the waterfront. A heat wave derailed our initial plan and made us postpone our date to the following week. Our second attempt was a go!

Even though we’ve just recently followed each other’s blog, we recognized each other in person right away. The weather was sunny and warm so after our introduction hug and smiles, we started heading west, making brief stops along the way to explore some of Toronto’s gems:

**Toronto Book Garden** features Toronto Book Award winners. The names of authors and winning book titles are engraved in paving stones.

**Rees Wavedeck by HTO Park** offers a glimpse of Toronto Harbour and Islands.

***Toronto Music Garden*** *where we saw a bird sipping water from the rock fountain*.

***Ireland Park***, *the memorial to the Irish Famine migrants’ arrival in Toronto from 1846-1849. Behind the trees is the Kilkenny limestone sculptural wall containing the names of those who perished during the Famine.* *The five statues from back to front include The Orphan Boy, Woman on Ground, Pregnant Woman, Pius Mulvey, and The Jubilant Man.*

***Little Norway Park*** was built on the same site where a training camp for Norway’s Air Force was located during World War II. The park was officially opened by His Majesty King Olav V of Norway on Nov. 20, 1987. The Memorial Stone is a gift from Norway to Canada. *The stone was shaped by nature through glacier action. The bronze plaque and text were completed in Norway before shipment to Toronto.*

By the time we reached Coronation Park, it was getting warmer and close to lunch time so we turned around. A quick consultation with Joanne prompted me to suggest Gonoe Sushi for lunch. Aside from its location being on our route, I had a good meal there before and both of us haven’t had sushi recently.

Gonoe Sushi interior was nice and cool with the air conditioning humming. We got a table right away. Our food orders arrived shortly after. I had a sushi and maki roll combo while Joanne went for a dynamite sushi combo. Her verdict: “This was a good choice!“.

After lunch, we walked to Union Station before saying goodbye. Altogether we completed five kilometers under sunny skies, chatted about our blogging experiences, blogger’s meet-ups, family, fitness tips, future plans, outdoor activities, travel stories, and solved our hunger with a nice sushi lunch…All within three hours 🙂