Visiting Toronto

Haven't been doing too much researching over the last few months as quite honestly I have just been trying to enjoy *some* of the summer. It seems like the moment September hit though, summer was over. The temperatures have gone from heatwave crazy to wet, windy and cool overnight. Of course I feel pretty bad for Simy who is visiting me from Italy. It seems every time she comes here our weather goes all out of control and this time is no different. It has rained almost every day since she has been here! The first year she flew in was during that huge snowstorm a few years back on Dec 16 - we hadn't seen snow like that in 60 years! After visiting twice in December and twice having seen our weather we agreed that winter was definitely not a month to visit Toronto! We did mange to go down to the Lakeshore yesterday though as the day was fairly nice and then headed down town where we visited St Micheal's Cathedral. My husband was baptized there and I had never seen it before (pretty sad, huh?) and really wanted to.

St Micheal's Cathedral

A little bit about the Cathedral..

The cornerstone of St. Micheal's Cathedral was laid My 8, 1845, by the Most Reverend Michael Power, first Catholic Bishop of Toronto. Designed by William Thomas, the building is an adaptation of the 14th century English Gothic style. It was consecrated on September 29, 1848. Though the transepts remain unfinished, St Micheal's adheres to the ancient cruciform shape of religious structures. The interior of the cathedral has undergone a number of transformations. The great chancel window, installed in 1858, was executed by Etienne Thevenot, a gifted French artist and was donated by Bishop de Charbonnel. Construction of the tower and spire began in 1867. St Micheal's is the principal church of Canada's largest English-speaking Catholic archdiocese.
Erected by the Archeological and Historic Sites Board, Archives of Ontario

From there we took a walk along Dundas St W and picked up a hot dog from one of the vendors and continued on to Old and New City Hall to visit what we thought were the Archives. Once inside we realized they had been moved to 255 Spadina so we walked around and looked at some of the photos showing the area in 1961-1964.

Of course by this time the weather started to change and so we headed home and took a nap. When I woke up a few hours later it was - you guessed it - raining! So much for a rocking Saturday night!