We Got an Old House on The Danforth

Well, we still hadn't found the apartment for us. We looked at some very wee little places that were in our budget, but wouldn't be enough space for the three of us. We had a family meeting and decided to raise our monthly rental budget and hope that we could find something with a little more room. We did find a small place in a wonderful location. It was right across the street from a huge park with playground equipment and lots of rolling hills. The apartment was just too "cozy" (but not a "motivated seller") , but the area was so wonderful. Sigh. So, with an increased budget and a new rental car (to let Hayley off the driving hook) we ventured on our own and drove around Toronto looking at places. We were supposed to see four apartments, but we stopped at the third. It was just so perfect.

It was on a quiet street in the Danforth area of Toronto. The apartment consists of the main floor and a finished basement. We also get the veranda on the front and a deck and small yard in the back. The owner lives on the top two floors and he seems really really nice. There is so much room (especially in the basement) and yes...

It was right across the street from that wonderful park! Baby Boy will have such a wonderful time, especially on the swings. We also found out there is an indoor swimming pool in the park as well. It's also a great way to cut across a couple of streets to get up to Danforth. I'm also less than a mile to my new office and within walking distance to all sorts of restaurants and shops.

The street is nice and quiet and all residential. Our next door neighbor is a family as well. We were so excited that we filled out the application. We had to got to the bank and cash out all of our traveler's cheques so that we could pay the first and last month's rent. Well, long story short we did get the place and although it's weird to go back to renting after owning, but this time in a rental will allow us to take our time to find a more permanent housing.

Apartment secured, we could relax for a little while before we flew back. We had gone to several restaurants and with the exception of Lick's which makes an AWESOME veggie burger that doesn't even remotely taste like a veggie burger and Reliable Fish and Chips which unfortunately is very near my office and SOOOOOO good, the food and service weren't so hot. But then we went to a family-type chain restaurant, Jack Astor's. Our lovely server, Ana, was great and she kept our drinks filled and our orders hot. When I told her that she was the best server we'd had on our trip, she told her manager. The manager came over to our table and said we could have a free dessert.

Well, we're not ones to turn down a free anything, so we ordered the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie Cup. It was so good, but huge and we couldn't even come close to finishing it. But so delicious.

By Thursday, we were back on our way to Los Angeles. We only just barely made the shuttle to the airport and almost left behind our stroller and our passports (!), but we managed to get back to California in one piece.

And when we got off the plane, it was so warm.