One of the best parts about living in downtown Toronto is being able to escape it all! As much as I love the rush of downtown, it’s a breath of fresh air nice to leave city and reconnect with nature. Apparently, my “reconnecting with nature” is a laughable matter to most of my family and friends. I tend to kill plants more than nurture them; I scream and run from insects, small rodents and anything that touches me under the water; and my fickle pale skin burns with the slightest drop of sunlight.
Luckily, early May lets me circumvent these mishaps with nature. What better way to celebrate than to check out these lovely cherry blossoms in High Park?
Two thousand Sakura, or cherry blossom, trees were a given as a gift to Toronto in 1959 from the then-Japanese ambassador to Canada, Toru-Hagiwara, for accommodating Japanese-Canadians after the Second World War. Most of them were planted in High Park.
I managed to miss the crowds, armed with their DSLR cameras and iPads, who visit the flowered trees during this 1-2 week period. (I was in Edmonton at the time.)
However, I didn’t miss the film crew that was shooting in the park. I was told that it was for a “new TV series, but I don’t remember the name.” Keep in mind this was around the same time that Suicide Squad was shooting in Toronto.
I’m not saying the two are connected, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for a water scene after the movie is released.
Unfortunately, there aren’t enough movie sets happening in High Park to make it into a Hollywood sights tour. But it’s a go-to place for many summer-time activities:
- Running, biking, hiking, etc. (There are hiking tours hosted by High Park Citizen’s Advisory Committee)
- Fishing on Grenadier Pond (with a valid license)
- High Park Zoo (which has a very adventurous peacock who likes making headlines!)
- Playgrounds (the Jamie Bell playground even has a castle! You know where I’ll be practicing my beauty pageant wave now…)
- Outdoor swimming pool (where I practice my synchronized swimming wave, in sync with my shadow and my imaginary synchronized swimming team. I kid. Kind of.)
- Go for a train ride on the trackless train!
- 3 baseball diamonds, 2 soccer fields and 3 public tennis courts
- Picnics!
- Wildlife!
![Ron Swanson over here, King of Parks and Rec[reaction].](http://i1.wp.com/thefulltimetourist.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/swan-2.jpg?ssl=1)
- Yoga meet-ups!
- Shakespeare in the park!
- Gardens!
Or, there’s always the option to just go for enjoy the sunshine (layer on that SPF) and take some pictures of the pretty park. I’ll leave you here with a few of my own! What’s your favourite summer-time activity in the park? Comment below or hit me up on social media! (Please use #thefulltimetourist hashtag and tag me: @thefulltimetourist on Instagram and @thefttourist on Twitter!)
