It was such a fun weekend and Naomi and I had a blast. We drove up a day early so we could spend some time sightseeing. Being the nerdy sisters that we are, we did not do the "normal" spots most people visit in Toronto.
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| Here we are waiting for the bus |
1. We went to the Toronto Reference Library.
Oh. My. Werd. This place is huge and gorgeous and I totally wish I lived close to it. There's even a waterfall inside, but it was under renovation, so we couldn't really get the full effect. :(
But the rest of it? So worth it.
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| Those are elevators in the center. They're glass, so you can see everything as you ride |
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| How cool is it having the plants growing over the edges?! |
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| Are you drooling yet? |
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| Plants! Everywhere! |
The books. Oh the books! And the plants and the ... everything. Seriously. We just walked around kind of drooling.
2. We also went to the Lilliam H. Smith Branch of the Toronto Public Library.
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| Guarding the library entrance |
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| Guard, guard, guard |
Yes, that's right. One library is not good enough for the Thompson sisters. No, we must go to two. :) But the real reason we went there is because it is the home of the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books. They have a whole room dedicated to displays of children's books of various kinds, shapes, and sizes. So. Cool.
The theme right now is reptile/amphibians. There were glass cases with books laid flat, and each one had a theme, like Frog, or Crocodile, or Tortoise. And then all the books inside were connected with that theme and there were little plastic frogs or crocodiles or turtles. For example, they might have a case with an early copy of Frog and Toad are Friends along with a copy of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass open to the page with the frog messenger and a copy of a children's natural history with a page about frogs and their habitats and habits and then a book of children's poetry with a poem about a frog. So much fun.
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| I love this t-shirt! |
There were also larger display cases where they had a series on the Franklin books. These had sketches and paintings from the artist and stuffed animals and books and other things connected with it. They had a whole shelf of things on Aesop's tale of the tortoise and the hare with books ranging in size and illustrations. We couldn't take any pictures inside, but it was well worth the trip since Naomi and I love children's books so much.
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| I don't think she's making out with the gryphon, but I'm not sure. |
So that was pretty much all we did - we walked through downtown to get from one to the other and had a lot of fun doing that, but we didn't "go" anywhere else. Maybe next time we'll see some of the more "traditional" sights, but we had fun!
Do you like to visit out of the norm places when you go on vacation? Have you ever visited a super cool library?
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