Father’s Day Toronto Style

For the past three years, we celebrated father’s day up in cottage country.  This year, we stayed in the city.  So to make the day extra-special, we took-in the city and I had a few special gifts planned for my husband, such as this mens wallet from VintageLeather.

Living in the city, it’s hard to enjoy the wildlife without taking a trip to the country.  But what most Torontonian’s don’t know is that there’s a piece of wildlife right in our own backyard.

The Leslie Street Spit, is a man-made land extension from Lakeshore (and Leslie street) that almost meets the Toronto Islands.  When Toronto expanded in the 60’s and 70’s, the split was used as a dumping ground for excess supply of rubble and earth that was dug up for the creation of buildings and the subway system.

However, if you take a leisurely walk on the peninsula now, you would never imagine that it’s used as a ‘concrete dump’; The area is sprawling with wildlife.  It’s amazing to think that plants and trees can even grow in a place that’s literally built on rocks, bricks and rebar.

Living nearby, my husband would frequently run and bike along the 5km strip.  However, this past father’s day, we decided to make it a (urban) family event.  After a quick pit-stop at Starbucks, we ventured out to take in this awesome oasis with the kids in tow.

While we didn’t make it out too far, our stroll tingled our senses in every way possible.  The sight of the lake between the wildlife plants and trees was a beautiful contrast against the bricks lined along the rocks by the water.  We spotted a variety of birds along our walk, a bunny and some other critters (but no snake sightings).  We stopped at an overlook and had a picnic lunch before making our way back.

For the gifts, I incorporated my husband’s two favourite things.  His kids and beer!

Gift #1: DIY D-A-D picture

While I give myself an A+ in gift-giving, I give myself a D for DIY.  I suck at it.  I don’t know why since I’m artsy and crafty (or at least I used to be), but it’s true.  I rather just buy pre-made gifts like those at https://giftsflash.com/necklace-with-picture/ that would make anything I hand-made look like trash.  However, I have been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately, and I found a project that even I could do.  It incorporated my passion for photography.  Simple… or so I thought.  I forgot that I will be challenged by a toddler who despises having his picture taken (yes, the same one that used to model for the first 18 months of his life).  The idea was simple.  Take pictures of your children holding letters that spell out DAD.  Since my son calls my hubby DADA, I thought I would spell that out instead.  Over a few days and several takes later, I finally took enough decent pictures to make this gift.

Gift #2: Microbrewery Beer

My husband loves beer.  Microbrewery is trendy and tastes good.  It’s fun to try new beer.  The LCBO has a great selection of craft beer.  That is all!

The beer was perfect for our family BBQ dinner where I got to celebrate the two most important dads in my life.  My dad who is my hero, and my hubby, my sons’ hero!

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If you’re interested in checking it out, the Leslie Street Spit (officially the Outer Harbour East Headland), is only open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends and statutory holidays in the summer.  For more information check out the website of the friends of the spit.

Here’s some of the out-takes from the photo shoot I did with the kids (too cute / funny not to share).