With the Pan Am Games in town there’s no shortage of entertainment to be found in the downtown area. While most of the activities can be linked to the Pan Am Games, some of them are simply part of the Toronto summer experience. The city and the community has done a great job ensuring that locals and guests to our city, have plenty to see and do in every neighbourhood. We hit up a couple different spots last week and I thought I’d highlight some of the fun things happening in our city that are worth checking out.
6th Man Collective’s Monday Nights : The hubs and I snuck out for a date night to catch the opening night of this theatre experience. We didn’t know what to expect but left the place thinking ‘wow that was the most bizarre theatre experience!’ Bizarre in a good way because it got us out of our comfort zone and got us thinking about certain issues we wouldn’t normally. In the summer of 2008, five guys came to the basketball court at Queen’s Quay and Bathurst. Religiously, every Monday night, they stayed until the lights turned off. This interactive theatre experience plays off of their relationship and is a group experience and activity. Part-play, part-basketball game and part-choose your own adventure, Monday Nights will get your adrenaline flowing as you get into the game and the hubs even got a chance to show off some of his bball skills. It runs for two hours with no intermission and the referee will guide the teams and pit them against each other. Don’t worry, our team won! While we were here on a date night, there were a couple kids in attendance and they looked like they were having a blast! I’d say those interested in basketball and over the age of 5 would have a great time. Little Monkey and Baby Boy (who both LOVE playing basketball) may have whined a bit and Baby Boy would have definitely tried to steal the basketball any chance he got!
The House that Kids Built : Children across Ontario have made a powerful series of statements about inclusion in sport during the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am Games through The PrideHouse That Kids Built. This is a professional art installation at Ontario’s Celebration Zone at Harbourfront Centre where kids can drop in with their parents and colour on ‘bricks’ which are used to build a house. There are plenty of other drop in activities at this spot and definitely one way to cool down from the summer heat. This happens daily from July 10th to August 19th between 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. That said we went by around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday and the place was closed so be sure to tweet at them to check on their hours.
Ontario’s Celebration Zone: With visitors in town we decided to grab a pint at one of the patios by the water at the Harbourfront Centre and encountered quite the situation. Both spots we tried to get into were no longer accepting patrons at 7 p.m. because they were understaffed in the kitchen! Can you imagine? Empty patios and long waits because they were short staffed during the busy summer and Pan Am season! Crazy eh? Worked out in our favour because we walked further down and stumbled upon Muskoka Chairs, a wooden patio with a cool looking blown up tent and beer, wine and burgers! Sweet!! There were games on a screen, live Jazz at the back and plenty of space to chill (provided you got your hands on a tree stump or Muskoka chair to sit on). As the sun set behind the CN tower and Big Sugar serenaded us (and our double stroller!), it was the perfect way to end our evening by the waterfront. There’s supposed to be over 100 activities for kids in the Zone but given our late evening arrival, we didn’t see too much happening at the late hour.
Panamania : I mentioned the many activities happening here a couple weeks ago and over the last week I’ve swung by twice for the Fireworks. Every night at 10: 50 p.m. there’s a ten minute fireworks show accompanied by music. It can get busy on the weekend, so I’d definitely recommend watching it on a weeknight when you can stand right by the main stage and watch the Fireworks above your head…it’s quite the experience and definitely nothing like the experience from any other spot. It’s late for most kids but I took mine and have seen many young kids around enjoying the music and show. We also caught the medal ceremony one evening (happens at 7 p.m. daily) and while there was a huge build up (very Hunger Games-esque) and much dancing, the actual ceremony was a bit of a let down with only a couple athletes in attendance.
Graffiti Tour : This is also one I mentioned a couple weeks ago and with friends in town we figured ” why not?”. The free tour started at 1 p.m. at the Hug Me Tree which I have always loved. My hope was for Baby Boy to nap in the stroller while we were on the 2 hour tour but that did not happen. The kids wanted to roam around the alleys and with some of them being tiny but busy paths, we were dodging cars quite a few times. Luckily there were three adults and two kids, so our ratio was well planned out! Had Baby Boy slept it would have been an easy tour but with him egging Little Monkey on, they were a handful and quite vocal at some points. Luckily the tour guide Jason has kids of his own and there were some very well behaved older kids in the group. If they were noisy during the main talking parts I moved them to a side of the alley where they wouldn’t disturb the rest of the group. No one gave us dirty looks (or ones that I acknowledged anyway!) so I’m hoping they’ll welcome the kids when we do one of their other tours! The Graffiti tour is free this summer (on Saturdays) but well worth the $30 it usually costs because we gained insight into the street art community and got to see some alleyways we never knew existed! We had our double stroller with us and there were no issues, minus watching out for the cars in the alleyways.
If you’re looking to stumble around downtown Toronto with kids, there’s plenty do. Between this weekend and last weekend, we’ve rekindled our love for the city and are glad we didn’t run away during the Pan Am Games as originally planned!
