A weekend full of awesome
Hey lovelies!!
How are ya today? I hope you had a fantastic weekend. As you’ve probably already guessed from the title of this post, mine was full of great things. It all began on Saturday morning with a beautiful, glorious, euphoric long run which you’ll hear more about a little later this week.
Then it was off to the farmers’ market with my roommate. I don’t go nearly as much as I’d like to, but I really do love the atmosphere and walking around to see what all the vendors have to offer. We’re lucky to have 2 great markets in the area, and St. Jacobs Market has a ton of character.
It also has some enormous zucchinis! (Yes, I bought one. They were $1 and it would have been rude not to.)
After the market, I had a fun little lunch date planned with another local blogger that I just recently met, the lovely Danielle of Work It, Wear It, Eat It. Neither of us are vegan or vegetarian, but we were both curious about a little veg-friendly restaurant called Cafe Pyrus.
The cafe doesn’t have an official website, which meant I couldn’t do my usual pre-visit menu scoping. However, a little surprise is always fun and having read a few restaurant reviews beforehand, I didn’t think I’d be disappointed. The ladies at Cafe Pyrus have just introduced all of the amazing items that you see on the chalkboards above, and there was so much to choose from!
As far as beverages went, we ordered Rise Kombucha, a brand I hadn’t heard of until our visit but it was amazing! Prior to this, the only brand I really loved was Tonica (which still holds a dear place in my heart as a Canadian company with amazing raw and organic kombucha flavours!) but I now know that Rise is delicious too. They also happen to be Montreal-based. It appears that Canadians know how to make fabulous kombucha!! We chose the Green Tea Lemongrass flavour and it was super refreshing on such a hot day.
Danielle and I both opted for custom-made salads, which were very reasonably priced at $8.
Mine was a mix of greens (including Swiss chard! I’ve certainly been getting my fair share these days), red onion, red peppers, cucumbers and tempeh bacon.
Danielle’s was similar, only she ordered a little avocado on top.
Our food came out really quickly and the ladies at Cafe Pyrus were so friendly and fun to talk to. They informed me that all of the baked goods at the cafe are vegan, and there are several gluten-free options too.
The restaurant was much bigger than I originally anticipated, with both table and couch seating. I think I need to organize a bigger blogger meet-up here soon!
After all that hard work eating lunch (ha ha ha) and a Costco trip (which to be honest, really is tedious sometimes!), I headed to one of my favourite local spas for a lovely massage. My back has been hurting quite a lot lately so it was long-overdue, very much appreciated, and absolutely heavenly!
The action didn’t stop there. On Sunday, my roommate, her boyfriend and I headed to Casa Loma in Toronto to meet up with some other friends. None of us had been before but we’d heard great things, so we were excited to finally get to tour the castle.
For those of you that haven’t heard of Casa Loma before, it’s a castle that was once owned by Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt. It took us about 3 hours to tour the entire grounds, including the suites, conservatory, secret passageways, 80-foot tunnel, stables and gardens. Casa Loma was built during the Edwardian era (1911 to be precise), but today it exists as a venue for self-guided tours and special events, including weddings like the one that was going on during our visit. It has also been used in several movies including The Pacifier, Chicago, The Skulls, and X-Men.
A few shots from the visit….
As you can see, it was a fun but very busy weekend!! I’m looking forward to a quieter week, but don’t you worry, I’ve also been busy in the kitchen and I’ve got some delicious recipes that I’m very excited to share with you. Stay tuned!
So tell me….
- Ontario readers: Have you been to Casa Loma before? What did you think?
- What did YOU get up to this weekend?
wow.
GORGEOUS PICTURES.
Ive been to canada once. toronto.
I need to get to traveling….
Let me know if you come back… I can give you a little tour!
what a perfect weekend, indeed, angela! and the weather was so fantastic, too!
i have only seen casa loma when i ran past in the toronto marathon one year!
so happy to hear your run went well. too funny re the zucchini photo – i went to the st j market with my dad a couple weeks back and took the exact type of photo with a giant zucchini!
i was off yesterday and it was a great day: LSD, tanning and reading, shopping, a movie…all my favourite things!
Sounds like a perfect weekend for you too Cathy!! And what great scenery the castle would make during a race. We didn’t even feel like we were in Toronto while we were there since it’s sort of hidden away. Have a great Monday!
What a fun weekend. Such beautiful pictures of the castle. I have never visited Canda before, but would love to go one day. Every bloggers page I visit makes it sound so wonderful!
I’m definitely happy to live here, Jessie. It is indeed a great place (well, minus the taxes of course!)
How fun!! I had a great weekend too! Yesterday I ran the Vail Half Marathon with my sister-amazing! I am feeling like I could use one more day to rejuvenate as it was a busy day afterwards and Saturday was busy getting to-do’s done..with that all said, it was still a great weekend!
Oooh congrats girl (and to your sister too)!! Great job!
Sounds like you had such a fun weekend! I also bought some HUGE zucchinis at the market – such a great buy. I made so many zucchini noodles for the week! Haha.
Good to know about Rise Kombucha! I also love Tonica – but they’ve recently started carrying Rise at one of the yoga studios I go to.
I have been to Casa Loma before! Fun times.
Hehe I’m ALL about the zucchini noodles right now too Danielle! The only problem is that this zucchini was WAY too big for my spiralizer! Glad you’re enjoying Rise too! I can’t wait to try the other 3 flavours.
I used to live 5min from Casa Loma and I haven’t been yet! I have been to the stables but never the actual castle, it has been on my list of places to go for a while now.
Where is Cafe Pyrus? It sounds like a yummy place.
Hi Jesse! It was so funny – my friends and I were saying that we know a lot of people that have lived in Toronto all of their lives, but have never been. I hope you enjoy it if you make it out there!
Cafe Pyrus is in Kitchener, and the address is 16 Charles St W. Definitely visit if you’re in the area. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!
I’m adding Casa Loma to my list of places to visit this summer! Thanks for the cafe address, I’ll check it out next time I’m in Kitchener.
Sounds like a fun-packed weekend! I just recently moved to Toronto and I think Casa Loma has just made it on to my to-do list. I moved here from Montreal and used to work in the same building as Crudessence (the makers of Rise kombucha). What a wonderful, friendly, awesome group of people they have working there. If you are ever in the Montreal area you must check out one of their 2 restaurants (called Crudessence) which serves up creative, raw, vegan concoctions.
Needless to say much of my weekend was spent still unpacking boxes :p
Wow, what a coincidence Christina! That is so cool that you used to work in the same building as the folk at Rise. I would absolutely love to go to Montreal one day, and you’ve just added a stop on my tour!!
I hope you are settling into Toronto ok. Good luck with that unpacking!
It was so fun to meet you! I want that salad again. Like right now. Hah.
Looks like the second half of your weekend was just as busy as the first! I have never been to Casa Loma! Even when I lived in Toronto! Hope to make a trip one day.
Happy Monday!
xo
It was great to meet you too girl!! I hope you’re enjoying your Costco haul!
Gorgeous photographs Angela!! I cannot get over how beautiful your pictures of nature always are. And let me also say that I’m obsessed with your reusable bag that has a kiwi on it. And yay for massive zucchini!! I can’t wait to see what you do with it!
Thanks Carol! The reusable bag is actually one of the 4 or so designs that Sobeys, one of our grocery stores, sells. I also have bags with oranges, asparagus, blueberries and grapes on them. They cost a whopping $1. They’re awesome and take a very very long time before they wear out (at which time they’ll replace it for free!) Fabulous for carrying watermelons in!
I thought I was the only person that did the pre-visit menu scooping! My friends always tease me when we get to a restaurant and I already know what I want. I call it efficient!
Glad to hear you had such a great weekend, Ange. Can’t wait to hear about the run!
Hehe great minds think alike!! PS I am totally taking you to Cafe Pyrus. You would love the chef there!
I’m so glad to hear about that restaurant! I live in Guelph and we met up with friends in Waterloo on the weekend at Sole- a great restaurant as well but not as veg friendly as I was hoping for! I am going to be taking a trip over their again just to try Pyrus! And coincidentally, I just tried that exact kombucha yesterday at a pool party—tastes like fancy gingerale–I am off to try their other flavors too!
Ah so cool you were at Sole! I like that restaurant too, but like you said, not really veg-friendly! Definitely come back for Cafe Pyrus. You won’t be disappointed! PS If you like Rise kombucha, you’ll probably like Tonica too! The mango, peach, and blueberry flavours are my faves.
Looks like tons of fun! I had a similar weekend but in different locations in the GTA! I went to a farmer’s market at Square One on Sunday (although my parents went to the St. Jacob’s one on Sat.!), and on Friday we were in downtown T.O. hanging out in Kensington Market. I love the St. Jacob’s market though, and same with Casa Loma. It’s been years since I was there! That lunch spot looks lovely! If you do a blogger meet-up this summer, let me know.
OK, is it sad that I’ve NEVER been to Kensington Market?! I need to fix that one of these weekends! I will definitely let you know if we do a meet-up at Cafe Pyrus… I can’t wait to go back!