What's happening in Toronto this week?

St. Lawrence Market has operated at Front and Jarvis since 1803. The Saturday Farmers' Market runs 5am to 3pm, and it's the best food morning in the city. Get there by 7am. The peameal bacon sandwich at Carousel Bakery costs around C$9, and by 10am the aisles are shoulder-to-shoulder with the smell of roasting coffee from the lower-level vendors filling the whole building. The main market hall runs Tuesday through Saturday, but Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are when the cheese vendors and butchers have time to talk. Kensington Market, about 2km northwest on Augusta Avenue, is a different scene. The vintage shops and Honduran bakeries keep weekday hours, but the neighborhood fills on weekend afternoons when the patios on Baldwin Street pour cold Bellwoods Brewery tallboys at C$8 a can. Worth noting, Kensington runs car-free Pedestrian Sundays on the last Sunday of each month from May through October.

Toronto's nightlife week starts on Thursday. The stretch of Ossington Avenue between Dundas and Queen fills with locals from about 9pm. Bellwoods Brewery's bar at 124 Ossington pours until midnight. Friday and Saturday shift the gravity east to King West, where restaurants along King between Bathurst and Spadina run second seatings at 9:30pm. Sunday is brunch territory in the Annex and along College Street west of Bathurst. Expect 30-to-45-minute waits at the popular spots. That said, if you walk into any Korean restaurant on Bloor between Christie and Bathurst in Koreatown, you'll sit down immediately and eat bibimbap or soft tofu stew for C$15. The sizzling stone bowls and the sharp vinegar smell of fresh kimchi are better than anything on the C$22 brunch circuit.

Monday is Toronto's quieter museum day. The Art Gallery of Ontario, opened in 1900 on Dundas West, is closed Mondays. The Royal Ontario Museum, opened in 1912 on Bloor at Queen's Park, stays open but feels noticeably emptier on Monday mornings, which is when you want to see the dinosaur galleries without school groups. Casa Loma, the 1914 mansion on the Davenport escarpment, is the same. The AGO runs free Wednesday evenings from 6pm to 9pm. That's the best free evening at any major Toronto gallery. The CN Tower, open since 1976, operates daily, but the glass floor at 342 metres tends to be less crowded before 11am on weekdays. June weather currently sits around 22°C with 62% humidity. Afternoons can feel sticky, and 20-minute rain cells tend to build over Lake Ontario around 3pm. Carry a light layer for the Lake Ontario showers. Mornings near 16°C with dry air are the window for long walks.

The waterfront along Queens Quay stays active past sunset in June, when daylight stretches to nearly 9:15pm. The Harbourfront Centre runs free outdoor programming most Thursday and weekend evenings. The ferry to Toronto Islands takes 13 minutes from the Jack Layton terminal at the foot of Bay Street. C$9 round trip. Go Tuesday through Friday if you can. Weekend ferries in June can mean a 45-minute queue by noon, and standing in that line with the hot concrete underfoot and no shade is not how you want to spend your first morning. The islands are car-free, flat, and quiet enough to hear the waves on Ward's Island beach. Lake water in early June still hovers around 14°C. If swimming matters to you, wait until late July when it reaches 20°C.