What's happening in Toronto this week?

Summertime Toronto is humid. The air gets thick and still by midday, though the waterfront tends to feel several degrees cooler than the blocks north of King Street. Afternoon thunderstorms typically build between 3pm and 5pm, then break fast. Plan outdoor sightseeing before noon. Once the sidewalks dry, the restaurant patios along Ossington Avenue fill up. Toronto's lake-effect weather can shift within an hour, and you'll want a packable rain layer for the walk between Harbourfront and the Entertainment District.

The main hall at St. Lawrence Market on Jarvis Street opens at 5am Saturday, and by 7am the peameal bacon sandwich line at Carousel Bakery runs 15 people deep. Peameal bacon is Toronto's actual signature food, not poutine. It's wet-cured pork loin rolled in cornmeal, sliced thick, served on a Kaiser roll for about CAD 10. At roughly 1.40 CAD per US dollar, that's about USD 7. The market shuts at 3pm and stays closed Sunday and Monday. Toronto Islands are a 15-minute ferry from the Jack Layton Terminal at the foot of Bay Street. Ward's Island beach faces south and typically gets the cleanest water readings. The ferry runs about CAD 9 round-trip for adults. The islands have no cars and almost no shade, so sunscreen and water are non-negotiable in the summer heat.

Monday through Thursday in Toronto moves at a different speed. The Art Gallery of Ontario, open since 1900, runs free Wednesday evenings from 6pm to 9pm. Worth noting. The Royal Ontario Museum sits at the Bloor-University subway stop and has been open since 1912. Both are about a 20-minute walk from each other along University Avenue. Mind you, the AGO tends to close Mondays and Tuesdays, so plan around that. Tuesday through Thursday evenings, the Ossington strip between Queen and Dundas smells like grilled octopus and sounds like clinking glasses from every sidewalk patio. Cocktails there run CAD 16-22, and dinner lands around CAD 45-70 per person. Friday and Saturday the crowd shifts younger and louder. For a calmer weeknight meal, Leslieville on Queen Street East has a 6-block stretch where you can still get a table at 7:30pm on a Friday.

Toronto's subway has a simple layout. Two main lines cross downtown at Bloor-Yonge and St. George. A single TTC ride costs about CAD 3.35 with a PRESTO card, and the card itself runs around CAD 6 at any subway station. The UP Express from Pearson Airport to Union Station leaves every 15 minutes and takes 25 minutes for about CAD 13. That drops you at the south end of downtown, a short walk from the CN Tower, which opened in 1976 and still anchors the skyline at 553 metres. For your first meal after landing, skip the tourist restaurants near the tower. Walk 10 minutes north to King Street West, where lunch spots feed the Financial District. You might catch the warm smell of tonkotsu broth from Kinton Ramen halfway down the block, thick and savory enough to cut through the summer heat.