Hot, humid and Smokey!

Guess what – I did feel better on Sunday! So, in the early evening, at about 6 p.m. my husband, our dog Midnight and I headed out to the Taste of the Danforth.

Yeah!

It was hot on Sunday, but not quite as hot as they’d been predicting. Only 27 Celsius or so – but with very high humidity … so by the time we got to the street festival it felt like 37 Celsius or so (98 F)! Hot! When it’s that humid out you just feel sluggish moving around in the heat … yeah, so why not go out into a huge crowd where it was likely even hotter? LOL

We lucked out and got a parking spot near the start of the street festival, so within minutes we were able to walk to the closed off street festival.

The air was hazy – partly due to the humid weather and partly due to all the open grills cooking up Souvlaki and other delectable food items! Oh and it was crowded! News reports estimated that approximately 1.4 million people attended the festival from Friday evening until it’s close at 8 pm Sunday.

Here’s a photo of the crowd:

The picture doesn’t really show how crowded it was … basically think about a four lane street crowded with people for several blocks (maybe 2 miles or 5 km of people along the street?), then you’ll get the idea.

As you can see from the picture above there were food stands, amusement rides like a big Ferris wheel, a fun slide, a crazy house ride and more. There was also a rock climbing wall, beer tents, and a few bandstands where Greek and other multicultural bands entertained the crowds.

Fun stuff!

Chris and I and our dog walked about half the street festival as we tried to find food that we wanted to buy. We ended up getting Gyros, Spanokopita (spinach pies in Filo pastry) and several spicy vegetable Samosas. Everyone we passed looked hot and sweaty due to the heat! I’m sure, despite the food that people lost weight as they walked around! I doubt anyone there needed Solo Slim that day! Not me anyway! I was soaked!

Oh and as I waited off to the side with the dog as Chris bought food for us at various vendors I must have stood in a stream of smoke from the grills. When I got home all I could smell was smoke!

I would have hopped in the shower pretty much as soon as we got home, but as it turned out the biggest electrical storm of the summer started up just after we returned home.

I wished I’d thought to take pictures of the lightening! We spent two hours watching the storm overhead. Big thunder and tons of lightening! There was sheet lightening – cloud to cloud, and big solid strikes that looked like the lightening was hitting just behind one of the houses across the street.

I’m surprised that 1. we didn’t lose power and 2. that no big trees in our immediate area came down either from the wind or a lightening hit.

So anyway … I ended up smelling very smokey for a few extra hours – until I felt that it was safe to get in the shower!

Anyone else in the Toronto area go to the Taste of the Danforth this weekend? How did you like it?