I admit, appreciating Toronto takes effort. The city is still working on its identity — and, frankly, visitors may wonder what is so great about Toronto in the first place. As a native, I can state with confidence that what makes Toronto stand out from other major cities around the world is its multicultural atmosphere. People from over fifty nations now call Toronto home, and while they don’t always agree or get along, they manage to put their differences aside and civil strife is very rare.

Toronto is Canada’s largest city and the most important hub for financial services and tourism. The downtown core is compact and can be navigated on foot, although I would recommend setting aside half a day to walk around. There is the Eaton Centre, Toronto’s largest mall. Nathan Phillips Square is next door, along with the twin buildings of City Hall. I’ve always thought Kensington Market is Toronto’s hippest neighborhood. The coffee bars, restaurants, and quirky shops attract a younger crowd, particularly university students. This area is most lively during the summer months. In fact, Toronto is best visited from May until October.

Winter doesn’t put me off at all. In November and early December, Toronto has a festive vibe as residents prepare for Christmas. I loved to skate when I was a kid and although I don’t do much of it now, I can always go down to the rink at either Greenwood Park or outside Ryerson University if I’m in the mood to glide on the ice.

What’s Toronto’s best attraction? The CN Tower gets my vote, and I don’t say that because I live here. It has been a while since I’ve gone up and enjoyed the view of the city from the Skypod, almost 1,500 feet above the ground. The EdgeWalk goes outside, around the rim of the pod. Maybe 2016 will be the year I finally do that!

Toronto isn’t London, New York, or Tokyo, and it will never be like any of those cities. I don’t think Toronto has to be, in any case. Myhome town has its good points, and one of them is that it’s still remarkably safe to walk around at night. That’s a bonus during the summer!

Because it’s the seat of the United States of America, Washington, D.C. boasts some of the finest museums and monuments in the nation. I got one of the richest history lessons of my life in the relatively short time I spent in the city. There was also the awareness of being in the presence of incredibly powerful individuals: The White House, the Pentagon, embassies from most of the world’s nations, and Capitol Hill were all within a short distance of each other. I found it all quite dizzying. The funny thing is Washington, D.C. didn’t have that big city feeling I experienced in other places; in fact, it felt rather small and provincial. Maybe it was because there weren’t any big office towers.

The Lincoln Memorial was the first on my “to see” list. No other American President has been memorialized in this fashion. At the time of my visit I didn’t know much about “Honest Abe,” which was the nickname Lincoln got when he worked as a store clerk in New Salem, Illinois. As the story went, he walked three miles to a customer’s home to return money he collected by mistake. A massive sculpture of Lincoln faces east and his steady gaze is locked on the long reflecting pool. As I gazed at the statue, I wondered how U.S. history might have changed if Lincoln had stayed home on April 14^th, 1865. The “what-ifs” abound to this day.

I moved on to another monument close by, one that’s much darker in color and represents a deep scar on the American psyche, which hasn’t fully healed. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is made of shiny, black granite and is ten feet high at the centermost point. The mood changed – it wasn’t excitement but something more akin to mournful, grave, and humorless. The Vietnam Memorial is inscribed with soldiers’ names – more than 50,000 of them, and locating a specific one can be daunting because they’re engraved by date of casualty and not in alphabetical order. Again, I didn’t know much about the Vietnam War but I learned a lot more about it that day. For Canadians, the Vietnam War doesn’t stir up any discussions or memories. Americans, however, remain sharply divided.

In July of last year I decided to fly down to the Big Apple for a short visit. I considered myself to be a seasoned traveler but felt silly because I had journeyed to Asia, South America, Australia, and various points throughout Europe, but New York was a destination without a check mark. I’m glad I added America’s largest city to my list of “have been” places. It took an hour to fly from Toronto’s Pearson Airport to New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Before I knew it I had the key to my hotel room in central Manhattan, and was planning what to see for the next three days.

The Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel on Lexington Avenue is a twenty minute walk from Times Square, which I had seen so many times in movies and television shows but not up close. This crossroads is the most visited tourist attraction on the planet, and there was scarcely a minute to stand still and snap some photos because the crowds didn’t allow it. Eventually, I did find a nice corner to get some good pictures. It was a great start to my visit!

Next, I walked down 7^th Avenue then along 42^nd Street to Bryant Park. I sat there for a while; feeling pleased with myself as I drank some coffee and checked my photos. Deciding to wrap things up a bit early, I went back to the hotel. The next afternoon I went up to Columbus Circle and zigzagged in Central Park. This is the best place in New York to people watch while sitting in the cool shade under the trees. I wanted to see the American Museum of Natural History at Central Park West and 79^th Street, because it’s such a famous spot like Times Square. Alas, the admission line was too long (not unusual in a city like New York).

I spent the third day at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the main point of entry for millions of immigrants to the United States from 1892 until 1954. The very first immigrant to be processed here was Annie Moore, from Country Cork, Ireland. This was my favorite part of my trip to New York – there’s so much history and it’s fascinating!