Photo Credits: Sajal Mohsin, The Mike Photographer
COVID-19 friendly fall activities that are safe and fun!
Demetra Nikolakakis, The Mike Contributor
With school in full swing and assignments piling up, it’s important to take time to destress! Going on dates, whether romantic or with friends, can be one of the best ways to relax, but dates that are safe and fun can be difficult to plan given the current situation. For your next date, you might want to try one of the following ideas:
Visit your local park
Free, beautiful, and relatively safe, a trip to the park is one of the best fall dates! The leaves have started changing colours so there’s plenty of stunning scenery and the weather is still warm enough that you can enjoy being outside. You might even want to pack some food to have a picnic! Also, since there are hundreds of parks in Toronto, you’ll always have somewhere to explore. Never been to High Park or the Scarborough Bluffs? As long as you have a safe way to get there, now’s your chance to visit! Of course, if you don’t have a safe way to get around the city, your local parks are still a great date spot. Regardless of which park you choose, you’ll probably want to go sooner rather than later so it isn’t too chilly!
Explore the city
If you do have a safe way to get around Toronto, why not explore the city? Toronto has lots of unique neighbourhoods, from the Annex to Kensington Market to Bloor West Village! Of course, it’s best to pick an area with lots to do outdoors or beautiful buildings to admire – for example, the Distillery District is always stunning to walk through. As a bonus, beautiful scenery can make for a really fun impromptu photoshoot.
With that being said, try to stay in Toronto, as visiting other regions can spread COVID-19. However, as long as you and your date stay local and follow COVID-19 guidelines, visiting a neighbourhood that you’ve never been to can be a great way to discover something new about the city!
Bake together
With the temperature dropping, baking together can be the perfect cozy date! On top of spending time with someone you care about, you’ll have a great study snack for the next few days! Of course, depending on your situation (i.e. you live together or are in the same bubble) you could bake together in person. However, with the help of a zoom call, you can also have a virtual bake date (and double the goodies!) Depending on your cooking skills, you can buy the same box mix/pre-made dough, or you could both try to follow the same recipe from scratch. You can even compete to see whose goodies turn out better! Not-so-pro tip: if you aren’t too confident in your baking skills, try using recipes with hundreds of great reviews — they’re usually fool-proof and taste great!
Movie night
A quarantine classic, virtual movie date nights can be the perfect way to unwind with your favourite people! Extensions like Teleparty (formerly Netflix Party) allow you and your friends to sync playback across Netflix, HBO, Disney Plus, or Hulu while displaying a little chat box on the side of the screen. If you’d rather see each other’s faces, you can minimize the chat box and video chat with each other! If you want to really go all out, you can even order the same food from Uber Eats, making it feel like you’re more together.
For an in person variation, you could look into drive-in theatres! While most cars aren’t large enough for social distancing, you could always park close to each other and roll down your windows (while staying six feet apart). Alternatively, you could call each other from your cars so you don’t have to yell but can still see each other’s faces safely!
