Places to Go (Vacation) - Road trip to Canada, Part 5 - Toronto Islands & CN Tower

For our second full day in Toronto, we took the ferry to the lush, green, beautiful, swan-loving, Toronto Islands. Upon arrival, a huge puppet and a man on stilts beckoned us over to a free kids' play. Pretty awesome. The kids loved it.



Then we walked on over to Centreville, the islands' amusement park, where we watched the children drive cars, go on mini-roller coasters, ring the bell on a boat (over and over again), and try out various other old-school carnival-type rides. We found the place crowded and overpriced, but luckily the beautiful setting and cool weather kept us all happy. The island also has beaches and paddleboats, but we never made it past the amusement park.



After the island, Dan, T, and P pedicabbed back to the hotel, while F and I decided to walk and chat for awhile. T is now a BIG FAN of pedicabs.



At night, we elevatored up to the top of the CN Tower. The glass floor fascinated P and me, but the rest of the family didn't even want to step on it. Exhausted, we finally called it a day.


The next day we visited ROM, lots of cool stuff there (including a wonderful children's area), but a near loss of pink sheet kept us from seeing most of it (luckily, pink sheet was found and is now safely home with us). Then we headed home as the sun sunk lower and lower in the sky.

Places to Go (Vacation) - Road trip to Canada, Part 4 - Toronto, Canada - Bus Tour & Castle

Um, Toronto is big. I knew this before visiting, but I still wasn't quite prepared for how big. And it is growing - almost every corner has a new high rise under construction. T couldn't have been happier. "look, a builder! there! look! look another one!" and on and on.

We spent our first full day in Toronto on a double decker bus tour, taking in views of the city while relaxing in the cool weather (compared to DC). Toronto has lots of cool stuff - a nude beach (though I have no desire to go to a nude beach, I like the idea of a city where nudists can exist in comfort), apparently the best sports bar in North America (we didn't get a chance to visit), tons of great shopping (yup, missed out on that too). And did I mention it wasn't 100+ degrees there?

On the bus tour we learned that Canadians are quite proud of winning the war of 1812 and almost burning down the White House (they only singed it and we white washed over the damage, hence its name). We also learned that fires in Toronto don't go well, so landmarks are scarce. And we sat in traffic a lot, because cars move slowly in Toronto.



We exited the bus to tour Casa Loma, a real life castle. Exciting. Unfortunately, the man who built this architectural wonderland in the early 1900s went bankrupt soon after construction ended, so he only lived in his dream house for a few months. Sad. Now the city owns it. We checked out the fabulous gardens then headed inside before the rain started. Sort of creepy/sort of cool to wander around a castle in a thunderstorm, especially the dank, drippy basement passageways.



We tried to wait out the storm, but eventually castle life bored us, so we ran in the rain to catch the bus back to our hotel. T fell asleep on the ride back. And everyone on the bus kept pointing at him and smiling. There is something truly wonderful about a slumbering 3 year old.

Places to Go (Vacation) - Road trip to Canada, Part 3 -Niagara Falls (the Canadian Side) & Our Arrival in Toronto

(I love that you can see the CROWDS! reflected in T's sunglasses).

It feels somehow unamerican to say that I didn't enjoy Niagara Falls (even though we visited the Canadian side) and I didn't exactly hate it (how can you hate a waterfall?) but the whole experience overwhelmed me. I expected crowds, I really did, but I didn't expect CROWDS!! - despite the fact that a 1.5 km walk exists next to the falls, almost every spot was occupied. We had to wait behind people just to see the overlook. Plus, huge, skinny hotels fill the skyline, looming behind you - ready to attack (or fall) at any moment. Canada tries to make their side pretty - lots of gardens and green space, but still everywhere you look a tourist attraction beckons - Clifton Hill, Bird Kindgom, casinos, kids' games, etc. Or unbeckons. Or makes you want to run and hide from it all. Sort of like Disneyworld without Disney.

Anyways, I was determined that our family would persevere. We would get through this and experience the falls, really experience them. Originally I had hoped on a Maid of the Mist cruise, but we parked far away and the thought of battling miles worth of crowds wore us down. So we settled for the Journey Behind the Falls (okay, I also fell for the nonexistent line). Turns out there was a line, a long line. They just snake it out of eyesight. Tricky.

Oh well, we all really enjoyed the yellow ponchos (seriously, once the kids got a free poncho, they smiled like it was Xmas) and the view really did impress (maybe not worth $40, but why dwell on details). As soon as our tour ended in yet another gift shop, we were over it all. So we ran back to the minivan and headed for Toronto. Glad to have checked one more thing off the never ending bucket list that exists in my head.



So we bought the green screen picture, I'm sort of addicted to them lately as I'm never in any other family photos.



Upon arrival in Toronto, I sat in the wonderful air-conditioned luxury of our hotel room (the Marriot Residence Inn), watching the Olympics and enjoying the peace, but after the kids started running laps around the room Dan convinced me to journey outside for awhile. We found a wonderful square where the kids jumped, ran, and chased pigeons for over an hour. Happiness.

NEXT STOP - MORE TORONTO!!