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And we thought we'd be taking it easy in Toronto...

July 7th - Toronto

Ready to take on downtown Toronto!

After driving all night, we were anxious to take it easy and get some sleep. But first, we had to try out the best fish 'n' chips in Toronto. Mom's Canadian cousins, Ross & Colleen, took us to a local place where we really did have some exceptionally good fish 'n' chips and then treated us to some wonderful homemade cakes at their house. It was a great start to our stay.

But we were exhausted, so we headed back to Ken & Jeanne's house (another of Mom's cousins) and got to bed early and slept in late. The next day, we really did take it easy. We slept in late... well, 7:30 or so... I had planned on sleeping in (or at least laying in bed for awhile), but Benji (Ken & Jeanne's poodle) decided that I needed to wake up so he jumped on the bed and insisted I get up. We spent most of the day visiting and eating (we did a lot of eating in Toronto), and the girls got in their first swim of the trip at LeAnne's house (Ken & Jeanne's daughter). That evening we went to dinner at a wonderful chinese buffet restaurant called The Mandarin. They offered something for everyone (Laura was especially fond of the french fries and cantelope), and even Tripper got to go out for the evening.

On Saturday, we had originally planned on going with Mom and Dad to the boat show (the original purpose of this trip), but Ken suggested we might better enjoy a trip downtown. LeAnne looked up the events going on in town (since Ken & Jeanne don't have Internet access... I have to keep harrassing them about that), and so Janet, the girls and I packed up a lunch and headed for the GO train (Toronto's commuter train system).

We had to laugh about our almost auspicious start... We had been told that when looking for our train, we should ignore the train number and pay attention to the time -- the GO trains were very punctual. So, since we were waiting for the 9 o'clock train, we didn't board the train that arrived at 8:50... that couldn't be our train... it wasn't 9:00. What we didn't consider was that the 9 o'clock train didn't arrive at 9:00 -- it left at 9:00. Fortunately, since everyone else was boarding this train, we decided to ask someone. Sure enough, this was the 9 o'clock train, so we got on board and found a group of 4 seats.

We were able to see a lot of downtown Toronto during our trip... after getting off the train at Union Station, we headed straight for the CN building and the Toronto Expos stadium, the SkyDome. If you're not familiar with the CN building, it's similar to Seattle's Space Needle, except it's much taller... much, much taller. Needless to say, we didn't go up... but we got lots of shots from the ground.

We then "put on our walking shoes" and headed to Yonge street. LeAnne had found out about some festival going on, so we decided to check it out. We saw a couple of guys building a sand sculpture of a castle and knight, and we were entertained by a local bluegrass band. The festival was going on just outside of Eaten Center (a huge mall), so we decided to do some shopping (we had to twist the girls arms to go in there... not!).

On the other side of Eaten Center, there was an art festival going on, so we decided to check it out. There was a lot of exceptional talent on display, but the girls were getting tired, so we decided to head on back to the GO train. Toronto is especially kind to their workforce -- they have underground walkways all along the downtown area so that people don't have to face the elements getting to and from work. We took advantage of the underground and used it to get back to Union Station out of the sun. First, though, we popped up in the Royal Hotel to look at the gorgeous lobby. Since we were now experience GO train riders, we didn't have any problem getting on the right train to take us back to Ken & Jeanne's. We were exhausted by the time we got back, but felt we got to see a lot and that it was well worth it.

Of course, the kids weren't too tired to appreciate a good swim, so we headed over to Gordon & Cathy's (more cousins of Mom's) and dropped off the girls while we did some shopping. That afternoon, we gave Jeanne a picture frame with a picture of Benji (the dog) greeting Tripper at the door. Jeanne loved the picture, but it made us wonder where Tripper was. It was only then that we discovered that we had left him at The Mandarin restaurant the previous night. But it turned out to be OK... he'd spent the evening eating mu-shoo pork and playing with the fishies. The folks at The Mandarin had taken good care of him.

The main event for our last day in Toronto was a barbeque over at Ross & Colleen's in the early evening, so we spent most of the day packing and shopping for supplies. The girls spent most of the morning over at Gordon & Kathy's swimming, while the rest of us prepared for the next day (Mom & Dad were flying home and we were heading on towards Boston). The evening at Ross & Colleen's was terrific -- we met a lot of their friends and had some amazing food. But in the end, we had to say our goodbyes and head back to Ken & Jeanne's knowing we'd be getting up early.

We had a wonderful time in Toronto and couldn't have felt more welcomed by our Canadian family and friends. We wished we could have stayed longer and seen more, but we had to move on. We sure do hope, however, that we get some Canadian visitors down in Florida, eh!

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