O Canada...

We got back this evening from our week in Canada visiting Toronto and Niagara Falls. We had been to both in the past but it has been 10 or 11 years since the last visit so my girls didn't really remember either very much.

The trip was enjoyable and the time off work was very relaxing. The highlights weren't super high but I think that we all had a nice time. My oldest daughter, Gloria, just got back from a missions trip to Costa Rica a couple days before we went on this trip so she was tired at times and really wanted to be home. I think that my younger daughter, Monica, probably had more "fun" on the trip for this reason.

I will try to capture some of the highlights by day starting on Thursday 8/11:

Day 1 (The Drive There):

We drove from Aurora to Toronto via Indiana and Michigan. The thing that sticks out most in my mind from this day was that while we were in Canada on the way to Toronto we saw a truck pass over us on an overpass that had the name Flanagan on it. Monica thought that this was amusing and decided that it was a cool name and that she would start using it whenever she was upset. So for the rest of the trip anytime something went wrong Monica was quick to let out an "O Flanagan". I told her to add the O to make it sound more Irish.

Day 2 (Touristy Things in Toronto):

We stayed at a Residence Inn near the Toronto Airport for our 4 nights in Toronto. The rates were pretty good and I used some points from my business trips to get a couple free nights. On our first full day in Toronto we did a couple of touristy things. We went to the look out level of the CN Tower (this is on the 113th floor but you can also go up to the 147th floor for an extra charge). This was the world's tallest tower until about 4 years ago. The second thing that we did was a 90 minute ride on the Kajama (a 165-foot 3-masted schooner). This is probably the thing that I looked forward to the most on the trip but in the end I was a little disappointed as we really didn't "sail" very much though all of our sails were raised. Instead it seemed that a small motor which was used to get us out of the harbor and onto Lake Ontario was used for the full trip and took us out on pretty much a straight line into the Lake and then used to later bring us back on the same line. It wasn't a very windy day but there was some wind so it seemed like we could have done some real sailing but it just didn't happen on this day. Lunch was at a Middle Eastern restaurant near the CN Tower and was very good.






Day 3 (Ethnic Plunge in Toronto):

Our second day in Toronto was used to see more of the ethnic communities in this very diverse city. We got a family full day pass for the public transportation for $10 (a weekend deal) which we used for multiple subway rides and a trolley car ride near the end of the day. We spent a good amount of time at the Kensington Market which is a square mile that is full of outdoor shops and restaurants from all different cultures including Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Jamaican. We had lunch at a Korean restaurant but while leaving we learned that the restaurant had only "conditionally passed" a health inspection the day before we were there. We saw this on the outside glass door as we were leaving (after noticing some people walk away after reading this). It would have been nice if we had seen this on the way in. The food was good and no one got sick so we were pretty happy about that. :)

We also went to the Eaton Centre which is a large mall in downtown Toronto. The nice thing was that there was a subway stop connected to the mall which made it very convenient on our public transportation day.

Day 4 (Relaxing and Having Fun):

Our final day in Toronto was more about relaxing and having fun instead of trying to be a tourist. We started off by going bowling. However we discovered that the Canadians have two types of bowling - 10 pin which is the same as the US and 5 pin which is something very different. We decided to try something new and did the 5 pin bowling. The 5 pins are arranged in a V-shape with the front pin worth 5 points, the next 2 outside pins worth 3 points each and the back 2 corner pins worth 2 points each. The biggest difference however is the bowling ball which is maybe half the size of the normal ball and does not have finger holes. You also get 3 balls per frame instead of 2. The game was fun. We decided that we wanted to go see a movie after bowling so we decided that whoever won the second game of bowling would choose the movie (from two that we had picked out). Gloria and Ann tied with the best score in the first game with a 118. For the second game Gloria took the lead from the start and led the entire game going into the final frame. After her last ball she was leading Ann by 23 points. With this game you can actually get 45 points in a frame with 3 strikes so the game wasn't over yet but Gloria had already chosen the movie in her mind. Ann then threw a spare (got all 5 pins with 2 balls) and had one more ball with which she threw a strike. This gave her 30 points and she won the game. Monica and I had fun but we brought up the rear in both games. In the end Ann chose the same movie that Gloria wanted to see so it didn't matter who won but it was pretty fun how the game ended.

After the bowling we went and saw Captain America in an afternoon matinee. After the movie we did some shopping at a couple of malls in the outskirts of Toronto and had a really nice day.

Day 5 (Niagara Falls at Night):

On Day 5 we slept in and then checked out of our hotel and made the hour and half drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls (Canadian side). In Niagara Falls we stayed at a small motel that had good reviews on the internet. It wasn't anything fancy but it served its purpose. We couldn't check in until 3:00 so we decided to drive to the falls to get our first look on this trip. We drove through the downtown area of Niagara Falls which was very busy with pedestrians with lots of shops, restaurants and tourist attractions. We drove by the falls and then did some shopping. After checking into our hotel and eating dinner we went back to the falls area and walked close to the falls so that we could see the falls after dark when they were lit up with different colored lights. It was very nice.

Day 6 (Getting Wet under the Falls):

For our last day in Niagara we took the Maid of the Mist boat ride below the falls. We all got ponchos to wear and got pretty wet on this boat ride. This was a lot of fun and is a neat way to see the falls up close. After the boat ride we did more walking to go to the top of the falls and then later back to where our car was parked in the downtown area to do our final shopping on the trip.





Day 7 (Long Drive Home):

We got up early on Wednesday morning and loaded the van and made the long drive back to Aurora. We weren't sure how long it would take to cross back into the states. It ended up being around 45 min or so in the line of cars but once we got to the border we were through in about a minute.