Toronto 2007
9 March: Chicago to Toronto
Early start, and I mean early like getting up at 4am. I made tea, put in a thermos, and we loaded the car. On our way by 5.30am. It was still dark. Saw the sunrise while on the road.
Stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel where I had peach pancakes and sausages with cranberry juice. Very nice. 2 hours later and we stopped for another break to fill up the truck and stretch our legs.
We kept looking out for signs to Canada and were disappointed when they were so obscure. There were directions to other places, and Canada was included on the list. Didn’t have problems crossing, the immigration officer asked the standard questions and we were soon on our way.
Lunch was quick at Wendy’s. First time we spent CAD, hee hee. There was a time change to Eastern time and we were at the apartment by 5pm. Met up with the others, made introductions and explored the apartment. It was a 3 bedroom place with large living room, dining room and kitchen. Everything was there, clean and functional. The apartment block itself looked like council housing but it was fine inside. Dinner at a place called Sushi 2 Go down the road. Then we retired to our apartment and the 5 of us played on our own computers. ha!
10 March: Toronto
We called a taxi to take us downtown this morning instead of driving. First, it seems that parking is expensive in town and second because we may want to go drinking and it sucks to have to designate a designated driver. The first reason was bogus, cos we could have parked in a carpark for a flat fee of CAD5. The second reason turned out the be the right one because we did some drinking alright!
We started at Kensington Market, which when I was reading up about Toronto I thought was indoors, like Sydney’s Paddington Market. But no, it was just a bunch of shops on two cross streets. Interesting shops but we had no need for fruits, breads and cheeses. Here’s an interesting pic of a couple of mooses on someone’s balcony.
Lunch was dim sum at Chinatown, right next to Kensington Market. Not bad, we had several beers while I fretted over what to order. Then another taxi to Church Street and visited an Irish pub where we had a “big boy” of beer — it’s larger than a jug, more like an ice bucket.
Didn’t stay out for dinner. Instead, got take-out Italian and drinks from the supermarket. For some reason I’m incredibly tired. Ahem. May be it was the beer.
Toronto is interesting but not as interesting as I expected. A little dilapidated in places and many shops are not open. Those that are, are nothing like Camden or the Village, no bohemian feel at all. I guess Toronto isn’t a very touristy city … more of a starting point for other places. It’s actually what people picture New York to be like, no wonder so many films and tv programs are made there.
11 March: Niagara-on-the-lake and Niagara Falls
The clocks turned forward overnight so we lost an hour, no matter because I went to bed early. Breakfast of healthy cereal that we bought at the supermarket yesterday.
We left at 10.30am-ish, and after a short detour (um, I got us lost blush) we reached Niagara-on-the-lake. It’s a quaint town a little way north of the falls, a little off the beaten track for normal falls tourists. Except there are quite a few tourists there. Ha! The reason we went there was because we wanted to have lunch at the Angel Inn which serves “authentic” British food. I had steak and kidney pie and the others had fish and chips or shepherd’s pie (should be cottage pie cos it was minced beef) and we all had different varieties of beer.
Walking around the town afterwards was nice. Small town, historical shops, good sunny day. Walked down to the lake, still with floating ice. Picture perfect.
The drive to Niagara Falls was short. It was very different from both the town and the image I had of “Niagara Falls”. The falls themselves were very impressive and it was worth spending lots of time at. Part of the river and the falls themselves were frozen over and the sight was awe-inspiring. The chunks of ice looked so small, but actually remembering photos of the boats going out it was deceptive. We started out at the American Falls, it’s the US opposite us. The smaller falls in the second pic is the Bridal Veil Falls.
Look carefully at the birds and then see how large the ice sheet was. Oh, and then the wind started blowing the mist from the Horseshoe Falls inland and several rainbows formed. Walked all the way to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. There was an interesting ice formation that made it look even greater.
After taking in the magnificent falls, time to turn to the town itself. But what disappointed me were the nearby streets full of tacky amusement shops — Guinness Book of Records, Haunted House show, Ferris wheel, Ripley’s etc etc. Cheapens the experience, but I guess not surprising.
Had dinner at a steak place, most of us had the prime rib with 2 veg. CAD14.99, not bad. We had more fun at the apartment with beer and conversation. Was a memorable day, yep.
12 March: back in Toronto
First order of the day was to go to the mall to get new shoes for me — my boots fell apart and it was driving the others mad. Not many choice but I got Nike hiking boots for around CAD62. They were giving out freebies at Sears which turned out to be a lens cloth, of course it was a selling point for other goods, in this case it’s a “Mr Sticky” floor mop. We took the lens cloth but passed on the mop.
With new shoes I was off! Heehee. We drove the long way into town via the cross streets (as opposed to the Expressway) to the CN Tower. CAD21 entrance to the observation tower and the glass floor. The observation deck was fairly usual — great views of the city, shops and stuff. The glass floor was one floor down and part of the floor was…glass. It gets pretty scary to stand on two pieces of double-glazed glass and look down to the ground level 300m down. It was an interesting experience though.
We were quite tired and went back to the apartment early. Dinner was Chinese from a nearby takeaway, sigh.
Oh, the apartment. We found it on the internet — a short stay 3 bedroom. Good for 5 people. Has a living room, dining room and even a small breakfast table in the kitchen. Better than staying in a hotel, even though there is no daily service. it’s a little outside of town, a car is needed. The furnishings aren’t the tip of style but they’re functional and not broken.
13 March: the Drive
Big driving day today, from Toronto to Chicago. We woke up early, finished off the food and was off at 6am. It was still dark outside. Stopped at a Country Marketplace (?) for breakfast — it was a buffet and I had sausages, scrambled eggs, salad, pancakes and some dessert which seemed like cobbler. I was pretty tired, and not trusting their tea, I had the coffee with lots of cream. They laughed at me, cos I made a face after my first sip — it got better after that. Views along the road was pretty.
Crossing the border took a little time, there was a long queue at the bridge connecting the US and Canada. Compared with going into Canada when we only had one car in front of us on the booths, this was a long 20-25min wait. The immigration officer asked the standard questions and we were on our way soon. It got hot! The sun was out, no clouds and we had to put the air-con on.
More driving later and we had a late lunch at Cracker Barrel — the same one as Friday when we drove up. I had their sampler combo of meatloaf, chicken & dumplings and ham. Their main dishes come with a choice of 3 vegs so I had corn, turnip greens (which is like any sort of greens) and fried apple. And on top of it, there were American biscuits (like scones but much fluffier) and a corn muffin. All very yummy and fattening. Of course the diet coke was refillable. I was starving and finished off a lot of it. Afterwards bought some old fashioned candy at the store.
Traffic around Chicago got suddenly crazy, apparently several highways become one strip. There was also construction. I was glad we got to the house at about 4pm. There was a time change, so it was 5pm Toronto time. Total driving time was 8-9 hours. Oh, here’s the ubiquitous pic of the rental car.
As expected the welcome was warm! We had pizza and I went to bed quite late because I did laundry. Now I can add another country to my visited countries map.
