Well, we set off on Wednesday morning around 7:15 am. We stopped once for breakfast, and another time for gas (note to self: purchase petro in the USA) just over the border in Canada. We arrived in Toronto at about 1:30 pm, with the WRONG mapquest directions. So, after stopping for directions, and calling the hotel once we got in the city. We arrived at the hotel at 2:50. It was beautiful!!! We drove in on Lakeshore drive, it reminded me of Lakeshore drive in Chicago. Ontario Place is on Lakeshore, so I had to wave as we went past.
After we checked in, we hit the streets. I imagine that downtown Toronto is a lot like Manhattan, with skinnier sidewalks. We didn't have a specific destination, just wanted to check things out. We found the Hockey Hall of Fame, which was our destination for Thursday. It is an old building and the only way to get to it is from the underground tunnels. Did I mention that the entire city is connected underground? Not only by the subway, but there are concourse shopping centers/food courts/banks, etc ...... It reminded me of an airport concourse, except that it's all underground. I imagine it's nice in the winter time!!!
We had lunch at Shopsy's. http://www.shopsys.ca/ I had to try the burger that is a Food Network award winner in the hamburger cook off. It was ground beef mixed with lamb and special spices. I have to say I much prefer an ALL beef burger. Nearly EVERY restaurant downtown had an outside patio, and after 5 pm, they were always full of people. Shopsy's after 5, was biker haven (not the greasy scarey kind)!!!! I'd not seen so many motorcycles parked along a city street except in the movies.
We walked around the city, above and below until almost dinner. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. http://www.oldspaghettifactory.ca/ It was amazing!!! I had the goatcheese agnolotti (?). Then after dinner and a little rest at the hotel, we hit the streets again. We were trying to find the old Maple Leaf Gardens. We walked and walked and decided we would check the map and try again on Thursday. We walked one block over from the mainstream and headed back to Novotel Hotel, saw a few bums along the way and walked faster.
We awoke early on Thursday. Went to go find breakfast.... we found http://www.sunsetgrill.ca/ We had breakfast and headed further north to the Maple Leaf Gardens. We found it, and can you believe we'd turned back the night before only a couple blocks away???? Go figure ...... It is considered a landmark now, and is a very old building, built in 1931. We will find the new Air Canada Center later.
Dale and I ventured down to St. Lawrence Market while Heather took a rest at the hotel ... Mom, this was awesome!!!!! It was all enclosed, and warm, but was pretty cool!!! We also found St. Michael's Cathedral. There were two other churches along this street, appropriately named Church Street. I had to take pictures of all of them. http://www.stmichaelscathedral.com/
Then we headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was very cool, especially with the Wings winning the Stanley cup this season. It was a bit smaller than we expected and we had to wonder where they will put new stuff. You can see it in about 2 hours. The upstairs hall, where they keep the Stanley cup, was full of 16 other major trophy's, of which 1/2 were won by Wings players this season. It seems as if nearly the other 1/2 were won by Alex Ovechkin, from Washington. His story is pretty cool, if you're ever interested. His mother is his agent and negotiated his contract.
After the hall, we had lunch at http://www.bottomlinerestaurant.com/ . It was a bit upscale, but the food was delicious!!!
After some more exploration in the underground, we were just amazed, we headed to the CN Tower, by way of the Air Canada Center. The http://www.cntower.ca/portal/ is the tallest building in the world. We decided the expense was worth a trip part way up to view the city, money well spent!!! The pictures are a little crazy, as the flash left a glare in them. I suppose we could have turned it off, but we didn't. The view was amazing!!!! Following the tower, we walked a little more in search of a take out pizza place!!! Went back to the hotel and crashed.
Friday morning, up at at 'em early again. Checked out of the hotel, and got directions to Niagara Falls. It was pouring rain the whole 131 km drive from the hotel to the falls. Just as we were pulling into the parking lot, the rain stopped. (Thanks, Dad) We saw a Cardinal in the parking lot, and headed down to the walk along the falls. It is pretty much as I remember it.... except there are high rise hotels and a casino, maybe they were there and I just didn't pay attention. We walked along the falls, and got drenched, as it was fairly windy. Got some great photos, and even a video. Waved at New York, and looked at ALL the traffic on the bridge. We did a little shopping at Hard Rock Cafe and looked at all the pictures/guitars, etc.... all of the walls. That was pretty cool, too!
Then we headed for home. Found a nice restaurant in Brantford, ON (birthplace of Wayne Gretzky) to spend the remainder of our Canadian currency. It was delicious!!!!!
We arrived home at 8:30 pm last evening.
All in all a great and glorious 3 days...... the drive was easy, minus construction would have been perfect!!!
Highly recommend for the next Cronley get together!!!!!!!
Click the links for more pictures. The ones labeled "view" are from the CN Tower.
http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p99/maurapalmer/?action=view¤t=17ccaca4.pbw
http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p99/maurapalmer/?action=view¤t=a0426893.pbw
