Did We Do It?

Oh yes, we did.  We started out about 15 minutes later than scheduled but managed to do everything on the itinerary, pick up our bags and be en route to Union Station to catch the UP Express back to the airport by 5 pm.  We then made it through the chaotic check-in, bag check and security screening processes and are sitting at the gate awaiting our flight.   As of right now, it is still forecasting an on time departure. 

We had hoped to pop by a small grocer we had seen a few days ago to grab some muffins to eat before we headed out this morning.   I think it must have been located at the Church St end of our street as opposed to the Yonge Street end as we never did find it last night.  Instead, we made a quick stop at McDonald's on the way to the subway to begin our adventures. 

Today, we started off with a visit to Allan Gardens.   It is such a beautiful building, reminding me of the Palmenhaus in Vienna.  It was under construction but still housed some beautiful plants, flowers and even some koi and turtles.

We then headed to the Annex to visit the Bata Shoe Museum.  The history of footwear styles and viewing samples of each was fascinating in itself.   Even more profound was the social commentary of footwear, a history I honestly hadn't considered before.   

Those heels actually held fish (now plastic but likely real at one time or another).

The only ones large enough for Duncan were bright red stilettos.

Now feeling sufficiently peckish, we headed to Bloor West Village to lunch at ShibaPoke, a Shiba Inu themed restaurant.   Unfortunately, it was a tiny place that did mainly takeout business so we had to take our deliciously cute lunches to a nearby park.

That's my actual lunch!

Danica actually trying the seaweed salad after saying she had no idea what it was.

You would think dog-themed food would be the most unique thing we could find, but you would be mistaken.   In Koreatown, we found the Poop Cafe.  You wouldn't think there would be a market for such things, but it was so busy we had to wait a few minutes for a table and could only get the one with regular bench seats instead of toilets.

Danica's Nutella Bingsu was served in a toilet and topped with a poop chocolate. 

Duncan decided to try the Nutella Waffle and strawberry soda.

I got the over the top milkshake that I couldn't finish, even after pawning the muffin and donut off on Duncan.

Our water was served in urinals.

It was a fun place to see once but I am not sure I would rush back.  They own a Unicorn Cafe too; maybe that would be our next visit.

Now we're just crossing our fingers that our flight leaves relatively on time and that the bags we ended up checking (somehow for free...maybe kids don't pay for bags?) don't get themselves onto a different flight without us.

It was a quick trip, but man it was busy.  Highlights for Danica - spending time with Duncan and I (awe, brought tears to my eyes), the shows, and dinner at Storm Crow Manor.  Duncan was snoozing on the train when I asked Danica and is currently off trying to fill his hollow leg...

Until next time, Toronto...

Shop 'Til You Drop and Even Then, Don't Stop

In order to get Duncan out of bed at a decent hour this morning, we had to promise him a trip to the Eaton Centre. But first, Danica was sad she missed out on crepes yesterday at the St. Lawrence Market so we decided we should visit Yorkville Crepes for some pre-shopping fuel.  

No one who knows Danica would be at all surprised to learn that she chose Nutella crepes with chocolate Hazelnut ice cream.  Yes, it was breakfast but we're on vacation!  Duncan chose the Charly, which was filled with cream cheese, cinnamon, and strawberries.   I ordered La Canadienne which had scrambled eggs, bacon and brie in it with a drizzle of maple syrup on top.  

Once we reached the Eaton Centre, Duncan wandered off to shop on his own while Danica and I shopped together.   In basically the first store she went into, she excitedly purchased a pair of roller skates.  She then had to carry them through the mall for the next few hours.  She didn't complain though.

Someone should have warned us that Alicia Keys was doing something in the mall today though because that caused a bit of crowded chaos.

When we met back up with Duncan at the agreed upon time, Danica and I decided we were shopped out but Duncan wanted to shop some more.  We left him to explore more shops on Yonge Street while Danica and I visited Little Canada.  It was actually quite detailed and impressive.  

Little Toronto

Little Niagara

Little Ottawa

Little Quebec

Little Golden Horseshoe 

They're working on Little East Coast, Little Prairies, Little Rocky Mountains, and Little North.   It was actually quite cool to see them work.  Danica got 'littleized' but she didn't pay to get herself 3d printed and placed in one of the scenes.

By the time we returned to the world of the Giants, Duncan was also ready to wrap up the shopping spree.  Of course, his phone also died which meant he could no longer use apple pay to purchase things.  We all headed back to our hotel to drop our bags before heading out for dinner.

We decided to try a Korean grill restaurant so we could pay to cook our own food.  It was yummy but sorely lacking in veggies. 

We then checked out Nathan Phillips Square 

on our way to Sweet Jesus for ice cream.  

I was kind of excited because I remembered how good it was when Rebecca took me to a different location a few years back.  This shop was a bit sketchy though, with grumpy teens working and minimal items in stock.   

From there we walked to Graffiti Alley but I don't think we walked the entire length because there were some unsavory looking characters ahead of us.  

Back to our hotel we went so that I could creatively pack our suitcases.  Apparently Duncan forgot that we were flying with only carry-on though and purchased some skin care products larger than 3ml or whatever the restriction is so his bag needs to be checked.  Somehow I think we made it all fit though!

Let's see if we manage to see and do everything on tomorrow's agenda before we have to head to the airport.   Any bets?

Lessons Learned

We had a bit of a lazy start to today since we are traveling with a 16 year old who loves his sleep.  While he continued to snooze, Danica and I planned out our agenda for the day.

First Stop - St. Lawrence Market

Walking in, Duncan immediately said that this was what he expected Kensington Market to be like.  Right away, we noticed Paddington's to our right and since it claimed to have the best peameal sandwich in Toronto, we decided this would be breakfast, not that we had any idea what a peameal sandwich was.

Let's be honest, though.  Duncan doesn't like eggs and had no idea what peameal was so he had a hamburger.

Next Stop - The Distillery District 

Afterwards, we walked to the Distillery District.  It was a rather warm trek and we were planning on finding a place to have a beverage but then found ice cream instead.  Duncan and Danica both chose 'It's Chocolate. It's Hazelnut."  Instead of a chocolate flavour which is usually my go-to as well, I tried the 'Cajeta Swirled Goat Cheese' which was truly delectable.

We wandered a little more and stopped at Spirithouse for a beverage.   To be honest, we were trying to go to the Spirit of York Distillery but got a bit tricked.

This is where our lessons come in....

1)  Large Objects are MUCH, MUCH farther than they appear.  Since we could see the CN Tower, we thought it would be a quick little walk.   Maybe there was a shortcut, but we didn't take it.  An hour and a half or so later, mind you we stopped in a couple of shops en route, we decided to go into the Boston Pizza across the street because we were dying of thirst and a bit peckish.   I should mention that we did have a bottle of water with us but Danica somehow dropped it into a garden and it was irretrievable without jumping fences and climbing into bushes.

On the way, we stumbled across this fountain I had read about but didn't know that we would be able to find.

And we walked by The Hockey Hall of Fame which meant absolutely nothing to my non-sports-loving kids. 

Danica had a chat with Glenn Gould too.

This brings us to:

Lesson 2)  Know when the Blue Jays are playing and time your visits accordingly.   At the exact same time as we left Boston Pizza to cross the street to see the CN Tower, 3 billion Jays fans left Rogers Centre to walk the opposite direction.   The kids were a little overwhelmed by the volume of people.   It was literally a sea of blue.

This was the thinned out crowd.

I have to say that our decision to avoid Union Station and instead go to St. Andrew Station to catch the subway back to our hotel was a good one.  It was still crowded but no one was touching us and we could breathe and hold on (my standards are low).

For dinner, we met up with my friends Rebecca and Ryan at a fun, quirky restaurant/bar for geeks that was a short walk from our hotel.  It was so great to catch up with them (I don't think I had seen Ryan in 15 years or more).  The atmosphere was great, the drinks were fun and my food was pretty yummy too.  The kids also enjoyed rolling the dice to determine what their Dungeon burger would look like and what it would be named - Chaotic Good for Duncan and Chaotic Evil for Danica. 

For the record, the bartender forgot to make my drink glow so the server brought Rebecca and I glowy cubes after.

My Appa Korean Fried Chicken Burger

Another fabulous day in the books.

I almost forgot lesson 3.  Of course, it may not actually be a lesson since we're clearly doing something wrong.  I meant to ask Rebecca and Ryan tonight bit forgot.   We bought 2-trip TTC tickets.  When we go to enter the subway, we have been using the 'exact change/ticket/token only' line since we don't have a presto card to tap.  We can't find anywhere to put our tickets but the gates just open for us as we enter.  After buying our tickets today, I decided to check our other tickets and they still have 2 rides on them.  Essentially, we have been riding the TTC for free, except that I have purchased tickets.  I may skip on purchasing tickets tomorrow since we still have 4 rides each left.