Christmas in August?

A few years ago, I decided that we all had too much stuff.  To avoid accumulating even more unnecessary stuff, I started gifting experiences.  For Christmas last year, hoping that Covid was going to be but a distant memory, I gifted the kids a trip to Toronto.   Now, they've been to Toronto before and seen all the major tourist attractions during various visits, but we always stay with my brother outside the city and go in for the activity for this visit and then back to their place.  We have never stayed and explored Toronto. 

Miraculously, our flight not only departed but landed and arrived at the gate 6 minutes ahead of schedule!  For those unaware, Pearson has been rated the worst airport in the world for delayed and canceled flights for the past few months.  Once we landed, we navigated our way over to Terminal 3 to catch the UP Express train to downtown and from Union Station, managed to catch the subway to our hotel (albeit not quickly or smoothly enough for Duncan).  After dropping our bags in the luggage room of our hotel, we were off.

After grabbing some breakfast at The Croissant Tree, we headed back to the subway and found our way to Yorkdale mall.  We shopped for a couple of hours until it was time to attend the reason for us being at Yorkdale in the first place - the Friends Experience!

Along with too many others, we got to sit on the couch in front of the iconic fountain,

Pivot Ross' sofa up the stairs,

Wear all of Chandler's clothes a la Joey,

And hang out in Chandler and Joey's apartment. 

Of course we also got to help in Monica's kitchen,

Knock on the famed purple door,

And write on Chandler and Joey's Etch-a-Sketch.

But no visit to our beloved Friends would be complete without a rousing rendition of Smelly Cat

Or a visit to Central Perk.

After saying goodbye to our Friends, we headed to The Cheesecake Factory to meet Chris and Renee for dinner.  We managed to score free desserts because apparently we were waiting longer for our food than our server thought we should. 

Now it was time to actually check in to our hotel, The Anndore house, before heading to the Princess of Wales Theatre to see & Juliet.  What a fantastic show!  It was a reimagining of Romeo & Juliet; what would happen if Juliet didn't die?  It was laugh out loud funny, with bright, colourful sets and full of pop hits, like Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and even some Bon Jovi.  At times, I wasn't sure if I was enjoying the show or watching the kids smiling and laughing more.  Duncan actually started texting his friends about it after the show and now they want to see it too.  I highly recommend it (but it ends it's run Sunday before heading to Broadway).  Thanks for telling us about it, Mom!

We then dropped the kids off at the hotel before we headed for a drink at The Distillery District.   It was quiet but the company and conversation were good.  After a 23 hour day (we were up at 3am to catch our flight), it's time for bed...