Last Day in Toronto ...

The morning was off to a slow start as we were all worn out getting around. The original plan was to be on the 9:00ish tour bus to complete the tour we started on Monday, but that didn't happen. Might also be because Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and David Cook were all on the Good Morning America show this morning.

We made it to downtown Toronto around 9:30 a.m. instead. It was only fitting to end our entire last day in Toronto the way we started it -- spending it downtown finishing the 4 hour tour we started on Monday.

But before that, we had to find a post office so Pam could get some stamps. There was one near Union Station so we headed off in that direction. Found the post office and then found breakfast at Union Station. Pam and I found cinnamon rolls, while Melody and Tana tracked down McGriddles. It's a little strange to not have a McDonald's on every corner. It's all Tim Horton's and Wendys. Makes us wonder if Dave Thomas is Canadian. However, the answer to that question is that he is American. I totally just looked that up to see. Dorky, I know. However, if that question comes up on Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit, I'll know the answer.

We looked over the schedule for our tour and tried to figure out how to accomplish seeing the ROM, Casa Loma and the East/West Loop Tour. We caught the North/South bus over to the ROM. Going along the same stretch of the tour route we had already seen to get us to the Royal Ontario Museum. Along the way, we ran across the condos that we had seen on Monday with a young man sunbathing. This morning, there was a guy on one of the balconies looking out in his boxers. After waving back to him, he called his roommates out to the ledge with him. Funny way to start the morning, but can't complain about it. Tana attempted to get photos, but I don't think any of them turned out. Continuing along the way we saw many more popped collars here in Canada. Must be a new "trend." I don't recommend it boys. People are just so friendly up here. Then again, it doesn't help that Tana likes to wave to all the cute boys.

We arrived at the ROM and thanks to our city passes we were able to get in right away. Unfortunately, they made me check my camera bag into their coat check because they don't allow backpacks in there. Didn't so much like that aspect of the ROM. Melody wanted to see the Book of the Dead exhibit badly so we headed straight up to the third floor where the Ancient Egyptian items were being exhibited. The Ancient Egyptians were definitely intrigued and slightly obsessed with the afterlife. It was highly interesting and fascinating though. I might have to read up more on them sometime soon. Shortly after looking through the Egyptian exhibit, we went down to find the "bat cave." We took a wrong turn in the museum and ended up looking at these fake/stuffed animals that were set up in exhibits. Got to admit, those were very, very creepy. I shutter just thinking about it. We finally found the bat cave and enjoyed a walk through a fake cave featuring fake bats on the ceiling and some strobe lights.

We also played a game where you had to spin a wheel to figure out what life you could have on the "Wheel of Life." Pam ended up being an "Other Animal," Tana is an "Animal," Melody was an "Insect" and I ended up being "Fungi." Lovely, eh?

After spending about an hour in the ROM (we could have easily spent an entire day there, or at least a few more hours to see all the history in there) we hit to the bus stop to catch our bus to take us to Casa Loma. This bus was horrific. The driver was slow, running 10-20 minutes late already. We also set in the lower portion of the bus which smelled like gas fumes. The ride was only to be 5 minutes, but ended up being almost 15 instead.

We got to Casa Loma and flew through there taking in all the wonderful history of Sir Henry and his unabashed romantic nature. Casa Loma was bought by the city and has featured many movies being filmed there, like Chicago, the Tuxedo, X-Men, The Skulls, etc. Melody and I went all the way to the top of the towers through single step spiral staircases and over to the stables as well through a tunnel that is 800 feet one way. The only part of the castle that is somewhat disappointing is that the swimming pool was never finished so it's basically a cement hole in the ground. The castle featured many beautiful rooms and a beautiful garden area as well. There was even a couple posing for their wedding photos there. Apparently they didn't believe in superstitions.





After managing to go through the castle in less than an hour (another place that we could have spent hours at), we loaded the bus again for our trip back to the station. Finally we had a tour guide aside from Natasha that we could understand clearly and that had a sense of humor. Thank you Melody. Having 45 minutes to waste during the bus transition, we headed back to Union Station to grab a late lunch. We were eager to get happy meals from Mickey D's so we could have some Canadian toys, but they didn't serve happy meals at this location. Boo! We got our lunch and headed back to catch our East Loop meeting our new tour guide, Chris. Chris began the tour without a Canadian accent, but he managed to slip it in there from time to time. He told us a-boot the Toronto film industry while he took us past the sewer treatment centre and close to the "beach." Unfortunately, we didn't make it out to the beach, but we were taken through other various neighborhoods. Including basically all of the 5 chinatowns there are in Toronto; the Korean Business District; Little Italy; the ghetto; etc. Chris was by far one of the funniest and most entertaining tour guides we have had along the trip.







After all our daily outings we found ourselves back at the hotel contemplating keeping our evening reservations for an improv comedy show or just going to dinner. The Improv comedy show was located in the district downtown where a festival was taking place so we were unsure of parking and walking, etc. So we ended up going to a local restaurant here in Mississauga named "The Keg." The Keg was very yummy. Melody and Tana took the waitresses suggestions for drinks and ended up loving them. Melody's had some Mango/Orange Juice combination and Tana's of course had some sort of bananas (and whipped cream) in it. We definitely love this restaurant and it was kind of fun to get all dressed up to go out to dinner. Now, everyone is full and in bed. We've got to get up and leave in the morning to start our two-day drive home. I believe we are planning on stopping in Chicago at the Sears Tower. Another tower, yay (sarcastic). I think this trip is helping over come my fear of heights, but I have to admit that I still love the ground the best.

It's late, so photos will have to be added in the morning. G'night everyone and we'll be home in a few days.

ETA: Photos added.

horses..relaxation..dinner

Okay so we got to sleep in a little bit longer this morning..not much longer but still longer. We all got ready and hit the road to go ride some horses through some trails. I do have to say that alot of these people either have some really great jobs or are just swimming in some debt because there are some gorgeous and ginormous homes here in Canada. Driving through some countryside/foresty areas we saw some b-e-a-utiful homes! Makes me way jealous for sure!! We make it to the ranch and after paying our dues and signing the paperwork that says if we die out there in the pastures oh well :) then we walked over to where we had to wait on the horses. They brought the horses over so we could jump on and even though there was a very nice mounting block right beside us they made us do it the hard way and jump up. I am pretty sure everyone got up on their first try except for me who managed with help to get up on the second time. Melodys horses name was JD, Beckys horse was Star, Pams was Ranger and mines name was Shotgun. I have to admit that I was quite nervous when I was told his name but she assured me that he would be nice and slow for me. They gave us a quick lesson on trying to make the horses do and go where we wanted, she also told us the horses were not supposed to be eating while out on the trail. We started off onto the trails in the woodsy area that was quite muddy and rocky. All the horses seemed to do really well through the rocks, mud and trees! They asked if any of us wanted to go a little faster than the nice slow walk we were doing and Pam and Becky accepted while me and Melody decided to keep our pace. So one of the guides took the braver two off while Melody and I stayed with the other horse girl. Even though the horses were supposedly not hungry they sure did try to keep eating the flowers and weeds along the way. They told us when they try to eat to just pull up as hard as we could on the reigns and give them a little nudge in the sides and they should stop...however that wasn't the case so much and mine at least just kept on eating. The two groups met up again a little while later and we headed back towards the stables. So we all managed to jump off our horses safe and sound and head back towards the car.

We were all hungry when we made it back to the hotel so we decided to have some pizza delivered to us. It was only supposed to be about 30 minutes and around an hour or so and a couple showered people later it finally arrived. So we munched on some food, watched some tv, some took naps and then we finished getting ready for the evening. We then hit the road for our Medieval Times evening! We found our parking location after asking some guy with a crazy cool accent. With more time to kill before the show and dinner was open we walked down to the harbour front. Pam and I decided that we wouldn't mind being homeless so much if we could live in Toronto. There are people on roller blades and bicycles all over the place downtown. Seeing seagulls (I am not for sure if that is the proper name) really never gets old..those things are just too stinking cute and funny! The squirrels up here are even different..we came across one today and its color was an almost black color and we decided we wanted to get a picture of it and as it is on the tree branch (which is just a short way over eye level)trying to get some food it started kinda staring at us..I was a little afraid that it was going to attack.

We made it back to Medieval times so we could get our tables set before the show started. After of course stepping into the slowest moving line we finally get everything squared away and manage to get us some front row seats in the blue group which was nice. We of course like at every tourist attraction have to do the group photo shot (which with the package we ordered that was an added bonus so that was nice) then finally make it in and go and get us some drinks. Becky, Melody and Pam get some nice little goblets and me for odd reason think I have to have to get a cup that is monstrous! We go and sit at a table while waiting for the doors to open when we hear them start talking about any celebrations that people may have mentioned (and Melody being the sweet person she is let them know that it was mine, Pam and Beckys birthday) and they have this king who knights in front of a huge crowd of people. Luckily the doors had opened up before we had to go. We make it our seats and then were we are soon served some tomato bisque soup and a piece of garlic bread. Since we are not given any utensils I end up drinking my soup through one of the straws that came with my drink. Soon to follow they slap on a huge piece of chicken followed by a piece of ribs and then some sort of potato. The show was fun to watch while we ate dinner..some of the horses were doing some pretty neat tricks like walking around on just there hind legs and such. The knight that was assigned to our color was a little creepy to look at and we very quickly decided after seeing the green knight that we wanted to change to the green team! He was quite easy on the eyes and had the best mean/stern sounding knight voice..it reminded me of Sylvester Stallone. The knights of course did all of there little challenges like they normally do. I got to be one of the lucky winners when they throw the carnations into the audience and Becky was the winner of the sash which I think dubbed her the "Queen of Love" (but I could be mistaken on the name of that). Needless to say our group was loved by the creepy little knight. There was a guy who had a hawk that they had fly a few laps around the building which was pretty cool. Becky informed the wench (that is apparently an okay word to use towards the waitresses) that it was mine and Pams birthdays somehow forgetting about hers so when they brought out our cake we had a candle stuck into each of ours. There was some hope with the tournament between the knights that our color may win but he survived the first battle but wasn't able to live through the second one sadly. Our pretty green knight did however kick the knights butt who kicked ours. The show was then soon over and we herded out where you were able to meet the knights and take picture with them if you chose to. We of course chose to with the Mr. Green Knight and Becky was sweet and also went and had a picture taken with the blue guy. The lady who we asked to take the picture for us told us that she was happy we asked her cause she wanted to see him because she thought he looked cute from where her seats were. Pam and I think Becky went and took pictures with the hawk guy not to be confused with hot guy which a couple of us did. :] I think that was pretty much it and then we heading back to the hotel room. Some tomorrow plans were made and some television was watched and then the girls went to bed. Hope I didn't miss anything but it is almost 2 and we are getting up in a few hours so I should probably get some sleep. May try to add some pictures later with the help of Melody or Becky but if not sorry you just have to use your imagination. :)

Niagara Falls

We got up early. Like really, really, really early. Had a nice drive over a couple of large bridges (sorry Tana) while Becky & Tana took some short naps. Watched the sun come up over the lake and could see Toronto across the way. Arrived at Niagara super early because traffic was a breeze and we didn't get lost (yay us!). We amazingly-enough found our parking lot we were supposed to meet the bus, had a few hours to kill so we walked down through some scary trees down to the sidewalk overlooking the falls. It was virtually people-free, with just a handful of tourists and some crazy early-morning runners. It was really pretty, but also very chilly.


We then walked back to the car (uphill, mind you), after hunting for a way to get back up to that parking lot besides the steep and scary path through the woods. We needed to make sure what time we were supposed to meet the tour bus. We had about an hour, I think, so we walked up more steep inclines to Tim Horton's, which is a donut and coffee place. Very, very, very yummy donuts for a very reasonable price (about .85 CSD). We ate, felt better, then walked back down to the parking lot to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. We started to suspect we may not be getting picked up, so Beck gives them a call. Whomever she had spoken with had told her an incorrect time but someone would be there between 9:20 and 9:50. They do show up, but the bus driver completely ignored our attempts to approach him and he told some other tourist that she needed to pay cash, not credit card like they were supposed to. That was kind of the last straw, so we decided to just do our own thing.

We went downstairs, grabbed a lot of brochures and sat down to figure out what we wanted to do. Niagara Falls offers a good deal for $39.95, or whatever, for all day transportation around the fall front, tickets to a ride called "Niagara's Fury", tickets to Journey Behind the Falls, tickets to Maid of the Mist and tickets to the White Water Walk. We got our times set and started for the welcome center down the road near the top of the falls where the Fury and Journey were. The Fury is out of a really awesome gift shop with great prices. Really neat stuff that doesn't look cheap, too. So, we are given a plastic rain coat (the ones like trash bags but with a hood and sleeves). We're herded into a round room with only a big screen up near the ceiling. This video starts and it's animated characters and we're of course thinking "what have we gotten ourselves into?" It was actually a really cute video about how the falls were created. Our favorite character was the polar bear because he had the best voice and Canadian accent. We were all cracking up.

Once the video was over, doors opened and we walked into this room that had water under gates and every foot or so there was a metal pole with handles. We gathered around these poles. Tana and Becky were off to the right by the door and Pam and I shared one in the middle, second row. I recommend the second row. The video took us from the beginning (like as glaciers or something) and ended up falling down the falls. Snow fell at one point, and at multiple points in the video, we in the second row got soaked. Streams of water shot out from the ceiling and drenched us. We'd get splashed at our feet, too, because the platform we were on would raise and slam down into the water. It was fun, but not as fun as the virtual roller coaster at the CN tower, I don't think. Tana & Beck only got like sprinkled on while Pam & I were very thankful for our rain slickers.

Next stop was downstairs for the Journey. We were early, so we had to wait, but it was nice to sit for a few minutes (our feet hurt). We get in a long line and get ushered through a door and down a winding hall. We get our next set of slickers (these were yellow, the others were blue), don them, and eventually get to the elevators taking you to the Journey tunnels. We went to the portals first and saw underneath the falls. Very neat. I can't imagine how they accomplished such a feat, though. We were surprised there were no NF workers down there though to supervise or something. We went back through the tunnels and came to the observation deck. We didn't get as wet as I thought we would, but it was a very neat view of the falls.

After we made our way out of the Journey, we had time for lunch, so we headed back upstairs in the welcome center to a really nice restaurant called The Elements. Waited a few for a table and then got seated at a spectacular one by the windows overlooking the falls. We all had burgers, though Pam's was bison instead of beef like the rest of ours. Very thick, very, very yummy. We got full, and then went outside for a bit for pictures before we loaded onto a bus to get to the White Water Walk. It was a long way away, so we were happy for the free transportation, called People Movers, even if it was crowded and even if we had to wait for it. We were early for it, too, so we had to wait.



There we met James, one of the NF workers. He was funny and liked to joke that the elevator we were taking that was built in like 1932 may not make it. It did make it. We went through another long tunnel that was nice and cool, and then out onto an observation deck over the most dangerous rapids in the world (or so we were told). Category 6. There was a very long boardwalk, and since it was made entirely of wood and well above ground, Tana stayed with the observation deck while the rest of us went on the walk. It was really long, but pretty and had some nice observation areas closer to the water. After we made it back to where Tana was (Pam had made it back first), we took the tunnel back to the elevators where James was still trying to scare us and questioned why Tana was afraid of bridges but not a 1932 elevator, that was held onto by one cable by that point. She shrugged, but was a good sport about the teasing.

Next up was something not on our itinerary or in our ticket package: the whirlpool aero car, which is a suspended cable car over the whirpool basin, or whatever it is called. Being the amazing sport and person Tana is, she agreed to go and we lucked out and immediately got on the car. We also lucked out that we were in the center because otherwise we would have had to walk around the car and I don't think Tana would have appreciated that too much. The whole ride was maybe 10 minutes but it was really pretty and peaceful. Once we safely made it back to land, we caught a bus back to the Maid of the Mist. We took the paths down there, then the elevator, got our new blue slickers and after a very short wait we got on a boat. Again, we lucked out and were able to get the very front of the boat like we wanted (Pam wanted to get absolutely soaked). The Maid of the Mist was neat. At first we didn't get very wet at all, but then we got drenched.

We took a bus back to the top of the falls (after waiting forever for a bus), sat around for a bit, but it was rather chilly, so we went inside for shopping and then dessert. Three of us ordered a side and dessert, while Pam enjoyed a big Greek salad. The desserts were very prettily made up with fruit and sauce. We then went outside and saw the falls lit up in color. I immediately got attacked by these gross bugs (one wentinto my pants leg. Pretty sure it bit me), so I went with Becky back inside to the washrooms. We two then went upstairs and looked out at the lights until about 15 til 10. Then we went and hunted down Tana and Pam, who had braved the bugs to keep looking at the lights and falls. A little after ten, the fireworks started. They were pretty. Looked like they were shot off near the Maid of the Mists. When the fireworks were over, we took the trek back to the car, watched a policeman directing traffic gripe a guy who pulled up into the crosswalk after he'd told him to stop, climbed the enormous hill again, and finally made it to the vehicle.


A misled exit and then a real gas exit later, we took washroom breaks and got gas and headed back to the hotel. Try as I could, I did not stay awake, and I fully intended to, so I can't really tell you what happened during that time. Needless to say, we all crashed as soon as we got into bed. It was a really long day, but it was fun, too. Tomorrow Tana will blog about our horseback ride, possibly the race track or Casa Loma, and Medieval Times. This may not get posted until then.

Animals and the Yankees and lots and lots of water!

I apologize for not having anything written on here Tuesday night. Thanks to traffic we didn't get home from the game until 11:30 and yesterday we had a very very long day! So anyway, Tuesday was my birthday! Yay for me. We started the day out eating some Johnny Horton which is a donut shop up here. It's pretty amazing and actually cheap, not like the donuts in Kansas and Oklahoma! Next we headed off to the Toronto Zoo! What an amazing and VERY large place. They had many spectacular animals and exhibits to look at, including Sting Rays and Sharks that you could pet, and the brand new polar bear tundra exhibit. But the poor things looked so hot! It was very humid out today, with all the storms moving in and made the long walk with jeans on a little miserable. We made it through most of the zoo before the storms hit, which was very lucky since they hit with a fury. And of course we were at the bottom the the bear exhibit hill when it started raining. We should have known that when the zoo is warning you that you must walk back up this hill to get out of the zoo, we should have been worried. That hill was amazing huge that we had to walk up!!!! So we get to the top of the hill and the real rain begins! We were soaked by the time we made it out of the zoo and of course as soon as we got to the exit the rain stopped. That is just our luck! So we ate our lunch while we were driving back to the hotel and we warmed up, and rested some before we headed out to the Yankees/Blue Jays game. While we were sitting in the room and massive thunderstorm hit and even knocked out power for a second while Tana was in the shower. We expected her to scream, but she survived and didn't even make a sound. LOL... So then it came time for the game. The sun had come back out and the storms moved on, and we headed into downtown. The traffic was a mess and so was trying to find a parking spot, especially with parking being so expensive, I think we ended up paying $25, but we were fairly close to the stadium. There were all sorts of people around, tons of places to buy dirty water hot dogs, buy scalped tickets and anything else you could think of. Once we made it into the stadium we decided to walk around and scope the place out, we quickly learned that all the hot Canadian boys apparently hang out at the baseball stadium during the hockey off season. So we walked around and found some hot dogs (you can't go to a baseball game without one) and then headed off to our seats. Our seats were awesome, they were on the third base side and 15 rows off the field. We were surrounded by Yankees fans (which was okay with me), but let me tell you, these Blue Jays fans do not like the Yankees. HaHa. Poor Tana ended up sitting next to me and got hit every time that Derek Jeter stepped out onto the field. It was an awesome game though. The Yankees ended up winning 5-3, with three home runs (all by Yankees players), Teixeira, Damon and Matsui all hit home runs and the fans did not like it when Damon hit his! And of course they hated it when Jeter made a couple of amazing plays. But all in the all the game was a blast, the roof was closed due to the rain so it was a little warm in the dome! But it happens. The stadium is actually dug into the ground, so at our seats we were actually like 7 stories below ground. A little surreal actually. So anyway after the game I went in search of a program because I hadn't gotten one yet, and of course they were all sold out, so by the time we got outside it was of course pouring down rain again. So we were yet again soaked for a drive home. But we made it safe and fell asleep quickly, the week is catching up to us and we sure are getting tired. We have decided that we are going to need a vacation after our holiday! :)

Coming Soon

We had a long day yesterday and an early start this morning, so we'll have a double post about yesterday and today. Yesterday was the zoo and the baseball game, and today will be Niagara, so we'll have lots of things to talk about. It may be tomorrow before we get to post these. Hope everyone is having a good time back home!

On Holiday ... Our Lucky Day

Hang in here with me here faithful blog readers as we have conquered a lot today in Toronto, not to mention it's late, and we're all exhausted. My co-horts are all falling asleep as I write this. But first things first, in Canada apparently you don't merge in traffic, you squeeze. Also, if anyone asks, we are not on vacation, we are "on Holiday." :-D Oh, and instead of saying "cheese" for pictures, we say "fromage."



It's a civic holiday in Canada today meaning banks were closed today which kind of threw a kink into our currency exchange ideas, but made downtown very empty allowing us free reign of parking garages and little to no traffic into the city this morning. After reading our travel books/brochures on our way downtown, we located a currency exchange in Union Station which was only a few blocks away from our first stop of the day -- the Hockey Hall of Fame. We slowly made it over to Union Station after enjoying all the architecture of the buildings downtown from the old ones to the new ones. While exiting Union Station a man behind the counter yelled over to us asking what we were doing today (guess we look and sound like foreigners). Since he had an accent, we stopped and chit-chatted with him for a little. He offered us discounted Hockey Hall of Fame tickets since he was working a tourist attraction stand (legit). We accepted that, of course. He also said we should consider taking a double decker bus tour through downtown, showing us "the world" of Canada featuring things like Chinatown, Little Italy, etc. Chris said he'd give us a discount for being his first customers of the day. We declined, but he told us if we reconsidered to come back and see him.

We sauntered over to the Hall of Fame, and attempted to find the entrance as it is a bit hidden come to find out (located in the bottom of a building). Walking into the HHOF, we were in awe of the "wall of pucks." We didn't spend a lot of time looking, but we did find a Blazers hockey puck in the mix and 2 Memphis (not Mississippi) Riverkings pucks. We walked around the HHOF in awe of all the memorabilia. Then had to have some fun in the interactive exhibits. We were able to pretend to be goalies and have foam pucks shot at us; we were able to shoot pucks at a screen which told us how fast they were going; we were able to go upstairs to the "production" area and be directors/producers of broadcast games; and we were able to call play-by-play to video clips. We've come to the conclusion through these games that Tana is our goaltender, I am our shooter, Melody is in charge of directing and Pam is our play-by-play announcer (assuming we can't get that French speaking guy to do it for us). We also got to go see and have our photos taken with the replica Stanley Cup they keep up there.


We saw a few minor league hockey items in the HHOF, Brendan Morrow's jersey, Don Parson's bobblehead, a Prairie Thunder jersey, and a hockey stick belonging to a Wichita Thunder player by the name of Jackson. He has a first name that I'd love to tell you about, but Pam is asleep and I don't think she would appreciate me waking her up right now just to ask her about it.

After the HHOF, we discussed the idea of taking one of those double decker tour buses around town. We figured it'd be fun to grab our bagged lunches that we packed this morning (or I should say that Melody prepared for us) and eat them while riding around town on the tour. So, we stopped by and visited Chris. He gave us an even better discount this time around -- the ticket says senior, but he crossed it out and put "student" -- he also told us that we'd probably enjoy the back of the tour bus the best. He was right. We headed straight over to our pick up location and caught our bus which luckily had people getting out of our backseat cool kid seats. We settled in and started enjoying the ride, which took us over by the CN Tower, the Harbour, Casa Loma, a celebrity hotel, Dundas Square (reminded us of Time Square), etc. We were advised to watch our heads for low branches, traffic lights, bridges. I think Melody and Tana forgot about a few tree branches while we were looking at some of the buildings and cars we saw today -- a Lamborghini and a Ferrari and ended up getting whacked by a tree branch. Natasha, our tour speaker I think started making a point of getting our attention when these came at us towards the end of the tour. After several hours on the double decker, we learned that our ticket actually was good for two tours and we had only completed one of them. Natasha advised us that our tickets are good for basically forever, even to our grandchildren if we leave it for them in our will so we're looking to go back in the next few days and catch the other part of our tour.

Might I add here that people in Toronto are friendly. They'd wave at us, and say hi while we were riding through town and even walking through town. Sidenote, we came to the conclusion that any of the condos we liked would be a little pricey if we were ever to move up this direction ... some of the condos we saw were going for 2-6 million dollars and some of those only feature one bedroom.

After the downtown tour, we were ready to head to the harbour and feel the wonderful breeze from the water. We caught our habour tour just in time. We got seats up front with the Captains where one was getting last minute tips on driving/docking the boat. Comforting, we know. However, Kristoff assured us that he trained Jen (our driver) and that nothing would happen to us. Luckily for us, the life jackets were kept within reach of our seats. Our Captains, Jen and Laura took us out on the water, pointed out the islands and gave us history on them. One of which was man-made back in the WW2 time frame when it was used to train fighter pilots. Now, it's used for locals and short plane trips. There are non-boating areas marked near the airport located there wherein if our boat crossed it, Jen and Laura would be slapped with a $10,000 fine, loose their Captains licenses, and their land driving licenses as well. We stopped on Centerville Island for a little bit and walked out to the pier overlooking Lake Ontario. BEAUTIFUL! Simply Beautiful.

After catching our tour boat back with a new driver, we saw some gorgeous views of the Toronto city skyline. Saw where 80% of Ontario's sugar comes from (made with dirty harbour water). Oh, and we were introduced to Captain Matthew with his aviator sunglasses. Jen made sure it was known to everyone on the boat that he was single. Should I add here that we were basically the only young females on the tour. Awkward!

Back on dry land, we headed back up to the car, then walked over to the CN Tower. That tower just looks higher in the air each time you see it. The wait time was about an hour so since our ticket included the choice of a motion ride or a cinema show we took them up on the offer to go on the motion ride to avoid the long waiting time. For the motion ride, we had to watch a pre-show which was taking place in the year 2020 where scientists were creating new trees which were fast growing called, get ready for it, the Himamalazon! After the pre-show we entered into this ride which took us on a virtual rollercoaster, basically. It squirted us with air and water, even shook and twisted our chairs. It'd been a few hours since we had laughed that hard on our trip. Did I mention there were alligators on this virtual rollercoaster ride and saws as we followed the trees through the rollercoaster.

After the ride, we got in line for the CN Tower. We went through these "air" security system metal detector type of thing. It was odd, very odd. Then we got in line ... then the elevator. Once inside the elevator, there were two spots that were basically glass floor portions and going up you could see all the way out as well. In less than a minute we were over 1,000 feet in the air. For me, the one scared of heights, I found it all incredibly awesome. Pam and I went and played and sat on the glass floor lookout while Tana and Melody hung back looking at us like we were crazy. Afterwards, we went out to the lookout and were definitely wind blown, but it was amazing to see the city from this view point and the lake. FABULOUS!


Even better, we watched the sunset from the CN Tower. Fun times. While we were leaving we were able to see the CN Tower illuminated with red and white lights.



We slowly drug ourselves back to the car, over to Wendys, then back to the hotel. We got a lot of walking in today, learned a lot of history and just plain exhausted ourselves.

So, here's the deal, it's late - 11:31 here and tomorrow we're going to the zoo (weather depending) and a Blue Jays game (in honour of Pam's birthday). I'll put photos up tomorrow morning before we leave. Until then, good night and sweet dreams everyone. We miss you all, but are having the time of our lives.

ETA: Photos have been included. We're off to the Tim Horton's and going to have a leisurely morning at the zoo.