the one with canada. part two

“They let you get married when you’re drunk! Most people who get married in Vegas are drunk!” – Joey Tribbiani

“Hell, I’m drunk right now! What? I can’t have a mimosa with breakfast?! I’m on vacation!” – Phoebe Buffay

*editors note: mimosas were a daily part of my vacation

Previously on grammar FRIEND…

I wrote about the first part of my Canada trip in “the one with canada. part one” Read it if you haven’t!! (please)

Following our stay in Niagara Falls, we began the drive to Toronto to finish off the weekend. We stopped at Cave Springs Winery in Jordan, Ontario along the way. Cave Springs is located in this really cute mini-town: a little strip with a handful of shops and restaurants. We ended up getting there early, so we stopped by this little store that had the BEST homemade jam. (I left with three jars.) We then did a tour of Cave Springs and, of course, a tasting. Since we already had the best ice wine ever in our Ice House experience (read about it here), we were really about just regular, good old-fashioned wine. Again, this wine was great because, apparently, that’s something Canada dominates. I left with two bottles. (for those of you keeping score, that brings my total wine purchase to 7 bottles… yep.)

We went on our merry way to Toronto. The drive is super easy and quick, but traffic does get a little crazy the closer you get to the city. (true for any city really.) I got even more excited when we started to see the city scape in the distance. I have this newfound love for cities and their busyness, tall buildings, and overall sense of booming life.

We had purchased the Toronto CityPASS before heading to Canada. If you’re going to do Toronto, this is truly the only way to do it. The CityPASS includes the Toronto Zoo, CN Tower, Casa Loma, Royal Ontario Museum, and Ontario Science Centre for about $50. If you were to go to each place individually and pay, it would be close to $100. Really, it speaks for itself. We only ended up doing 3 of the 5, and still the CityPASS paid for itself.

We started off the weekend with a night trip to the CN tower. I apparently have a new obsession with towers that overlook amazing cities or landscapes, because this was absolutely amazing. We decided to go at night to see everything while it was lit up and booming with nightlife. I truly wish I had gone two times: One at night and one during the day. It would have been well worth my money; sadly we just didn’t have the time. I strongly recommend doing it during both times of the day if you have the time/inclination. The one thing the CityPASS doesn’t include is the skypod. This was an extra $11 and WORTH. EVERY. PENNY. It brings you up to 447 meters (1,465 feet) above the ground. The view is breathtaking. The height is invigorating. Definitely worth the money. One thing we didn’t partake in was the EdgeWalk. This was our plan if we had won big at the casino in Niagara Falls. But alas, we did not. For all you daredevils out there, the EdgeWalk is definitely something you want to look in to.

View from lookout level of CN Tower

 

The plan for Saturday was to start with the zoo, and finish with the Toronto FC vs. Portland Timbers game. If I had to describe Saturday with a single sentence it would be “Toronto public transportation kicks Ciara and Lexi’s ass.” First off all, there’s like a million construction projects going on. So what should have been an easy 1 subway/1 bus ride to the zoo turned into a 1 subway, 1 missed GoTrain, another subway, bus ride because the subway rail was being worked on, back on another subway, to another bus that took us to the zoo! (eventually.) Whew! And that’s not even the biggest ass kicking we received from public transpo that day. That story will come later.

But yes! We arrived at the zoo and Lexi got to fulfill her lifelong dream of finding her panda soulmate. Anybody who knows me knows I am utterly obsessed with all things panda. I often joke (with undertones of absolute sincerity) about stealing pandas to have as pets. (Go ahead animal rights activists, have at me.) The rest of the zoo was basically just any old zoo… but pandas:

So we complete our zoo adventure. At this point we plan to go back to the hotel, catch a quick nap, before heading to a restaurant to enjoy the Toronto FC game. We figure out a better way to get back, a simple 1 bus/ 1 GoTrain adventure… or so we thought. This is where the ass kicking I mentioned earlier comes in. We took our bus to the GoTrain station, bought our ticket, and went to wait on the platform. The train arrived earlier than expected (Yay!) so we got on and settled in for our ride back into the city. By this time we were pretty exhausted, and I started dozing in and out during the ride. We go through a few stops and I wake up to Ciara saying “Lexi… I think we’re on the wrong train.” Not 30 seconds later the announcement comes. “This will be the last stop for this train.” We were 100% in the wrong direction. We went AWAY from the city. So yeah, added about an hour to our already long trip. Sigh.

We fixed our stupid mistake and chalked one up to Toronto Transit Commission. Amazingly we still got back to the city in time to catch the Toronto FC game at Real Sports Bar & Grille right by the Air Canada Centre in the heart of Toronto. Good food, good drinks, and a front row seat to the TVs pretty much anywhere in the restaurant. I definitely recommend.

The third attraction we did from the CityPASS was the Casa Loma on Sunday. The Casa Loma is this massive castle on top of a hill that overlooks the city. The tour takes you through the entire house, garage, and stables with an audio guide. It was super cool and definitely worth doing if you like older monuments and history.

Something that became sort of the theme of our Toronto stay was trying to find Scott Eastwood and company filming Suicide Squad. We stumbled upon the filming location multiple times, but no luck on finding Scott. Bummer. However, since I’m a movie geek, I was all about checking out the film set. Here’s a picture of the scene we saw. I will definitely be looking forward to seeing this come to life when the movie actually comes out!

 

Overall, my first trip on my wanderlust quest kicked butt. Canada is amazing, Niagara falls is absolutely breathtaking, and Toronto gives you that big booming city feeling that I have been craving lately. There is so much to do in both places; I just started to chip at the iceberg. I can’t wait to go on my next adventure.