Chop Suey: TO, ON, CA

Tommy had a conference in Toronto this past week, so Josie and I tagged along.

We thought we were really planning well in taking a red-eye flight to JFK, assuming Josie would sleep for at least 5 hours on the plane, and then again once we got a car rented in Buffalo and drove on into Canada…

I’m not sure when we’ll ever learn.

The child is oppositional.

Not in a horrible, I-Dare-You-To-Send-Me-To-One-Of-Those-Wilderness-Camp-Things-In-Southern-Utah kind of way, but in an I-Am-Not-Going-To-Cooperate-As-Nicely-As-You-Would-Like-Me-To kind of way.

She was wired. She wanted to play and talk and sing. She wanted to chat with all of her fellow passengers. And as excited as she was to have her own seat now that she’s two years old, she did not want to sit in it. At all.

We fought and struggled with her for about 4 and a half hours and about the time the pilot announced we were making our final descent, she finally conked out.

And then, of course, she woke right up when we landed and was fully charged for the next several hours. She stayed awake on the second flight to Buffalo, the whole hour it took us to fight with the mean lady at Avis who informed us it was not her responsibility to provide us with a vehicle that was compatible with the car seat, all through a groggy breakfast and for almost two more hours in the car when we all decided we had better rest for a bit before trying to drive anywhere.

Grrrr.

Because we were getting into upstate New York early in the a.m. and wouldn’t be able to check into our hotel until the afternoon, I had looked up a couple of fun family activities for us to engage in.

We decided to try the Great Pumpkin Farm, which was only a few miles from the air port and was hosting a pumpkin catapulting contest for high school students the day we flew in. On-line it sounded a lot like a Wheeler Farm or a Thanksgiving Point, and I was really excited to take Josie. But as we were eating breakfast in a not-so-friendly establishment, it started to rain. That’s when we decided to rest for a bit in the car…and Tommy and I fell asleep…for about two hours…I would have felt guilty about that, but the rain poured down the entire time and we had not dressed for it. So, here are the pictures we got of the place as we drove past it on our way to Niagra:

Looked like good, soggy fun. Can you see the size of some of those pumpkins?!?

As we pulled out of the parking lot in which we had been waiting out the rain and napping, the GPS informed us it was going to take about 12 hours to get to our hotel. That didn’t make much sense to us, so we kept fiddling with it, turning it off and starting it up again, trying to select alternate routes, cursing it, etc. We finally turned it off and stopped at a gas station and asked for directions, which got us on to the free way with immediate signs leading us to Niagara Falls. It wasn’t until we were almost to the border that we realized the GPS was avoiding all toll roads, bridges, ferries, etc. Duh.

Our first few views of Canada and Niagara Falls:

If you look carefully past Tommy in the picture on the left, you can see the falls.

Not the best view, but it held us over until:

That was the amazing view we had from our hotel room!!

All lit up an night time:

We loved Niagara and I think we took more pictures in the 24 hours there, than the whole rest of the week (which is why I have devoted a completely separate post to Niagara you can check out, too)!

The next morning we got on the road right after stopping at a Tim Horton’s for breakfast. It became my new favorite fast food chain – fresh doughnuts any time of day? Way better than burgers and fries! And they had these fabulous little boxes you could buy of 10, 20 or 40 donut holes…mmm…I may have gained a few pounds.

We stopped for lunch at a place a cab driver had recommended to us called the Lake House. It sat right on Lake Ontario and had amazing views!! Not being much of a geographer, I fully thought I was looking at the Atlantic Ocean until I noticed the look on Tommy’s face at some comment I had made about the open sea…Great Lakes…

really big…

And we finally made it into Toronto!

I would love to be able to tell you what most of these buildings and places are called, but I can’t.

Tommy’s aunt Linda let us stay in a newly remodeled apartment she plans to rent out right in the middle of China Town. Tommy was in heaven! We lived for a week right over a Chinese BBQ restaurant, and there were three or four Chinese Bakeries within a three minute walk out our front door. Needless to say, most of our site seeing was done in China Town, and the pictures above were mostly taken on the fly from a moving car.

Tommy’s conference was down town, so we did make it out to do some touring. We used both the subway and the street cars. Josie loved the street cars. She could sit on her own seat and watch the people in the car, or the traffic out the window.

We visited the CN Tower:

We tried some Poutine, a Canadian National Delicacy (or something) which was actually really delicious.

Plain Poutine is cheese curds and brown gravy over french fries. But we also tried it with smoked pulled pork and green peas.

That yummy lunch warmed us up long enough to get us back to the hotel for Tommy’s conference, but not long enough to let Josie and I brave the cold and head back out on the streets. That was pretty much the last we saw of down town Ontario, at least from the outside.

The city has built extensive underground tunnels that follow the subway system, but are lined with retail shops and food courts. We were able to walk from the hotel, when Tommy was done, to the BIGGEST mall I have ever seen without setting a foot outside.

Another favorite day was spent with Uncle William, and Aunt Sheila and Brandon at the Ontario Science Center:

We wished we had checked this place out sooner in the week –if they sell a week long or at least multi-day pass, it would be well worth the money. Hundreds of hands on experiments and kid-friendly activities.

There are six floors and we rushed through two before we had to leave. Next time we are in TO we are definitely going back to the Science Center!

After that we had some yummy fried chicken at Popeye’s, which is kind of like the rest of the world’s KFC. Tommy has been craving it for years, but the few times he has had the chance to eat in (while in Chicago or some other cool place) he has so many other places he wants to eat at that we’ve never made it in. He was very happy with that “little” snack.

We finished the day off with a game of bowling. We decided to try our hand at 10 pin bowling. The balls were small enough that Josie was able to participate, too.

I can’t remember who won, but I know it wasn’t me. Could have been Josie.

The rest of our trip was spent with family, which of course, was the main purpose in going. Josie is so friendly and outgoing she won the hearts over of all her Auntie’s and Uncles.

Tommy with his new girl friend, Baby Charlene.

Now, I know why I adore this guy, but it can’t be for all the same reasons little kids are so drawn to him.

This shy little girl loved Tommy and would go to him every chance she got. She won’t even go to family she lives near and sees on a regular basis, but she couldn’t get enough of Tommy.

Which of course, he couldn’t get enough of, either.

Josie loving the cupcakes her Aunt Jenifer made (they were scrumptious!)

Uncle Sheldon, Josie (one of the cupcakes) and Aunt Jenifer

Aunt Steph, Josie (and a cupcake); and Brandon, Josie (and a cupcake) and Sheila

Josie (more cupcake) and Grace, Carmen and Sandy

The Whole Fam – minus Brandon, who was good enough to take the pictures for us

Uncle William, Aunt Christine, Baby Charlene and Josie; Mommy, Daddy, Gning-Gning and Josie

Aunt Linda and Uncle Gary’s family with ours

Aunt Virginia and Josie; Uncle Andrew, Aunt Ivey, Grace, Sandy, Carmen and Josie

Aunt Linda, Uncle Gary and Josie; Aunt Sheila, Josie and Brandon

Josie vying for Charlene’s very coveted Attention

Tommy winning the attention of both girls (and Charlene looking none to pleased with the competition)

Games