Toronto Trip - Day 2: Niagara Falls Tour

We decided to book one of those bus tours from Toronto to Niagara Falls.   It was a great trip.  They pick you up at your hotel and take you to where the bus is.  The first leg of the trip, our guide talked a little about the city.

"Here in Toronto we have two seasons:  Winter and Construction."  It made me chuckle, but I bet it's true.  We saw a lot of construction.

We drove up to where there were several wineries.  We made a pit stop at the Niagara Airport where a group of us opted for a Helicopter Tour of Niagara Falls.  The rest were taken for a wine tasting while they waited for us.  The tour took about 25 minutes to fly there and back.  It was fantastic to see the falls from that perspective and to just be in a helicopter.  It was a unique experience.

After the helicopter tour, we all boarded the bus to head toward the Falls.  Prior to the main attraction, we stopped at a quaint little town, Niagara-on-the-Lake.  I could have spent all day there.  It was a small little town full of shops and eateries with some old charm.  We only had about an  hour there to walk around and shop and/or eat lunch.

Finally, we arrived at Niagara Falls, Canada.  It was beautiful.  On the Canadian side, we look across more to the falls on the far side.  You can get pretty close to the Horseshoe Falls if you walk down quite a ways.  We walked a good bit, but never got that close to them.  I am amazed at how much you can do in Niagara Falls, Canada.  I definitely want to go back some day.

After a few hours at the Falls, we rode the bus home.  That evening we ate the food we'd purchased from St. Lawrence and just relaxed in our hotel room.  It was a great day.

Toronto Trip - Day 1 - Around Town

For our tenth anniversary (which was actually May 28), Mike and I decided to take a trip to celebrate.   We are also on a quest to see the Rangers play all across the continent so we picked Toronto at a time when the Rangers would be there to play them.  Stay tuned for that post.

So... Tuesday July 15th, we woke up before the sun to catch an early flight to Toronto by way of a very quick layover in Chicago.  While waiting in line, there was a Deaf couple behind me and we chatted a bit.  This later led to me interpreting for the woman in security for a few minutes.  While I didn't do a stellar job, I was glad to feel relaxed in the situation.  Anyway... back to the trip...

When we arrived at our gate, we were called to the desk.  Our Chicago flight was overbooked so the airline changed us to a direct flight on Air Canada.  This resulted in a much earlier arrival time.  We were able to get to our hotel before lunch and basically have an extra day there.

 

Upon arrival at the hotel, we were given a room upgrade and complementary bottle of wine due to our 10 year celebration.  

our hotel - we were on the 23th floor on the corner

 

After unpacking and getting settled, we decided to take a walk to St. Lawrence Market.  It was so neat.  It was a farmer's market but tons for fresh food: produce, meat, deli, cheese, etc.  There was also several eateries and souvenir shops.  We walked around, ate some lunch, and bought some deli fixin's to keep around our hotel.  

After taking our food back to the hotel, we changed into running clothes and took a jog down by Lake Ontario.  We ended up blazing a trail along the edge of the water for about 5 miles.  It was beautiful scenery.

After our run and showers, we walked town to Dundas Square (kind of like a miniature Times Square) and had dinner at Johnny Rockets.  

 

After many steps and some good food, we were ready to say goodnight.  And that's Day 1 in Toronto.

Meeting Queen Elsa

On Tuesday, July 29th, Queen Elsa, from Disney's Frozen, came to visit our local Chick-fil-a so of course we had to stop by and see her.  Mikaela had a great time seeing her, getting her picture, building a snowman, and of course, eating some delicious chicken.  We even saw the Princess Cow.