Traveling to Toronto

Ray and Traci decided to follow their favorite baseball team into a foreign country and make a visit to one of North America’s greatest natural wonders – Niagara Falls. Their journey started on Tuesday with a non-stop flight from Seattle to Toronto on Air Canada. Ray found the modern Embraer 190 to be a very comfortable plane. Even in coach, the jet has individual TV screens which had about 25 movies plus a variety of TV programs, music, and games which entertained passengers from departure to arrival without waiting for the plane to reach a certain altitude. Ray watched “Angels & Demons” which he found to be a good movie, in contrast to the general bad reviews given by the critics. Upon arrival, it took about 20 minutes to clear immigration, get Canadian dollars at an ATM and get in a taxi. The weather was pleasant, overcast and 80 degrees. The taxi ride from Pearson Airport to downtown took 45 minutes. The travelers’ new home for the week was the Royal York, which is a historic – meaning old – hotel 2 blocks from the baseball stadium. Ray booked the hotel due to the great discounted rate at hotels.com which he subsequently cancelled when the hotel itself offered an even better rate - $129!. The Royal York was built in 1927 – Ray and Traci’s room was spacious by New York standards and had a nice view of Lake Ontario. Ray and Traci spent the first evening exploring Toronto’s PATH, a maze under Toronto’s downtown – most of the skyscrapers populating downtown are connected with corridors providing refuge from the elements. Naturally, the passageways are lined with shops and eateries, often with the same stores repeating every few blocks. Ray and Traci negotiated the confusing passages, finally arriving at a large shopping mall – the Eaton Centre. This massive multistory structure was different in one significant way from an American mall– it was very busy on a nondescript weeknight! People in Canada are shopping and actually buying stuff. While few, if any, stores were furnished with unique goods, Traci checked out the Roots store. Roots is a Canadian apparel maker that clothed past US Olympic teams. Now hungry from their day of travel, Ray and Traci ate at the shopping mall’s food court – Ray ate a very unimaginative chicken dinner from KFC while Traci had a much more healthy chicken wrap from a Toronto chain restaurant Freshii. After leaving the mall, Ray and Traci wandered above ground in the “theatre” district of Toronto. While Toronto has a few theatres, a few regular shows were playing – “The Sound of Music,” “Jersey Boys” and a new show “The Boys in the Photograph.”. Ray and Traci stopped at Toronto’s version of “The Second City,” undoubtedly a Canadian version of Chicago’s well known comedy troupe but they decided to pass on the show. After grabbing a few snacks, Ray and Traci retired for the night.

Wednesday morning brought another warm but cloudy and humid day. Ray started the day in the Royal York’s gym which was equipped with many cardio machines but little weight equipment – it did, however, have a nice indoor lap pool. Ray and Traci next wandered to the waterfront area where they found some nice condo buildings and not much else. One thing that Toronto has (that Seattle needs) is bicycle stations in the subways where people can secure their bikes and then hop on to the trains. Disappointed, Ray and Traci wandered back to the Toronto underground PATH and had lunch at Bento Nouveau where Ray enjoyed tempura shrimp udon and Traci had chicken udon. After their early lunch, Ray and Traci met their Grey Line Bus at the Royal York to start the evening tour of Niagara Falls. After a 90 minute journey, the first stop was at the Pillitteri Estates Winery where the 9 person group (a really slow day for the Grey Line!) sampled red, white and an “ice” wine. Traci especially enjoyed the ice wine which can be produced only in certain cold climates as the grapes are picked by hand frozen, the water crystals discarded and the little remaining juice used for production. Most of the world’s ice wine comes from Toronto and the difficult production process results in fairly high prices. From the winery, the group travelled to the floral clock which is a beautiful arrangement of flowers built on a platform with a working clock. The floral pattern is changed yearly and planned by the top students of the Niagara horticultural institute.




The next stop was at the aerocar which basically is a glorified tram across the Niagara river. Ray assumed you would get a view of the falls from the skyride which turned out to be wrong – the $12 tram simply gives you an overhead view of a (boring) river. After the disappointing aerocar, the tour got more interesting with the “Maid of the Mist” boat ride. A tour boat takes a whole bunch of people on a 20 minute ride fairly close to the bottom of the 3 waterfalls which make up Niagara Falls – the American falls, the tiny Bridal Veil falls and the much larger Canadian falls. The Niagara river starts at Lake Erie and flows into Lake Ontario (350 feet lower) – this drop in elevation is what creates Niagara falls. During the night most of the water flows thru American and Canadian hydroelectric plants while during the day/evening most of the water flows down the waterfalls. The American/Bridal waterfalls are separated from the Canadian waterfalls from Goat Island located on the US side of the border. The Bridal Veil waterfall is a sliver off of the American waterfall separated from the main falls by tiny Luna Island. The boat ride gets you up close and personal with all of the waterfalls. Riders can get soaked if you don’t take cover in the downstairs of the boat even while wearing the provided rain poncho.


Dinner at the Sheraton Hotel’s Fallsview Buffet was included in the Grey Line package. While the view was spectacular, the food wasn’t bad either – Ray and Traci enjoyed salads, fruits, pasta, prime rib, baby-back ribs, tomato with beans and rice soup, while passing up many other equally tasty dishes. For dessert, Ray enjoyed cupcakes while Traci had a bit of a chocolate cake and a disappointing bread pudding. The Sheraton has a small balcony just outside the Fallsview buffet, giving a few more opportunities for pictures. After the hearty meal, the group scattered until departure time. A large entertainment district surrounds the falls with everything from amusement rides to a casino. Ray and Traci rode the Skyview Ferris wheel before getting a few pictures with the illuminated waterfalls and had an uneventful ride back to their hotel.

Thursday brought cooler temperatures and clearer skies so the day’s adventures started with a trip of the famed CN tower. The structure started simply as a broadcasting antennae but a decision to build an observation platform made the world’s tallest (1815 feet) freestanding tower an attraction for 2 million people a year. The skypod observatory is at 1465 feet, the world’s current highest (note that Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the world’s tallest occupied building has an observation platform at a mere 1285 feet). Unfortunately, when Burj Dubai opens up at the end of 2009, it will set all records at a rumored 2650 feet. The view from the CN skypod was quite impressive. On the lower observation platform, a section of the floor is replaced with glass giving a quite interesting perspective of downtown Toronto. From the CN Tower, Ray and Traci got on the “Hippo” tour which is similar to the ubiquitous “Duck” tours in the US. The Hippo leader gave a quite interesting history of Toronto and some of its landmarks as the tour made its way thru the city eventually ending up at the waterfront where the amphibious vehicle entered the water for a boat tour of Toronto. From the Hippo tour, Ray and Traci headed to a well known foodie hangout – St. Lawrence Market. Ray had a chicken caesar salad at Pasta Mia while Traci enjoyed the Food Channel featured peameal sandwich made with Canadian bacon at Carousel Bakery. Ray also picked up a chocolate cupcake at Future Bakery with a Batman picture on the top. After satisfying their palates, the travelers went to the Distillery District which is an artsy combination restaurant & gallery area. On the way home, Traci got a disappointing vanilla yogurt with raspberries at Yogurt Fruz. The Mariners fans then rested for a bit and then headed to the Rogers Center (formerly known as the Skydome) for a highlight of the trip – watching pitcher Felix Hernandez lead the Mariners against the Jays. Ray got premium seats for both the Thursday and Friday games on stubhub.com. Fortunately, the lukewarm interest (a term used generously) by Toronto fans allowed “scalped” ticket prices to be below regular priced seats at Safeco. Skydome is a round concrete domed stadium with the world’s first retractable roof. It was quite an attraction when it first opened, but now is somewhat dated. The old Astroturf carpet is a hazard to the athletes! The stadium has a huge video screen and many colorful video displays. It has a rich selection of ballpark foods – what it is missing is fans, only 15,000 at the Thursday game. The game was well played, ultimately with the Mariners winning 4-3 and Felix picking up his 17th win. Ray and Traci had a sign “Mariners Fans (heart) Toronto and Rally Fries” – Although the Toronto fans seemed to like it, and put it on the stadium screen at least twice, Ray and Traci did not win any fries from sportscaster Mike Blowers of FSN. With few fans in attendance, and only a handful of signs, it was unclear if anyone won any fries. Hungry, but happy with a win, Ray and Traci picked up dinner at Harvey’s – Canada’s answer to Wendy’s. Famed for customized burgers, Ray had a bacon cheese burger while Traci had a chicken burger. While neither dish would win on Top Chef, the food was good given the late hour.

Friday started with promise – another cool morning with sunshine. Ray woke up early and had a run in the gym followed by a few laps in the very nice indoor swimming area at the Royal York. The first activity of the day was visiting the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The museum is easy to find, it is right off of the “Museum” subway stop. At the time of the visit, the ROM had a special exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls – a collection of ancient documents including the world’s first lease agreement, and several versions of early religious scripture. The works, hidden in special clay pots were believed to have been written around the time of Christ, and discovered in the 1950s. Other highlights of the museum included a collection of semi-precious stones. In general, the ROM had a nice collection covering the spectrum from the Dinosaurs to ancient Egypt/ancient Greek to modern times along with natural history and art. It is no Louvre, but is worth visiting. After the ROM, Ray and Traci walked past the University of Toronto toward Chinatown. Supposedly, Toronto has the 3rd largest Chinatown in North America – Toronto is, perhaps, the world’s most diverse city with a large variety of neighborhoods and different languages. By law, French and English are official languages. Ray was puzzled by several stores that sold nothing but flags of assorted foreign countries. The weather was becoming quite cold, so Ray purchased 2 pairs of gloves ($4 total) for the upcoming baseball game in Chinatown. The tourists then browsed Kensington Market, a neighborhood with funky shops and eateries located right next to Chinatown. On the way back to the hotel, the tourists passed by the Frank Gehry designed Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) but didn’t go in. They stopped at the Eaton Mall for Traci’s fruit salad and Ray’s Dairy Queen Sundae. After a rest stop at the hotel, Ray and Traci met up with Traci’s cousin Denise and her friend, Rob for the baseball game. Upon arriving at the Rogers Center (Skydome), the roof was closed – but opened prior to the start of the game. The roof is very interesting, unlike Safeco’s 3 section rectangular carport, the Skydome room has two circular sections on the ends and two middle rectangular sections – the rectangular sections slide to the outfield, then the circular section slides & rotates underneath the fixed circular section – quite ingenious! Roy Halladay, one of baseball’s finest pitchers owned the Mariners and the Blue Jays won 5-0. Again, Ray and Traci got no rally fries with a different sign “Rally Fries, Eh? Go Mariners” despite being seated along the left field line immediately behind the ball boy. Perhaps the poor economy is cutting into the FSN fries budget. After the game, the group headed to Chinatown where they enjoyed a fine Seafood Chinese meal including Shrimp & Cashew nuts, fried chicken wings, tofu with mixed vegetables and seafood sizzling hot plate. Long time resident Rob, picked a restaurant called “Excellent Chinese Restaurant” which almost made up for the Mariners terrible loss.
On the final day, Ray and Traci got onto the subway and went to Yorktown, a high end shopping neighborhood. From there, they got back onto the subway and at Union Station transferred to the “Red Rocket” Toronto’s street cars for a very short ride to the waterfront. Ray and Traci decided to take the 7 minute ferry ride to Centre Island, a Toronto version of Coney Island and Central Park mixed into one. While in the summer months a full amusement park operates daily, fall season brought closures to many things – Ray and Traci didn’t get off the ferry and just returned back to downtown. For a final lunch, Ray had a sukiyaki dish at Edo and Traci had chicken noodle soup at Pumpernickel’s, both located in the Harbourfront Centre. Ray and Traci returned to their hotel, and met up with Rob and Denise who kindly transported the travelers to the airport for an uneventful flight back to Seattle.