Travel Journal #1: Toronto (Oh Canada! Our home and native land!)

This was my first time visiting Toronto, but my second time in Canada.  I visited Vancouver when I was just a kid more than two decades ago.  Times were different back then; my family and I didn't need passports to cross the border.  This time around, entering Toronto required a passport and some pointed questioning from a Canadian customs officer.  She wasn't rude or anything (it's against Canadian nature to be unfriendly, eh) but she definitely wanted to know where we were staying and what our itinerary was.  After providing said information, we went through without any problems.  Pearson International is a nice airport.  It's a lot cleaner than LAX (then again, most airports are), but the food is insanely priced.  That's to be expected in an airport.  The real shocker, though, was the city's 13% sales tax! Yikes! And, according to one sales clerk, we arrived at a pretty good time.  The tax was 15% previously.  I love how positive our northern neighbors are, always glass-half-full kind of folks.  I don't think I've ever seen such a high sales tax.  I thought LA's 10% was terrible.  Whenever I want to complain about that, I'll think about the good people of Toronto and just keep quiet.

The view from our hotel

During our first night, my parents and I (yes this was a family trip) walked around downtown to get our bearings and see what the city was like.  The place felt like a ghost town, and this was on a Saturday night.  We were a little perplexed that the only real activity we saw was on Yonge street (which is always busy).  I discovered later that the Canadians were celebrating Victoria Day, which gave them a long weekend.  So most of the locals were out of town and on vacation, which meant conquering Toronto was going to be even easier than a I thought (*insert evil laughter and rubbing of hands*).  Anyway, we decided to eat dinner at Hero Certified Burgers, the official burger joint of the Toronto Raptors.  They haven't been doing very well lately.  Actually, not since Chris Bosh left, that jerk.  The burger I had was pretty tasty, and I liked their secret sauce.  It reminded me of cucumber, dill, and sour cream.  Not sure if those ingredients were actually in the sauce, but that's what it tasted like.  Very cool and refreshing, which provided a nice balance with the meaty, rich patty.  And, since I was in Canada, I decided to have my very first taste of poutine, a purely Canadian invention.  It consists of french fries, beef gravy, and melted cheese curds.  By the Queen's petticoats, this dish was delicious! I'm a huge fan of chili cheese fries, and that's what poutine reminded me of (minus chunks of beef).  I loved it.  Gooey, crunchy, earthy...  What the Canadians lack in real bacon, they more than make up for it with this wonderful, awesome dish.  Oh, and did you know Canadians refer to "soda" as "pop"? I know some parts of the U.S. do that too, but this was my first experience seeing signs for "pop" in restaurants.

Hero Certified Burgers

Day two left us exhausted, and this is when vacation blisters began to appear on my toes.  We did a lot of walking this day.  Early in the morning, we headed to the CN Tower.  This is the tallest structure in North America, and at one point, it was the tallest, free standing structure in the world until 2007.  Since then, four other structures have surpassed the CN Tower in height: Canton Tower in China, Abraj Al Bait Towers in Saudia Arabia, Tokyo Skytree in Japan, and the current record holder, Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates.  Despite this, 1,815.4 feet is nothing to sneeze at.  The CN Tower is way high up and provides some spectacular views of Lake Ontario and Toronto.

Amazing view

CN Tower from a distance

There's also a portion of the observation deck that has glass floors, allowing visitors to see all the way down.  I'm afraid of heights, and just peering down sent shivers up my back.  I didn't want to step on the floor at all, but I saw a bunch of people (even little kids!) bravely step forth to take pictures and observe the cars passing underneath (which looked like ants).  Eventually, I fought off the basic human instinct of "danger, Will Robinson, danger" and walked onto the glass floor.  That first step was a doozy, lemme tell ya.  But I did it! After a few minutes, I had no problem walking on the floor, though looking down still sent goosebumps rippling through my skin.

The rather scary glass floors

Up next was Casa Loma.  It's this huge mansion on a hilltop built in the early 1900's by some rich guy named Sir Henry Mill Pellatt.  The preserved rooms with fancy furniture was neat to see, but after having visited Hearst Castle in California, Casa Loma was a bit of a disappointment.  However, I did enjoy recognizing some of the rooms from the film series, X-Men.  This mansion was transformed into Professor X's school for the gifted, and many of the rooms showed up on screen.  In fact, there were many more movies filmed at Casa Loma.  If you head downstairs to the basement level, there's a row of movie posters on the wall with the rooms used for filming listed under each one.  Other movies I recognized include Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Chicago.

Outside view of Casa Loma

A shot of one of the many extravagant rooms insdie

The Royal Ontario Museum was the last place on the day's itinerary.  I believe this is the largest museum in Canada, and I definitely felt like I could've spent two whole days in the museum and still have plenty of stuff to look at.  I focused most of the time I had left on wandering the exhibits on Biology and Natural History (lots of dinosaur bones and stuffed birds, mammals, reptiles, etc), Geology (everything from sandstone and quartz to gold and diamonds, and even a moon rock), and the exhibit on the people from the First Nations (artwork, clothes, canoes, and more).  The museum has a very impressive collection of items from all around the world.  I wish I had more time to check out the other wings.  But hey, looking at the glass half full, I guess this means that I can come back to Toronto some day and finish off where I started.

This reminds me of Assassin's Creed 3

Run little dude!

Lots of stuffed critters around here

 Day 3 was a short road trip to Niagara Falls and the town next to it, conveniently named Niagara Falls (didn't see that coming, eh).  So we technically didn't spend this day in Toronto, but I'm going to count it anyway since Niagara Falls (the town) is a part of Ontario.  It took us about 90 minutes to get there.  It was difficult to estimate how long the distance was because all the signs were in kilometers.  Us Yanks are still stuck using the "royal standard" of miles while most of the world has switched to the metric system (the British are begrudgingly converting... they eschew any system that they didn't invent).  We managed to make it to the falls in one piece and quickly looked for a restroom.  With all that water gushing around us, it made the situation that much more dire.  After finding the visitor center and plenty of restrooms, we took in the marvel that is Niagara Falls.  It's actually split into three separate falls: American Falls, Bride Veil Falls (right next to American Falls but separated by a small strip of land), and the most iconic of the three, Horseshoe Falls.  These falls are what everyone thinks of when they hear "Niagara."

American Falls and Bride Veil Falls (far right)

The iconic Horseshoe Falls

We decided to do the touristy stuff and buy tickets for the Maid of the Mist boat ride and the Journey Behind the Falls experience.  I was very excited to ride the Maid of the Mist, which has been a proud Niagara Falls tradition since 1846.  It's the best way to experience the falls up close and personal, and boy did we ever.  There's a column of mist that constantly emanates from the base of Horseshoe Falls.  The boats go right into that column.  The whole experience was rather surreal.  As the boat leaves the dock, everyone's wearing these cool, plastic blue ponchos even though the weather was warm and humid.  It's not until you hit the base of the falls that you realize that the poncho was a very good idea.  Every part of my body that wasn't covered by the poncho got drenched.  The mist doesn't look much from a distance, but up close, it almost felt like I was in the middle of a hurricane.  Being surrounded by the deafening roar of the waterfalls added to the experience of being in a crazy storm.  It was a lot of fun, really.  I can see why millions of people have ridden these boats throughout the years.

Check out those ponchos!

The Journey Behind the Falls was a mixed bag.  The observation deck is right next to the side of Horseshoe Falls, which was awesome to behold.  You can see, hear, and feel the power of the falls.  I enjoyed this part of the course, but the rest of the path wasn't so exciting.  There are tunnels behind the falls with informative posters that covered the fascinating history of Niagara Falls, including interesting tidbits about people who went over the falls (on purpose and accidentally).  Unsurprisingly, few people survived going over the edge.  As you continue on the path, there are two areas that open up behind the falls.  You can see a wall of water gushing past the open "windows," but it really isn't as impressive as the advertisements would lead you to believe.  The observation deck alone, however, might be worth the price and wait.  And believe me, we waited in line for about 45 minutes with a little girl ahead of us that refused to stop crying the entire time.  And it was still cool to see the falls that close.

This was the best part of Journey Behind the Falls

The last full day in Toronto was spent strolling through the various food stalls in St. Lawrence Market, checking out the artwork and architecture at the Art Gallery of Ontario, taking a quick walk through North America's largest Chinatown, and grabbing dinner at the Distillery District.  For a foodie like me, St. Lawrence Market was the highlight of the day.  It felt like everything I wanted to eat was there and on display.  I had some incredible, fresh-baked French macaroons and a peameal bacon sandwich from the world famous Carousel Bakery.  I wish I had more time to sample more food (as well as a fridge in the hotel room).  I also had a funny moment with a lady who I bought my sandwich from:

Lady: "Would you like something to drink with that?"
Me: *seeing only lemonade and iced tea* "Sure, do you have soda?"
Lady: *gives me a funny look*
Me: "Uh, I mean, do you have any pop?"
Lady: *pointing a finger at me a grinning* "Ha! Too late! You're American, aren't you?"
Me: *laughing* "Yeah, you got me.  I was trying to blend in!"

A foodie's paradise

The AGO had some cool architecture and a few interesting paintings (they had some great van Gogh stuff), but my absolute favorite part of the museum was the contemporary wing, specifically, the installation pieces.  My two favorites were "Storm Room" and "Killing Machine" by Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller (click on links for Youtube vids).  "Storm Room" recreates an entire thunderstorm in a small room that looks like it's straight out of an apartment in Tokyo.  I loved the light effects and the sound, which shook the room at times.  Actual water was even dripping in through the "roof."  The "Killing Machine" was a totally different experience.  It was very futuristic and set to some incredibly haunting music.  These two robotic arms moved around a chair and made loud noises (like air compressing) as needles shot out of their tips.  If someone actually sat in that chair, I think he or she would be seriously messed up.  The piece was aptly named.  It was something that I couldn't take my eyes off as soon as it started.  Once the performance ended, the lights turned off, and a single spot light shined over a giant red button with a label that said "push me."  It invited people to participate in the killing machine, which just adds to the creepy factor.  Fantastic piece.

The main entrance

Chinatown was like any other one I've been to, but on a much larger scale.  At one point, I seriously felt like I was somewhere in China.  Signs were all in Chinese, merchants hawked exotic fruits (think hairy, spikey, and brightly colored) in carts, and I even spotted a couple of ladies making fresh, sweet juice from real sugar cane.

This doesn't feel like Toronto anymore...

The Distillery District is a neat part of the city.  It's a mash-up of Victorian industrial buildings and machinery (left over from actual distilleries) with modernized art galleries, restaurants, cafes, and stores.  It began renovations and revitalization in the late 90's - early 2000's, and from what I saw, it looks like a hip, urban place for Toronto locals to hang out at night.  Dinner was at the delicious Archaeo Restaurant.  I had chicken stuffed with spinach and fontina cheese, served with mushroom risotto and eggplant ragout.  Everything was cooked perfectly, and I was surprised at how well the different flavors blended together.  If you're ever in Toronto, I'd highly recommend stopping at the Distillery District for a meal (or two) at Archeo or any of the other fine restaurants there.

Inside the Distillery District

And thus ends my adventure in Toronto.  I have to say, I loved the city.  It was really clean and the people were welcoming and friendly.  I'd like to come back some day.  Now, I know I poked some fun at Canada in this write-up, but I do it with all the love of a sibling teasing his twin.  I'm more than certain that Canadians enjoy poking fun at as Yanks, too.  But when push comes to shove, the US and Canada often stand shoulder to shoulder.  That's what it's all aboot, eh?