Toronto
Our Niagara Falls driver dropped us off right in front of the downtown Toronto InterContinental. We grabbed our bags, got a cab to the lockbox, and the keys were actually there this time, yahoo! Finally we could settle in for our stay in Toronto!
The condo we rented, was actually great for what we needed, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, conveniently located, and a pretty good view. Now if only we had of been there on the first night, and if only they had of given us more than two 1/2 rolls of TP, and maybe left some kind of soap for doing dishes or using the washer. I guess our first grocery shop will include toilet paper.
It was a pretty long (and stressful) first 24 hours, so we ordered in some good old Toronto pizza for our first night.
CN Tower
In the morning we would walk over to the CN Tower for some top of the world views.
Used to be the world's tallest
high quality PanoramaIt's a long way to the top
It only takes 58 seconds to get to the main observation deck! Six high-speed glass-fronted elevators give you a breath-taking view as you race upwards at 22 kilometres per hour (15 mph)
Looking North
Looking EastLooking South East
Looking West
Looking Down
Pretty obvious?Skydome/Rogers CentreToronto Harbour
From the main observation deck you take another elevator and go an additional 33 stories to the Skypod. At 447 m (1,465ft) high above the city - SkyPod is one of the highest observation platforms in the world with a unique and spectacular view like no other.
From the Skypod you can clearly see people doing the Edgewalk (which is $250 per person, or I would have done it, for sure, yep, I would, honest), where you are rigged to a harness and walk around the perimeter of the main deck, and hand over the edge.
The Edgewalk is an absolute NO to a lot of people for fear reasons, another major hurdle for a lot of people's fears is walking across this glass floored portion of the tower. The floor is 23.8 square metres (256 sq. ft) of solid glass that is five times stronger than the required weight bearing standard for commercial floors. "It can actually withstand the weight of 35 moose", I have no idea how they tested that.
Some people are really freaked out by the glass floors. One lady preferred to wait an extra 30 minutes so she didn't have to get on this elevator, even though the window in the bottom was only about a foot across.
Taking the elevator back down, you can look out across Lake Ontario and the Toronto Islands, most importantly, you can see that the roof of Roger's Centre, home of the Blue Jays, is now open! After some much needed food, that's our next stop.
It's a short walk to the place I want to check out for food, it's called The Loose Moose
A cool little sports bar vibe with a wide variety of craft beers, including this 'Root' Beer that Heather is drinking. Nathan is still talking about his "The Woody" burger, not only was their bacon inside, but there was bacon ON the bun too! I went the small route and had the "Who shrank my Woody" sliders... also with Bacon on the buns.
After a good meal and a short rest at our condo, it's time to head to Roger's Centre for The first night of the 3 game homestand...
Blue Jays vs Red Sox. Let's Play Ball!!!
Our seats were just outside of the 1st base line, pretty good view for Nathan and Heather's first live Blue Jay game.
Steve PearceRyan Donaldson
Justin SmoakJose Bautista
Kendry MoralesKevin Pillar
It's a very nice stadium as you walk around the concourse, including great views of the CN Tower.
The Jays made a valiant effort getting within 1 run in the 9th inning, but we lost 5-6.
Canada's Wonderland
The next morning was all about excitement, we jumped in a cab and headed North to Canada's Wonderland. With sixteen roller coasters, Canada's Wonderland is ranked third in the world by number of roller coasters, after Six Flags Magic Mountain (19 coasters) and Cedar Point (17 coasters). The 330-acre park also includes a 20-acre water park named Splash Works, we'll have to go back to check that part out with a better clothing plan.
Nathan and Heather took turns wimping out on coasters, and Norine and I took turns wimping out on spinny rides.
One of my highlights was the Wild Beast, it is one of the four roller coasters that debuted with the park in 1981, and is one of two wooden coasters at Canada's Wonderland modeled after a ride at Coney Island amusement park in Cincinnati, Ohio. The other wooden one is the Mighty Canadian Minebuster which Nathan and I rode later.
Entrance to Planet SnoopyRubber Ducks for charity
We certainly could have used a lot more time at Wonderland, but it was a pretty damn fun day, even with the long lineups for rides and especially food. Next time its a 2 day trip, one for the main park and one for the water park.
It was a long drive back into Toronto with busy traffic, but our cab driver got us back in time for Blue Jays Game #2.
For this game we were on the 3rd base line, and even better views of the CN Tower with the roof open.
This game started good, 0-0 heading into the sixth inning, then Boston got 3 runs in the next 3 innings, and we got none, another loss 0-3. At least the night-time views of CN Tower were good, did you know it does a light show on the hour?
On this morning we would do a little City exploring using the Hop On - Hop Off bus system. Pay a fee, and get on or off at any stop of their circuit, another bus will be along every 15 minutes to continue your tour.
You just never know what oddities you will see when you walk the streets. To get away from the busy streets, we walked over to the shoreline.
One of the unique aspects of Toronto's Hop On - Hop Off bus tours, is that they also include a Harbour tour as part of the price.
An interesting fact about Toronto, the citizens voted into law that the Toronto Islands airport can not have any jet based planes to reduce noise and disturbance, and the International airport is not allowed to have any flights arrive after 11pm for the same reason. When you are in the harbour, you are directly below the flight path for the smaller planes. You also have the best views of Toronto's skyline.
The Toronto Islands are a chain of small islands in the western part of Lake Ontario. The Islands are located just offshore from the city centre, and provide shelter for Toronto Harbour. The islands are home to parkland, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, several yacht clubs, Centreville Amusement Park, and Hanlan's Beach. The island community is considered to be the largest urban car-free community in North America, and the only access to the Islands is by ferry or water taxis.
A very nice and informative cruise around the Toronto islands, and back to the Toronto shores. From here we could get on the Hop On - Hop Off Bus, which would take us around all the key neighborhoods of Toronto..
The Hockey Hall of FameThe Famous Dog Fountain
Eaton Centre area looks like a mini Time's Square, it attracts the most visitors of any of Toronto's tourist attractions. It is North America's busiest mall, largely because of extensive transit access and tourist traffic. The centre sees more annual visitors than Disneyland and Walt Disney World combined, the Las Vegas Strip, either of the two busiest malls in the United States (Mall of America and Ala Moana Center), or Central Park in New York City. We decided to skip it... mainly for that reason.
Such a great mix of new and old, classic and modern buildings.
The architecture of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM for short) is quite stunning.
The Toronto Legislative buildings are also stunning, but in a different way. Very different from some of the other modern structures in the area like the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario for long) and the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD for short).
Some of the funniest sights were the shops, as interesting as Saks Fifth Ave is, nothing beats a vacant store for creative minds, or the infamous "Oh! We Got Balls!" restaurant.
Unfortunately we just didn't have time to check out the Bata shoe museum, maybe next time. 
We finished our bus tour just in time for Blue Jays Game #3, the last of our 3 game home stand.
The roof of Rogers Centre was closed for the start of the game, and the highlight of the night was when the roof opened during the 4th inning. The stadium went from a hot stuffy stadium, to a nice summer breezy ball park.
It looked pretty good, tied at one run a piece going into the 7th, then the Jays bullpen collapsed and we lost 1-7.
Nestled right beneath the CN Tower is the Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, this was something Nathan and Heather really wanted to see.
The shark and Ray section was definitely a hit.
Especially cool (or creepy, depending how you see things) is the clear tunnels you walk through and have sharks above and beside you.
From the sharks and rays it was in to the touch ponds.
Throughout this area they had some things you could touch, and some things you most definitely could not touch!
The last big area was the Jellyfish area, definitely the most colourful room in the place.
Here is where I teach the kids about how green screens works.
I had some doubts about how much we would all enjoy the Aquarium, but it was really interesting, as well as mesmerizing, and a morning well spent. That left us the afternoon to continue our 48 hours of Hop On-Hop Off privileges to explore more of the city.
Back past some of the areas we had seen before including the Theatre district, but this time on the other side of the bus.
Riding the same bus route again, just to reach our ultimate destination for the day, Casa Loma.
Casa Loma is a Gothic Revival style house and gardens, that is now a museum and landmark. The former home of Canadian financier Sir Henry Pellatt, Canada's foremost castle is complete with decorated suites, secret passages, an 800-foot tunnel, towers, stables, and beautiful 5-acre estate gardens. Begun in 1911, it took 300 men nearly 3 years to complete and cost $3,500,000 at that time. Sir Henry enjoyed Casa Loma for less than 10 years before financial misfortune forced him to abandon his castle home.
From the basement, a block long dark and eery tunnel takes you to the stables, a greenhouse, and a garage.
Back down the tunnel to the main castle which consists of 4 floors, 98 rooms, 30 bathrooms, 25 fireplaces, and several towers.
With the large hall at the center of the Castle, one direction took you into long ago history, the other took you into a room of oddities.
Lord and Lady Pellatt had separate elegant bedrooms, and even the guest bedrooms were well furnished.
From the towers, the view is amazing... problem is it's a one at a time spiral climbing staircase. If someone is going the other way, one of you has to back up to the next floor.
While we are on the top of the castle, we see a vast collection of planes flying past in formation. Apparently it was part of a historic colour change for the Royal Canadian Air Force, the flypast included vintage aircraft from the Second World War and aircraft from current RCAF fleets. The Canadian Forces Snowbirds and the CF-18 Demonstration Hornet, which will be in Toronto for the Canadian International Air Show a few days later. We had a good view, but they were far away, sorry for the lousy pictures.
Back down the spiral staircases, we head outside for a better look at the castle, the back gardens are beautiful.
That is where we had lunch on the terrace overlooking the city.
The front of the place isn't too shabby either.
From Casa Loma we got back on our bus for the ride back through the University district into town.
The OCAD building is such a unique artistic structure, Looking like a large checkerboard table supported by pencil crayons.
From our bus stop to our condo to pack up and head home. It was good stay at the condo, even if it started quite rocky, and the trip ended with a taxi taking 45 minutes longer to arrive than it should. When the driver apologized and asked us when we were supposed to be at the airport, I told him "15 minutes ago"... amazingly, he got us there in record time.
The purpose of our trip was to come see the Blue Jays in their home ball park as Norine's birthday gift, unfortunately we didn't see any wins. Bringing Nathan and Heather allowed them to achieve so many firsts in their travel history, and hopefully encourages them to travel more in the future. For us, it was a great experience to see places we haven't seen like Niagara Falls, and spend some quality time having fun with our niece and nephew... Mission accomplished!