That's my boo!
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Toronto 25th Anniversay Trip Recap
Because the blog layout starts to cut off links to posts after so many, I always like to do a recap post to make things easier to navigate. Mari made this nifty collage!
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Canatlanta
After a really great three days, it's already over. Our 25th Anniversary flight takes us back to Atlanta for a few hours, and then back home to Nashville. Time well spent!
Friday, October 27, 2023
Hot In Toronto
They did have a "Nashville Hot Chicken" sandwich so I had to get it, having been denied earlier. Pretty good but not quite as good as the places back home.
Poutine It To The Test
Along with Tim Horton's, we knew another Canadian specialty was poutine. Which is basically french fries covered in cheese curds and gravy (though there are many variations.) It was....ok. Not bad, not great, nothing we felt we'd need to try again.
Union Insider
The top level has a beautiful domed and highly ornate main area, while the levels below are much more modern and fit in with the PATH system.
Canadian Lion
Mari loves lion statues, and we were pleasantly surprised to find this one around the corner as we were looking for a place to cross the street to Union Station.
Going Union
With the city tour concluded we were dropped off at the hotel and decided to explore the historic Union Station across the street. The statue out front is supposed to be a tribute to multiculturalism and was installed in 1985.
Kayaking It Up
More of the islands and a local kayaker out for a row. The tour itself was decent, but the islands looked a lot alike, what made it was the history and commentary from the captain and the guide. They were great throughout.
Inclusive Waters
The view of the city from the far side of the islands. You can see on the right the Island Yacht Club. It was started in 1951 by some Jewish sailing enthusiasts. They wanted to join the Toronto Yacht Club but at the time were discriminated against because of their religion. So they bought some land on the islands and started their own. It's open to anyone who can afford a yacht and a berth.
Peninsunot
The islands used to all be one peninsula, but waters rose and broke the land up into what it is today.
Toronto Islands
The tour took us out and around the Toronto Islands, a string of 15 small islands where no cars or other motor vehicles are allowed. Some of the islands are populated, some are nature preserves, and some are recreational parks. Lots of bicycling, kayaking and pedal boats.
Short Landing
Toronto Bay, complete with a small plane coming in for a landing at the airport we saw from the CN Tower earlier in the day.
The Skipper And ...
The captain (white shirt) and the tour guide (blue windbreaker, not the same one who has been driving us around, she stayed on shore because she's been on this tour many, many times) were both very witty, entertaining and informative
A Three Hour Tour
Here's our mighty vessel, though the tour was actually just a little over an hour.
Again With The Boats
Mari is not a huge fan of boats, but over the last 25 years and the adventures we've been on, somehow it seems like a boat gets involved quite a lot. The final part of the city tour is a boat tour of the Toronto Bay, which is what Torontonians (official label) call their shore of Lake Ontario.
A Real Meat Market
After some time spent exploring just a fraction of the Path, it was time to load up and do a little more city touring. The next leg ended at the Saint Lawrence Market South. Built in 1845 as a court and jailhouse, it's a huge old three story building that's now Toronto's largest fresh food marketplace. Kind of like a farmer's market, lots of stalls with fruits, vegetables, and a huge section in the middle with every kind of fresh cut meat you could think of. There were also various food stalls so we had lunch here. A little hot inside, but it was a nice day and there were plenty of benches outside to sit at. It's called Market South because its so popular they are building a modern counterpart across the street which will be called St. Lawrence Market North, its almost done and expected to open before the year is out.
Nice Path
You don't really feel like you're three stories underground either, there are lots of wide places and most of what we saw was very modern and clean. This lounging area run by the bank RBC is on the ground level but is still part of Path, you can see the escalators leading to the lower levels. Really interesting and quite a feat of human engineering.
Paths Everywhere
The Path is a multilevel set of "tunnels" for lack of a better word that connects most of downtown Toronto including our hotel and the train station across the street. Many of the subways stops are in the Path system. Because the winters are so harsh, you can basically go underground and never have to walk the streets. They aren't just tunnels, any kind of business you can think of can be found somewhere in the Path system. It's the largest underground system in the world and in 2016 had over 1,200 retail fronts, which has only grown since then.
On The Right PATH
From the Square there was what looked like a subway entrance, stairs down into the earth. It was marked with a PATH sign (referenced earlier), and we finally got to learn what that was.
Old Hall
Across the street from Nathan Phillips Square is the Old City Hall. It was built in 1899 and at the time as the biggest structure in the city. Now it's used as a court house.There's a large clock tower off to the right I didn't get in the picture, and it's covered in really cool gargoyles. I don't know why we stopped putting gargoyles on buildings.
Signing In
The tour guide took us through a few areas of the city via driving tour, then the next stop was Nathan Phillips Square. I had not heard of it before but apparently the Toronto sign here is pretty famous and people come from all over to have their picture taken with it. The guide said it was good timing on our part because there are usually tons of people all around the sign. It was built for the 2015 Pan American Games and was supposed to be torn down at the end of the games, but it became an instant hit so it remains to this day. In the winter the reflecting pool ices over and is free for skating. It was undergoing some maintenance when we were there, hence it not being totally full of water. You can see a bit of one of the three arches that go over the pool. Those are the Freedom Arches, built in 1989 to commemorate those who fought to obtain or defend freedom. Pieces of the Berlin Wall were used in the bases of some of the arches.
Real Love
At the bottom of the tower they had a photo op of course, so this is ground level, but the love is the same!
25 Year High
The glass floor level has a wall with a large video screen. Me and my boo 1,800 feet high.
Skywalker
A quick video of me walking across the glass floor. I fully admit it took me a minute to work up the nerve. My brain knew it was safe but my body was telling me this was not a good ideal.
High Stepping
One floor down from the 360 viewing level was a solid walled area, but it had large, transparent floor panels you could walk on. It definitely made the knees wobble scooting out onto them and looking down.
Skyline Interlude
This section of the city contains the Fiarmont Royal York, there with the teal tower, and Union Station as well. Where the street curves to the left a little past the hotel is the where the mall with the Hockey Hall of Fame is.
Toronto View
You can see why it's so popular though, there's an observation level with 360 degree glass so you can visually explore the entire city. Starting here, with the lake and the small Billy Bishop Airport for prop planes only.
Around Toronto
Today we started a small group, guided tour of Toronto bright an early. We felt like we probably should have done this tour first, but we'd enjoyed everything so far so no regrets. The tour began at the iconic CN Tower. Opened in 1975 the tower is 1,815.3 ft tall and remains the tallest free standing structure in North America. It was built because all the new skyscrapers popping up in the downtown area were blocking radio and TV signals. This is no longer such an issue but it's still used as a communications tower, alongside being a very popular tourist attraction.
Thursday, October 26, 2023
Landing In A Sticky Situation
We wandered the city for a little while, then explored the tunnels underneath our hotel which we would later learn were part of the PATH system. More on that tomorrow. We ended the night at a restaurant near the hotel called Kellys Landing. Cool, urban atmosphere and good food but the real showstopper was that they had one of Mari's favorite desserts, sticky toffee pudding. It was amazing! Maybe the best one we've had.
Hall of Fame Wife
The hand stamp from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Mari indulged me by going but it turned out to be far bigger and interesting than we expected, we spent over two hours there! She even admitted she enjoyed most of it! That's 25 years of love for you.
Tim's
Tim Horton played hockey for the Toronto Maple Leafs for many years before ending his career as a Buffalo Saber back in 1974. He then opened a restaurant called Tim Horton's. This uniquely Canadian chain has exploded, there are literally everywhere (at least in Toronto.) They are kind of like a combination of Dunkin and Fast Food. After the Hall of Fame we stopped in for a bite and had to try the famous timbits donut holes.
Defense
While on the other there were screens with slots that would randomly shoot out pucks and you could play at being a goalie.
Offense
Finally, there was yet another large area in the very back where you could play a little hockey. One side had a screen you could shoot pucks at.
Kraken Out
My hockey mojo is so strong that just considering moving to the Seattle area sparked another expansion, and the Kraken were born. Only in their 2nd year I am an instant fan. Love the team name and really like the jersey colors as well.
We Want Some More Of It
There's a pattern here. I left Arizona and moved to the hockeyless Nashville area, only the very year I moved there the NHL expanded again and announced that Nashville would get their own team. I really feel like any place I move will get a hockey team, so if anyone wants to pay me to move there let's talk.
Anyway, the Predators came into being and have been my number one team since 1998.
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