Chapter 1- Toronto: Toronto and Ottawa Canada- a trip with friends!

Every year, usually in the fall, my friends Claire, Ellen, and Maureen, take a trip somewhere.  Last year it was Montreal and Quebec City.  In the past, we have taken US trips to Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Massachusetts, and DC.  Two years ago, we had the chance to stay in Hilton Head!  An otherwise unattainable stay, our friend Seton's sister has a home there, so a stay it was😀.  This year, Seton joined us for our trip to Toronto and Ottawa.  He fit in perfect with our traveling group with his fresh enthusiasm for doing things, his humor, and his lack of fear to change plans mid-stream!

We chose Toronto and Ottawa because we love Canada and decided to see as much as possible.  So glad we did- really great cities!  The only downside was, as usual, there is never enough time!!!  When planning, everyone gets to choose their "must do" activities, which we use as the framework for the trip, then fill in the remaining time with other activities.

Toronto Chapter

Toronto is truly a world class city!  With currently a rate of 50% foreign born, this city is truly multi-cultural.  You know what that means: great food!!!!  Toronto is also the safest city according to the UN.  Toronto is also the financial center of Canada, so the high-rise buildings are really impressive!

left to right: Ellen, Maureen, me, Seton and Claire

The night/early morning scenes of Toronto are just spectacular!

I HAD to photograph this very cool Toronto sign!  Located next to the old town hall
the sign changes colors and has a reflection pool in front.  We all sat in the "O" for a photo, but
it is too far to see us.

Things to see and do in Toronto!

The Distillery District- an old area of Toronto, this area has been transformed into shops, restaurants, and distilleries!  

We tasted different whiskies at the York Distillery- really a beautiful place! (https://spiritofyork.com/tour-taste/)
We tasted the whiskey, vodka and gin.  Not a gin lover, but it was quite good!

They also had a sake distillery!!!!

The Distillery District is very photogenic!!!

The Old Town Hall, although not a tourist site, per se, this is such a cool old building both during the day and at night!

I loved this caption on the monument in front- particularly cool since we are approaching Halloween🤣

The train station- one of the largest open spaces in Toronto

The statuary in front of the rail station shows the magnitude of the building- Claire is waving hi!

The National Hockey Museum

The CN Tower- magnificent tower!  We did not go to the top😢- the wait time was too long, but still- amazing.

The St. Lawrence Market- a gigantic indoor market with food of every kind, beautiful vegetables, and restaurants!!!

Spiderman was in town!!!!  There was a cosplay convention in town, so got to see tons of cool people!!

Casa Loma (https://casaloma.ca/), the castle of Toronto, is just incredible!!!  Beautiful old manor house well worth the time it takes!  (Sir Henry Pellatt, the dreamer behind Toronto’s famous heritage site; Casa Loma, was born to his British parents in Kingston, Ontario on January 6, 1859.  Ambitious from his youth, Sir Henry Pellatt left his studies at Upper Canada College when he was seventeen to pursue a career in commerce in the family business. By the age of twenty-three, he became a full partner in his father’s stock brokerage firm Pellatt and Pellatt. That year was also marked by his marriage to Mary Dodgeson, whom he met when he was twenty.  Even as a young man, Henry Pellatt embraced the spirit of the family motto “Devant Si Je Puis” or “Foremost If I Can”. When he met his bride-to-be, Sir Pellatt had already achieved local renown in 1879 for beating the U. S. amateur champion of the one mile race. Travels to Europe gave him the love for fine art and architecture, which would spur his vision of Casa Loma-“House on the Hill.” This romantic side was mirrored by his other lifelong passion-his involvement with the military, specifically the Queen’s Own Rifles.)- from Wikipedia

Our group at the front door

 The building itself is really something to behold!!!  The builder had toured Europe and wanted a castle like home, so incorporated many architectural castle styles when planning.

hallway!

conservatory

main entry

servants room- it was reported the servants rooms were heated, something not common in this era

view from the castle

the tower had what looked like vines growing through it- it was styrofoam, because.....

There was a dragon in the tower!!!!!!  So cool!!!!

Huge military museum on the second floor- historical rifles, uniforms, history of Canadian military involvement

main bedroom (note the tiger rug)

The  castle had a GREAT Halloween theme- a whole walkway under the home was decorated!!!  I took a video of it, but sadly, videos cannot be uploaded to this blog.  Trust me!  It was very cool and VERY well done!

Niagara Falls!!!  A day trip to Niagara Falls and the surrounding area was just fantastic!!!  We spent several hours at Niagara Falls, then to Niagara on the Lake- the cutest town EVER!, then to a local winery!  Great Day!  Funny story about Niagara Falls: both Maureen and I wanted to walk across the Rainbow Bridge, the bridge between Canada and the US.  We were told in Toronto we could not do it as there was not enough time with the few ours we had there.  We get to Niagara Falls and ask the tourist office and they looked at us quizzically and said it takes about 10 minutes🤣🤣🤣.  So we did walk it!  Sadly, we did not enter the US to visit the US side of Niagara because, well, who really wants to go through US customs unless you have to.  But, we crossed back into Canada and received a Canada- Rainbow Bridge stamp in our passports- score!!!!

View of both falls: the US falls are flat and the Canadian falls are horse shoe shaped

Canadian falls- the tour boat gives it a scale!

elevator for the US side

had to have a picture with this Inukchuk!

our group on the Rainbow Bridge

me 1/2 in Canada, 1/2 in US

our group at the US customs border (we didn't enter the US)

Rainbow Bridge

The area is so beautiful!!

American Falls

our group at the falls

The Hershey and Coke store on the Canada side are very cool!

Niagara on the Lake- the cutest town I never hear of!  About 30 minutes from the Falls, this town just caught our breath from cuteness!!  So glad we stopped here!

The Prince of Wales hotel is quite old (https://www.vintage-hotels.com/princeofwales/) and quite beautiful!

the bar

The interior and exterior are so beautiful, 

the bar

sitting area

stained glass in another sitting area

exterior

The main street of this town- with some of the store fronts.  The town is filled with cute shops and restaurants.

And they have a Starbucks in this building from 1830!!!

Who knew there are wineries in Canada!!!  Known for Ice Wine, a super sweet wine made from frozen grapes, is actually quite good!  According to the guide, this wine was discovered by accident- the grapes had frozen, but still required harvesting.  The grapes were taken and crushed.  The water in the grapes freezes, but the nectar does not.  Ice wine requires three times as many grapes as "regular" wine as the amount of nectar is so low.  That is why the bottles of Ice Wine are much smaller

Claire and I in the vinyard

The interior of the winery

To sum up Toronto- great city for everyone!!  Whatever your likes: museums, sports (hockey, of course, is huge, and we were reminded MANY times they won the basketball championship🤣🤣🤣), food, museums, architecture, tons of things to do and see, and day trips, this city will meet all your needs.  We all agreed we needed more time!