Toronto, Canada

So, northward to Toronto. It was an easy drive to Toronto, or at least it would have been had I been able to have my GPS. We got directions online and wrote them down so the GPS didn't have to run up an insane cell phone bill for me. But without that little blue triangle following the little yellow road on a screen right in front of my face, I somehow missed an exit or merge or something and we got lost. But I still manged to keep us on the right track and when we stopped for directions we were only about ten minutes from our hotel. (I won't go into detail about the 40 minute detour east that we took on the way home as it's a touchy subject for me). GPS has ruined me.

Street of Chinatown

Our hotel was in the center of Chinatown. Really. The building it was in was called Chinatown Center. The bottom three floors were all these Chinese stores and food places. Then the top floors were the hotel. It was pretty cool.  Five or six blocks in any direction was all Chinese stores and restaurants. Obviously we ate Chinese food our first night. It wasn't as easy to do as it seemed like it should have been. Because true Chinese food is...way different than Panda Express. Kensington Market is a well touted area of Chinatown to shop - although it includes food and items from cultures around the world. It's a little scary to walk to, and I'm not sure what time things are supposed to open. So it was a little underwhelming for us.

Hudson

We spent the first full day we were there at the Toronto Zoo. What a great (and large) zoo. It was basically like any other zoo, only all the animals were Canadian. The best thing about this zoo was the baby animals. A baby golden tamarin and a four month old polar bear named Hudson. My highlight was watching Hudson play with a large paper back, trying to kill it. You certainly need several hours to see the entire zoo.

Pachycephalosaurus fossil from ROM

On the next full day we visited the Royal Ontario Museum. It was also quite large...apparently there's a theme in Toronto. The dinosaur exhibit was fantastic. Fossils from dinosaurs I've never seen. Otherwise, an average, large, museum. Towards the end we were just walking through exhibits, or deciding what we really didn't care about seeing. Probably not the best place for younger kids.

We took the elevator up to the top of the CN Tower, one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. We looked straight down to the ground from 1,122 feet in the air through the Glass Floor. Although we wanted to go up to the Sky Pod, the highest accessible point of the tower, it was closed due to winds. The Tower also hosts a rotating restaurant, a gift shop, 3D movie, and more.

View of Toronto from the top of the CN Tower

There's slightly more French in Toronto, but still nothing to worry about. Driving is still relatively easy, although you need to watch out of the street cars. You'd think they'd have their own lanes to drive in, but no.  You could pull out and hit one, or have to drive behind one. Also Toronto offered up a unique food choice that we did not delve into...poutine. It's french fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. They had me until the word curd. And the word poutine, because that just doesn't sound appetizing.  They might even ask you if you just want gravy on your fries. No thanks, just ketchup.

I think Toronto would have had a lot more to do during the summer. There is a theme park out on one of the islands, plus all the water sports to be enjoyed on the lake. It's a beautiful and very culturally diverse city, but isn't necessarily touristy. At least not in winter months. But...I still loved it and am glad we decided to include it in our Canadian vacation!