Number of Miles Driven: 70
States Driven Through: Ontario
Hours Driven: ~4 - 4.5 hours (Toronto traffic...ughhh)
Everyone seemed to get a good night sleep – it rained
through the night but we all stayed dry in the tent. We had a leisurely
morning, and Michael made eggs and bacon for breakfast. Not to jinx anything,
but the kids were already more pleasant to be around – not getting upset if
someone said the wrong thing, not complaining about getting the last plate of
breakfast (and perhaps we were too - ha!).
We hit the road for Toronto by 9:15 and our first stop was
Casa Loma – we got there around 10:45 – about a half hour longer than expected
– but that seems to be the MO for Toronto no matter the destination. The castle
was built in the early 1900s but the owners (Pellatt family) were only able to
live there for approximately 10 years before it was taken over by the city due
to financial strains. It cost $3.35 million dollars to build and it was
designed after European Edwardian castles (if it was Canadian money then it
would be cheaper in US dollars – Andrew reminds us of that every time he wants
to buy a souvenir – every…time..).
We didn’t have a lot of time before our next scheduled
activity, so we went through the tour rather quickly – but it was still
interesting to read about its history and see all the ornate rooms. There were
secret passageways and tunnels to the Carriage House. We got to go into one of
the Towers and look out over Toronto. I think the kids’ favorite part of the
house was their “Hollywood” section where they had a red carpet walkway and wax
figures of the different actors who have starred in movies that have taken
place at the castle – a lot of famous actors in “B” movies (e.g., Chris Evans,
Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Alba, Samuel Jackson, Mike Myers, Paul Walker,
etc). I had never heard of any of the movies.
We thought the best rooms were the conservatory – a
glassed-in rotunda with marble planters and floors; the library –
floor-to-ceiling mahogany shelves and herringbone-patterned wood floors; and
Peacock Alley – the main hallways with arched ceilings.
The Main Staircase |
View of Toronto Downtown Skyline from the Tower |
Peacock Alley |
Main Lobby |
All-Marble, 6-headed shower |
The Carriage House - Carolyn's Favorite |
Conservatory |
We had lunch at the castle to save time and then headed to the CN Tower. We originally planned to walk to our Toronto destinations, but it was over 1 mile between them, so we hopped in the car and braved the Toronto traffic. It took us 30 minutes to go one mile – reminders of why we like Raleigh 😊 Fun Fact – Toronto is the most populous city in Canada.
The CN tower is located next to Rogers Centre, so we also
got to see the home of the Blue Jays. It looks more like a coliseum than a
baseball stadium. There was a home game that night so we saw lots of Blue Jay
and San Francisco Giants fans.
We took the 1-minute ride up the elevators – the kids had a
good look out the glass windows. They even had glass sections in the floors,
and that was a little unsettling to look down the 114 stories of the elevator
shaft. The kids were a little more hesitant looking out the floor-to-ceiling
glass panels than I expected them to be, and they were basically ready to go
back down as soon as we went up. Carolyn and Matthew were most anxious about
it, but none of the kids seemed that excited about it. They were more
interested in watching themselves in the mirrored ceilings than in looking out
at Toronto. In their defense, the overcast day with the smoke and clouds made
it difficulty to see much. We got
glimpses of Lake Ontario and the skyline of Toronto, but it wasn’t the best.
Lake Ontario and the Toronto Skyline in the background |
Now all we see if fog/smoke (?) |
Looking up at the glass ceilings |
By now, it was 3:15,
and we’ve learned from previous vacations to not squeeze in too many
activities, so Michael and I decided we would head back to the campsite and forgo
the Royal Ontario Museum. Doing so would give us a jumpstart on traffic and the
kids could have a leisurely time at the campsite. Apparently, Andrew was “most
excited” about the Royal Ontario Museum so when we proposed our plan, he was
not happy. The other kids preferred to go back to the campsite but didn’t seem
too bothered by going to the museum, so we decided to drive through the
downtown traffic once more (and pay to park once more) so Andrew could go to
the museum. We had bought the City Pass, and that was one of the included
activities, so we hated for it to go to waste.
The ROM did not disappoint. It had the largest collection of
dinosaur fossils (real and replicated) that I’ve seen. There was even a
gigantic sloth on display. We saw a section of African art/artifacts as well as
Egyptian and Chinese artifacts. Dani and Matthew especially liked the bat cave
and polar bear/snake display. There were sets of armor on display and everyone
liked those. I really liked the sarcophagi in the Egyptian display.
The museum closed at 5:30 so we hit up the museum on the way
out. Luckily everything was super expensive which made it easy to say no to all the souvenir requests. There was a
stuffed triceratops that Dani loved, but it was $40 (Canadian money, though).
We were exhausted and headed back to our campsite. But it took 1 hour to drive 2 miles through downtown Toronto. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get back to the campsite and we hadn’t had dinner yet, so we quickly heated up some chili. While we were cooking, we sent the kids to the playground to run off some energy. They met kids their age (Olivia was 5 and Connor was 11) and had a blast playing with them. You could hear them from the camp site and they came back clearly excited about their game of tag they called “Men vs. Women.” They came back for a quick bowl of chili and then went back to play on the playground – it was great that it was so close to our campsite. We wrapped up the night with a round of s’mores. Andrew is getting MUCH better at roasting marshmallows.
We called it a night around 10:15 and the kids asked for a
“romantic story,” so I told them the story of how Dad and I met. They seemed to
be enjoying it – and Michael pitched in a few thoughts (and differing perspectives) here and there. When we
got to the engagement part, we said “To be Continued” and of course they
grumbled their displeasure with having to wait and turn off the lights.
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