| When we left Niagara, I had a rough idea as to where we would be heading. I had been to Toronto on one of my annual baseball trips with my father and was relatively familiar with the area. However, we rolled right past Toronto onto a dusty road to a town called Kettleby. There we were met by a man on a fence... |  |
| I remarked to myself that this man bore a similar visage to Cindy's mother and sure enough this was her uncle Eric, seen here seated with his hospitable wife Debbie. |  |
| Before Eric was allowed out to play, he had to take care of Richard, their horse. |  |
| He also had to take care of some "serious business" of a smelly nature. Here, Eric is doing his best American Gothic impression, not too shabby! |  |
| With the lawns mowed (mostly), horse cared for, and Cindy and Christopher fed, we took off for Toronto where we were treated to a great view from Eric's office. The CN tower here on the right is the tallest building around. The Toronto Skydome is seen peaking out of the lower right side as well. Lake Ontario plays the background. |  |
| More views from the office. This would be as high as we would go on this day. We tried to ascend to the top of the CN Tower, but it was not to be as the wait was over 1 hour. We touched the base and jumped off a park bench and that was about as close to the CN tower we got this time. This is one thing that will bring Cindy back to Toronto, although I think her seeing me cringe at the heights would have been half her fun. Grumble... |  |
| There is a small bay between Toronto and this small island. Here is another of Eric and another of his nieces, Samantha, walking along the docks. These docks are very safe as you can see by the hook, ladder and float ring station which appeared every 20 feet or so along the water's edge. |  |
| Your brave adventurers walking along the docks. |  |
| Eric and his nieces along the docs. |  |
| After walking along the docks, we finally arrived at the ferry. Collecting our US and Canadian currency we hustled our way onto a boat to the island. I now know what it must have felt like on Ellis Island. When we arrived there were over 1000 people all crammed in trying to get on the boat to the center of the island. We opted for the less travelled Ward's Island ferry which let us off on the opposite side of all the mayhem. The island wasn't long, and we walked back to the center docks in less than 30 minutes. |  |
| Here we are heading back to Toronto. You can see much of the skyline in the background. |  |
| Eric knows Toronto very well. He took us all around and showed every sight of even the most remote significance. After walking to the CN Tower and meeting with the aforementioned line, we trucked over to the trolley cars which crisscross Toronoto. We rode it to Chinatown where there happened to be the Toronto Chinese Culture Festival going on. Sam is posing infront of some dragons which can be found at the trolley stops in Chinatown. |  |
| Eric and Cindy at some dragons. The street vendors were selling everything and anything from jems to pokemon cards, from life insurance to thai massages. At either end of the festival were show stages with performances. We have video of these, one side being traditional Chinese provincial dancers, the other traditional Chinese teenage punk rockers. By the time we left, I was humming Mandarin tunes, and was the proud owner of 2 new Phi-Ugi-Manders and was fully insured against locusts and raiders. |  |
| Chinatown always presents an assorment of signs sounds and flavors which you may not encounter in your daily life. This fruit, "sweet rambutain", looks like strawberries with whiskers, but is hard on the outside. We think they are lychees, as when they are peeled they reveal a fleshy inside. By the way, I saw a t-shirt for sale here, it had a check list of things to do in Toronto it went something like this: SARS, West Nile, SARS Again, Mad Cow. Hmmm... |  |
| Queen Street in Toronto was described as the "funky" place where all the goth kids hang out. It was definitely a trendy and hip spot akin to Philadelphia's South Street or New York's Village. We heard rumors about seeing people who glow on Queen Street. The only people we saw were the hip-sters and a few wayward bingo players. |  |
| After an exquisite french meal, we rolled ourselves back out onto Queen St. for a group picture. (left to right: Cindy, Sam, Tyler, Debbie and Eric) |  |
| The next morning, we woke bright and early to prepare the car and get moving. Before we left, we took a quick break and said good bye to Richard the horse. |  |
| One last photo opportunity before leaving Kettleby. |  |
| Next up, Chicago! :: << prev trip :: blog :: next trip >> | |