TORONTO CANADA

We had originally planned on going to Toronto the weekend of Thanksgiving before my mom's passing. Since the funeral was moved to the next week, we decided to still go to Toronto, especially since we had already paid for a hotel room. I am very glad we did. Once again, I didn't have time to sit around feeling sad, and I got to spend some awesome time with my own little family.

We left the morning I got off work. I got home, changed, packed the car, and we were off. The plan was for me to sleep in the car. We decided to drive through Port Huron. Unfortunately, when we got to the border, we realized we had grabbed Shade's birth certificate instead of Olive's...but they let us through anyway...so we decided to just go for it. If worse came to worse, we planned on coming back through Detroit and one of us could drive home and grab the birth certificate. Especially since Port Huron is an hour away from our house, we did not want to drive all the way back home and then turn around again.

TORONTO CITY PICS:



The first day we found some public parking and decided to do the CN Tower (LINK)that first day. It was pretty cool. We went up to the Look Out Level (1,136 ft) and got a spectacular view of Toronto and Lake Ontario. They have an outdoor Sky Terrace we got to walk around (it was pretty cold), and they have a glass floor you can see all the way down to the street. The elevator ride was pretty cool too, you can see outside as you go up and down. They also had a 3D movie about how they took inspiration of the shapes of airplanes from certain birds (specifically the albatross), and a little motion theater ride where we sat in a box that moved with the movie and sprayed water and air at us (Shade loved it). They also have a Sky Pod level (at 1,465 ft) where you can "walk on the edge" (they hook you up to the building and you can lean over the edge of the building) for an extra $12 per person. We decided not to do that one though. Then we went back, grabbed some pizza and went to bed.

CN TOWER PICS:



The next day we had planned to go to see a castle - Casa Loma (LINK) - and the Aquarium. We used the subway system this time because it was a $10 daily fair per family on the weekends. The castle was pretty cool. It was huge, with underground tunnels that went to a stable across the street, secret passageways, an indoor swimming pool (no water) and tall towers you could climb into for a great view of the city. There were also a lot of historical displays of Canada throughout the house, which was pretty cool. And in the basement there were pictures on the walls of all the different movies that had used that castle.

CASA LOMA PICS:



Then we grabbed some sandwiches in the subway eatery and went to the Aquarium(LINK). By far our most favorite part of the trip. We have been to aquariums before, but this was was stinking awesome. In fact, there was a huge line to get in, and there were soooo many people in there, we didn't get to see very much, so we decided to go around a second time. They had some awesome displays, but the best part was definitely the shark tunnel (Dangerous Lagoon). They even had a slow moving walkway that you could just stand on and it would take you through the tunnel slowly (I suppose to keep people from hanging out in the tunnel for long periods of time and blocking it off for everyone else). But it was amazing. I highly recommend it if anyone is ever in the Toronto area.

AQUARIUM PICS:



The next day we went to the Ontario Science Center (LINK). We just drove there since we were planning on going home when we were done. They didn't have any special displays the day we were there, but it was pretty awesome anyway. Even in the entry they had a long, big ruler that demonstrated human existence compared to the existence of earth. Shade loved building tracks for the plastic balls to roll on, and there were a lot of fun science learning activities (sound, perception, bugs, water, air, weight, etc). I also loved how they had an actual mother's lounge with a chair to sit in, changing table, toys, and a sink for us nursing moms. I only wish we could have had more time to spend there, we skipped through some of it pretty quickly.

SCIENCE CENTER PICS:



Then we started our drive home, hoping we would be able to get across the border without one of us having to drive all the way home to get a birth certificate... and the guy let us through! He kind of scolded us a bit ("what were you thinking...") and asked us all a bunch of questions, including Shade, but he let us through! I would definitely NOT recommend trying that, though. We were definitely lucky.

RANDOM PICS:
(The top: Olive managed to get both her legs in the same leg-hole in her pajamas, the rest are fun in the car)