Advertisement
Published: January 18th 2011
P1000198
christmas lights at the beaches!hello everyone!
here goes the first blog entry!
well i have been in toronto since i left calgary on the 10th and what a whirlwind trip it has been! aaron and kathy met me at the toronto airport with a long-stemmed toblerone bar... what a way to a girls heart! we drove through toronto getting the quick tour of all the sites via the roadways and had a brief stop off in greek town for some awesome souvlaki! that night aaron and i went for a brisk walk down at the beach boardwalk. on tuesday we got up bright an early to go to the royal ontario museum (rom). what a great museum! they has an amazingly beautiful native art exhibit, lots of cedar strip canoes, beautiful beadwork pieces and some soapstone carvings from up north. the rom also has a great natural history exhibit too... lots of dino bones and a cool case of birds from around the world.. some of which i might be able to see in south america! from the rom we took a tour down to the cbc building... and went to visit my good buddy george strombolopolous (for those of you who don't
P1000211
aarons cat sonic! know he hosts used to host "the hour" which is now "the george show" a late night current events show on cbc) anyway the first part of my christmas present from aaron was tickets to a taping of the george show! so wearing my pink plaid cowgirl shirt (thanks mum... (she insisted i wear something calgary to the show...)) we watched george interview the ceo of world vision via video conference in haiti, peter weir (director of the truman show) and josh groban (an ok singer). of course the true rockstar that i was there to see was george and he was great... he is quite a nice guy in person. during the filming breaks he let the audience ask questions so naturally i asked him if he had ever been to the stampede and he said no... so of course he got an invitation to the joffe family tailgate party at the stampede parade. he also mentioned that he like my cowboy shirt.... that's for you mum. after the show aaron and i took a couple pictures with george and in the iconic red chairs, it was awesome! anyway enough about george... after that we went for sushi and
P1000309
outside the cbc building then met up with aaron's friend mark and nicola for drinks.
the next morning we got up,did a bit of running around and then made our way to the art gallery of ontario (ago). they have an exhibit on the maharajah right now which was beautiful! all kinds of beautiful garb, jewelery, pillows, scrolls, even cars! we also checked out some of the modern art, contemporary native art and the mesmerizing group of seven floor! fantastic! from the ago we made our way to union station (also beautiful) and caught a via rail train (the second part of my christmas present from aaron) to niagara falls! this was both my first time on a train and my first time to niagara! the train ride was fun but the falls are UNREAL! so so beautiful! the coolest part is that we got ungraded to the presidential suite at our hotel!!! fireplace, whirlpool, and a breathtaking view of both the american and canadian falls through an eight panel wrap around window! uh-mazing! we went for a nice dinner in the hotel as well, martini's by the falls as aaron and i have been referring to it as. and we also had
P1000319
aaron and i with george an amazing breakfast at the hotel the next morning, omelets and fruit salad and pastries. then we spent all of thursday hanging around the falls, we took tons of pictures and also did the 'behind the falls' tour which was neat. we then caught the train back to toronto and met up with aaron's friend ashlyn for coffee and then went to mark and nicola's for a visit.
friday morning we got up bright and early to go to the ontario science centre when we along the with GTA's primary school population explored the wonders of science. they too had a great natural history section, space section and a cool section on optical illusions. the exhibit i was really impressed with was a social justice exhibit. it explores topics of racial profiling, language barriers, mental health issues, homelessness, refugee status etc etc with a hands on approach... it was really well done. after that we met kathy and aaron's aunt leona at milestones in dundas square. we had a lovely dinner and then went to the cannon theatre where we saw a live performance of "a funny thing happened on the way to the forum." sean cullen (comedian) played
P1000321
in george's chair!!! the lead. it was quite funny, good slapstick humour. the cannon theatre was also very beautiful! nice brass railings and marble work... you would have liked it a lot mum!
on saturday aaron and i went to the toronto zoo to visit our relatives. it was a pretty cold day so it was quiet which was great, we got a front row seat for everything! the red pandas were one of the highlights they were loving the snow, bounding around in the snow... so cute! the tree kangaroo was also quite cute very slow and sweet. we also saw the snow leopards who were also loving the winter weather!... one of them had a giant kong (chew toy) that it would drag to the top of a hill and then throw down and slip down the hill after... it was so cool!! and of course the gorillas were great... the toronto zoo had a baby gorilla born back in 2009, he is quite a trouble maker and very entertaining to watch!
after we got back from the zoo we headed downtown (on the streetcar!) for the third part of my christmas present, tickets to watch the calgary flames
P1000355
tickets to niagara! play the toronto maple leafs! with our respective jerseys on we chowed down on hot dogs and peanuts and watched an edge of your seat game! 0-0 until the third period when calgary scored! then with 12 seconds to go toronto scored on a 6 on 4 powerplay.... booooo.... so we went into overtime and then in to shootouts.... where ultimately the best team won. go flames go. (aaron owes me dinner). after that we met up with aarons friend bob and thomas for a visit.
yesterday we got up bright and early again (!) to go to the "hot house" for brunch it is a buffet with live jazz music. mark and nicola met us there and we proceeded to stuff ourselves full of every bunch food imaginable. it was great. then we wandered around the st.lawrence antique market which was really neat.. for sure there were some antique roadshow finds in the there! then we headed to visit my friend (sac dene 2005 leader) mark as his house in the west. we met jack, his active and so adorable 2 year old, had a cup of tea and a great visit! then we headed downtown to the
P1000362
getting on the train! CN tower! we went up to both the main deck and the sky pod (the tallest observation deck in the world!) it was awesome! we even layed down and took some pictures on the glass floor! ooo wee! we were there around 430 so we saw the city while the sun was still up, then the sunset and then the city when all the lights come on. it was beautiful!
after that we headed to the harbour front to meet with some of my cousins, marlene, karen (and her boyfriend bob) and jillian! it was sooo nice to see them! we had a great dinner at an italian restaurant on the water and did a lot of catching up! it's so nice to visit with good family!
as for todays adventures! we went cross country skiing with kathy at dagmar, a ski area just outside of toronto. it was a chilly day but once we warmed up it was beautiful! lots of nice hills where i got my "weeeeeee!!!" on. i giggled down most of the hills and didn't crash at all!!!! (amazing i know) thank you, thank you very much! kathy also packed an awesome lunch of cheese,
P1000384
presidential suite view of the falls! crackers, carrots, orange juice, shrimp and hummus! it was great! now we are just relaxing at home and contemplating ordering a pizza!
so tomorrow aaron flies back to calgary and i go to meet up with aly! and yet another adventure begins! we leave for santiago wednesday afternoon! wowie! and what a trip it has been already!!! i can't wait!
well i think this novel is complete! aaron, kathy and toronto have been amazingly hospitable to me and i am so glad i could come out here for so long! what a fun week! i have loved every minute of it! (even throwing elbows on the subway!) haha!
much love, mon!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.148s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.1064s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Erin
non-member comment
holy exclamation marks
Mon it sounds like you had an epic time in TO! I can't believe you got to meet George, and everything else! Your blog post is hilariously happy and full of nerd-tacular activities. I look forward to reading many more. Best of luck!