C to the anada..

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We made good use of family contacts and managed to bag a couple of train tickets up to Chicago where we had a day to look around the city before hopping on our long bus journey to Toronto.
We went on the city bus tour and saw lots of interesting stuff, the Wrigley's building, planetarium, the heaviest building in America (possibly just Chicago i forget now!), the navy pier (and its imitation London Eye) and the stunning Lake Michigan which was beautiful to look at on such a clear sunny day!

Several long hours later we arrived in Toronto to be met by Rachel and her 'Mr' Evan (we almost missed them as we ended up in different sections of the bus station but luckily the rucksacks slowed us down!!) We had a qucik catch up over some breakfast and then we were just about ready to drop so we made our way to our accommodation on the outskirts of town..after wandering aimlessley around several bus stations we gave up on the public transport and jumped in a taxi-the lure of a bed was too much to fight!!

Day one Toronto, we managed to negotiate the subway and bus systems and met Rach and Evan in town and headed to the CN tower. We went up for a play around on the glass floor..naturally we had a jump up and down and a lie down and relax once we'd dodged all the crawling, screaming over-excited children. We went right up to the upper viewing section outside and had a walk around and a 360 degree view of the city which was fab. Afterwards we watched a video about the building of the tower and then went into the simulator for a lesson in the 'life cycle of a log' ... what that has to do with the CN tower i'm not entirely sure but it was fun hearing everyone scream and shriek when they got sprayed with water (including Rachel!!).

Following that we went out for some food at HOOTERS (not as scandalous as you'd think-pretty naf really although yummy food!) and then we had a walk around town and had a few drinks..and attempted to dodge the bags and bags of rubbish (thanks to the month long garbage man strike! nice!).

Day 2 and another hanging out and about day at the science museum doing lots of geeky things and learning how things work..training to become spies, aging ourselves to look 70 (and both of us had strong resemblences to our grandparents which was rather amusing!)
We found out how unique we were and allsorts of other random sciencey stuff which was quite cool really! Then we headed back to Evan's for some pizza and extreme board games- which naturally i won! (my natural competitive edge pushed me ahead of the game!! lol.

Day3 and we hopped on a bus to Niagara Falls for the day. Short journey and we arrived in a tiny place which was a little shabby but then got the bus down to the falls. The falls are absolutely stunning as you can imagine..the view is littered with tiny figures in blue and yellow ponchos (colour depending on whether you are an american side tourist or a canadian-side tourist) which is quite funny! The area itself is a little tacky touristy which we kind ofdidn't expect but with such an amazing attraction i suppose it's pretty inevitable.
We wandered around and got some great views over the river and falls and then decided to go on the traditional 'maid in the mist' boat trip into the falls. We donned our sexy blue ponchos and joined the scrum for the top deck rail-side position ready for some drenching and photo opps! Conclusion: Pretty spectacular from all angles!! Didn't even mind getting soaked through!!
I can definitely see why people recommend seeing the falls from the 'Canadian' side rather than the 'American' side.. i think it's pretty simple to say..from the American side you can be drenched in the falls but the only view you'll get is a torrent of water and the opposite bank full of blue ponchos!!

Day4 we decided to have a lazy morning and then went over to Casa Loma- Toronto's answer to a 'castle' (more like a stately home if you ask me!) full of grand staircases and secret passageways..kind of reminded me of a smaller Aston Hall where we went on school trips. The grounds were lovely and we had a beautiful sunny view of the CN tower which was a good photo opp. We had a wander around and joined the ranks of foreigners in getting over-excited about things like sun dials and rose bushes. (beats me!) Then we followed up with some drinks and games at Evan's once again. A slightly drunken evening follwed by a lazy day 5 consisting largely of a trip to the highly recommended Tim Hortons for some doughnut middles and a cuppa for Matt the following day!

Final full day in Toronto was spent at yet another Zoo, unfortunately punctuated by a rather considerable amount of rain and a torrential thunder storm but overall it failed to dampen our spirits too much and we saw plenty of furry friends..personal favourites Orang Utangs (esp the baby one) and Polar Bears!

Our last morning was a beautiful one so we hot footed it over to the islands for a wander around the fair and farm (with a HUGE pig) and a walk along the beach.. we avoided the 'clothing optional beach' (a bit over-PC for a nudist beach i thought!). We topped off the experience by hiring out a couple of 'chuckle-brothers' style bikes and racing up and down the pathways behaving like the mature people we are!! A final meal and then a loooong journey to Washington DC!

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