Blogs from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, North America - page 94

I visited the island with one of my friends and her daughter in June of 2006. If you plan on visiting Toronto in the summertime, try to get to the Island. I find it to be a truly peaceful respite away from the city's chaos. It is only a short Ferry ride away from Toronto. Ferries leave every 15 minutes from Bay St. and Queens Quay at Harbourfront, just south of Union Station. The Toronto Islands consist of Ward's Island, Center Island and Hanlan's Point. The majority of attractions are on Center Island. Centerville is the small amusement park portion of the island. Food and souvenirs can be expensive so be prepared. It is easy to spend a whole day there when the weather is pleasant. Pack a picnic or head to the beaches for some ... read more

Having traveled too often with excess luggage, useless items, or awkward equipment, I've decided to work harder at traveling lightly. Minimizing my baggage by paring down my essentials and finding the right "travel friendly" gear has begun to help me towards my eventual goal of traveling using only carry-on luggage. (It's still only a goal - I'm not there yet.) For overseas trips of 3 to 6 weeks, JB and I generally stay in hotels so carrying camping/sleeping gear is not an issue. JB has told me I've taken minimalism too far. He has more of a boy scout approach to our touring adventures - BE PREPARED! He has no problem with a large suitcase or an extra bag. In order to convince him of my righteous cause, I've listed my supporting arguements as well as ... read more

Our last evening we spend in Toronto again.. It was stunning to see how much nicer the city looked now the rain was replaced by sunshine (again..), all the people have drinks and dinner outside.. Since we stayed in East Toronto we coincidently got to see another part of Toronto, the beaches. This was a really nice area, packed beaches, nice restaurants, bars and shops along the streets.. So we decided to have the last dinner of our travels somewhere around here. We sat down on the terrace that looked nice and seemed to have good food for a decent price.. This time something else than the firkin’ pub that I'd visited so many times by now. Imagine my surprise when I saw exactly the same menu and discovered they belonged to the same chain! Haha.. ... read more

For many of you, you'll remember the ordeal Jill and I went through in making our decision to go to Honduras. For those of you who don't know, let me fill you in... We were offered a position at a school in Monterrey, Mexico on a Thursday night. They were offering us $1400 USD/month to teach there. It's a private, catholic school where we'd be required to wear uniforms and I'd be teaching strictly English to MANY classes from preschool to grade 3. Something didn't feel right about this school and I prayed that if I was meant to be somewhere else, something else would come up. Friday morning Jill called me and told me to check my e-mail. 10 minutes later I was unsure of whether to laugh or cry. We had been offered a ... read more

...another long flight...but here we are now at Toronto Pearson. Was slightly chaotic on arrival and not much time to make our connection. We arrived in T1...but have to transfer to T2...but have to go through Canada customs...and then US customs...and this is where I kind of fall through a bureaucratic crack. I've been away for 2 months and am only passing through Pearson 'in transit' onto SFO...but I must declare everything now...so it's like I'll only be away for one night when I get back to YVR. So 24 hours...so if I don't buy anything at SFO I don't have anything to declare...or if I do I have to pay duty...oh boy...we'll see what fun I get into at YVR. ANYWAY...lounge. It's really dark with no windows. It is quite big and quiet which is ... read more