Saturday, May 28: We've got about 280 miles to drive to Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls skyline
Clifton Hill in Ontario, Canada. The drive is uneventful,but driving in Canada takes a little getting used to. First is measuring distances in kilometers instead of miles. Second is reading the speedometer on the inside dial. Third--it seems no one pays any attention to posted speed limits. We passed exactly no one from the time we entered Canada at Port Huron,MI until the time we pulled into the parking lot of our hotel. Rick was here almost 30 years ago; this is Rory's first visit. There are two falls: the American and Canadian (or Horseshoe). The views from the Canadian side are far better and for that reason, most of the commercial development has taken place on the Canadian side. And it's almost overwhelming how much commercial development there's been in the past 30 years.
This way to the USA
Rainbow Bridge Our room is quite comfortable and there's even an electric fireplace (they were recently installed and ours doesn't work yet). We go looking for visitor information, driving into the heart of town. Big mistake. The tourists are wall-to-wall, the traffic is heavy, and there's little or no place to park. We do find the tourist information center, but the lady doesn't know much. She just keeps handing us brochures and maps and suggests we try one of the Welcome Centers, none of which have any parking. Rick pulls into a bus waiting lane and runs in to one of the centers while Rory stays with the car. Rick gets some information on public transportation. We decide to return to the hotel and park the car for the duration. We buy a 24-hour Falls Shuttle Pass (C$10 each and we're on our way back to town on the green route). The bus drops us off at
Chocolate, anyone?
Observation Tower
(American side) The Horseshoe Falls and we walk along the Niagara River and to the Rainbow Bridge with the American Falls across the way. While we're watching, a rainbow forms that spans the Horseshoe Falls and as the sun starts to go down, the rainbow's colors intensify. Breathtaking!! After a while and numerouse photos, we walk around town passing such sites as the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, several hotels, a casino and the Hershey Chocolate Store. Free samples at the last were bribery enough to get us to take a look inside. Besides every kind of Hershey chocolate you could imagine, some in super sizes, one can find Hershey souvenirs of all types and varieties from t-shirts to plush Hershey toys. Rory has found an ad for a restaurant that looks interesting (and offers a 10% discount). *It's on the red bus route, so we won't have to deal with traffic or parking. We've got the same bus driver, Adele, who drove us from the hotel to the downtown transfer point (where all three routes meet). The Syndicate is also a microbrewery. We're expecting a steak & beer type of place. What they offer is a three course meal (salad, entree, and dessert) for $17. A couple of the choices add an additional C$2 or C$3. The choices are apropos of a gourmet restaurant and the food measures up quite well and the dark ale is terrific. When we're finished we catch the red line bus back to the transfer point for the green route bus. But our driver is Adele again and she will be changing the bus to the green route, so we don't even have to get off. By the time we get off at our hotel, we're pretty good friends with Adele!

Horseshoe Falls Panorama	Observation Tower over American Falls	American Falls w/rainbow	Both Falls	Full panorama

Sunday, May 29: The weather has warmed up nicely and for the first
Tortoise face
Lizard up close time since we left Tupelo, Rick wears shorts. After breakfast, we catch the bus in front of our hotel heading for the Bird Kingdom--suposedly the world's largest aviary. There are over 400 varieties of birds from all over the world flying free. This would ordinarily be paradise for Rory, except that the birds aren't people-social, so she can't handle any of them--very frustrating to a bird lover like Rory. Despite this, we spend almost two hours here. In addition to the birds, there's a reptile area, with a couple of the larger lizards crawling around freely and much more social than the birds. One of most interesting features of the aviary is an authentic Javanese Tea House which dates to 1876. The house, made entirely of teak, without any nails is the only one of its kind left in the world. The owners of the aviary found it totally disassembled and wrapped up in a barn belonging to a local farmer. The house was rebuilt over two years to its original specifications.

Rick goes over the falls	Rory thru waterfall	Javanese tea house	Tea house interior

From the aviary, we're heading to the "Maid of the Mist" boat ride on the river to see both falls up close, personal, and wet! The Maid ofthe Mist is one of those tourist attractions that you have to do ONCE or again if it's with someone who's doing it for the first time. Rick's done it; Rory hasn't. We buy our tickets (C$16.50 each), don our souvenir, blue, platic panchos and board the boat. There are several.....named unoriginally: Maid of the Mist I, II, III, IV, etc. We scramble up top and find a place along the railing facing the American Falls, and we're off. The closer we get, the wetter we get. By the time the trip (which takes about 15 minutes) is over, we've been close enough to the falls to taste the water and drench any parts of us that were exposed, especially our feet and the backs of our legs/pants.

Maid of the Mist	Rory (before)	Rick (after)

With that adventure over, we're going to walk up Clifton Hill and marvel at the exotic entertainment options: Ripley's, Guiness World Records, Wax Museums.....you get the picture. Rory wants to try Niagara Freefall. We hike up Clifton Hill, stopping in at a souvenir shop here and there, and finally reach the entrance to the Niagara Freefall & Interactive Center. It's C$70 for 40minutes of instruction and 5 minutes of freefall. She decides it isn't worth it, so we walk back to catch the green line bus back to the hotel just before our 24 hour pass expires.

For dinner, we think we'll drive to the area where we ate last night. There were several restaurants that looked interesting. On the way we pass Sandstone. Rick remembers someone on the boat earlier talking about this place, so we give it a try. We're seated at a table with two over-stuffed chairs with a cushion--very comfortable!! Food is good, if a little pricey; and, since we haven't eaten since breakfast (if you don't count the hot dog Rick had before the Maid of the Mist ride), we're pretty hungry. Afterwards, it's back to the hotel. We're off for a week in Toronto tomorrow.

Monday, May 30: Cloudy, but mild this morning. It's an easy drive
Eaton Center
Winter Garden Theater entrance to Toronto, about 75 miles. We find our apartment without any trouble--got a good GPS. It is perfect! We are delighted. We found it through VRBO.com which we've used all over the world to find short-term apartment rentals. The apartment is a converted basement and is fully equipped with all new appliances, new bathroom and kitchen. We've even got a washer and dryer, which we need as we've got laundry which started building up when we left St. Louis. Bill Gentles, the owner, lives upstairs and gives us a thorough introduction to the apartment, where everything is, and how things work. There's a parking spot behind his house, and he's skeptical that we can get the Murano up the narrow driveway, but we do. We will not get in the car again until we leave next Monday. The apartment is a 4 block walk from the supermarket, bank, liquor store. It's only 2 blocks from the bus which runs every 5-10 minutes 24 hours a day and takes us to the subway. We purchased two Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) passes which gives us unlimited travel on subways, buses and trolleys. You can get anywhere in Toronto with public transportation. So, after stocking up on
Whales
Corner Yonge & Dundas groceries and a stop at the ATM, we're off to downtown Toronto. The bus driver doesn't sell tickets or passes, but gives us a free ride, since our objective is to buy passes at the station. Nice folks, these Canadians! We catch the Bloor line subway, transfer onto the Spadina trolley, and get off two blocks from the Rogers Center where the Blue Jays play. Weget two tickets for tomorrow's game with the Indians (Rick gets a senior discount), and we spend the rest of the afternoon wandering downtown, marveling at the skyscrapers, and stop for a beer at a micro-brewery across from the Eaton Center. Just up the street is the kiosk for half priced, same day, theater tickets. It's closed, but we'll be back on Wednesday or Thursday to see what we can get. We walk a bit more, catch the subway/bus back to the apartment. We're going to eat in tonight: Greek salad and crusty bread. It's great to have an apartment after all those Super 8s.

Tuesday, May 31:It's a beautiful clear day; temperatures will reach the mid-80s before the day is over. For our first full day in Toronto, we're going to start in Yorkville, one of Toronto's trendiest neighborhoods. This area was the center of the counterculture in the 1960s and 70s. It was hippie central, with coffee houses that offered the sounds of Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot. Ultimately the counterculture moved south to the Queen Street area, and the upscale boutiques with their expensive shopping, and luxury hotels and condos moved in. We window-shopped along Cumberland Street. Of note here was the The Guild Shop, which is non-profit organization that sells the painting, sculpture, jewelry, and other creations of Canadian craftspeople. Just down the street we found a busy restaurant with rooftop dining, where we enjoyed lunch and some cold libations.

Royal Ontario Museum
Univ of Toronto track After lunch we're going to visit the Bata Shoe Museum. Well, Rory indulges all of Rick's interests; so it's the least he can do to indulge one of hers. On the way, we are "blown away" by the architecture of the Royal Ontario Museum. In 2008, a dramatic make-over added a controversial glass and metal addition that the locals call "The Crystal" that transformed what was a staid structure into an exhilarating visual experience. We don't use the word "awesome" much, but the facade of the Royal Ontario Museum is AWESOME in the strictest sense of that word. We're not much for the natural history contents of the museum, but the outside certainly gave us pause. Just beyond the R.O.M. we passed the track and field complex of the University of Toronto. The royal blue track was the site of a school boy/girl track meet, which we stopped to watch for a few minutes. And a
Bata Shoe Museum
Ontario Legislature bit farther down Bloor Street is The Bata Shoe Museum. The guide book describes it as "Carrie Bradshaw's idea of heaven". This four-story museum houses hundreds of shoes from the early Chinese and Egytians to modern times. The current special exhibit is the shoes from the Roaring 20s. To Rory it's the "shoe hall of fame", even if the admission is a bit heavy for what's here. (Rick got a healthy senior discount, and found the Native American collection the most interesting.)

Our next stop is the University of Toronto, Canada's largest university, where Rick adds to his university t-shirt collection. We liked the campus a lot. It's kind of like the University of Michigan with its mixture of gothic and contemporary buildings, tree-lined streets, and ivy-covered walls. Being situated in the heart of a vibrant city like Toronto makes it that much better. Rick can picture himself going to school here. Turns out it's commencement day and we find ourselves in the midst of a sea of graduates in their black robes with orange and white trimmed hoods, and their proud families. This is the second commencement we've encountered this trip, if you remember the one at the University of Mississippi when we drove thru Oxford the second day of our trip. We pass the pharmacy, information technology, business management, and civil engineering buildings to name a few, as well as the Law and Theology Schools. Of special note, we saw the Soldier's Tower (with carillon) and Hart House student center.

Along St. George Street	Residence hall	Soldiers' Tower	Heart House	Someone has a sense of humor.

The University of Toronto parallels Queens Park, at the center of which sits the
Rogers Center
Bautista hits one. Ontario Legislature Building. We've got tickets to the Blue Jays game, so walking through the park and past the Legislature will get us to the subway. We get off at Union Station and take the Sky Walk to Rogers Center where the Jays play. The main feature of the Rogers Center is its retractable roof which is open tonight because the weather is good. Another uniqueness about the Rogers Center is it abuts The Renaisance Hotel and some of the hotel's rooms have a ticket-holder's view of the game in progress (if you don't mind being over 400 feet away and at the same level as the fifth deck). We're not impressed at all with the stadium. For one thing, you feel like the game is being played in an office building. For another, the astroturf is such a light green, that it's hard to pick up the ball, both when it's pitched and when it's hit. The mascot is a "blue jay" named "Ace". No one seems to know why and he isn't much as mascots go.
Renaisance Hotel Our seats are in the club level and the ushers are really nice. They tell us that we can get food from wherever we want and bring it to the lounges from where we can watch the game (or we can sit in our seats). The game itself isn't much either. The Indians win 6-3 to end the Jays four-game winning streak. It's not that close until the Jays get their 3 runs in the bottom of the eigth. Despite three hits from their star, Jose Bautista, they can't seem to deliver when it counts. We're perfectly happy to see this game end. We wouldn't want to watch another game here.

The good news is that it's easy to get back to the apartment. The crowd was small to begin with and we don't have to put up with traffic (like we did in St.Louis), as we can take public transportation to with two blocks of the apartment. It's a late night, it's been a long day, and we are both pretty tired!!

Wednesday, June 1: It's another beautiful day, but it's windy. Winds will blow 20-30 mph all day.By the time we head home, they'll pick up! We're tired from a long/late day yesterday, and sleep in. For Rick this means getting up at 8:30; for Rory, a little later. Originally, we thought we'd go to the Toronto Zoo, but it's such a nice day, we decide to pass on the zoo, at least for today) and go to Casa Loma. We're finally out of the apartment around 10:30, and after the bus/subway ride, a 2-block walk up Spadina Ave, and climbing the Baldwin Steps, we arrive at Casa Loma. The former home of Sir Henry Pallett, an extremely wealthy industrialist fascinated by European castles, the city's only castle was built between 1911 and 1914. This was his private home until overwhelming debt and forced him to abandon it and auction off much of its contents. The city took over and transformed it into a tourist attraction in 1937, after investors unsuccessfully attempted to turn it into a hotel. [We bought Rory a "City Pass" that includes 5 Toronto attractions (including Casa Loma) at a big discount, which is a good deal for us even though we're interested in only 3 of the sites. Rick will pay for each individually, as his senior discount works out better for him than the City Pass.] The house had central heating, indoor plumbing, and a telephone system all of which were firsts for a home in Toronto. The most impressive parts of the castle, in addition to the edifice itself sith its Scottish tower and Norman tower are: the great hall, the library (which could hold 10,000 books), the conservatory, the private suites of Henry and his wife Mary, and the gardens. There was also an 800 foot tunnel to the potting house, garage, and stables. Pellatt was the first in Toronto to own an electric car. Unfortunately, it no longer exists. We took over 100 photos. Here is a small sampling:

Front	Rear	Garden	Great Hall	Library

Conservatory	Henry Pellatt's bedroom	Henry's bathroom	Mary Pellatt's bedroom	Guest room

Guide books say allow 1 hour here. We spent over 2 1/2. It was after 2pm
Chinatown
Tap Phong Trading Co. and we were hungry. We decided to have our big meal of the day for "lunch". Chinatown seemed like a good place satisfy that need. We walked back down to the subway, transferred onto the trolley at Spadina station, and got off at the corner of Spadina and Dundas. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Viet Namese shops and restaurants line both sides of this portion of Spadina Ave. We find a place, just east of the Spadina/Dundas corner. When we walk in an Asian man is singing Italian opera in the empty restaurant (it's after 3pm and the lunch rush is over). He had quite a dynamic voice (not to mention loud), so when he left after a few minutes, we were able to enjoy a quiet lunch. Actually we pigged out: spring rolls, dumplings, beef with pea pods, shrimp with vegetables, and shrimp/chicken/pork fried rice! Like I said: "big meal of the day".

With that basic need satisfied, we wandered up Spadina, stopping in a few shops, one of which, Tap Phong Trading Co. has about everything imaginable to supply a restaurant or anyone's kitchen. We then turned into Kensington Market. This is really a neighborhood, settled by immigrants over the years. It was originally a Jewish neighborhood and the old Kiever Synagogue (the only one of the original 30) still stands. Subsequent groups to settle here include people from all over the mid-east, India, Pakistan, and souteast Asia. It's the diversity of cultures that give the Kensington Market it's character. It's a fun place to just wander through, watch the people, and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells.

Corner Nassau & Augusta	Kiever Synagogue	Baldwin St.	Market shopping	Kensington Ave.

From Kensington Market, we hop back on the Spadina Ave trolley, get off at Bremner St, and walk to the CN Tower. [This is the second of the attractions ' that Rory's City Pass covers.] No longer the world's tallest free-standing structure, this 1815 foot communications tower is the city's most famous emblem. The elevator whisks us up at a "staggering" 15 mph and takes all of one minute. The 360 degree views from the observation tower are spectacular, made even better by the \ wind's blowing away any haze. We can see down into the Rogers Center, where tonight's Blue Jays/Indians game is almost ready to get underway. There's also the Glass Floor, which is rather nerve-racking and something to be avoided ] if your afraid of heights. Rick finds it a "creepy" feeling. We're amused by all the people taking pictures that try to portray the subjects in "freefall". Cn Tower is one of those attractions (like The Maid of the Mist or Graceland) that you need do only once. But ya gotta do it once! By the time we're done here and subway/bus it back to the apartment it's after 8:30. As we expected, neither of us is hungry and satisfy ourselves with the fruit, cheese and other snacks we've got on hand.

From inside Rogers Center	At night	Rogers Center & lake front	Toronto Islands	Kids on glass floor 1800' up

Thursday, June 2: If we're going to take advantage of Rory's City Pass for the Toronto Zoo, this is the day for it. The temperature has dropped quite a bit in the last two days. It's only in the high 50s when we leave the apartment at 11:00. We will take the same #63 bus to the Ossington Station; change to the Bloor Line subway and ride it almost to the end at Kennedy Station; then transfer onto the 86A bus to the zoo. It's the longest bus ride in history. We must have stopped at every cross street. The whole trip takes about 75 minutes.

. Rick had been to this zoo almost 30 years ago and always considered it one of the best he'd ever seen anywhere in the world. That was when zoos started building natural habitats for their "guests" rather than caging them up. Well not much has changed except the price of admission. We are really disappointed. Many of the animals are nowhere to be found. There are no "shows". The habitats appear small, especially considering the amount of unused real estate. The zoo is poorly organized from the standpoint that there is no guidance how to best traverse the place. When we finally decided we'd had enough, we had difficulty finding our way back to the main entrance. Considering all the attractions Toronto has to offer, this was the worst! Our zoo in Columbia has it beat a mile.

At the bus stop we met John and Leahtha from Kalamazoo, MI and enjoyed talking with them. It made the long bus ride bearable, and our conversation continued when we took the same subway back to the city. After a quick trip to the market, we met Bill and Beth in front of the apartment and walked about 15 minutes to Marcello's on St.Clair Ave West for dinner. Marcello's makes fantastic pizza; and, coupled with some good wine and good company; made a great evening. We enjoyed getting to know Bill and Beth and hope they will come visit us in Columbia.

Friday, June 3: Our original plans called for us to leave Toronto on Monday, spend a day in Ottawa, and then move on to Montreal. But, rather than pick up for just one night, we thought we'd stay an extra night in Toronto. Checking the apartment website, we found that there was an open date on Monday, so Rick negotiated another night. This will allow us a whole day to relax and get organized for our week in Montreal three days in Quebec City. We haven't really had an "off-day" yet the whole trip.

It's another sunny day, but about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday. We've
Beatles retro band .
Kayaking at tourism exhibit decided to visit a few individual sites, not part of any other itinerary. Our first stop will be the Toronto Sculpture Garden, but there is nothing exhibited there. We're thinking about going to the theater tonight, so after some lunch (we didn't get going until after 10:30 this morning), we walk to the corner of Dundas and Yonge where same-day, half-price tickets are on sale. There is a big exhibit for Ontario tourism set up in the square and we stop to listen to ] a Beatles Retro Band of young musicians who are actually quite good. At the ticket office, we choose "Zadie's Shoes" a comedic-drama playing at The Factory Theater. We have no idea what the play's about, but it sounds good and is back in Toronto for it's third run in the past couple of years.

Eaton Center .
Ontario College of Art & Design The Eaton Center is just across the street, and since Rory, has never been here, we spend some time window shopping. Eaton Center is really just a big shopping mall, which at one time was the world's largest indoor mall. From the Eaton Center we walk to the Ontario College of Art and Design, Canada's largest art school. What's interesting is the Sharp Center for Design, which looks like a giant crossword puzzle on stilts. We love it--what better way to call attention to this institution than with a creative, controversial building design? From here, we'll return to the apartment for a short rest before heading out for dinner and the theater.

The bus/subway/trolley ride lets us off at the corner of Bathurst and Spadina, just across the street from the theater. A block farther south is King Street, where we have several choices for dinner. We choose "The Banknote" which is supposedly noted for its ribs. Rick orders them and can attest to their well- deserved reputation. On to Zadie's Shoes in which playwright Adam Pettle asks: where do you put your faith? In a racehorse's spirit? At the bottom of a bottle? In the Almighty? in his often-funny drama about faith, relationships and a whole bunch else. It's presented in a blsck-box theater style and we think how great it would be to offer it as a USC Lab Theater performance. (Rick would audition for the role of Eli.) It's over, too soon, at about 10pm, and we're back at the apartment well before 11. We sure do love the public transportation (TTC) in Toronto.

Saturday, June 4: Rick sets a new record, sleeping in until 8:30. The weather is awful, maybe the worst weather of the trip so far. It's cold and will rain hard most of the morning. We were going to go to a crafts market, but opted out. Instead we'll wait out the rain, which ultimately stops around noon. The Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation Gallery is open to the public only on Saturdays from noon until 5pm, a fact which intrigues us enough to go downtown to visit. Even though admission is free, there are very few visitors. According to their guest register, only 8 people visited last Saturday, and we are the only ones there today. The exhibition (there is no permanent "collection"), titled "Straight Jacket" for reasons beyond us, is presented almost like theater; with "set direction", lighting, sound design, etc. After we've seen the exhibit, we spend some time talking with one of the staff members. We are curious about who Ydessa Hendeles is, why the gallery is open only for 5 hours each week, etc. It turns out she is an indpendenty wealthy patron of the arts and philanthropist, having inherited her wealth from her father who made his fortune in real estate. She owns the building which houses her gallery/foundation and travels the world collecting art. The exhibits change infrequently, hence the best attended Saturdays are those following the opening of a new exhibit. At age 62, she is apparently q very private person. I could find no photos of her online and the last article I found about her is almost 12 years old. At any rate, we were fascinated and recommend a visit to the gallery at 778 King Street West if you are ever in Toronto.

After strolling along King Street and Spadina Avenue, we head back to our apartment. Rory gives Rick a much needed haircut, we walk to Marcello's for dinner (again), and are back at the apartment for good by 8:45.

Sunday, June 5:
Flat Iron Building .
Contrasting styles Today is the polar opposite of yesterday, weatherwise: bright and sunny, temperature already breaking 70 by 10:30. We're off to the St. Lawrence Market downtown. Every Sunday they have a big antique market across the street from the main St. Lawrence Market building. One of the fun parts about walking in Toronto is the architecture. There are hundreds of contemporary-style skyscrapers intermixed with older historical ones. The juxtaposition of these various styles is what makes it so interesting. It takes us about 45 minutes to get there by bus/subway/foot. There's an indoor market which with 80-100 dealers, and an outdoor market which circles round the building with another 30-40 dealers. You could spend hours here, and we do, interupted only for lunch. When we've visited seemingly every one of the dealers, it' after 3pm. Rather than return to the apartment, we check our list of things to do and realize we haven't been to the Distillery District. This is an area slightly southeast of the market, which used to house the distilleries of old Toronto and has been turned into an upscale residential and retail area. There's a market here today, too, but it will shut down at 4:00. There's still a little time to wander around. It's a nice urban area, with lots of people out in the gorgeous weather: young families, older folks, some tourists, and lots of dogs. Torontonians really seem to love dogs. By 5:00 we've had enough and return to the apartment. Rick falls asleep on the couch reading. Rory hikes up to the supermarket to see what she can find for dinner. Tomorrow is our "free" day--to get organized and repack the car for our 6-hour drive to Montreal on Tuesday.

.
Modern facade on
an old building
(not a curtain)

Monday, June 5: Another beautiful day; unfortunately neither of us is feeling well enough to enjoy it. Looks like adding a day in Toronto will enable us to just ride out whatever is ailing us. Sure glad we didn't have to drive today.