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This is the second of a two-part series. You can also read about the first part of our trip to Canada here.

Day 4:
This was a half travel day. We got up, finished as much of the leftover dumplings as we could for breakfast, packed up, and headed west. I wanted to drive a bit before filling up on gas. Good thing I did, because there was a noticeable price drop once we crossed from Quebec into Ontario.

Nothing too much eventful, just driving along the freeway. Our goal, because we were going to get to Toronto before the rental place said we could check-in, was to go to the St. Lawrence Market and pick up some more fresh food.

However, as we got closer, Some Wife wanted to check something, so she went to their website and discovered that they are closed on Mondays. So over to Plan B, which is ask for an early check-in. They never did respond, so we just parked at the place and walked along the waterfront for a couple blocks. Our place was only a couple blocks from the waterfront, so that killed the 45 minutes or so that we needed.

The place was just what I was hoping for. We were up in a high-rise, the type of place we don’t have around here and thus the kids haven’t really experienced.

So here’s what part of it looked like.

And here’s the view out the window. Yes, it had balconies if you didn’t mind being 400 feet above the ground with a thin railing and sheet of plexiglas to keep you and other things from falling.

And here’s the place itself. We were a couple floors above the bridge thingy.

Our plans were somewhat in flux, but it was nice weather, with not the best forecast for the next couple days, so we decided to go out to the Toronto Islands right after dinner.

Even though I’ve been to Toronto before, I was not familiar with the islands until this trip. They are a nice place, highly recommend.

It was a walk of about 10 blocks to get to the ferry station. A long walk, but we noticed that Toronto has a streetcar system, so I suggested we could ride that on the way back. The ferry runs once an hour, so we had to wait a bit at the station for the next ferry.

We rode over, getting a nice view of the skyline from the water, then made our way to the far side of Centre Island, because that’s where the beach is.

The Toronto Islands are a great place, I wish we had more than 1 hour there. But if we didn’t catch the 9:00 ferry back we’d be stuck on the island until the 10:00 ferry, and we did not want that.

But I did get a chance to go to the shore on the close side of the island, where there is no beach, to get a shot of the Toronto skyline, which is one of the more iconic skylines out there.

As it was, the 9:00 ferry was late. All the families that wanted to get back before dark were waiting in the line, and people seemed to be either worried (are we going to get home today?) or impatient (come on, let’s go already). My favorite was the family that looked to be from India, but not much of an accent so probably 2nd generation. They had young kids, and they passed the time by singing “Oh where is the ferry” to the tune of the hairbrush song. Very catchy.

The ferry finally arrived, and we headed back. The Toronto transit authority website said that you could buy a single-use streetcar pass at any station, and there was a station a block from the ferry landing, so it should have been perfect.

But the streetcar station did not have a kiosk for buying tickets. Only some main stations have them. So it was late, people were tired, and we had to walk the 10 blocks back. But it let us get this nice shot of the CN Tower.

Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.

Day 5:
This was to be our main sightseeing day for Toronto. First up, the hockey hall of fame.

We drove there, and parked in a lot close to that and our lunch destination (the St. Lawrence market that we tried to visit on Monday).

Be warned, they stamp your hand when you enter, so you can leave and come back later that day if you wanted. But the ink they use is some weird non-drying ink. Mine was still wet after 20 minutes. Gamma had fun with his wet ink and gave me another stamp on my forearm once he figured out it could transfer because it was still wet. He also ended up with half a stamp on his cheek. And I had to be very careful with mine because I was wearing light-colored khaki shorts. I did end up getting a little bit on my pocket, but it was mostly inside the pocket so no real harm done.

The HHoF was well done, and had some interesting things even for those not so interested in hockey. Like the masks.

And if you are an older hockey afficianado, you’ll appreciate that a certain hockey puck was enshrined in the hall of fame.

And of course there is the Stanley Cup.

The cup is kept in a building that used to be a bank, and it was a fancy old bank. The outside still looks like a classic bank, and they kept the inside fancy too.

After that we walked a couple blocks over to the market. There was a nice park in between, with some sculptures.

The St. Lawrence market was packed. Lots of meats and breads for purchase, plus a variety of places selling meals. We could barely find a place to sit. These types of markets are great, because of the variety and people can chose different foods. But with younger kids, it’s a mess because there is choice overload, and some do not like making decisions when hungry.

But we eventually all got something to eat, and it was pretty good food. Then we bought some things to take with us, including some souvenirs from the souvenir shop downstairs.

Then back to the van and back to the apartment.

The afternoon consisted of nothing. Just relaxing in the apartment – reading, napping, playing Legend of Zelda, etc.

After dinner, which we made in the sparse kitchen, the weather was good enough that we could go to the CN Tower. So we did.

So we went up into the tower, and the clouds provided some enhancement to the view.

But we probably spent most of our time watching the roof of the Rogers Centre finish opening, and then seeing part of the first inning of the Blue Jays game.

Hint: you can see the players moving, including the pitcher winding up, but you can’t see the ball itself.

After we were done in the tower, I wanted to check out the old railyard right across the road.

It had some stuff, but the kids were done and wanted to get back, so we only spent a couple minutes looking at things. Plus we’ve visited the rail yard in Greenfield Village, so this was not a novel thing to see.

A short walk back to the apartment, then it was evening, then morning the next day.

Day 6:
Our last day, with two main events: 1. visiting the Royal Ontario Museum and 2. Going home

First up, the ROM. We packed up and headed out after breakfast. The ROM is basically a natural history museum – exhibits on birds and animals and plants and people.

We haven’t gone to a museum like this with the kids before, so it was interesting. Now they can appreciate a movie like Night at the Museum a little more.

And they had fancy displays, with things you couldn’t touch.

Then we were done, and ready to leave Toronto.

We loaded up in the van and drove about 40 minutes to a Chinese buffet. If you’re ever in Etobicoke, I recommend the Mandarin restaurant. Make reservations though, otherwise you’ll have to wait for a bit like we did.

They had a large variety of things, and most of it was yummy. Like multiple dessert tables, and several scoop-it-yourself ice cream tubs. And standard Chinese buffet stuff, plus a sushi guy, plus pizza and spaghetti and salads.

Don’t order the lemonade though. It was some carbonated thing, and my kids are not fans of carbonation.

Then 5 hours of driving (with stops) plus 1 hour of waiting in the border crossing line, and we made it back. It’s always fun to hear the border guard say “Welcome home.”

The End.

Our vacation plan this year was to go to Canada, as you may recall from my earlier post about things I learned in Canada. Now here’s a recap of what we did, rather than learned, in Canada.

Day 1:
This was a travel day, basically driving 9-6. I like to travel different ways to and from vacation destinations, so to get from Detroit to Montreal I went south of the Great Lakes. A full day’s drive got us to Syracuse, NY. Not much there, other than dinner and sleeping at the hotel.

For those who like seafood, I suggest visiting the Clam Bar in Syracuse. We went there, and it’s not what I’d call a classy place. It’s a classic bar, with a full menu. Some Wife chose it because they bring in fresh seafood daily. The food was good, and plentiful.

Oh, on the way to Syracuse we had to go through Cleveland. We ended up there around lunch time, so we stopped at a park to have a picnic. Some Wife also chose this stop, called Squire’s Castle.

It’s just for show. It used to be someone’s residence, but now it’s an empty shell. Still, it’s fun because it’s open for people to wander through. And the grounds are expansive, plenty of place to picnic and throw a Frisbee.

So lunch in Cleveland, then dinner and hotel in Syracuse. We didn’t get to see much of Syracuse. Gamma was hoping to see the downtown skyline, but we were actually in Liverpool – outside Syracuse – and our drive never involved going into Syracuse.

Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.

Day 2:
This was mostly a travel day. Breakfast at the hotel, then drive to Canada. We went over at the Thousand Islands crossing, and it was a fairly simple affair. We had passports for me and the wife, drivers licenses for Alpha and Beta, and birth certificates for Gamma and Delta. Just a couple questions from the Canadian border guard, and we were in.

Here’s a photo of the river at the Thousand Islands area, just before the border crossing.

We drove for a bit, then stopped by a Real Canadian Superstore, which was right next to a Walmart. In case the border guard was having a bad day, I didn’t want him to be able to nitpick on any food we had with us, so our plan was to go into Canada with a minimal amount of food, then stock up for the week before we arrived at the rental house. We did have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, plus chips and some grapes – that was our lunch we ate in the car just after the border.

Anyway, we got to the RCS and we had fun looking at various Canadian products, all sorts of brands we don’t get at home. Plus some we do have at home, they just look different.

This is also where we got the bag of milk. And when we got to the checkout line, with enough food to feed a family of 6 for four days, we realized that they do not provide bags for you at all. So we paid $1 for 3 re-usable bags to stuff most of the things in. They’re cheaply made, but we still have them and I’m trying to get my money’s worth out of them.

Another drive, for maybe 1.5 hours, and we got to the province of Quebec. It was easy to tell when that happened, because the road signs were French only, instead of English and French. But we had been observing the bilingual road signs for long enough at that point that we could handle no English.

Then another hour or so and we arrived at our rental house. Here is the street it was on, a nice neighborhood. This is looking out from the place.

We unpacked, setup the kitchen, relaxed for a little bit, then made dinner, and then headed out to our first tourist stop in Montreal – Mount Royal.

Mount Royal is a tall hill kind of in the middle of the island of Montreal. Fun fact – Montreal got its name from a pronunciation of “Mount Royal”.

Our destination was Mount Royal Park, specifically the chalet, as it has a plaza that overlooks the city.

And then, because we didn’t have any other plans for the evening and because I paid to park for 1.5 hours and we spent only 20 minutes so far, we went on a little hike. There are plenty of paths throughout the park, and there were plenty of other people walking, running (ambitious, since there’s a lot of elevation change there), and biking.

The hike was a good change from sitting in the van all day. After that, we went back to the rental house and I read a bit before bed.

Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.

Day 3:
This was the day to walk around downtown Montreal. We drove into the city, and the parking garage I had picked out was closed, so we had to go to plan B, which was to park at King Edward Quay.

The plan was to walk through the piers, then walk by the Notre Dame Basilica, then grab lunch at the Underground City. Then figure out what we wanted to do after that, maybe something downtown would be of interest once we came across it.

So we parked at the quay. Here’s the view from there looking north to the Vieux Port.

It was pretty hazy, due to the wildfires in our host country.

And if we looked east, we could see the biosphere, which we didn’t know what it was at the time, just that it was an impressively large object.

Downtown was a nice place to walk, it reminded me more of Europe than of North America.

Once you saw the Ferris wheel and the zip lines, there actually wasn’t much to the pier. There were plenty of people out and about, but maybe they were mostly shopping?

Then we headed up a couple blocks to the cathedral.

As it was a Sunday, and it’s a functioning church (services in French), we didn’t go in to see what it looked like.

Then it was over to the Underground City, and that is where things started to go bad. You see, I had seen the promotional literature and pictured it as a nice big place, like a giant mall. Here’s an excerpt from mtl.org:

Explore Montréal’s famed Underground City as you shop: this pedestrian network right under the heart of the city links metro stations to shopping plazas for over 33 kilometres (about 20.5 miles). It’s a lifesaver when you want to stroll, shop and eat away from the hot blazing sun or the freezing snow, but it’s also a go-to destination for the whole family anytime. It opens up a world of entertainment.

In reality, you just go to the places that are worth it aboveground. The “underground city” is really just a subway system but without the trains – you walk through tunnels, and the maps are confusing. We wandered around for a while, got lost, and thus our lunchtime got pushed back and back, making people unhappy. We gave up and walked on the normal not-underground sidewalks to the Eaton Centre and had lunch at the Time Out Market. That was a good place – it’s a giant food court with a dozen or so restaurants of all different styles.

Lunch really helped. Now everyone could manage the walk back to the van. We swung by a couple stores on our way out, including a Dollarama, but that was it for Montreal. No one wanted to do anything else, so we headed back mid afternoon and had some down time until dinner.

Then it came time for dinner. There were no solid dinner plans. The house was walking distance from some shops and restaurants, so we picked a restaurant that looked to have a decent variety of things (plus poutine) and we headed there. Foreshadowing – it was called a pub & grill. On our way there, we passed a Chinese place. Alpha decided he’d rather have dumplings than pub food, so he and Some Wife (because she had money) dropped off to eat there. I took the other 3 kids to the pub and grill, and as you may have already read, we got kicked out, so we headed back to the Chinese place and we all got dumplings. Except for Delta, who got basically chicken tenders.

Then we walked back to the house, and it was evening, then morning the next day.

To Be Continued…

Here is a GIF of a typing bubble. For hours of fun, text this to a few people when you can watch their reactions.

Some people don’t care, and others seem to really anticipate what you’re going to finish typing.

Our chat thingy at work does the same thing, and now people can track how long it takes me to compose a sentence. My wife knows by now that it may take awhile: “how long until you’re done working?” “I just need to finish this email” … 20 minutes later … “how long is that email?” “two paragraphs, almost done” I like to be thorough.

Although I do feel bad for the other person on the occassions when I’ve written most of a response but then got distracted or pulled away by something else. Then I’ll find my unsent chat message the next day and I’ll wonder how long the other person sat and waited for me to send my message.

Fun times.

We just got back from a family vacation to Canada, visiting Montreal and Toronto. Due to our family size, we stayed in rental places for a couple days each. In our vacations, we usually end up doing that because most hotels don’t like to accommodate a family of 6. And in general we use both VRBO and Airbnb. Just watch out for the cleaning/service/security fees.

Anyway, here are some things I noticed or learned in visiting our neighbors to the north. If we had visited Windsor, that would have been our neighbors to the south.

• Canadians drive just under the punishment, not the speed limit. Like most places, the freeways there have a posted speed limit, usually 100 kph. But they also have other signs, more like billboards, that list the punishment for speeding: 120 kph is $X, 130 kph is $Y, and 140 kph is $Z. And another one that said 20 over is 2 points, 30 over is 3 points, etc. It seemed to me that the punishment for speeding didn’t start until 120 kph, even though the limit was officially 100. Because everyone was driving about 118 kph.
• Toronto has the worst traffic of anywhere that I remember driving If you though Canadians were nice and friendly, try driving in Toronto. Chicago has bad traffic, but it’s bad in that it’s just clogged and slow. New York has aggressive drivers, but Toronto seemed ruder and more of a get-ahead-at-all-costs attitude.
• Canadians don’t like locking their bathroom doors. In the places we stayed, there were a total of 5 bathroom doors. Only one of them had a lock.
• The toilets were very low. I’m sure families with small children would appreciate that, but we’re out of that stage now and would like adult-size toilets. Everything else about them seemed normal, I don’t know if that’s the style in Canada.
• Not since our trip to Seattle have I been exposed to so much marijuana. Oh, and the college football game I attended two years ago. The public square in Montreal would have been nice to linger in, but I was worried about second-hand effects. We were in Canada during some of the time when the air quality alerts were active due to the wildfires up north. But the wildfire smoke was negligible compared to the weed. Toronto was even worse, as there was a cannabis store just about every block whenever we walked anywhere.
• In Canada, milk comes in bags. We went grocery shopping the first day. Normally we pack a bunch of food and then buy some more, but to avoid any complications crossing the border, we brought as little food with us as possible, so we had to buy a bunch in Canada. We bought a bag of milk, and it was always very awkward trying to store and pour a floppy bag. I still don’t know how you’re supposed to do it.
• If a place says “bar and grill” or “pub and grill” then don’t take the kids. All the places in the USA that say “bar and grill” means there’s a resturant with a bar area. Anyone can go in the restaurant area but only adults in the bar area. Canada must have different rules, because they did not let us in. We chose it because it was the only place where we were staying that had poutine on the menu. So we went without on this trip.
• Stores don’t give you plastic bags at checkout. At both the grocery store and the dollar store, we had to buy the reusable bags to be able to carry our stuff. On the plus side, we have some cheap bags at home we can use for whatever now. One says “Dollarama” on it and the rest say “Real Canadian Superstore”.