Alex and I spent a week in Toronto, we drove up from Illinois.

We visited the Fort York Historical Site. We had a tour, there were plenty of soldiers dressed in period uniforms, also, to answer questions about the history and use of the fort.

Americans attacked this fort during the War of 1812. The British occupied Washington, DC and set fire to the President’s House, Canadian legend says the Americans covered up the blackened soot covered walls with white paint and from then it was called the “White House”. Although according to American history it was named for the color of the stone.

The Toronto Islands used to be a peninsula and were broken into islands during a bad storm.  Now mostly parklands, paths and bicycle trails, we took the ferry from Queen’s Quay to the eastern most island – Ward – and got off and walked to the other end. It is about an 5km walk. Along the way we stopped for lunch overlooking the water at a little cafe. It was peaceful and beautiful.

We went to Casa Loma Sunday morning for the tour.  It’s pretty amazing.  Built between 1911 and 1914 for $3.5 million, it had all the modern conveniences AND luxuries: an elevator, electric lights, 15 bathrooms, a swimming pool, and an especially beautiful marble conservatory filled with plants. This was my favorite room. The two story great hall, filled with flags and knights, was great and the gardens and fountains are beautiful too.

Toronto has a lot to see, and we enjoyed the Bata Shoe Museum, for my fashionable daughter. I thought it was quite interesting, though, also.

We also saw a great show at Second City, Invasion Free since 1812, about their violent southern neighbor

I haven’t been to a professional baseball game in ages and have never taken Alex. We picked up tickets to the Toronto Blue Jays vs. the Texas Rangers.  The day was beautiful so the dome was open, although as the sun slowly went down and left us in shadow it got cold so we kept moving up a little closer to stay in the sun!. It was a great day for baseball. We enjoyed the Jays mascot, Alex had a baseball hot dog to make the experience complete, and we saw William Hung – a contestant from American Idol –come out and sing “Take me out to the ball game” at the 7th inning stretch.  Although the Jays lost 2-4, we had a great afternoon.

CN (Canada’s National) Tower is a very popular attraction. We walked by on Saturday and were at the Sky Dome on Sunday, which is right next door but the lines were huge each day. Monday it rained all day, but we finally made it early Tuesday. We were in one of the first elevators to the viewing deck. The glass floor was fun. I was expecting something larger, where the whole floor was glass panels. Although it was just a portion of the floor, it still was an amazing view straight down. On the lookout deck we had great views of Lake Ontario and all of Toronto.

We had stopped by Niagara on our way to Maine in 1992 but Alex was only 5. So on Tuesday, we spent the day in Niagara after seeing CN Tower in the morning. We made it around 4, and by the time we parked and walked over to the falls, we were too late to get a “Maid in the Mist” tour, but we got tickets to “Journey behind the Falls” which I had never done before.

Even with the little rain ponchos they give you, you get VERY wet!!  The wind brought all the mist straight at us and I had to keep wiping off my camera lens to get a picture.  As you can see, they didn’t come out that great but it kind of gives you a feel for how wet it really was. It was pretty cool though seeing the rushing water in front of you in those tunnels though and the viewing area to the side of the falls was great.

It was a fun week in Toronto, but there is plenty more to see when I return. Typed up this post using my journaling from my scrapbook and pulled pictures from Amazon photos folder but quite a few, that I have in my scrapbook, aren’t there unfortunately. Missing most of them from Fort George, especially.

** All photos property of Lisa, not to be copied or reproduced **