Surprise Birthday Trip - Day 2!

Back to the birthday extravaganza!

We woke up the next morning with plans to stay in Toronto until about 2pm before heading off to Niagara. Of course we had to hit up the Hockey Hall of Fame (or the Hockey Museum as I kept calling it) because Tom is a ginormous hockey fan and I'm a bit of a fan myself (aka I had a crush on Mark Messier in the 90s). 

The museum was actually really cool and way more interesting than I expected. I was really impressed with the whole setup/layout and there were a ton of different elements -- a great mix of history and current highlights and some fun interactive features. One of the coolest parts was seeing the Stanley Cup and the vault that holds some of the hold plaques. I don't know if this was the real one because there are apparently copies floating around, but cool nonetheless!

After the Hall of Fame we checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Historic Distillery District for some lunch. The Distillery District is a historic and entertainment precinct filled with cafes, restaurants, galleries and shops housed within heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. The district comprises more than 40 heritage buildings and 10 streets, and is the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America. I was really looking forward to coming here but it wasn't really what I expected. It seemed to be aimed more toward the wealthier Canadian folk than us middle classers. Still, it was a pretty cool place to see. After looking over some menus, we decided to get lunch at Mill Street Brewery. I ordered a flight and we got some short rib poutine to start, which was amazing. I also ordered the fig and prociutto flat bread and Tom got a lobster and avocado sandwich.

Once lunch was finished we packed into the car for the quick 1 and a half hour drive to Ontario. Unfortunately we made a couple of wrong turns (thanks to my bad decision making) and hit quite a bit of traffic. I passed out for a while but woke up ready to entertain. Tom had Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with him so I decided to read it aloud in hopes of making the time go by. I think it worked. 

We finally arrived at our hotel in Niagara Falls around 8 pm. We were staying at the Hilton and are room was just awesome! Tom did a really good job :) Another king suite equipped with a hot tub!! 

 We were pretty hungry at this point so asked the woman at the information desk for some local recommendations. Niagara was wayyyy more touristy than I expected (more on that later) and we didn't feel like eating at the Macaroni Grill and other chains that filled the area. She recommended Syndicate Restaurant & Brewery, which was a great choice for us. The restaurant was cozy but classy and offered a 3-course meal for $20! I ordered ANOTHER flight of their in-house brews, a ceasar salad, seafood boullabaise and the s'mores dessert. Tom ordered the caprese salad, lobster ravioli, and creme brulee. Everything was pretty delicious!

After he had planned the trip, Tom found out that Nik Wallenda was going to be tight-rope walking across the falls on the Friday we would be there. This was such an awesome surprise! The day before we heard that ABC decided they couldn't air his walk unless he was harnessed. I was relieved that we definitely wouldn't be seeing anyone plummet to their death but it did take away just a bit of the excitement.

The walk started at 10 pm and after dinner we joined the other 100,000+ people gathered around the falls to watch. It was pretty hard for me to see but it was still very cool! Here are some pictures of Nik -- if you look closely you can see him!

Nik is just to the right of the ladder thing

There he is with his stick right at the start of the mist

It was a really cool experience and I'm so happy he made it across -- harness and all! There were supposed to be fireworks after but apparently it was too windy. Too windy for fireworks but not too windy for a man to walk across a rope? Sounds pretty shady to me!

We considered hitting up the casino for a bit but the crowds were insane. There were people EVERYWHERE you could barely walk. We decided to just hit the hay and get ready for the next day at the falls!

Checking in on 2012 Goals

How are we half way through June already?? Seriously. I feel like it was just yesterday I was stressin' over new years plans. I figured this was a good of time as ever to check in on those goals I set back in December. I actually forgot about a few of these so I was a little nervous when I looked back, but here goes nothing!


1. Read 26 books
I've been super successful with this! I'm currently on book #18 and going strong. I think I'll crush my goal of 26!
2. Run another half marathon
Haven't done this yet, but I will do it in October! I'm signed up for the BAA half marathon on October 7th, eeek!
3. Achieve a healthier weight
Hmm...have made only a tiny bit of progress on this. Working towards a healthier weight is never-ending. I do wish I had made more progress here but I can only move forward from this point.
4. Take a dance class
Technically I took some dance fusion classes at my gym but that's really not what I was thinking of when I wrote this down. I have to do some research and decide if it's worth the money or not!
5. Take a cooking class
Haven't done this yet, despite coming close numerous times. Definitely still plan to take a cooking class by the time the year is over.
6. Go on a vacation somewhere cool
Kicking this one's butt! I went to Iceland in February, Burlington, VT in April, and just finished a trip to Toronto/Niagara Falls! I have a few other fun weekend trips planned over the next few months to.
7. Make a South Africa scrapbook
Gah, I don't know why this is so impossible to do. Every time I even consider doing this I feel dread! I think I just don't like scrapbooking. The LEAST I can do is print out my pictures and make a photo album. 
8. Run a 5k in less than 30 minutes
Not even close, but getting there! Getting back into running took way longer than I would have liked. I'm finally in the swing of things and hope to start pushing myself on pace a bit over the next couple of weeks! I'm still determined to reach this goal by the end of the year.


So I'm doing okay and it was really helpful to check in on these. I've definitely felt more motivated toward some of the goals (1, 2, 6, 8) and too indifferent towards others, but we'll see where the next few months take me!

Surprise Birthday Trip - Day 1!

I have quite the updates coming this way! I had the most amazing weekend and I just hope my memory will serve me well.

A couple of months ago Tom told me to request off work for a 'surprise birthday extravaganza' in June. I submitted my time off request for last Thursday and Friday with no idea what we were going to do! Somehow he managed to keep it a secret from me...he is clearly skilled in the secret-keeping department.

My instructions were to have my self and bags ready to go at 6:30 am on Thursday. He showed up at my apartment right on time in a cab, much to my surprise. While I had no clue where we were heading I was pretty sure we were driving there, so seeing a cab outside was pretty unexpected.

Tom had told me we were going to be doing my "favorite thing" on Thursday morning, which just so happens to be going to the airport! I LOVE airports/flying/anything to do with air travel but I didn't put two and two together until we were rolling into the JetBlue terminal. Tom got us our boarding passes and I STILL had no idea where I was going. Eventually one of the people checking us in said, "This way to Buffalo." It took me about a minute but I started to suspect we were going to Niagara Falls!!! Tom took this as the cue to hand me something wrapped in birthday paper, which turned out to be a Toronto/Niagara Falls travel guide -- I was right! The excitement hit me immediately. I've been wanting to go to Niagara for as long as I can remember and just couldn't believe he planned out this trip for us. I pretty much skipped my way through security and was still beaming when we got on the plane.

We arrived in Buffalo around 10 am and headed over to Hertz to rent a car.

We hopped in our cute little red car and were on our way to Toronto!

It was a quick trip -- we breezed through the border patrol at the Canadian border and arrived at the Sheraton in downtown Toronto around noon. We checked in, dropped our stuff off in our room (hello, king bed and private balcony!!) and planned our day.

 We decided to take a casual route through a few different neighborhoods highlighted in the travel book and stop for some local food and drink along the way.

We headed in the direction of West Queen West (not to be confused with Queen West), Toronto's quirky art and design district. The 1-mile strip is filled with art galleries, music stores, museums, and tons of unique, eccentric shops and boutiques. This was definitely the place for Canadian hipsters and we had a lot of fun window shopping. We did have some trouble trying to find a place to eat despite what seemed like thousands of pubs and ethnic places. Eventually we came across Swan Restaurant, which was exactly what we were looking for. I ordered a chicken, pancetta and avocado club and Tom went for the pulled pork sandwich. We shared a side of potato salad as well. It was a decent lunch although not our favorite food of the trip.

After lunch we continued our walk through Little Italy, Portugal Village, Chinatown and Kensington Market. Kensington Market was by far my favorite part of Toronto.

 

We stopped by a little pub for a couple of local beers and then started to explore the shops.

The only way I can describe the market is as a foodie's paradise. Store after store featured cheap, bulk specialty goods. Bins overflowing with nuts, seeds, beans, grains, dried fruit, fresh fruit and vegetables, candy, baking goods etc. lined the streets, and large windows showcased fresh fish, meat, bread and cheese.

We both wished we would have skipped lunch and just came to the market to eat. That didn't stop us from picking up some goods though -- we left the market with jumbo sunflower seeds, dried apricots, popped corn, and a delicious loaf of bread (that we got for free!!). Tom also got an espresso that he couldn't stop talking about :)

We walked around for about 5 or 6 hours and then headed back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. Before dinner we decided to stop and take the elevator up to the top of the CN Tower, hoping for a spectacular view of Toronto. Standing at over 1,800 feet, the CN Tower is currently the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere and held the record for the world's tallest tower for 34 years (I believe right now it is the third or fourth highest tower)! The view from the top was really incredible. It was really cool to see the view through sunset, and watch the city lights come on as it became darker. We were looking forward to the glass floor (a glass panel that you can stand/sit/lay on) but unlike the view, it was a bit of a let down. It was still super scary to walk on though!

We waited for the sun to set and then took the elevator down back down to the ground. We had looked up some places to eat in the travel book and had decided on The Gabardine. The restaurant was very cute and the menu was pretty close to American food except for the fish pie. Is that a Canadian thing? Is it American and I just don't know it?

I ended up ordering a burger with fries and Tom ordered the fish special of the night. Both were really great!

After dinner walked back to the hotel and called it a night. It was almost midnight and had been a long day. We made some plans for the next morning and hit the hay. I went to bed with dreams of Niagara Falls in my head :)