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 :)
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