Bali Bound

But that concludes my Ontario tour.  The one thing I am learning is that Canada is big, and so familiar from coast to coast, but there is so much to see!  Other places are great and all but I'm really enjoying seeing more of Canada.  Ironically there were two ladies discussing it on the subway, that she really wants to go for a wedding in BC and would like to go with a friend to Barcelona.  But going to Barcelona is a few hundred dollars cheaper.  And then they discussed how hard it is to travel within canada.  And it is so true! I think I hit the highlights of Toronto and if I never make it back I'll be content.  But there is still a lot of other things to see.  I did want to see the pandas at the zoo, but they'll be in Calgary soon enough.  And for anyone interested they have a shoe museum.  Seriously.  Wasn't high only list of things to see. But that finishes Toronto.  Check back in mid November for my next great Canadi...

Back at the airport.  I just realized that this is the fourth time I've been through Pearson airport this year.  And I seem to come to a different area each time.  This area is the sadder of the options.  Two Tim hortons and maybe two restaurants.  But I had a successful trip back to the airport for the most part.  I was starting to get concerned while still in Toronto that Friday afternoon traffic might be a lot crazier than I was anticipating.  And I ran out of time to actually do anything but wander in circles.  So I headed back.  Subways went smooth, drive went smooth.  Filled up with gas at 129.6 s litre.  Yikes.  I really want to know what the news and people keep saying about alberta having such high prices because every time I leave the province it's crazy high.  At this price at home it would be on the news with people commenting how expensive it is.  But it's all what you're used to.  I did have a bit ...

Survived a day in Toronto.  I say that like it was an effort.  But it's amazing that all places have their own vibes, but there is such a Canadian vibe.  And there is a really distinct business feel to Toronto.  Edmonton is really working class compared to here. With the Toronto film festival on right now hotels seem to be extra expensive so I'm staying on the outskirts.  And thought that instead of driving through downtown and paying a small fortune for parking I'd take the subway.  It worked quite well actually.  Had to pay a little more for parking but even just walking around the downtown was a little intimidating from a drivers perspective.  Lots of crazy roads and tons of road construction.  But unlike home, very few trucks and large SUVs.  The subway system is really easy to figure it out.  There is a u shaped like with a straight line through it. My first stop was the royal Ontario museum.  It's a museum.  I g...

Once again technology is giving me issues.  I'm hoping to take the city tour tomorrow on the bus.  It is a big loop and you get the tour as well as hop on and hop off privileges.  I thought it would be a good compromise on getting around a little easier!

32 Celsius is warm!  Especially with some humidity.  But it could have been worse... So I started the day out with walking over to the Skylon tower.  You ride up to the top in elevators on the outside of the building.  But you get a really good view going up and down.  And fabulous views of the falls.  The most interesting thing was seeing the river above the falls, the sheer amount of water  that goes through is amazing.  Especially after learning that about half of the potential water is actually diverted to the power stations. After that walk I checked out and headed up for more Niagara Falls fun.  First I did the whirlpool aero car.  There is a spot where the river goes around a tight corner and it causes a massive whirlpool.  And some crazy guy years ago built a car to go across.  It was a strange little ride.  Especially when you are close to the far side everyone walked in a circle so you can see both views. ...

Today was another successful day.  The real highlight was seeing Liz!  But we had a pretty good, and busy day. Breakfast was lovely, that I had alone, but I did enjoy the unlimited juice and waffles.  Good way for me to start the day. We started the day with Dinosaur mini golf.  I'm such a sucker for mini golf and this one was dinosaur themed with a volcano and everything.  I also played decently for once so it was a fun moment.  We also did lunch at the rainforest cafe.  Which is so so cheesy, but in a good way.  I enjoy the atmosphere and was amused at how impressed they are that they are the ONLY location with a shark.  It's just a little shark but he is there! Afterwards we hit the butterfly conservatory which was really exciting.  We even had some land on us!  Which seemed to be what many people were trying to do but were unsuccessful.  It was much more exciting than it seemed to be, and the guy running the till was...

Wow, so I went down to the falls to watch them get lit up.  It was a little underwhelming.  First they turned on just the white lights and it wasn't exciting.  And then just as I walked away they turned some pink and blue on.  Not entirely sure if it was worth the wait or not, but I did it! Then I headed back to my hotel which is on the other side of Clifton hill.  And it is a crazy place.  They have an upside down house to walk through.  At least three scary places to walk through.  Tacky tourist restaurants like hard rock and rainforest cafe.  And several mini golf places, a giant Ferris wheel similar to the London eye.  It is truly bizarre.  It's like universal studios combined with west Ed mall and a big pile of tacky tourist thrown on top. But they did have a waffle place.  It was okay, the girl seemed more concerned that I didn't want the free coffee that came with it...