Day Trip to Toronto

We get asked a lot what we do while we are home in Canada. Our most common answer is work. We work a lot for other companies and we both work hard on Ryan's company, him on the machines and myself on the office administrative side of the business. We live in our RV full time, moving between family properties and getting to spend loads of time with our families, which we absolutely love!

We also do take a few days off here and there and go do some day trips by ourselves or with our niece or nephew. We took a one day trip in July to Toronto to go to Ripley's Aquarium with our then 8 year old nephew.

We started the day off catching the GO Train from Whitby taking it into Union Station in Toronto. When Ryan and I go into Toronto we commonly take the train to avoid dealing with traffic, paying the outrageous parking fees and trying to find parking is always a challenge. This was Cole's (our nephews) first time on the GO Train, he thought it was pretty cool seeing the cities whiz by, looking out over Lake Ontario and then coming into Toronto seeing where all the rail lines meet and how big Union Station is.

We pre booked our tickets for a 12 pm entry, there were lines everywhere as the Blue Jay's also had a home game that day and it appeared a few other families had the same idea as us. Once it was our turn to go into the aquarium, the fun started. IT WAS PACKED, it was a Saturday with day camp grounds, other families, tourists and Jay's fans. This was all of our first time at the aquarium so we took our time and patiently waited for our turns at each of the sites.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

We started with the stingrays. When Cole finally got his chance to get up to the pool, he quickly nabbed a spot and stuck his hand into the water. After a few minutes and the stingrays swimming just out of reach, one ray finally came close enough for him to touch. He lit up with a smile and waited for the next ray to swim by. We stayed at this spot for close to 5 minutes, by the time the 3rd stingray had swam by, he decided it was time to move on to a different attraction and let someone else have a chance to take the sting ray

We walked through the jellyfish and seahorse, Cole taking a turn to pop into the middle of the aquariums in the domes watching the different marine life swim by.

We continued through Ripley's, walking through pointing out different fish, sharks and marine life we had seen while diving over in South East Asia.

As we carried on through we came to the big tanks of sharks and sea turtles, which as we watched the conveyor belt go by with people standing on it we realized we had gone the wrong way through the entire building. For us this worked out great, yes it was busy and packed with people. We waited in the lines like everyone else but when it came down to it, Photo Credit: V.Gray

we saw all the attractions in about an hour and fifteen minutes, leaving us with the rest of the afternoon wide open.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

As we left Ripley's we reached out to their cousin Matt who lives in Toronto, thinking we could meet for a late lunch. It was going to take Matt a little bit to get to the general area we were, so we opted for a quick snack. Thinking we would be able to just walk into a restaurant close by and grab an appetiser, this was foolish. Everywhere close to Rogers Centre was full and had a 45 minute wait. Walking back out onto the street, we looked around for another option. STREET MEAT! I haven't had street meat since Ryan and I went to Nashville (4 years ago) and Cole informed us he had never had street meat. Hot dogs all around, sit on a garden box and people watch on the streets of Toronto.

We still had some time to kill while we waited for Matt to get ready and get on the street car. Once we finished our street meat, we looked across the road towards Steam Whistle Brewery and the Train Museum. Perfect! Ryan and I were both thirsty from all the walking, it was hot out and Cole could run away and look at the train cars. Well of course that is not exactly what happened.

We walked into the Steam Whistle Brewery straight to the bar to order our beverages and the first thing the bartender said was "Man, that's a nice beard", with a huge grin Ryan smiled and said "Thank you" and ordered our beers. Cole and I both rolled our eyes. Cole and his older sister (Emily) have been bugging Ryan for over a year now to shave off his beard, he has yet to cave and do it. Of course as soon as we found our spot on the patio Ryan and Cole started chirping back and forth about his beard, in their normal fashion of "see I told you, people like it" " no they don't, shave it" etc.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

As we drank our beers and enjoyed the sunshine, we started discussing what to do next when we met up with Matt. Ryan started explaining to Cole what bar hopping was, Cole liked the sounds of that! As we left to go meet up with Matt, Cole took a quick moment to look at the train cars, only to find you can stand on the back stoops but not enter the train cars.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

When we met up with Matt an hour later, we told Matt our plan was to do a few stops then grab the train home later that afternoon. We started walking around Toronto with Matt, who had a few places in mind for our next stop and lunch. We walked around a little bit before deciding on ShoeLess Joe's, the kids menu was ideal for our fourth in the group. After an hour or so hanging out at ShoeLess Joe's, we decided to walk down to the Harbour Front to see the boats and go to Amsterdam Brewery.

We started our walk down to the Harbour front, seeing sail boats and Coast Guard boats as soon as we approached the wharf. We continued on down towards the ferry boarding area and beach front. As we approached Amsterdam Brewery we saw there was a huge line up, Matt and Ryan went to find out how long of a wait it was going to be, while Cole and I carried on over to the Marine Police Station right across the dock. We walked over and looked in the windows at all the boats and gear inside.

As Matt and Ryan joined us they never did mention how long of wait it was, they just told us it was too long and Ryan suggested making our way back up towards Steam Whistle. We carried on walking the docks for a little while longer, finishing off the tour at the Fire Station.

As we started our walk back up towards Steam Whistle Brewery we heard the Rogers Centre lit up with cheers! We reached Steam Whistle Brewery and before we entered Matt brought up the RecRoom Bar, how they had arcade games and a really cool virtual reality room. We had tried to go in earlier and it was 45 minute, we figured we would try one more time now the Blue's Jay was on, hoping the crowd had left. We walked in and got seated right away! By this point in Cole's bar hopping day he had had 2 Sprites, so it was time to switch to a lemon aid and water. We all sat and enjoyed the air conditioning and watched the Blue Jays game on the TV.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

We took some time before heading out to walk around the arcade games and look into the virtual reality room, only to find the room was closed. At this point it was after 5 pm and we still had to catch the GO Train back to Whitby and drive 45 minutes to an hour to get back home. We called it a day and started walking back toward Union Station. We took Cole up through the main entrance of Union Station so he could see the grand hall and clock in the old building. We arrived with 5 minutes to spare before our train back to Whitby showed up, we got on the platform and loaded in quickly sitting up in one of the upper decks on the way home.

It was a pretty quiet car ride home, with everyone being tired from all the excitement, walking and sun shine. We asked Coel later that evening what his favourite part was, thinking he would say something about the sharks or Ripley's. Nope! Cole informed us his favourite part was the bar hopping, oh at Ripley's was pretty cool too.

Cheers!

**Please note that all opinions and views expressed in this post are my own, from my own experiences. If you would like to see more pictures follow me on Instagram vikki.gray **