Toronto

In 1994 the Canucks played the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  The local radio station sang this little song:  "A place that's cold, a place there's snow, a place that no one wants to go.... Toronto."  This was going through my head for most of the weekend, but the truth is, it's a pretty awesome city.
We left early on Saturday morning and headed straight to a Blue Jays game.  Chris is pretty excited about our baseball stadium tour summer, so it was fun to cross the Sky Dome off our list.

From there we headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame, but along the way we came across this little treasure.  This is just one of a long line of plaques honoring 100 workers.  Really, it just describes 100 horrible ways to die.  It's so morbid, though that we actually read every one.  I guess that's how you get people to pay attention.

 Toronto is a beautiful city with a very modern look.  The traffic is horrendous, though.  It takes forever to get anywhere down town... like worse than LA or Vancouver.

 

The Russian Rocket's jersey.

Pretty awesome hallway, eh?

Loved looking at all these retro jerseys.

I found Kirk McLean's card.  When I was 13, I bought a poster of Kirk McLean for my bedroom wall.  I was sure to get one that had a headshot without his mask on because I thought he was cute.  I guess Kirk McLean was my teenage crush.

 ... and of course, the Stanley Cup.  We even got to touch it.

Jane failed to take any naps during our adventures, so she was dead tired by the end.  We headed to our hotel and were more than pleased to discover it was a suite with a full kitchen.  Chris set up Jane's pack'n'play half way in the closet and we immediately began daydreaming about how awesome it would be to live here for the summer.  That should tell you a little about how fond we are of our two bedroom apartment.  We'd give it up in heartbeat for a place with a couch, TV, microwave and bed that doesn't give us back problems.  Perhaps best of all, it didn't smell like cigarettes and I didn't have to kill any bugs that day.  It truly was a vacation.

The next morning, Jane was ready to go.

 

 We went to Toronto Island, a park island just a short ferry ride from down town.

 Trying to hide from the wind.

 Toronto island has a pretty awesome view of downtown.

 ... and on the other side of island is a nice beach.

There was a restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives that we had our eye on so we hurried back to our car and across town and made it just before they closed at 8.  It was SO worth it.  I had a the Cider Braised Pork Sandwich and it was gone in minutes.  Loved it.  We were pretty close to Casa Loma at that point so we stopped by to check it out.  It was closed but we walked around the outside.  Apparently in 1911, a wealthy financier wanted a castle so he had one built for him in Toronto.  Why not, right?