our canada trip

We took a long weekend trip to Canada this past weekend and had a wonderful time.  A friend of mine had told me about the hotel in the Toronto Blue Jays stadium and it sounded so fun, we planned a trip around it!  We left bright and early Friday morning and arrived in Toronto around 5:00 that evening.  Crossing into the border took a bit of time because our attendant was chatty but it was very simple.  Jason and I needed passports and the kids only needed their birth certificates.  The city traffic was quite heavy, but that's to be expected in any city.

This is the view from our hotel room during batting practice.  The stadium is an indoor dome and the roof was closed when we arrived.  

It was a sunny evening so they ended up opening the roof for the game.  

Go Blue Jays!  We had originally hoped to go to a game when they were playing the Orioles, but it didn't fit our schedule so we ended up seeing them play the Astros.  

Pretty good view from our seats!

Hi Ace!

Our seats were pretty close to our room!

It was a hot game and after a long day of traveling, Emmy wasn't too interested in staying at the game long.  After a hot dog and some ice cream, the two of us made our way back up to the room to watch the rest of the game (with the game on the tv too so we didn't miss anything).

We ate breakfast at the restaurant overlooking the field before checking out.

We had planned to go up in the CN Tower on Saturday morning and we stepped out of our hotel and this was our view!  It was a foggy/cloudy morning with zero visibility from the tower. 

We hadn't really researched other activities because the tower was all we had planned to do before leaving Toronto.  There was an aquarium right next door but we opted to drive out to the zoo.

The Toronto Zoo was huge with lots of exhibits and lots of walking.

We had only finished about 2/3 of the zoo before a torrential rain storm hit.  We waited it out at a couple of places and then ultimately decided to leave.

Lucky for us, by the time we got back to the city, the rain had passed and the sun was shining so we went up in the CN Tower.  

The city of Toronto is huge!

There is a section of the tower that has a glass floor.  I was not brave enough to walk on it so I stayed on safe ground to take a picture of this brave crew!

It was a beautiful view out onto Lake Ontario.

The observation deck was a bit breezy!  

On the way back to our car we stopped at a street vendor and bought some poutine (fries with cheese curds and brown gravy).  A friend had told Jason this was a popular dish in Canada and we should try it.  It was really good!  We got it in a restaurant later in the trip as well.

We left Toronto Saturday evening and headed to Niagara Falls.

It was a rainy evening but the falls were still stunning.  This is the view of the horseshoe falls from the Canadian side.  

This is the view of the American Falls from the Canadian side.

Selfie time!

We ate dinner at a restaurant in the visitor center overlooking the falls. 

We were there late so we were able to see the horseshoe falls all lit up at night.  After this we headed across the border to NY to our hotel.  

We were so excited to see the sun on Sunday morning!  Jason picked the perfect hotel (Comfort Inn Niagara Falls NY) because it was right next to the park so we were able to walk to all the attractions on the US side.  The pictures just don't do the falls justice, but I was so excited we were able to see and capture a rainbow over the falls!  That's the Maid of the Mist boat we rode later in the day.

The views were just stunning.

We did the Cave of the Winds tour and it was lots of fun.  It was basically bridges/paths below the American Falls.  

The ticket for the attraction included ponchos and sandals!

The boys were brave and went up right under the falls on the Hurricane Deck.  Emmy said no way! 

There was a Hard Rock Cafe next to our hotel so we decided to try one out for the first time.

After lunch we headed to the Maid of the Mist boat ride.  They provided ponchos, but no shoes, but luckily we had saved ours from the morning attraction! 

This is what Jason was looking most forward to.  They also had boat rides that left from the Canada side.  

This is a view heading into the falls from the dock.  It was impossible to take any other pictures because it was like a rain storm once you got to the falls.  Such a fun experience!

Jason's uncle had told us to go to Niagara on the Lake if we had time.  It was about a 20 minute drive back across the border and it was well worth it.  It was a main street with lots of shopping and restaurants.  The streets were lined with beautiful flower arrangements everywhere.  We went down to the water and walked along Lake Ontario.  It's hard to see in this picture, but you can see Toronto across the lake.

This area was just beautiful.  They even had horse drawn carriage rides around the town.  We ate dinner outside and enjoyed the main street scenery.

Sunday night we went back into the park to get a picture of the American Falls lit up at night and to watch fireworks over the falls.

Jason had seen online ahead of time that there would be fireworks while we were there so we stayed up late and watched!

We had such an amazing trip and I would totally recommend it to anyone!  I tried to include plenty of details about the things we did and saw, but if you want to know more, just email me gracewhitlock@comcast.net.