Toronto is the largest city in Canada with over 2.5 million
people in the city, and many more in the surrounding suburbs, which means there’s plenty to
do in and around the area.
A little bit of touristy fun, and plenty of plain old living
fit the bill for our two and a half week stay here.
I’m sure no one wants to hear about libraries, school,
laundry, and grocery trips, so here’s a rundown of some of the fun (and not so fun)
things to do in the GTA.
This amusement park is roller coaster heavy, but there are
plenty of rides for all ages. Lily spent
most of her day in Kidsville and Planet Snoopy riding almost everything she
could go on. These rides are just right for me – tame! Bob and Morgan spent most of their time on the
faster rides, although Morgan did also spend time with his sister on the slower
rides. For some reason the super simple
helicopter ride both thoroughly entertained them. Lily did entice me onto one faster ride, Klockwerks,
since Bob & Morgan were riding another roller coaster and she really wanted
to go. Never again!!! For some reason,
rides like this cause me an instant massive headache and dizziness, and one round
was more than enough for me.
Luckily Bob
& Morgan finished their ride, joined Lily, and then the three
of them proceeded to ride twice more. My kids definitely do not get their
thrill seeking genes from me! (or maybe their inner ear equilibrium is just
better)The park had just opened for the season the previous weekend, so not
all the attractions and none of the shows were running yet. There was still plenty to do, but it would
have been nice to be able to have the full experience available. (It’s fully
open now).
This place was so fun for the kids that we actually came
twice. The second time around we got a membership. Did you know that science
centers and museums (and some zoos) around the country offer reciprocal
memberships? Your membership at one provides you entry into a number of others,
free of extra charge. Now, I knew about this for in the States, but I
figured that it was country specific – so hadn't bothered looking into it
while in the U.S. Turns out I was wrong. Our membership provides us entry into
300 centers world-wide. Cool!
We actually needed two days to see everything here, and even
then, I didn't get to go into the special exhibit for as long as I would have
liked. This was partly due to us watching an IMAX (actually OMNIMAX) movie
during each of our visits. We saw “The Human Body”, and “Flight of the
Butterflies” – this one tied in nicely with Morgan’s final science unit on
bugs.
The kids’ favorite area was the Kidspark, and they spent
quite a bit of time there on day one. They both had great fun playing with a
giant plastic pegboard, making faces, hand prints and butt marks.
3) Take a walk in nature
There is plenty of green space
in and around Toronto, what with Lake Ontario right there, and plenty of streams and
little valleys to help maintain the natural feel of the area. I've
noticed that many cities keep wild areas within their borders. It’s nice. People appreciate having it too,
if the full parking lot is any indication.
Our chosen park was also
basically our backyard for the past several weeks. Rouge Park follows the Rouge River, which
lets out into Lake Ontario. North from there, the park is fairly sizable and
has a variety of hikes. The trails are basic – marked by painted lines on the
trees – and in some spots are quite challenging (steep, slippery), which made
for a fun walk. Morgan was convinced we
were in the middle of nowhere – even when I showed him our location on my phone’s
GPS, and pointed out that we could easily hear the traffic off the 401. But I
could see his point too. It did feel very secluded. The trees showed quite a bit of damage from a
January ice storm, and other than clearing away any dangerous branches,
everything has been left natural.
4) Get dirty!
This one’s for the kids. Did I mention we were camped right along the
Rouge River? Yep, it took the kids
nearly two weeks to notice there was a river right there, but when they did… oh
boy!
Now, mud and kids go hand in
hand, but I think my hooligans took it to the extreme. We took another short
walk from the opposite end of the campground, down by the river. I was pointing
out the animal tracks in the mud along the edge of the river, and then Morgan
had the great idea to go make his own tracks in the mud. And then he lost his shoes to the soft
sucking mud. And then we had to rescue them, and all descended into muddy silliness
from there. Oh, did I mention this stuff was the silty, swampy mud of a slow
flowing, bendy river? Yuck! (but they
sure had fun)
5) Go to the Toronto International Circus
Festival
During the Victoria Day long
weekend, we took in a uniquely Toronto festival. At Harbourfront Center – a haven
of art and culture right on Toronto’s Harbour (hence the name), a weekend long
circus festival was in full swing. And it was all free. Sweet! Parking, of course, was not. As in Las Vegas,
we tested out the height of our truck in the parkade, this time in meters! (2.0
m is okay, but really scary to watch out the sunroof!) Once back at ground
level, we set off to tour the booths, sample some ethnic fare, and watch a
variety of juggling, circus, comedic and acrobatic talent at work. There were
also circus related crafts, and activities for the kids, and stations where they
could try out a bit of their own acrobatics. Toronto is home to two circus
schools (I think), so it makes sense that the festival would be here. Both schools
had shows running on the big stage, and it was amazing to watch 2 – 14 year old
kids up there showing off the skills they’d learned in school.
It was fun to go to something a
bit different than our usual, but Morgan tired of all it pretty quick (he did have some fun at the start). He spent most of the rest of the day trying to get us to leave so he
could go play his IPod, which made it challenging for the rest of us to enjoy the festival. I’m not even
sure he even noticed all the cool things going on right in front of him! (Sigh.
And GRRR! The parent part of me gets so frustrated with him sometimes) Lily, at
least, enjoyed it all.
Now many of these activities in
Toronto require us to do one thing, that isn't always fun:
6) Drive the 401
Busy, busy highway. Main
east/west route through the city (unless you want to take the expensive toll
road). There are express lanes and commuter lanes, which connect at each
interchange, but you have to know when you’re getting off, so that you don’t
need to slide over 6 lanes of traffic to make your off-ramp. It’s not so bad
during off-peak times, but during rush times… ugh. And, of course, we kept
managing to hit it during busy times. Twice we went to visit family on the west
side of Toronto – through rush hours, both directions. The second time, the
express lanes were closed, and it took us an hour and a half to go 40 km. Good
times!
Guess you're not a Torontonian until you get stuck in traffic on the 401. All in all, our time in the Toronto area has been fun, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment