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Welcome to my the page about my trip to Canada

Introduction

I'll be going day by day, activity by activity, showing images and videos with small descriptions under them. This page may take a while to load on some machines, so I've optimized the media as best I can. This page is designed to be read on a desktop. While you can read it on a phone, it'll be more difficult to view. Enjoy!

Day One

Train Trip There


Packed my bag, walked through an incredibly empty downtown Brooklyn, and took the subway to Penn. Station at about 6am. I always love seeing the city so quiet when it's particularly early in the morning.

For the most part, the views from the train ride were beautiful. I was able to see the major rivers and lakes, the picture above was taken in upstate NY, close to Utica.

On the way there I spotted some retired rolling stock parked at the Utica station. If I recall correctly I had a similar model train model to the silver car when I was younger.

Niagara Falls train station on the US side.

Finally arrived! My friend Dan (pictured left) picked me up from the Niagara Falls station, and we drove to his grandmother's house. She was kind enough to offer me dinner, so we grilled some steaks. In total the trip was about 12 hours door to door, leaving my apartment at 6am and arriving at 6pm. Though I did not stay at Dan's grandmother's, we drove back to his apartment that evening.

These are the buildings Dan lives in, specifically the left-most building in the left picture. They're named the Marilyn Monroe Towers (though no one knows why. We speculated that it was because they resemble a feminine form from some angles). The right image is the view from Dan's balcony, fortunately this was nearly the worst weather we had. We got quite lucky with the weather throughout the week.

Day Two

Japanese Park

While my trip activities mostly took place in Toronto, Dan lives in the neighboring suburb of Mississauga, which is about 40 minutes from Toronto. The city of Mississauga was designed in partnership with the city in Kariya, Japan. Because of this a park nearby was dedicated to linking the two cities together. In Kariya there is a similar park in dedication to Mississauga.

Downtown Toronto

Since this was a work-cation, the three of us (Dan, his roommate Scarlett, and myself) spent the majority of our days working our respective remote jobs. We usually finished up around 3:30pm each day. Here we're heading to Toronto for our first major day in the city.

Our first stop was the musical park by the shoreside of Lake Ontario. The park was built to resemble the feeling of listening to classical music, specifically Bach. It had sweeping turns and spirals flowing with each melody. There were stands around the park showcasing the sheet music of each associated piece.

Some of my best shots of CN Tower, our first attraction of the trip. We planned to go in the late afternoon close to sundown, so we had some time to kill. We decided to get some local cuisine.

We had dinner at a very fancy Michelin star sushi restaurant, where we mostly shared sampler plates of different kinds of Japanese dishes and sushi rolls.

Then immediately in protest of being under dressed, we bought one of the messiest delicacies Toronto had to offer: Beaver Tails. They're basically funnel cake in the shape of a beaver's tail, covered in toppings. We got ours with chocolate spread on one, and apple pie on the other. We did, in fact, make a mess while eating these.

Because this was my first ever beaver tail, I was allowed to ring the celebratory bell. After this we walked over to the CN Tower.

Our CN Tower Visit

In the late afternoon we made our way to CN Tower, which is the tallest structure in Toronto. We had tickets for all levels of the tower, but we decided not to eat there due to the incredibly high prices.

Video of our trip up the CN Tower, which was at one point the tallest building in the world, built by a railroad company in Toronto to prove how strong their materials were. Below is the largest collection of pictures I took on the trip. The plurality of my canada-photos came from utop the CN Tower and Niagara Falls.

Our view from the highest level observation deck in the tower.

We got free seats to the Blue Jays game. In the last 20 seconds you can see the pitcher throw, it was pretty cool to use my phone's 100x zoom for something below me for the first time.

Our trip back down the elevator.

One last shot of CN Tower to finish up the afternoon.

Storm Crow Manor

For dinner we went to a Dungeons and Dragons themed restaurant called Storm Crow Manor. It featured pop culture themed rooms and meals, with a fantasy room and a science fiction room. We got a meal inspired by Game of Thrones, rolled 20 sided dice for our shots, and I got a Star Trek themed drink, the Romulan Ale.

The two rooms, with the fantasy on the left and the science fiction on the right. We sat in the fantasy room.

My drink, the Romulan Ale, bubbling from the dry ice at the bottom. My camera had trouble focusing because it kept getting splashed, but the latter half of the video is much clearer.

The other drinks we had from left to right: Xenomorph Brain Fluid from the movie Alien, The Golden Shot (you cannot order this, you can only get it if you roll a 20 on the 20 sided die), and Butterbeer from the Harry Potter movies

We were having such a good time they gave us a cauldron of bubbling sprite for free.

Their horror themed bathrooms.

Day Three

Morning Hike

We walked to a local pike and hiked along the river.

Ripley's Aquarium

We then took a trip to Ripley's Aquarium.

The aquarium's fluid handling system, on display at the end before the gift shop.

Toronto's Little Italy

We drove to Little Italy and went to one of the highest rated family restaurants in the neighborhood.

Board Game Cafe

That night we went to a board game cafe named Snakes and Lattes where one of Dan's friends worked.

Day Four

Newest Wardrobe Addition

Aga Khan Museum

We spent the majority of the day at the Aga Khan museum, which is the largest collection of Islamic artworks in Canada, the second largest in the Americas, and third largest in the world.

Dinner at a traditional Chinese Hotpot Restaurant

Local Bar Hopping

In typical vacation fashion I had to get a fancy drink. I got one lit on fire, delivered to the table, and then sprayed with absinth.

Day Five

Exploring Toronto

Since I had an open day, I decided to go meet up with one of my Canadian friends, Mischa, and walk around Toronto to look at some of the architecture.

St Lawrence Market

The Beaches

Dan and I managed to plot our route walking from downtown Toronto all the way to the end of the beaches along the waterfront trail.

Greek Town

At the recommendation of one of my friends, we went to Greek Town for our dinner. We had a wonderful meal at one of the best rated local spots. Our leftovers lasted us two more meals.

After this we took a short trip to a local barcade and played some games.

Day Six

Art Gallery of Ontario

We started the day at the Art Gallery of Ontario. I was able to use my Brooklyn Museum membership for admission, as it is part of the international museum alliance.

Below are some pictures from one of the larget collections of model ships in world, part of the AGO Museum

I believe this to have been my favorite piece of the collection. The Storm by Narcisse Virgile Diaz De La Peña

Dinner at the Village Genius Pub

Karaoke Bar

Day Seven

Breakfast at Cora's

This brunch spot was famous for their orange juice, so we tried some, and got a lot of tasty breakfast as well. I tried a maple latte for the first time, and I was surprised at how good it was.

Kayaking on the Humber River

We rode in a group down the river all the way to Lake Ontario, making a few stops along the way to check out small marshes.

Vietnamese Dinner

Dan's roommate Scarlett is Vietnamese, so she took us to one of her favorite spots.

Biking in High Park

After dinner Dan and I went biking in High Park, the largest public park in Canada.

Day Eight

Niagara Falls

The commercialized theme park area - we didn't spend much time here.

As part of our trip to Niagara Falls, we got to walk through old mining tunnels underneath them. We came out incredibly close, and had some amazing views.

Lunch at the Falls

We took the Maid of the Mist out to the Falls, and got some amazing pictures in between being pelted by rain and mist.

Vietnamese Dinner

To celebrate my last night in Toronto, we went out for some very nice Vietnamese food (again!). This time I got an incredibly tasty platter, featuring a smattering of different things the restaurant had to offer.

Tea on the Balcony

As my trip came to a close, we spent our final few hours together watching the sky go dark, drinking tea on the balcony, and talking about everything we had done.

That's that!

When it's all said and done, I would say that this was a pretty successful vacation. I had a great time visiting friends and making new ones. It was more of a work-cation, where I got my remote work done in the day time and went on vacation in the evening. If there's one thing I've learned from this trip, it's that I love living an active lifestyle. Dan pointed out at one point that nothing was preventing us from living this way normally - all of the attractions, parks, restaurants, and activities we did were always available to him. It got me thinking the same way about my life in NYC. I'm already quite active, but what's stopping me from living a work-cation in the city on my normal day to day?

On the whole I loved my trip to Canada, and as I'm on the train home writing this, I'm already thinking about my next trip. One step at a time of course haha, but I really loved this whole adventure. I also learned I'm far more outdoorsy now than I used to be. Between the hiking, kayaking, and bike riding my biggest complaint is that we didn't do more of it. Maybe that's a new hobby I'll take up in the future, though that would mean getting out of the city more, I think it'd be worthwhile.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Until next time.