Touring Tennessee Day 23: Toronto and home

[CrispyA]

We got up feeling sad as we were going home today. We were all really enjoying our holiday and nobody felt ready to go back yet. However, you can't stay on holiday forever (why not? ) and so we really did have to go home.

The weather was quite rubbish and the news on TV was full of Hurricane Harvey and the havoc it was wreaking across Texas. We had visited Houston in 2015 and it was really sad to see the flooding and destruction in that area.

We finished packing and, despite Paul's prophesies of doom, everything did, in fact, fit in the cases. It was a squeeze, admittedly, but all the cases closed and in my book, that's a result!

It was a short and easy drive to the airport and we dropped the car off with no problems. We were soon at the bag drop for Westjet, where we found out that Paul's case was overweight at 27kg. Cue some hasty redistribution and repacking (the bargain jacket was HEAVY) and this time it was allowed on. He was a little disgruntled to see the "Heavy" sticker but we explained that was to warn the baggage handlers, not as a mark of shame! Fortunately the rest of bags were well under the limit.

Security was fine with only Hannah experiencing the upclose and personal treatment from the TSA agents. We had a nice walk around Nashville airport, listening to the music and just exploring. We also spotted some bargain priced Nashville hoodies so Hannah and I made a final purchase.

Our flight to Toronto was delayed slightly, but only by a couple of minutes. The Westjet crew were again very friendly and quite sassy, with one flight attendant chatting to Evan and begging him not to give away any Game of Thrones spoilers from last night after spotting his GOT t-shirt.

The flight was again quick, with a drinks service and not much else. Even though it was a small plane, it was a very smooth and comfortable journey and in no time at all, we were in Toronto.

This time immigration was much quicker and the machines were working properly. We declared our cookies and cans of chipotle peppers then went to get the bags which were, amazingly, first off. We had been told at Nashville that we wouldn't have to collect them so it's a good thing we checked, as we did have to! We rechecked them and then had a chat about what to do.

We had a 6 hour layover so decided to go downtown. There is a train from the airport and you can buy a long layover ticket which was a bargainous 25CAD. The train was nice and didn't take too long. The Toronto Blue Jays were playing at home, so there were plenty of fans on the train.

We called into the bar at the station once we got into Toronto and got some sandwiches. Then we set off to walk to the waterfront.

It wasn't far to the CN Tower, so we got some pictures, before walking round to the Blue Jays stadium, which was buzzing for game day.

We also got another photo of the four of us that we didn't really want but were too polite to refuse. It's quite a nice one though!

It wasn't far to the waterfront and we did have the excitement of seeing filming taking place for a crowd scene. We asked one of the crew and they told us it was for Taken the TV series. Alas Liam Neeson isn't in it and was nowhere to be seen.

We strolled along the waterfront for a while before heading back to the station. We rather liked Toronto and would happily return and see a bit more of the city. There were lots of bikes and skateboards and a fair few manbuns around - seems like the hipsters like Toronto as well.

We were back at the airport in plenty of time. It was really busy but we were lucky in finding a seat. We hadn't ordered food for the plane so needed to eat before our flight and decided to try Smashburger, which turned out to be a great idea as the food was really nice. Hannah and I also bought some pastries to have in the morning.

The flight itself was fine, although we did leave quite late due to the tug losing a wheel. We rented a tablet for Hannah, while Evan just used his phone for the app. The streaming worked much better this time and I managed to watch the remaining 20 minutes of Lion which I had started watching on the flight out. It was good but I think it is better watched all in one go, without a 3 week interval in the middle. I suspect most films are!

Nobody slept much and I did the usual thing of glaring at the sleeping folk on the plane, wondering how on earth they managed it. The only low point was missing the morning drinks service due to turbulence over Gatwick. That would have been fine if we hadn't been able to smell the coffee that had been served earlier to the Premium passengers. That did make us more than a little grumpy.

After landing, we waited an age for our bags and then our train to St Pancras was massively delayed. Instead of having about an hour and a half before our train home, we had 8 minutes. This led to a somewhat undignified sprint from the Thameslink Platform right across St Pancras to the East Midlands platform but we made it. Go us!

Then it was back home and work and school and normal life.

We had a really fantastic time and very much enjoyed being in the South. The food was good and the people were friendly and we got to do a lot of interesting things. The variety of music was a particular highlight, as was experiencing a total eclipse. We also enjoyed seeing family and spending time in our cabin in the mountains.

Thank you for reading along and I hope you've enjoyed our adventures.