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12 Jan 16, 11:18 AM |
#1
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Imagineer
Join Date: Jan 10
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Toronto First Timers! December 2015 - Day 4
**Warning - photo heavy day!
We woke up at 7am this morning, determined to make the most of our last ½ day in the city. We packed all our bits, showered & got ready, leaving the hotel room before 9am after taking a few more photos of the view. We checked our bags with the concierge and head down to the PATH in search of breakfast. Aaron didn’t fancy anything so I just grabbed a blueberry muffin, $1.35. We head out of the PATH & down towards the ferry terminal to cross over to the islands. This is something I was really pleased we were able to do as I know the ferries might not have been running so regularly if it was much colder. The ferry was only running to Ward’s Island which was fine with us as that was near the beach area. We paid $15 for 2 return tickets and as we had half an hour to wait we set off in search of a coffee. We saw a Tim Horton’s, Aaron grabbed a coffee I had a hot chocolate & we also shared an egg & sausage muffin with a hash brown $7.50. We got on the 10am ferry and it took about 10 minutes to arrive at the island. We stayed inside on the journey as it was chilly! In total we spent 2.5 hours on the islands and we had an amazing time, it was so quiet and gorgeous to walk around. The beaches were deserted and the houses looked lifeless which was quite eerie. We walked along the water on the far side all the way to the pier in the middle and then took the path back that looked across to the city. We probably saw about 15 other people the whole time we were there. Edited at 03:07 PM. |
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12 Jan 16, 11:18 AM |
#2
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Jan 10
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We had a play on the swings, sat and watched the skyline for a while taking some time-lapse videos and generally just enjoyed the peace and quiet. The sun even came out for us at one point. It was beautiful. I imagine the atmosphere is so much different in the summer when all the beaches are full and the cafes ect are open.
We caught the 12.450pm ferry back to the city and wondered to another Jack Astor’s for lunch. On the way we stopped in a small shop for some sweets / chocolates for on the plane, $11. At Jack Astor’s, we were seated right away and soon had out order placed. I had a Cosmo, Aaron had a Miller Lite. Food wise, I went for the buffalo chicken strips with fries and added a house salad. Aaron had the Sesame Chicken. As we had loads of time until we needed to head to the airport we also went for dessert. I had a brookie with ice cream and Aaron had the donut holes. Pretty good but not amazing. The bill came to $82 plus tip, with Aaron having a second beer. We head back to the hotel at 3pm & grabbed our bags before requesting a UBER. We had a bit of difficulty finding him as he was outside the aquarium and we were the other side of the hotel but as the app is so clever, we could see where he was and managed to find him. We loaded the bags and set off for the airport. The guy was lovely, he had come over to Toronto 5 years ago from Iran and was just so incredibly grateful for the life he had there. He was telling us his motto in life was ‘don’t complain’. If you have a house, the health of you and your family & a way to earn money then you have no right to complain. He was so busy preaching this zest for life that he completely missed the highway exit for the airport! We then hit major traffic and it took us 30 minutes extra to come back off the highway and head to the airport in the other direction. Absolute nightmare and I was a bit touchy towards the end as I had only allowed for 2 hours at the airport. He adjusted the UBER while we were with him to make sure we didn’t pay for the mistake and we rushed into the airport. Luckily everything went smoothly for us, we checked in on the self serve machines, dropped our bags within a couple of minutes and waltzed through security too (even though I did get picked for a body scan). We head to the gate areas and after a quick look around the shops (spending our last few $ on crisps and Twizzlers) we sat in one of the amazing Air Canada waiting areas. Every single seat was equipped with an Ipad hooked up to the internet. It was also set up to an ordering system where you could pay for drinks & food. Aaron couldn’t resist & ordered an Old Fashioned $12 with tip. We also saw a lady next to us order food, she had the most amazing looking Caesar Salad & Miso Soup brought out to her. While we were sat there, it was announced that our aircraft had been changed to a larger plane & if our name were called, we needed to head to the desk for a new boarding pass to be issued, luckily our names weren’t called. I was a bit concerned we wouldn’t be sat with each other though. Luckily when we boarded, we got given a row of three just for the two of us. Great! We took off 30 minutes late but this was because the flight time was going be quicker than expected and we weren’t allowed to land in Healthrow before 6am. The flight was really smooth and we both managed to sleep for most of it, I watched a couple of Big Bang Theories but Aaron didn’t touch any entertainment. We turned down the dinner, chicken or mac & cheese & instead snacked on sweeties and crisps. We were woken with breakfast of banana loaf, pretty nice actually! We landed on time but it took an age to taxi to our gate, we got off the plane & through immigration really quickly and again waited ages for our bags to arrive. We then had to wait about 20 minutes for a bus to our car park so from landing at 6am, it was 10.30am by the time we got home. We head strait to bed, waking up at 2.30pm. While we were napping my amazing MIL dropped a food shop in for us. We popped around to theirs afterwards to reclaim our dog that was being held hostage & later in the evening headed to our friends house for NYE celebrations! Because of the time difference we managed to stay up pretty easily! So that brings us to the end of the report! Overall it was a great holiday and we can definitely see ourselves returning at some point! Now I need to get on with planning our next adventure, 47 days until we head back to Florida! Eeeek! Edited at 03:05 PM. |
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12 Jan 16, 11:41 AM |
#3
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Apprentice Imagineer
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Glad you made it across to the islands and how lovely you had them nearly to yourself!
Thanks for writing this trippie - it's always nice when you're going somewhere new to have a little look before. p.s. sound like you have a lovely MIL! |
12 Jan 16, 12:55 PM |
#4
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Imagineer
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Great trip report Abi, you seemed to have had a fab time!
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Sarah Las Vegas & California - 2014 Orlando - 2000/2001/2002/2003/2004/2005/2006/2007/2010/2013/2014/2017 |
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12 Jan 16, 03:05 PM |
#5
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Imagineer
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Loved reading your reports Abi many thanks for sharing them. Have noted lots of tips, shame you never got to go up the CN tower for the meal, would have been interested to see what you thought. Still the other places you ate looked great.
Just enough time to get your breath back then your off again, |
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12 Jan 16, 03:42 PM |
#6
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Jan 10
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My MIL is great! It seems i have one of the good ones
The islands were great & it was so lovely to have them all to ourselves too. We most certainly did! Yea the CN Tower was a fail but Im sure we will be back one day. I cannot believe how quick our other holiday is coming around! Its pretty scary! But good |
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12 Jan 16, 09:50 PM |
#7
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Imagineer
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We loved the Islands too - such a contrast to the city!
Thanks for sharing!
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Index of my trip reports 2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg |
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12 Jan 16, 10:02 PM |
#8
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Imagineer
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This has been amazing, it has been informative to us and will definitely help with our planning for October.
It looks like an amazing place. We loved the pictures of the CN tower from the Island. Is that the island with the frisbee trail on? I have been starting to plan but there is so much research to do. It looks like we will be able to take things a bit more leisurely though as we have a full week. Thanks for all the tips. Happy travels.x
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12 Jan 16, 10:08 PM |
#9
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Imagineer
Join Date: Sep 06
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Great trip report... you certainly made the most of your short time there. The islands look lovely. and will make the effort to go next time. Thank you for sharing.
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13 Jan 16, 10:05 AM |
#10
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Jan 10
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They are amazing aren't they, so lovely and peaceful.
You will be able to do everything in a full week, the city is really easy to get around and its amazing what you can cover in a day. If the frisbee trail is the same thing as the disk golf, then yes, that was the far left island that we visited. Thanks for reading, you will love the city! The islands were one of our favourite things about the city, we had such a lovely time there. Thansk for reading along with the whole trippy |
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