We started the day out early after a much less than ideal night of sleep. Amy, Mike, James and Olivia spent the night over so that we could get out early. Unfortunately, the big kids were very excited and the little kids didn’t want to sleep. We finally got them all to sleep, but we didn’t get to sleep until nearly midnight. Sue and I got up at 5am to prepare and get the big kids ready.

Our plan was to get out of the house early and pick up a nice breakfast from D&D. I’m not sure what world we live in, but D&D was not open at 6:30am. We ended up buying coffee and semi-palatable breakfast foods from Cumberland Farms. A gas station breakfast for the four of us.

We ended up at the meeting place early and got a chance to meet the driver. The woman in charge of this pick up spot had the nerve to ask us to get off the bus so that she could count us. WTF. There was only four of us and we were already settled in. She was late, not us. Not a great way to start the day, but we were still happy to be getting out.

The bus trip was relatively short and uneventful until we reached NYC. The kids had a good time and we well behaved. Thankfully the bus had a bathroom, which Emelia took care to use multiple times on the trip. Shortly into the trip the “leader” of the group announced that she had some movies that we could watch. She allowed the youngest on the bus to choose, which was Emelia. Out of the more recent Christmas movies she chose Elf. It ended up being a good choice, which the group enjoyed.

The only real interesting part of the trip was when we got a chance to watch a woman get out of her wheelchair, pull her pants down and piss on the side of 42nd street. The only thing that probably kept her bottom from being see was that she hid it behind the side of store door. The more amazing part was that there were two cop cars, with cops immediately right next to her. She just pulled up her pants, got back into her wheelchair and left. I was so stunned I didn’t even think to post a video. It could have gone viral!

None worse for wear, here are the kids posing in front of the New York Library. Just about ready to head out to see the sights.

Our first stop of the day was Times Square. It was only a few blocks from Bryant Park. At nearly each intersection were people dressed up as Elmo and other monsters. The kids enjoyed seeing them, but Emelia didn’t want to go near them.

Times Square was busy, but not so much that you couldn’t walk around. M&M’s World was our first stop. Toys R Us in Times Square was too busy to event think about going in. From what I heard they were giving out numbers so that you could shop at a scheduled time.

The M&M’s World store was pretty nice. It’s pretty much what you would expect. Three floors full of people and M&M’s branded merchandise. We checked out nearly everything and decided to buy a little bit to remember the trip. James is really interested in baseball so we bought him an M&M’s baseball and bought us all some Pretzel and Almond M&M’s for the day. They were of course overpriced, but we bought a few as a treat. It’s hard to resist when the walls are literally made up of huge bulk contains.

Emelia waited on line with me to pay.

Afterwards we made our way back down Times Square to the subway station. We took some token pics on the way through.

We had a lot of trouble getting a decent picture. The kids were too happy and giggly to stand still. Tickling them while we posed may not have helped either.

We bought a Metrocard and got on the subway for a short trip uptown. It was too cold and too far of a walk for the kids. This was to be our only trip on the train for the day and it was James first time ever on a subway. Emelia was accustomed to taking the subway after our trip to Toronto last year. He got quite nervous on the platform, but loosened up once we boarded the train.

Our next stop was to be FAO Schwarz. However, we were all hungry and needed sustenance. After seeing just how long the line was to get into FAO we figured that it would be best to eat first and then go shopping. Having not had time to plan ahead we spontaneously chose the only restaurant in sight and ended up having lunch at a place named Pop Burger.

It’s a small, expensive burger joint. The food wasn’t bad, but not great either. I had a burger, the kids each had a hot dog and mom had a caesar salad with chicken. I think we were all satisfied except for Sue. The chicken on her salad was very dry and hardly edible. I traded the last of my burger and tried to get her salad down. Blah. I’m not one to complain about food in a place, but I am one to give a less than good online review if a meal is bad. Other than that it was an okay meal. The place was small and busy, which means little seating.

After eating we headed over to FAO Schwarz to wait in line. I’m not sure what miracle happened, but it only took about 5 minutes to get in the building. I was expecting something like 30 minutes, but was pleased to be in the store so quickly.

It was our first time in FAO Schwarz. None of us have been there before. It was well worth going into the icon store, but I am surprised at the lack of holiday decorations. I expected the store to be bigger and better decorated. If it were not for the scores of people I would never have known it was the pre-Christmas season.

Emelia and James took in story time in the book section, which I scoped the place out. It was absolutely packed and difficult to get around. I figured it was best to find the places where we wanted to go without the kids. James was in love with the puzzle section and I found the Butterfly Container toy very cool. Emelia had a great time checking out the books and the dolls. We were liberated of a few bucks to buy a book for Caitlin and a Christmas toy for Olivia.

In the doll section the kids played with a Barbie themed foosball table. It was a custom made table and only cost $24,000 to buy. It made for a great place to take pictures with the kids (look for the kids posing).

Untitled from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

While we waited to get out of the building one of the guards entertained James. He had quite the personality and took to the kids quite well despite his age. It was unexpected. We got a nice surprise on the way out of the store. MasterCard had a deal where you would get a complimentary taxi ride if you bought anything in FAO with your MasterCard. We bought the book using ours and gratefully took advantage of the free taxi.

It isn’t much monetarily, but having a free taxi ready and waiting was a very nice treat. No running around to find and flag one down. We just hopped into a warm car and were off to Rockefeller Center. The kids both got a kick out of it. This was another first for both of them. They got to ride in a taxi in NYC traffic for the first time. The driver was nice and joked around with the kids too. Nothing but high spirits filled the car.

Our next stop was Rockefeller Center to see the tree and to check out a few other stores. It was amazingly busy as you would expect. Since it was only 2pm we were able to move around and actually get close to the tree. It’s nothing but a huge tree in the daytime, but amazing to look at when the sun goes down.

The crowd on the side where the angles are located was much thicker. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was where the entrance to Lego World was located. That was our next stop. The crowd on our side was thick, but maneuverable.

I love the architecture of the area. I may have to bring my grandma back here just to see this area. From what I’ve read the view from the top of Rockefeller Center is amazing and not as busy as the Empire State Building. I wish we had time to do it on this trip, but it wasn’t to be.

Trying to get a picture of the kids on the angel side. The couple behind them were damn near making out the entire time. I think he may have hit second or maybe third base in the few minutes we were there.

Angels and the tree. We are at the complete opposite from where we were earlier. Only took us 20 minutes to get there with all of the people.

We finally made it down to Lego World. It wasn’t bad, but I thought it would have been crawling with Lego kids. The big drawn were the bulk bins of Legos. You can buy a small or large cup of them for a lot of money. James is fascinated with the Star Wars sets. We had an extremely hard time getting around in there. Emelia got fed up and asked to be held. Bending down to her level I can see why. She sees nothing but crotches and butts at her height.

After losing Sue in the crown I had enough and tried to escape. Some poor woman was trying to get out of the store and people kept tell her to take her stroller through the revolving door. I’m not sure how that made sense. I told her there was a real door, but she couldn’t get there. Being a little pissed myself I made way in the crowd for her. Being large and having a big jacket on myself I had no issue parting the way and blocking the entrance so that she could get out. She was very grateful and I felt good to get some frustration out on the crowd.

I didn’t take many pictures after this, but we did plenty. We headed over to Nintendo World just to check it out. The kids took the opportunity to try out the many Nintendo DS’s all over the place. Sue and I got a chance to sit and rest. Afterwards we headed to the NBC store for a quick look and decided to get a warm drink. We bought some Starbucks coffee for us and hot chocolate for the kids. It was also another chance to rest. Mom and the kids were getting tired of all the walking.

After checking out the skating rink and waiting in line for a lifetime to pee we headed out. My plan was to walk back down to 42nd street and maybe stop at the NBA Store on the way. Either the directions on Google Maps were way off or the store is closed because we didn’t find the NBA store. When we reached 42nd street I decided to make our way down to Grand Central Terminal. The kids have never been there and it is an impressive building to see for the first time. I think it was a bit lost on the kids, but we went regardless.

Our next and final stop was dinner at Hunan Manor on Lexington. We were in the mood for Chinese and this was the closest of two places in the area. It ended up being a nice find. It’s a small restaurant that specializes in Hunan food. It’s across the street from another Chinese food place that seemed to have American Chinese food than Hunan Manor. We were looking for more authentic food.

To keep the kids happy we opted to get them some basic sweet and sour chicken. They were not really hungry and ate half of the dish. Sue ordered me some 五香牛肉, which I’ve come to like. It’s a five spice flavor beef/beef tendon that is formed and then served thinly sliced and cold. It’s a simple appetizer.

The second dish that I chose was smoked pork with leeks. It was also good, but Sue didn’t eat much as it was made with a piece of fatty pork. The smokiness is strong, but with the leeks and some good white rice it is a nice dish.

The last dish is one that Sue picked out. I don’t know the name of it and I couldn’t venture a guess. The three primary ingredients were hot red peppers, pork and cilantro. I have never eaten chili peppers like this. There must have been a ton in there. We usually cook a dish with 6-8 of these and never eat the peppers themselves. This dish contained dozens and they were a main ingredient. Cilantro is also there is large quantities. I’m not a big cilantro fan. The pork was minimal and very thin.

I cannot say that I liked the dish much, but I did eat it. It wasn’t terrible, just not to my liking. It was definitely spicy, but nothing I couldn’t handle. The peppers were still dry and tough. I’m not sure if this is normal for Hunan food or not as I have no experience with it. Since the other dishes were done well I assume that this is normal for this dish. On a plus side I can say I ate it.

After dinner we took a stroll back towards Bryant Park. It was still one hour before our pick up time so we decided to try and reach Rockefeller Center again. We really wanted to see the tree in the dark where you can appreciate the lights. Emelia was beat and kept asking to be held. I kept her going by playing her favorite game where we run away from a monster. We ran most of the way back with James and Sue bringing up the rear.

We made it back to see the tree in 10 minutes flat, which is not bad considering we had kids with us and they were winding down. The crowds were as bad as you would expect, but we found a nice place to take in the tree from a distance. We didn’t even think about trying to get up close. It was a madhouse and not worth the fight.

Having still yet more time to kill we started our walk back and ended up and Barnes and Nobel. The kids wanted to check out the books and toys they had on sale. It was super busy, but the kids got to pick out some nice books. Both of the kids are at reading age so the store is fun for them. With 30 minutes left we trotted the rest of the way back and waited for our bus.

It took us a bit to get out of the city with all of the traffic trying to get back to the Lincoln Tunnel, but we got out in decent time overall. The trip back was quiet for the most part. We watched The Santa Clause and the kids both crashed. By the time we reached the car it was 11:15 or so. We were able to get home and get everybody into bed by 11:45.

As expected it was a busy, but a very fun day. The kids both did well despite the normal issues of not listening well. Nobody got hurt and nobody lost anything. We all got to eat well and took a few things home to remember the trip. We gained a lot of new memories and checked off some of life’s todo’s. The city was busy and crowded, yet people were polite and not annoying as you would expect. I even chatted up a few strangers while waiting.

One last thing about the trip. We all noticed that there were hundreds if not thousands of people dressed as Santa while we were there. You usually get a few eccentrics doing it, but not that many. Most were in their early twenties. According to the news they were dressed this way for SantaCon. Around Grand Central we found that there were even some drunk folks carrying OWS signs. There large groups of police officers armed with nylon handcuffs in the area too. According to SantaCon NYC the event is not political. This didn’t seem to stop some from showing some OWS love at the same time.

This is pretty much how the streets looked for most of the day. By the time dinner rolled around you saw some small groups, but still plenty of red outfits.

We left the city early and made our way back towards Niagara. On the way we stopped off at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario. It was late in the season, but it was a wonderful place to visit. I can see that the place gets busy in the spring when the flowers are first in bloom and the schools schedule visits. The kids were okay, but Emelia was pretty much at her breaking point. She had a little break down when not listening and ended up in time out. Despite that she kids were well behaved and enjoyed themselves. We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

The arch walkway that you can use when visiting the other gardens.

Caitlin quickly getting down to business by checking out the flowers.

Emelia joining in with the exploration.

One of the many walkways.

I’m not sure what this plant was, but it provided a nice contrast to the surrounding green.

Playing around on the stairs.

Decorative cabbage plants.

A very large planter.

One of the very few rose plants left this late in the season.

A beautiful reflecting pool.

The state of affairs for the roses was sad. It was very late in the season for roses, but with the huge number of plants it must be spectacular to see in the spring.

A vine covered trellis walkway.

I really enjoyed the plants overflowing the beds.

Black-eyed Susies.

Decorative plants overflowing the ledge.

Stout looking flowers.

I believe these ladies were volunteers working in the gardens.

I like how this tree was trained to grow into the trellis. I wonder how long it has been there.

The same tree.

Photo op!

Garden art

More flowers.

Furry friends.

If you look closely you can see the water drops on its back.

We eventually headed out to the trails. It was refreshing to be in the shade.

A black squirrel.

Back to the reflection pool.

Very decorative drainage grates.

I really loved these flowers.

Time for a rest.

Taking a closer look at the water.

Royal Botanical Gardens from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Helping hands.

Caitlin taking a break.

It was such a beautiful day.

The following are pictures of a large vegetable garden area. I believe this was designed for teaching kids about farming and growing food.

After a couple hours we made our way back to the main building before heading out to the car for the drive home.

This was a very cool water fall curtain. What you see are many streams of water dropping straight down.

Water Curtain from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

We packed up the kids, planned our trip back and headed to Niagara. Since it was just about lunch time we headed back for an encore meal at Mandarin. We were better prepared for this trip. We enjoyed another good meal, this time next to the big fish tanks to keep the kids occupied.

After lunch we made our way back home. The GPS directed us to a different bridge. Our goal was to reach the rainbow bridge early to avoid traffic, but we ended up crossing at the peace bridge. It was much larger and it was a quick trip through. We ended up on some local streets in Buffalo, but made our way back to the highway home. We even stopped off for one more double-double at the last Tim Hortons we saw.

I won’t spoil my summary of our trip, but it was very obvious that we were back in New York. Fast, rude drivers kept us company through Buffalo and home. The kids did well and made nearly the entire way home without incident. At 20 minutes out from our home Caitlin started to act up, but given that she was stuck in the car for over six hours we cannot complain. We were all happy to be home.

Taking the side streets made for a nice and pleasant trip. We got a chance to see real life Toronto, not the big city bit. It’s not amazing to look at, but it is real. The streets were not crowded so we made good time getting through them.

When we arrived in Vaughan we made a quick side trip to the store. We happened upon a huge Asian market the size of a typical supermarket. We almost went in and thought we might hit there on the way home. We ended up not going at all, but I’m still amazed at how big of a store it was and to find it in a suburban area.

Regardless, we made our way to the park, paid for parking and trudged to the the entrance. It was early and not full yet, but there was plenty of people there. The girls took a pee break while I stood in line with Caitlin. Some woman told me that they wouldn’t let me through the line I was on since I had a stroller. There were dedicated stroller lines, which I clearly missed. I wasn’t happy about having to switch lines after waiting so long, but in the end it was the best thing that could have happened.

The lines for the strollers went fast. The security check was minimal. I ended up having to get off line again just to wait for Sue. We had to find each other the old fashioned way since were were not using our phones while on vacation. $0.80 a minute can add up quickly when you’re racking that up per phone per minute. Nearly $2 to make a one minute call. No thanks.

We headed in, creamed up and got the girls measured for the rides. The kids get wrist bands indicating which rides they can go on. While on line I shared our sun screen with a family with five kids that were behind us. It was sunny and very hot that day and they forgot to bring sunscreen. I felt bad for them. Afterwards we reviewed the map and came up with a  plan. We headed out to the kiddie section.

The first ride of the day was the swan boat ride. It seemed like a nice easy start. In the end the girls waited nearly 45 minutes to get through line. 45 minutes of standing in the sun. Not a good way to start off the day. The girls were patient and enjoyed the ride.

Here they are. Mommy is showing them where I am.

Swan boat ride from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Waving hi to daddy.

Hot and in the sun, but enjoying themselves nonetheless.

The kiddie section is named "Planet Snoopy". Most of the rides are Peanuts or Snoopy based. Here is the requisite picture with Snoopy.

The kids section has a decent setup for the families. We got the kids updated with our cell phone number. In case they got lost the staff would call us on our phone. Well worth the $0.80 a minute in my book.

Also in this area is a building that has a couple of large rooms for little ones. One room for nursing mothers with microwaves for heating bottles and food. Another room with multiple changing stations to allow for an army of moms to change diapers. They were very ready to accept plenty of families with hungry kids and dirty diapers. I expected to at least find a changing station in this area, but the park shocked and amazed both of us by being so family friendly.

Next up was some other rides. Emelia rode on a small, kiddie swing ride. It was borderline for her. Next year she’ll be too big for something like this, but she enjoyed it.

Kiddie Swing from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Around and around she goes.

Holding on for dear life!

After the rush of the swings I brought Emelia over to a small roller coater. She was barely big enough for this ride, but with an adult to join her she was okay to go. I barely fit into the kid size car, but Emelia fit perfectly. I wasn’t sure if she could handle it, but she did. The ride was fast and it goes around the track twice. Emelia held on and when I told her to put her arms up in the air and yell she did. She is going to be our wild child. She had no fear of doing that even on a fast moving roller coaster.

Here is a short video I took of the ride after we got off.

Kiddie Roller Coaster from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

While we were on the roller coaster Sue had brought Caitlin onto the train ride. Emelia wanted to go as well so we took a leisurely ride on the train. Not much to do other than sit there on the train. It was cool in the shade and relaxing.

This is not a self portrait. Emelia took this of me using my camera. Not bad for a little kid.

When we got back Sue was filling Caitlin with ICEE to cool off. She’s sweating just sitting there.

Next up was the carousel. The kids both wanted to go on it so we abandoned the stroller and we all went for a ride.

Caitlin really had a great time on this ride. She was nothing but smiles.

Emelia was full of real (and in this case, fake) smiles.

Emelia looking at the mechanisms to see how it works. She’s such an inquisitive child she had more fun trying to figure out how the carousel moved the horses up and down than she did actually riding it.

Carousel from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Next up with the Red Baron ride. Emelia took the pilot’s seat and worked the stick to move it up and down.

Emelia looking at the controls.

Red Baron from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Flying high in the sky.

After the Red Baron was a "space" ride. Both girls got to go on this one. It was Caitlin’s first ride without Sue or I to help her. She did excellent. Nothing but smiles and no fussing.

Caitlin and Emelia trying to look at us as they fly by.

Space Beagle from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

One excellent service provided by the park (for a fee) that everybody should take advantage of is the buffet lunch. It sucks in that it is only available online and only for advanced purchases, but the $7 charge is well worth it. They clearly want you to buy in advance so they know how much food to prepare. As usual I was skeptical, but pleasantly surprised. Despite the huge numbers of people eating the buffet lunch the entire thing was well run, well stocked and worked out well.

The buffet lunch was all you could eat, picnic type fare. Hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, potato salad, green salad and fountain drinks. The food was nothing special, but it fills you and you get to eat and drink as much as you can handle. Seeing as bottles of water run $4 a piece and food is very expensive the buffet is worth it. We ate our fill and even refilled our Starbucks cup (from a drink we bought earlier in the day). They won’t let you take food or drinks out of that area, but they didn’t care about us because we were not using their cups.

On our way to the water park area we stopped for a shot of Sue (infamous Starbucks cup in hand) in front of the waterfall. It was man made, but huge.

On the way over you walk over a stream filled with koi. The kids enjoyed watching them.

Koi Fish from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

I didn’t break out the camera for the rest of the day at the park, but we had plenty more fun. The water park is large and has plenty to do for the kids. The sky was going overcast and looked like rain again and again, but it stayed dry. The place was absolutely packed with people and kids. Getting a changing room was difficult because you had a lot of single persons using the family changing rooms. I guess some people are just not comfortable changing in front of others. Best they stay at home next time.

The girls played in a series of shallow wading pools. These were popular and nearly as fully of kids as they were full of water. Emelia took a couple rides down a small waterslide. I talked Emelia into going onto a large waterslide ride that you go down on using a tube. She had a great time and wanted to go again, but it was busy.

Lastly we stood in line for the lazy river ride. It’s a ride exactly like it sounds; it’s a shallow, slow moving river of water that you can ride on while on a tub. Emelia got to sit on my lap on the tube. Since the line was so long Sue got back in line while we were in the water to hold a spot for me to take Caitlin. That was a mistake as Caitlin was so exhausted she spent most of the time on my lap screaming bloody murder. It was a relief to drop her off with mom when we were done.

With the afternoon quickly approaching and the kids exhausted we decided to leave. Easier said than done. The area around the park was in the throws of afternoon rush hour. We stopped to buy some iced tea and a milk shake and Mickey D’s and proceeded to take the back roads back to the hotel. The girls slept and we entertained ourselves checking out the local area.

One fun thing we did see was a Canadian Price Chopper store. This is not the same chain as the Price Choppers in New York. Sue took a quick picture of the store front while we drove by.

When we got back we rested for a bit, but the girls again got anxious to do something. So, I talked Sue into coming out to the Eaton Centre to at least check it out. We had been there the night before and I thought Sue would like to see what they had in store.

The girls had a great time pointing out things as we went to and through the centre. With out whacky schedule we ended up getting hungry and decided to eat there. We were going to just get some nuggets at McDonalds, but they don’t have a dollar menu and if we were going to spend any significant money it would be on something a little better than chicken nuggets.

We ended up at the food court eating Thai. The food was pretty good and we had plenty to take back and have for a meal later. They were a bit stingy with the cups of water. Two small cups for four people doesn’t really cut it, but maybe I’m wrong. Seeing as Torontonians head home early we ended up leaving by 9pm to crash and get ready for day 7 of our trip.

On the way down we (actually I) made a mistake and didn’t get off when I should have. We ended up going to the next stop where I asked the guy how to transfer in the other direction. He said stay on and he’ll drop us off. He was being funny since the street car turns around after that stop and goes right back to where we wanted to get off originally. No big loss for us, just 10 minutes underground staring at each other while people load and unload.

Once we finally arrived at the place where we were to get on the boat we found a place to buy food for lunch. There were a few choices that Emelia and I scouted out before settling on a deli to get sandwiches, waters and chips. I wasn’t eager to spend a lot of money on lunch. It’s very easy to burn money in any city and three sandwiches, water and a small bag of chips still set us back $24. Eating at a place on the island itself would have set us back much more and for no good reason.

Lunch in had, we bought some tickets from a machine (which if you’re interested appears as a parking lot charge on your credit card) and made our way to the boat. It was busy at the docks since so many people were going out to the islands to get away from the heat. The trip over was uneventful and short, but gave us a great view of the city. When we arrived on the island I gave the camera to Sue so that she could take a few pictures of the surrounding area and the view of the city.

This might have been taken while on the boat, but it wasn’t rocking at the time. Maybe Sue was listing a bit to the side.

Now listing to the opposite side.

Ignoring the ugly tires acting as bumpers you can see a pretty bridge in the distance.

Caitlin was in her normal mood of whiney and clinging to Sue. Her main issue was that she was hungry. We left the boat and found a place to sit and eat.

Right next to the docking area is a huge field of green grass with a sprinkling of picnic tables. We made claim to a table in the shade, rested and ate lunch. We devoured our food. Emelia was a bit skeptical about the sea gulls. They were everywhere and were aggressive enough to come close looking for food and handouts. It took a while, but I was able to show her that the birds were there only to get food and that they would try to get away if you go after them. That was it for her. She had a lot of fun chasing the birds away.

There was a small slide and set of swings in the area, which we checked out. That worked well until we got there and a little boy was being a brat and didn’t want to go down the slide or get off. The care taker (not the mother) was on the ladder the whole time. After a while she got him off and we got a chance to meet each other. The little boy then whacked Caitlin on the head for no good reason. I know kids can be kids, but this was unprovoked. The care taker scolded the boy and took him away, but I felt a bit odd about the whole thing. Caitlin didn’t cry or complain, but wasn’t interested in playing there anymore.

So, we decided to find the beach. We were told there were good beaches on the islands. We rented a large wagon to hold the kids and our stuff while we trekked over to the water. Caitlin would have nobody but Sue pull her so I got a break.

This area is next to the on island amusement park. We opted not to go since were were going to be doing so many other things this week. Not to mention it wasn’t economical to go.

Plenty of wildlife on the island.

A view of personal boats in the water.

The area is picturesque.

By the time we got to the "beach" and changed the girls were not interested in going in. I’m sure the beach was better and larger than it was in the area near the locker rooms, but we were not going to do any more walking to find it. The girls didn’t seem interested. We doubled back and made our way to the wading pools where there were a lot of little kids playing.

I took Caitlin there alone and she worked her way into the pool. She was brave and wanted to go out without help, but found out quickly that she could easily go under the water. She held my hand after than incident. Eventually, Sue and Emelia came by and all the girls ended up in the water.

It was cold and not that well maintained but the kids enjoyed themselves a bit and got a chance to cool off.

Here is a shot of the area where we walked from to get to the wading pools and beach. There were large blocks of plants and gardens along the pathway.

A closer shot of the water fountain.

One of the gardens along the path.

We changed the girls and made our way back to the boat. The trip back was uneventful, but it was clear the family was tired.

Emelia was shot.

The boat was less crowded on the way back and we got on first so we had good seats and a good view of the city. This is one of my favorites views.

And of to the west.

Just east of the CN Tower.

Far east end of Toronto.

After our trip to the island we headed back to the hotel. The girls took a nap and I was sent on the errand of going to Chinatown to buy food and dinner. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it did end up taking me over two hours to get there and back with food. I’m shocked at how long it took.

The fastest way over was to take the train and then street car. I wasn’t thinking at the time and realized the hard way that it was Monday and rush hour. Everybody was on their way home from work and transportation was packed. We waited a long time for the streetcar and it was amazing to see how such a large crowd was able to squeeze onto an already packed street car.

We were all jammed in tightly, but despite the conditions everybody including the driver was in a good mood. I didn’t notice any sour faces or angry comments at all. Normally, you have to "stay behind the white line" while on the street car, but we were so full people were up front with the driver and all the way down into the entry way on the stairs. The driver was ready to leave and nicely told the guy in front of me, "Buddy, you’ll have to move your pack. I won’t be able to drive with it bumping into me." The guy said ok and moved it. The driver asked the people near the door if it was all clear so that he could close it, they said go for it and we were off.

Somehow we made it a number of blocks letting a few people on and off. I squeezed off and made my way to my first stop. There was a pastry place that Sue read about. It was nothing like I expected. Unlike the hurried and fast paced stores in New York this was very laid back and easy going. The store specialized in moon cakes, but I just bought things I knew the girls would eat.

Next stop was a small restaurant that made baozi. It was literally a hold in the wall. Very small place with one lonely girl running the place. She was clearly the owners daughter. She wasn’t upset, but she didn’t look happy. She seemed depressed. I ordered up a few dishes and waited. I was also in the area to get dinner, but didn’t have a place in mind. I contemplated getting dinner there, but thought better of it.

I ended up going back to Rol San to order some food. The guys there were nice as they were last time we were there and even obliged my requests for multiple cups of water. I can’t say enough how hot it was. Dinner in had I made my way back to the hotel. The trip back was easier and less crowded since I was trying to go into the heart of the city, not out.

The girls ate up the food and we stayed in the hotel for most of the night. On a few nights I brought both girls out for a walk down Yonge to Dundas and through the Eaton center. I forget, but I believe this was one of those nights. Dundas square seems to always have something going on and this night they had the fountains working. The girls had fun playing with the water that squirted out of the ground while we walked around. They really enjoyed the life of the city. There is certainly to see and experience.

Back to the hotel for some rest. The following day was another big day.

The trip downtown wasn’t much of a trip since it was short. We walked down most of the way. This gave us a good look at downtown Toronto. Most people were on their way to work, but the streets were not crowded at all.

We ended up walking by Union Station. It is Toronto’s equivalent to New Yorks Grand Central Terminal. We didn’t enter the building, but from what I could see it was quite bit and had plenty of GO trains going in.

The girls posed for a pic in front of an ad.

Our destination was the CN Tower. No matter where you were, if you had at least a partial view of the skyline you can see this thing. It’s friggin huge! We were still quite a distance away when I took this shot. We didn’t have great directions on how to get to it, but it was pretty clear which direction we should head in.

I’m not sure of the purpose of this display, but it was a humungous pole and wood peckers. If you don’t believe me when I say they are big compare them to the van parked next to the pole. They are enormous. You can also see the roof of the Rogers Center in the background.

After trudging across the grass and around other obstacles we made our way to the entrance. We chose a great time to visit the tower. It was a weekday and early. We made our way through the security where we were sniffed and blown by some machine. Having been to the Empire State Building two times I know what standing in line feels like. There was no line for us. It wasn’t that they were deserted, it was just good timing.

We had the elevator practically to ourselves going up. The trip up is interesting too. The elevators move smoothly and very fast and the floors are partially glass so you get a chance to view the height as you fly up to the top. I took many pictures, but have little idea what is in each.

I like this one mostly because you get a chance to see the shadow of the tower.

There is plenty of green areas in Toronto. You really get a chance to see it all from up high. I believe this is looking north.

This is facing west. The train tracks are just left of center. On the far left you can see the elevated, Gardiner Expressway. That’s the highway we took when we arrived in Toronto. The highway goes straight through downtown giving you a good view of the city.

A shot of the immediate area. Judging by the red logo I bet that is a Rogers building.

Not one of our best photos, but better than nothing. Caitlin was upset and wanted mommy. Emelia was distracted and scratching her face. All the while I’m doing my best to not get upset.

Caitlin was much happier in mommy’s arms.

Another shot looking west. It was too hazy to see Niagara Falls, but on a really clear day you’re supposed to be able to see the mist rising.

The roof of the Rogers Center.

The far western tip of Centre Island (where the airport lies). Later on we made our way to this island, but on the more woodsy side.

Some nice water front parks/homes.

A hazy shot of the Toronto Islands.

You have to give it to the kids to feel safe pressing themselves against the window of the observation deck.

Not to be left out Emelia climbed up and posed all on her own.

This is looking towards the eastern end of Toronto.

Just to the left of the previous picture is this area. Somewhere in there is our hotel.

Off in the distance you can see much more greenery.

And another one.

Here you can get a good look at Union Station and the lovely train tracks.

Here you can see the "new" Toronto City Hall. We took a short trip there later during our vacation.

Some more pictures of the more distant areas.

Here is the inside of the observation area. Pretty easy to get around and see out any window.

Afterwards we made our way outside. We walked around the open area below the observation deck. Nothing but a little rebar and mesh to keep you from dying. Yay!

A shot looking south east. We walked all the way around. For the most part it was pleasant, but on one side the wind was really strong. You don’t realize it being inside, but the tower does get pounded with plenty of strong wind. After this trip outside we made our way to the glass floor area.

Emelia didn’t waste any time or hesitate to run out onto the glass and lay down. For somebody who can be a bit skittish at times she had no trouble at all going onto the glass floor. It wasn’t like she didn’t see how high she was. She had her face planted against the glass looking at the ground very far below.

Here you can see the ground in in the distance.

Emelia and I took our obligatory picture on the glass together.

Here is Emelia on the glass floor.

Emelia on CN Tower glass floor from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

More Emelia on CN Tower glass floor from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Caitlin did well too. She walked up cautiously too the edge, took a look and then walked over to her sister. Despite what you see in the video she didn’t have any trouble going out on the glass. She was a bit more cautious at first, but didn’t have any fear either.

Caitlin and Emelia on CN Tower glass floor. from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

I had to take at least one shot of the ground directly below my feet. It’s an amazing view.

This are was a bit more crowded than others, but as you can see the glass itself is not too full. Most people didn’t dare to go near the glass let alone walk on it. Sue took the "safe" route and stayed off the glass.

Crowd around the CN Tower glass floor from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Afterwards we made our way down to the gift shop. The girls had the run of the place. Their favorite was the Mega Blocks display. We picked up a few things for the kids. It was your typical gift shop, but the stuff was pretty decent. Not cheap, but well made enough to last more than a minute of play.

Playing in the CN Tower gift shop from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

When we got out it was getting hot again. I took another shot of the tower. It’s hard to believe that the glass floor only takes up a couple of sections that you can see from here.

Despite being early in the morning we got some ice cream to cool off. We had to make our way to the harbour area so that we could find our way out to the islands. Thankfully, the local tour companies post a lot of kids/young adults in the area to help out the tourists and hand out free maps. We got some directions and made our way east.

Due to the number of pictures I took this day I broke this post up into two separate posts. Read on in the next post for the rest of this day’s activities.

Our first stop was Chinatown. We fed the girls a little food for breakfast in our room before leaving since both are hungry the second they wake up, but headed out late morning to Bright Pearl for a dim sum brunch. Being Sunday morning we were expecting a decent meal, but it seems we headed there a little too early. They don’t really offer much until after lunch time. We were there around 10:45 and left just as it got busier.

They offered many of the more common dim sum dishes you can get at just about any dim sum restaurant, but they offered a few that we were not as familiar with. The food was decent, but not spectacular. It doesn’t hold a candle to the dim sum at Mandarin Court in New York, but that place is tough to beat.

One dish that Sue was aware of, but was new to me was a fresh, silken tofu dish. It was scooped out warm from a big pot and you were given a side dish of sweetened water to go with it. It was quite good. The other interesting dish was a huge bread like cake. The entire cake is about 20 inches in diameter and is cut into a grid. I noticed that many of the older Chinese folks ordered up a big chunk of it for breakfast. It was cheap and looked a lot like corn bread. We usually get the more savory dim sum so we didn’t bother trying this one.

After lunch we walked around Chinatown for a bit checking out the available wares. There was a Chinatown festival going on this weekend so much of the area was blocked off for pedestrians, a stage and dozens of stalls. Since we were on vacation and not in the mood for shopping we didn’t go into any stores, just soaked up the atmosphere. We made our way over to the ROM using public transit, much to the delight of the girls.

The ROM is located on the north side of the University of Toronto campus. We skirted the campus numerous times during our trip, but never actually made it in for a look. I’m a little disappointed, but I know Sue wasn’t up to more walking and the girls would have been bored out of their minds.

The building that houses the ROM used to be your typical, old style building with nice architecture. It was renovated and I believe enlarged not to long ago. The newer portions of the building burst out of the old.

The older portion:

The new portion bursting forth.

The girls decided to relax before heading in.

The are immediately around the ROM is an interesting mix of old and new.

Oddly enough our first stop (after a potty break) was to the Asian section, which is easily accessed on the main level.

Tomb gate.

Asian roof.

Tomb.

My favorite piece in this section; a money tree.

Even though we had only started our visit the girls were getting out of hand. They were very loud and had fun yelling to each other. Keeping them under control was definitely a workout for us our our patience. So, we headed up to the paleontology section in hope that they would find it interesting.

The kids were not too interested in the dinosaurs, so we took a few minutes break and headed on to the Canadian history section. I didn’t take but one picture in this section, not because it wasn’t interesting, but the kids were a handful. I had to take this picture though. As we passed by Emelia commented that she knows where that if and that we had just been there. She was right. It was a painting of Niagara Falls painted about 150 years ago.

Lucky for us the ROM has a decent hands-on section built just for kids. We headed there without delay and let the girls loose.

The girls playing with a medieval set of toys. They did well here, but apparently one of the girls (most likely Caitlin) accidentally hurt the hand of a little boy that came to play.

Sue took a well deserved rest and watched Caitlin play with the fake fruit and vegetables.

There were other more interesting sections that we visited. Emelia and I sat down and learned about meteorites and even got a chance to play with a magnet and pair of meteorites (which are magnetic). We also headed down to an area where you can "dig" for dinosaur fossils. The girls working there were nice and knew how to handle kids. Emelia popped on some goggles, grabbed her brush and began to sweep sand off various dinosaur bones. The girls told her all about each fossil that was uncovered.

The area had some other exhibits, but our girls were too small to play with them. Maybe next time. Afterwards we headed off to walk through a couple of other exhibits before leaving. The kids had enough and we had enough of trying to deal with them and with walking to ensure that we were very tired.

Playing in the hotel room from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

The girls planning out the next day’s activities.

Caitlin studying the map of downtown Toronto while we watch some TV on the beautiful flat screens that we had in our room.

Caitlin ready to head out.

And now for a tour of our suite. We start off with a view into the main room from the entrance. You cannot see it, but on my immediate left is a nice coat closet.

The living room with a desk/table in the rear.

French style doors heading off the bedroom.

One of the two flat screen TVs that were in the suite.

A view of the entrance.

The kitchenette complete with microwave, sink, fridge, coffee maker and minibar. The minibar was on a scale, which is a nightmare when you have kids, but thankfully it also included a lock/seal. So, despite being bumped into and moved around (which triggers the scale) a lot we didn’t get any undeserved charges as the seal was never broken. The girls we good enough to not even try to play with it. Buried down in the drawers are a small set of dishes, cups and flatware.

The fruit, cereal and box of pastries are ours and didn’t come with the room. That was our breakfast and snack food. Sue is intently watching TV as you can see. The $5 bottle of Evian and $9 jar of cashews were part of the minibar.

The two double beds. Emelia and I got the one next to the window, which Sue and Caitlin had the other.

A very exciting picture of the window.

Our second entertainment center and French doors.

The entertainment was fully equipped with TV, kids books, spare diapers and a night light. It was all ours except for the TV.

Emelia helping me take pictures of the entire place.

A pocket door into the bath rooms.

Despite paring down what we use at home two adults with two kids ends up with plenty of toiletries. Diaper changing pad, butt paste, razor, etc. It all adds up to a mess.

Caitlin playing in the bath portion of the bathroom. Plenty of hot, high pressure hotel water. I really liked the bow-out shower curtain.

That does it for the tour. The suite was very nice and comfortable. I believe we were the noisiest room on the floor, but the thick walls seemed to have worked in our favor as we never had any complaints about noise. I happened to talk with a woman who has been to this place many times with her kids and she said that the place gets plenty of kids and they are never upset of the sounds of a family staying there.

Sue and the girls playing.

Despite being late and passed her bedtime Caitlin was very happy.

More playing in the hotel room from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

We crashed and tried to get some sleep before our next big day.

After slurping down our Cheerios we piled back into the car and made our way to the destination of the day. This day we were headed to the Toronto Zoo. Unfortunately for us we had to make our way back to the DVP, but being Saturday it was wide open and smooth sailing up to the zoo. The zoo is quite far from downtown and I’m not sure it is exactly in Toronto, but it was not that long of a drive. They got us for parking too. It was $10 for the day and you had to pay when you entered. If you didn’t you’d find that you had no way to pay on the way out since you had to insert a card that you get when paying into an unmanned gate. We ended up at the zoo early so we got great parking up close to the gates.

We started off by hitting the head and creaming up the girls. This was the start of another hot day and we didn’t want the girls getting a sun burn. There was enough whining going around by this point. The first stop was the rhino.

Rhinoceros at the Toronto Zoo from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

A requisite picture in front of the many flower gardens.

We went through a butterfly building. Unlike the Bronx Zoo this was included.

They had fish tanks throughout the place.

One of the few pictures I got with the girls. You can see it in this picture where Caitlin isn’t so pleased to be with daddy. She was very close and clingy to mommy when she was around. Of course when mom was gone she was a daddy’s girls.

One of the many birds allowed roam freely through the building.

The orangutans seem to be late risers. They were not too eager to move around. They mostly lied around and played with the cloths.

This guy was warming in the sun.

A little nervous at first, Emelia got the nerve to put her back to the tiger to get her picture taken.

It was a beautiful cat.

By this point in the trip the heat of the day was starting to get to us all. It was still before 11am and it was hot. We decided to pick up the pace and try to see a few more things, because we didn’t think we would have any chance of seeing all of the place. Even when we went to the Bronx Zoo we couldn’t see it all properly in one day.

We coaxed Emelia into taking a picture with a statue. It took plenty of work to get her to even sit next to it.

Eventually she warmed up to him enough to touch the statue.

Pee break. Caitlin took a moment to snack. Fortunately for us the zoo lets you bring in food. Most places don’t let you bring in food.

It was hard to see from a distance, but we got a glimpse of the elephant.

Emelia took a ride on the stone hippo. It’s a small and very, very slow moving specimen. It moves so slowly and is small enough to allow for children to sit on their backs and have their pictures taken. Amazing creatures.

The real hippo spent most of the time cooling off in the water.

We saw another rhino not to much further down.

Immediately after this we made our way to the lunch stand for some overpriced zoo food. It was only 11:20am so it was early enough for there to be seats available. The girls ate a hot dog with fries. I split a plate of poutine with Sue. It was first poutine and to be honest it was quite good. It’s easy enough. Take some fries, sprinkle them with shredded cheese and then cover in hot, beef gravy. It sounds odd, but it is so tasty I’m drooling as I type this. After fighting the bugs and the people blocking our escape we finished our walk through the area.

We saw some ostriches.

We saw some giraffes.

Despite having full tummies the heat was getting to all of us. The girls were especially cranky. Emelia was not listening to us and Caitlin only wanted Sue. She ended up pushing both girls in the stroller while I walked behind. It was either that or carry our burdens. One really cool thing about the Toronto Zoo is that it also includes a decent size water spray park for the kids.

We made our way to the spray park as quickly as possible and changed the girls into swimming suits. They got a chance to cool off in the water spray while Sue got a  few seconds of time to herself.

Toronto Zoo Waterpark from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

To finish off our trip to the zoo I brought Caitlin through the kids’ zoo, which is a small, kid friendly zoo. It had interactive stuff to do, but we skipped it all as we were only there to keep Caitlin happy while Sue changed Emelia. Afterwards the girls shared an ice pop. The head was really starting to bake us all.

We packed up the kids in the car again and headed out. We ended up making a bad turn on the way out, but eventually made our way back to the highway. A sign at the exit of the zoo indicating the direction of the highway would have been a nice touch, but alas there was no signs at all. We headed back to the hotel for a break and a nap.

Not used to being idle for long we gathered up our remaining strength and made our way to Chinatown. We decided to take mass transit rather than drive over. The girls got their first taste (smell is more accurate) of a real subway and we all got our first ride on a streetcar. We learned quickly that you can buy a $10 family day pass that allows the four of us ride the subway, streetcars and busses non-stop all day. A very good deal, especially for the newbies.

The subway system is not unlike New York, only that it is slightly newer. The stations have a similar feel and the cars and very familiar, but with different seats. Both of the girls really had a good time riding the train. Nobody got scared and they loved the motion. We were only on it for a few stops, where we made our way to the surface to grab a streetcar. This was a first for all of us, but I can say it’s pretty much like a narrow bus that happens to run in a set of rails. Not much other than that. Keeping your arms inside is a must as the streetcars pass each other very closely. You’ll be less one arm if you happen to have it hanging out the window when another car passes by.

Chinatown is spread out over many blocks. I think it would be difficult to define its borders accurately. Not having done much research we decided to try out a restaurant that I had heard at least good reviews about. We ended up at Rol San, which is a small, typical Chinatown restaurant. Sue ordered us a feast. I kept wondering just how many dishes she ordered as the staff kept bringing out more and more plates. We ate more than our share of food. The dishes were decent. They were best eaten fresh, as we found out after bringing our leftovers back to our room.

While we were in Chinatown the area was having a celebration of some sort. The streets were open to pedestrians only and there was a stage for singers, dancing and shows. We got the girls some balloons and checked out the stalls as we walked by. We spied the dim sum place we wanted to eat at named Bright Pearl. After a long, hot day we hopped back on a streetcar and made our way home for the night. We washed up, watched some boob tube and headed off for bed. The girls fought us a bit, but got to sleep soon enough.

After getting a night of much needed rest we packed up the kids and our stuff into the car we headed down the street to have a little breakfast before heading out on the trip to Toronto. We spied a Denny’s the night before and decided to hit it up to get a cheap, fast breakfast before heading out. Boy, were were in for a surprise.

It’s completely tangential, but I have to mention something I saw while getting out of our car in Denny’s parking lot. There was a family loading up into their Trailblazer in the hotel next door. I watched one of the kids open the rear door and smash it into the car next to him. I mean he hit it hard. I’m surprised it didn’t do more damage. The dad saw it and then slammed his door shut. He looked pissed, but not at what the kid did. It looks like they were starting off on the wrong foot. The door incident didn’t help much. I’m just glad that wasn’t my car. I would have been out of my mind.

Back to Denny’s. The place was decent enough. It was clean, the service was decent and out waitress was very friendly. We ordered up a couple $1.99 means for the kids a couple milks, coffee and eggs for us. The kids meals were far larger than either could finish. We could have ordered one meal for the both of them, but we figured the meals would be small and got them each their own. Big mistake. Our meals were typical. The real surprise came at the end when we got our check. We got a chance to see how much the drinks cost. It was the first breakfast at Denny’s I ever paid more than $50 for. The drinks were $3 a piece! For milk and coffee. If we had known and had a chance to explore a bit we would have gotten breakfast at one of the many buffet places for $5 a pop.

It was the first and last breakfast we ate out during out vacation. After that experience we chose to eat in the hotel room. Right after leaving Denny’s we head out to a local supermarket to stock up. We picked up a small case of water bottles, Cherrios, snacks and fruit. That way we were set for the rest of the trip, at least snack-wise. Shortly after we headed out to the QEW and on to Toronto.

The trip to Toronto was pretty uneventful. We had hoped that the girls would sleep, but only Caitlin went out. Emelia had too much energy and spent the entire trip checking out the scenery and asking questions. The drive isn’t too exciting, but I will say that I was surprised at how busy it was. The area from Niagara Falls to Toronto had a lot more people and towns that I expected. Seeing as the area has a lot of vineyards I expected it to be more rural. The QEW snakes around Lake Ontario and you get a peek at the water regularly during the trip.

We hit traffic a few times, but nothing too bad. We ended up taking a pee and snack break at Wendy’s. Like most place we visited the restaurant was incredibly clean, well maintained and staffed with friendly people. We only bought snacks for the girls, but the person working gave the girls a small book, which usually comes as part of a kids meal. I got my first cup of Tim Hortons of the trip and enjoyed it thoroughly. They make a decent cup of coffee, which is much better than D&D coffee.

After fueling up we finished the rest of the trip to Toronto. Our destination was the Ontario Science Center, not the hotel. It was still early in the day, too early to check in. It was quite a sight driving through Mississauga and turning a corner to see the CN Tower in the distance. I was a bit shocked to see it at first, but it was a wonderful sight to see. It reminds me of the old days of driving to New York and being able to see the Twin Towers in the distance. Once we made it into Toronto proper we broke out the camera and started to take pictures.

The CN Tower looming in the distance.

Sue and I were both impressed by the “green” and live advertisements next to the highway. Effective and pleasant to see. It’s hard to read in this picture, but this is an add for The Ex.

Of course we had to take a shot of the Deloitte sign. I was originally planning to visit an old coworker that happens to work for Deloitte in Canada, but decided last minute not to.

The girls perked up when they saw that Sue and I were excited to have arrived. Sue tried to take a few shots of the girls. Caitlin got a kick out of making mommy think she was nose spelunking.

Emelia did her best to be evasive and then make faces.

A much closer shot of the CN Tower.

A trip up the Don Valley Parkway Parking-Lot and we reached our destination, the Ontario Science Centre. The entry fee was covered by our City Passes and free for the girls, but they get you for $8 to park.

Here is some of the stuff outside the entrance. I’m not sure what the red and blue boxes were for; we didn’t check them out.

This display was pretty cool. There were a few sensors around the perimeter that you can cover with your hand to make the water shoot. The idea is to make the arcs of water smash into each other. We played with this mostly on the way out of the building when we were leaving.

Once we made inside we picked up our City Pass booklets and made our way into the building. Nobody informed us, but the place is setup upside down. You start out of the second level and have to go down to reach the higher levels. We went up to the first level thinking it was the fourth floor. Nope. We had to take a few escalators down to reach the fourth level, where KidSpark was located.

KidSpark is the level where all the younger (8 and under) crowd gets to play. The entire place is designed to stimulate the kids minds and get them interacting with new things. It was done quite well and before we left I wasn’t so sure that the place would be appropriate for our little girls since they were so young. No worries on that front anymore. KidSpark is very appropriate to the younger kids. Emelia and Caitlin had a great time. If James were there he would have had a great time too.

We visited nearly all of the exhibits in KidSpark, but their favorite was this thing. It was a large display of pins that you can push through the board to the other side. The thing was mobbed with kids, but they all had fun making different shapes or simply trying to push all of the pins to the other side, where there was a kid eagerly doing the same thing. You would think that it would become old quickly, but it didn’t. The kids spent a lot of time here.

Playing at Ontario Science Centre from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Next up was a real hot air balloon (I didn’t take a picture of the balloon). The kids took turns (ha) pressing a button that turned on a flame that filled the balloon with hot air. It eventually rose up and stayed afloat for a little bit.

Right next to the balloon was a wall with magnetic shapes that you can use to build something. Caitlin did a little of this, but found the other stuff more interesting.

A little further around the room we found an area for the really little kids. We took the opportunity to rest while our “little” ones “played”. On one side was a fish tank.

Emelia had a good time raising hell around the littler kids.

Baby Section at Ontario Science Centre from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Then it was on to the toys.

This display was for interacting different textures.

A display of poisonous, but pretty frogs.

Having pretty much did all there was to do on this side of the floor we went to the other half to see what else there was to play with. This side of the place reminds me of the Children’s Museum that we’ve been to a couple times. It’s interactive as well.

Right after this picture was taken Caitlin walked towards me and off the platform. It wasn’t high, but she wasn’t prepared for it and took a very nasty fall. At first we thought that she was okay, but then we saw her fingers in her mouth were coming out bloody. Really bloody. We checked to make sure all her teeth were there. It seems she cut the inside of her mouth on her teeth when she fell. It didn’t bother her, but we kept and eye on it the rest of the day.

There was a market where you could play grocer or shopper. It was mobbed with kids and since there was only one register that was where all the kids wanted to play. Next to that was a two story building that kids could climb up and down and over. We stayed there for a few minutes, but got pelted with foam blocks when the bigger kids started throwing them at each other and around without care for who else got hit. In the middle of the room was a carousel like thing that some bigger girls were using to spin fast while trying to keep a hold.

The section we played most with was where there were building blocks, huge Lego like blocks and some ball things. Here is Emelia testing out a theory for which track would work best. The frequency and magnitude of the waves differed a bit and the ball only reach the end of one track.

This small display had a thermal reactive board on it. The warmth from your hand is supposed to make the board change colors so that you can leave a hand print. Poor Emelia was too cold to leave any mark.

The girls had a good time building stuff with the Lego like, foam blocks.

Caitlin at Ontario Science Centre from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Before heading out we took a quick pee stop. This was the highlight of this area for Emelia. She got a real kick out of using the bathroom in this area. The bathroom had two sets of everything, but in miniature. Next to the big toilet was small toilet just right for her. Right next to the sink was a much smaller and lower sink built for kids. There was even a hand dryer down low for the kids. From this time forward Emelia had no more issues with hand dryers. Up until this time she didn’t like them. While they were in there Caitlin and I spent some time in the toddler pen, which is pretty much an exact description of where we were.

The kids were getting quite tired by this point and having skipped her nap Emelia was out of sorts. We decided to head down to the sixth level to check out the Harry Potter display. We were disappointed to find out that we had to pay extra to get an audio tour of the place. Oh well. We quickly looked through the gift shop, which had far more Harry Potter stuff that I ever thought possible and then left. We checked out the areas and displays for the older kids. I was impressed and am sure that older kids would have a good time there too.

On our way out the girls played around in a pretend koi pond. It was a projection shot down from the ceiling on to the floor. What was cool about this display is that it had a bunch of sensors that detected your movement. If you moved it made it look like you made waves in the water and the fish scattered. The kids loved it. Emelia kept running around and Caitlin kept trying to swim in it. Had the lights been on she would have looked silly laying on her tummy in the middle of the floor, but with the projection she looked like she was in a pond.

We slowly made our way out and back to the car. She kids played in a large tube that was there to demonstrate harmonics. They just had fun running down the tube end to end. We snacked up in the car and headed out. The local traffic wasn’t bad, but the Don Valley Parking-Lot lived up to its non-official name. We spent a lot of time sitting in traffic just trying to get back into town. Most of the time was spent on some very poorly designed merges. Afterwards we made it to the streets of Toronto and headed to the hotel.

We stayed at Cambridge Suites Toronto. Just like everywhere else they get you for parking (at $25 a day), but luckily it was below the building. It was a tight fit, but I’m used to our car’s size for the most part and had no trouble squeezing it in and around the place. It was hot as hell, but thankfully we didn’t have to spend much time down there. We made it to our room and crashed for a bit. The place was quite nice, but nice in a different way than Doubletree.

The room was actually a real suite. This was ideal for us with the kids. We felt like we were in a small apartment with nearly everything we needed. The living room and bedroom each had a large 42 LCD TV with more channels that we could watch. Plenty of local stations and stations that you would find in the US. We requested a non-smoking room with two full beds instead of the single king bed. The kitchenette consisted of a small fridge, a microwave, dishes, silverware and a small sink. There was a mini bar, which I’m happy to say the kids left alone the entire time. I bumped it a few times (it was the kind that is on a scale), but it also had a lock. We didn’t break the seal so no charges on our card for that.

The bathroom consisted of two rooms. One with the tub and toilet, while the other had a huge counter, sink and closet. The bedroom had a pocket door on one side and a pair of French doors on the side that went to the living room. That was the worst thing about the room. The two doors opened to the living room and the kids whacked the TV more than once with a door. One time before we left Emelia hit it so hard I thought something would have broken or that the TV would have fallen off. Thankfully, nothing got broken or had fallen. Suffice it to say that somebody had some time-out after that.

After resting yet again we headed out for dinner. Having had no time to explore we asked the staff for a suggestion. They said we should try Pickle Barrel just up the street from where we were staying. Little did we know at the time this was immediately adjacent to Yonge and Dundas Square, which to me appeared to be what would be akin to Times Square in NYC. The trip up to the restaurant was pretty nice. We found the place without too much trouble.

The restaurant was okay, but not as family friendly as we were lead to believe. We ordered up some food and made it through the appetizer only to have the kids get really out of hand. I ate my fish and had Sue’s packed up. We returned to the room so the kids could act like kids, but not in public and Sue could eat her dinner in peace. We hit the sack and got ready for another full day of fun.

Unfortunately, for me it took me longer to finish up packing and buying tickets to one attraction at the last minute so we didn’t end up in bed until about 11:30pm. I was hoping to get in by 9:00pm at the latest. We were planning to wake up and leave at 3:30am. Instead we got up at 3:40am and were literally on the highway by 3:50am. This may sound like an insane hour to leave for a five your trip, but with two kids and unsure of how they would react to being in a car for so long we chanced leaving earlier while they were asleep in the hope that we could keep them asleep for as long as possible.

I figured that we could make it half way there before they woke up. I’m delighted to say that we made it a solid 3.5 hours before having to make our first stop. The kids woke up a little when being deposited into the car and while I locked up the garage and house, but Sue rode in the back of the car with the girls. She kept them quiet while they waited for me. Once on the road Caitlin fell right back to asleep. Emelia kept asking questions about where we were going and random things, but we kept her quiet and calm enough for her to fall asleep again. Not 15 minutes after leaving all three girls were snoozing while I ran on a vacation buzz.

The kids woke up 30 minutes before we made our first real stop. I made a quick run into a rest area not long before to get a coffee to keep me going and was greatly disappointed. I would have been better off getting a hot cup of water. By the time we took our first break I was really ready for a break. My vacation buzz kept me going for many miles, but after hours of seeing only a handful of trucks and a smattering of rain and fog I needed a change of scenery. We didn’t do anything special for our first break, just stopped at a rest area and got some D&D. After having a bagel and some somewhat decent coffee we were ready to go again.

Sue made a great effort at keeping both of the kids occupied for the remainder of the trip and she did a great job too. We made only one more stop to gas up before crossing over the border to Canada. The trip over the various bridges and through Niagara Falls was a little less straightforward and busier than I expected, but the actual crossing over the rainbow bridge and making it through the Canadian border was pretty quick and easy. The thing about this part of the trip that really struck me was that one of the roads we were on followed along the Niagara River and even from a distance you can see the huge water spray that the Canadian falls makes. When we got to the border I was expecting to have to wait for a long time, but we ended up being third in line. A couple bad turns on the local streets and we made it to the hotel many hours before check-in time. Thankfully, they let us park there early, which gave us a chance to load the kids in the stroller and make our way to the falls.

The walk from the hotel was not as bad as I expected. We made our way by the busier part of town and down the big hill to the falls. We ended up at the north end of the park, not too far from the bridge and we got our first view of the falls. This being our first trip there, it was amazing. We started off with the American falls, which are impressive in their own right. It’s a shame for New York that you don’t get such a great view of the falls from that side. It is definitely a draw for people, but you have to have a good view of it. Of course if you cannot cross the border or don’t want to deal with the hassle of crossing the New York side probably isn’t a bad choice.

If you look in the distance of the picture above you can see a tall building on the left. I believe it is a casino. It’s quite a site at night time. We were able to see it from our hotel room. The center of the building lights up in a blend of colors. Just immediately to the left of the falls is an observation area. From there you can get a close look at the American falls.

The kids really got a kick our of watching the boats in the river, such as this one.

The troops were holding up well.

A rare picture of me with my girls, still in my driving attire. Emelia didn’t mind standing with me, but Caitlin was looking for an escape. She is 100% a momma’s girls right now. It’s an uncomfortable stage for dads.

Here is the Skylon Tower. We didn’t go up, but Emelia got a kick out of watching the yellow elevators going up and down it.

We slowly made our way south to the Canadian falls. Here is a shot of the Canadian falls from a distance. Check out that plume of water vapor. It’s no wonder we could see it from a distance. It’s enormous. An of course, there is a Maid of the Mist boat full of people getting soaked from the falls.

Emelia was really interested in using the viewer, but was a bit short.

As we slowly make our way to the Canadian Falls we stop and check out the view. Here is a short shot of the falls from a distance.

Canadian Falls from a distance from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

It’s a little surreal seeing the falls partially in the sun and and shaded by a cloud.

Here you can see a nice park and observation area on Goat Island (on the New York side).

Not much further to go. You can see one of the other attractions where you get up and close to the falls (hint: look for the yellow ponchos).

A close-up shot of the yellow ponchos.

Oh, those poor wet people on the boat.

This is one of my favorite videos of the falls. We’re much closer than before and you get a good view of it all. The commentary by Emelia is about a baby shoe that we saw earlier on our way over. Being one to check out the less seen details I looked straight down over the rail and found plenty of garbage, but also found a nice baby shoe. Somebody probably took a kid home with only one shoe wondering where it went. Better the shoe went over than the baby.

Canadian Falls from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Here are some of the hotels in the area. You can’t see ours from here, but we chose a place not close to the falls.

By the time we made it to the end of the park the kids were starving. We figured this out when we saw Caitlin straying towards the hot dog stands as we walked by them. At first we thought she was only being curious, but after she put up a fight when we took her away we figured she was hungry. Food in this area is not cheap, but we didn’t really have the time to find a more economical place. We ended up inside and bought ourselves a pricey, pepperoni pizza. At $21 it was expensive, but cheaper than individual slices. We waited for it to be cooked by slurping up ice water and people watching. I mostly watched Emelia and answered her myriad questions.

A little video taken of Emelia being herself while we wait.

Emelia asking questions while we wait from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

The pizza was a good choice. It was made by a place named Pizza Pizza, which I discovered later in our trip, is a chain. They make a damn good pizza. The pizza chains in the US could learn something from them. Real pizza from a chain restaurant.

Caitlin enjoyed her water at least as much as her pizza.

After packing up and a stop for nature we made it back outside to capture more shots of the falls. From the top of the falls you get a real good look at the amount of water that makes it over the falls. I learned later that only about 50% of the water is actually let over the falls. The other 50% is captured and redirected through hydroelectric plants. I can only imagine what the falls look like when running at 100% capacity.

The water spray is amazingly thick. It’s so think that you cannot see through it.

Here are the American Falls and Rainbow Bridge from a distance. Not a bad sight.

A shot of the park north of our position.

It’s amazing to see the water in action. Many gallons of water flow over these falls all day, every day. What I think is interesting is that the edge where the water falls appears to have a sharp edge. It must be from the type of stone, something that flakes off the side over years instead of wearing off a rounded edge like you would expect.

Niagara Falls Close-Up from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Despite the scenery and having stopped for lunch, it is starting to get warm, the kids are getting antsy and we’re ready to start making our way back up the park. If only the kids were listening well and willing to ride in the stroller.

We stopped a few more times on our way up to watch the falls and the boats go by, but we made decent time on our way back. The park was well maintained and had wonderful grass. Before heading off to do anything else we let the kids run out some of their energy in the park. Caitlin had fun mostly by sitting on and playing with a metal cover. We let that go until she figured out how to open it.

Emelia occupied herself with finding and stabbing the carpenter ants at the base of a tree. It may not be the nicest thing in the world, but she has finally overcome her fear of bugs. Screaming like somebody got murdered is not the right reaction to seeing a bug. I’d rather her not kill all the bugs she finds, but it involves a lot less screaming.

Here you can see the kids’ discovery that they could open a small door to access the handle for opening the hatch.

Playing in Queen Victoria Park from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

The park was very nice. There were plenty of flowers and nice plants. The grass was weed-free and well kempt. It was a bit damp for sitting on directly, but we found the base of a large tree to work out just fine for us.

We could even see the top of the American falls from where we were.

More flowering plant. Emelia was trying to pose for the shot, but was more interested in stepping into and out of the flower bed.

After our rest we walked the remaining 30 feet to the Maid of the Mist ticket booth and bought ourselves a ride. You have to walk your way down to the boat, but it was much cooler in this structure that out in the sun. By now it was warm outside. Little did we know that this was going to be the coolest day of the entire vacation.

We donned our customary blue ponchos and proceeded to steam/bake in the sun waiting to board our boat. Even the kiddies got small ponchos. Caitlin loved hers so much she kept playing peek-a-boo using the hood to cover her face. I was getting nervous thinking that somehow she’ll get it on in a position she won’t be able to get it off and will suffocate. Such are the worries of a parent. She eventually got bored with it.

When we boarded we luckily found a place near the rail. It was on the starboard side of the boat, which meant we wouldn’t get to see the American Falls on the way out to the Canadian Falls, but we did get to see it on the way back. I think it was a nice tradeoff for being on the less populated side of the boat. No jockeying for position where we were.

The Maid of the Mist is definitely something anybody visiting the falls should do. You get wet, but in the summer you dry off before you return to the dock. On a hot day like the day we visited the boat ride was welcome relief to the heat. Just being in the water makes it seem cooler. Once you get near the falls you get to enjoy the water cooled air. The boat stays at the falls longer than it seems when you watch from a distance. At one point the boat turned to the port side and we got the full brunt of the mist. It’s not as strong as a shower, but it is constant and covers you quickly in water. I gave up on trying to keep my glasses dry and just enjoyed the water.

The kids did wonderfully during the boat trip. I was expecting that at least Emelia would be whining about the water and being stuck on a boat, but she did incredibly well. Emelia seemed to be interested in the whole experience, but after a minute or so the heavy mist wasn’t as interesting as it was when we started out. She didn’t cry or get scared, but I did end up squatting down and holding her. Once we were out of the mist again she quietly waited for the boat to return. She was exhausted.

Caitlin was also exhausted. I don’t know how she did it, but Caitlin was awake when we reached the falls, but was fast asleep when we left the mist. She actually fell asleep while we were next to the falls. The comfortable temperature, need for a nap and loud, constant noise did the trick.

The rest of the passengers.

The American falls as seen from the boat.

After all of our adventures at the falls we grabbed our stroller and proceeded to push the kids back up to town. It was still a couple hours before our check-in time, so I took the long route through Clifton Hill. Having been out in the sun for hours and without any more water we headed to Starbucks for a rest and a $7 Vivanno. Needless to say the cost of eating in the busiest area can take its toll. We learned this the hard way the next morning, but that is another day and another post.

A walk through the crowded streets we eyed the shops and attractions. All that came to mind is that this place would be great for older kids, like teenagers. There wasn’t much for our little ones, but I wasn’t looking for anything either, so no great loss there. We spied places to eat on the way back just in case. We ended up back at the hotel lobby by 2:45. I figured I could play ignorant and ask when we could check in and they again said 3:30pm. We had no place to go and were hot as hell so we crashed in the lobby. The kids were becoming a nuisance and were bored again so we were probably not the best people to have in the lobby, but nobody complained.

I started to get a bit hot when I saw that some people came in and were able to check in without having to wait until 3:30. I don’t know why or how, but having been up to the desk a few times I decided to be nice and wait it out. Staff changed around 3:30 as well so the guy that checked us in was nice and fresh, and was kind as could be. We ended up on the forth floor and were given four warm cookies to enjoy when we got in the room. They do this for all the guests, but it is a nice touch. The cookies were great, although not good enough to order a tin of. We actually had that option.

The room was large, had two queen size beds and cable TV. It had a nice view of the town and was in a nice quiet area. It was on the border of being residential. I chose this hotel mostly because of cost, but also because it had a good rating online. The location ended up being a great asset. Walking distance to town without being in the mix. Plenty of parking spaces albeit charged to us daily. $12 isn’t terrible, but I don’t see the need. If you’re going to Niagara Falls and will be staying in Ontario check out Doubletree (Hilton).

We settled in, but ended up going out shortly after for dinner. Sue chose the restaurant during her planning. There was a good Chinese buffet place in Niagara Falls that she found. The placed is called Mandarin. We had Jason’s Garmin, but we had a hell of a time trying to get to the place using it. When we finally made it to the place I found out why. It’s actually located in Niagara Square Mall, which like any mall uses unnamed service roads. Not to mention it’s located directly next to the QEW( Queens Elizabeth Way). The signs were not to great either. We walked through the mall only to end up asking the information desk for directions. The mall had a huge sign on the side we entered, but the restaurant is around the corner on the other side of the building. They only have an outside entrance as well. If they can do anything they should make it clear to everybody where the place is really located.

The trouble we had in getting there was well worth it. I have never been in a place where the staff is so damn friendly. Maybe it was the sun burned face and shorts that gave me away as a tourist, but after a second trip back I don’t think that had anything to do with their behavior. The people working there went far out of their way to be kind to each customer. They made sure to say hello, to thank you for coming and to make sure you were able to find everything. The place has your basic buffet food, but the quality was quite good and the selection was great. It’s a big place too. They break up the entire place into “rooms” that hold many people. We made sure to pig out before heading back to our room.

We ended up having such a good meal that we planned a trip back to the restaurant on our way back home. It was on the way and we were going to need food, so why not. If you’re in the area give the place a try. It’s a place more for locals that tourists as it is a few miles from the touristy section, but well worth the drive. After getting four hours of sleep, driving for about 6 hours, spending the day in the sun walking and carrying kids and then pigging out on Chinese buffet I was shot. Nothing felt better than getting back to the hotel to take a shower and hit the sheets. Next up was our trip into Toronto.