Toronto - Ups and Downs

At this point in our Toronto vacation, I'm feeling better than I had in five days.  The weather was clear, sunny, and so comfortable, so we headed out to Toronto Island.  We packed lightly and took off downtown for the ferry.  We had plans to play on the beach, ride around on the surrey bikes, and take the kids to Centreville Amusement Park.  As I already mentioned, our poor DD had a terrible injury from the surrey bike we rented, and after an very scary hour of trying to get to the First Aid station on the island and dealing with his foot, we headed back on the ferry for home.  Of course, I felt so bad for DD, and BB too really.  They had about 10 minutes on the beach and 20 minutes on the bike before it all ended.  We never made it to the other beach or the amusement park.  Once home we got busy getting first aid supplies and socks(!) for DD to secure his bandages.  Oh, what a day!

We didn't do much the rest of the day and everything after that required more planning than we're used to.  I wanted to make sure DD didn't have to walk much.  As a special treat, I made the boys their own trays of roasted potatoes for a late breakfast the next morning.  Instead of walking, we drove out to Markham, a suburb north of Toronto that is chock full of delicious Chinese food.  In Markham, there is a Din Tai Fung, but it is fake, a rip-off of the original.  But we went anyway after reading reviews and let me tell you - it was good!  They had a delicious Chinese chicken soup that the boys slurped up.  We had to order bowl after bowl.  And C had his own bowl because...you guessed it, he was sick.

After almost two days of resting, we ventured out for a limited trip to the Art Gallery of Toronto.  The last time I visited was long before the renovation.  The building itself is worth a visit.  We had a quick breakfast in the cafe before exploring the museum, and then breaking for sorbet.  I looked around a bit more while the boys ate their treats and DD rested his foot.  

One night while catching a cab downtown for dinner, we found ourselves in the middle of a movie shoot.  If you look closely, you can see that they turned the Toronto subway into the NYC MTA subway!  We took the boys to Marche because one wanted roast chicken while the other wanted steak.  I know that the prices are high and the food is mediocre but it was really fun for the boys to look at the stations and pick their own foods.

Despite the illness that plagued us and DD's injury, we had a great time and I think we all were thinking about a return trip to Toronto in the future.  There were lots of places on our list that we never made it to.  On the way home, we made a the quick stop in Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls.  More on that next time...