During our trip to Niagara Falls, I wanted to see Toronto. I figured, if we are in Canada, might as well see an actual city and not be surrounded by tourists and fast food. It’s roughly a 90 minute drive to downtown, 2 hours if you include the amount of time it took me to find a parking spot. If you have time, there a dozen or so wineries right off the highway. However, they were all closed on the way back to Niagara.

The weather was not great, and a cold misty rain dampened the mood, but if you drive an hour and a half, you had better get out and walk around. At least check out the CN tower. Again, we were on a budget, so we didn’t shell out the $32 to go up to the top, but it was enough for me to see it from the outside. It’s also next to the Rogers Centre. If you happen to like seeing where major league teams play (I do), you can quickly cross it off your list. What’s the inside look like? I don’t know, watch a Blue Jays game, but you will probably be the only one. They aren’t good is what I’m getting at. The building does have some… unique… sculptures on the corners of the building.

We took some time to free roam the area and found a few cool outfitting stores. Mec, similar to REI, was right up my alley. The store is full of all of the cool hiking and camping gear you want but can’t afford. There is a smaller outfitter nearby called Europe Bound, which offers similar products crammed into a tiny store. I’m an REI member, so I’m more likely to just order online, but it’s always nice to shop around and see the products in person.

While searching for dinner, we walked back to the CN Tower/Rogers Centre plaza area and headed to Steam Whistle Brewery. It’s a pretty cool area. There are a lot of old trains that you can walk in and climb on. It reminded me of a real life Thomas the Tank Engine set. We quickly discovered, however, that they do not have food. They do have unlimited free 3ish oz samples of their beer. They also offer tours, but were sold out for the day so we were unable to see much past the bar and seating area. Super cool atmosphere and really good beer. They directed us over to Amsterdam BrewHouse which is located right on the lake. A lot of good, reasonably priced beer. The food is a little more expensive but a $15 pizza was enough for Kim and I to share. The wait staff was a little inexperienced, and no one knew of any local chocolate shops anywhere in the city. We were actually told to go to the grocery store. Kim almost lost it, but that may have been the beer talking.

For the couple of hours that we were there, I enjoyed it. I love cities. Kim wasn’t impressed, but she prefers to be barefoot in a spring meadow full of flowers. It would have been nice to stick around for a night and see more of the city. We didn’t do any research going into it, so there is probably a lot more to do, but the CN Tower is the most iconic sight of the city.

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