I need to recover from my vacation

Remember how I said I would need a vacation from my vacation? Well it's time I start booking another flight soon cause last week was crazy!

After we got back from Toronto my wife started to feel better but her asthma was really giving her trouble. Then a couple of days later my little one started feeling sick. She doesn't have strep throat but she got an ear infection. In addition to her ear infection she started getting hives. Our second night home was a real struggle and she stayed up for the majority of the night. THEN in the midst of all of this sickness our dog disappeared. 

The lawn people left our side gate open and when he was in the backyard he got out. I felt like I couldn't handle one more thing on my plate. Once my little one started to feel a bit better (which was about a day or two later) I decided I would make some signs and post them up around the subdivision. The same say I decided to make the signs was when my oldest daughter noticed signs posted up all over our subdivision. I couldn't call right away because it was ten o'clock at night so I had to wait till the next morning.

Fortunately a family took him in and posted the signs and they lived only two houses down from us. Our dog is old so we knew he couldn't have gone far. Once he was home everything started to turn around and I could relax again. I was able to get the girls out of the house and have some fun.

I ended my stressful week watching the USATF outdoor track and field meet. When it rains it pours but I still managed to keep running, which I needed more than anything.

My running club has some more group runs during the week so I met up with them on Wednesday to do a tempo run and on Thursday for an easy seven mile run. I gotta say that the runs helped keep me calm when I felt a bit overwhelmed. Don't you just love how running does that?

Toronto trip day 3 (lots of pictures)

Today is our final day in Toronto and I have to say that while I loved exploring the city and being some place new, I'm so ready to go home. Having my wife be sick during this trip put a dark cloud over me the entire time. I didn't fully enjoy all of the wonderful experiences because she wasn't able to participate in them with me. I hope that we are able to come back to Toronto another time because the city is absolutely beautiful. There is such an amazing blend of so many cultures all in one city. 

You may say well there are many different cultures blended together in New York or L.A. or San Franciso. And you are so right about that but Toronto just felt different. I've been to New York and L.A. and the vibe here just felt easier to me. I don't know, maybe it's cause I was in another country. Who knows? But Toronto was a treat and I'm so glad that I got a chance to see it.

For our last day we wanted to check out the aquarium. One of my criteria for this trip was to do things that I wouldn't do back home. Miami does have an aquarium but it sucks. I've been to it a couple of times as a kid and I have sworn to never go back unless they completely overhaul it. You would think that since Miami is a big city so close to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico that the aquarium would be amazing... but you would be wrong. So technically this is something that I wouldn't do at home.

The aquarium was amazing and both of the girls enjoyed it. It was a bit crowded but that was to be expected. I was so happy that my wife was feeling much better and was able to hang out for our last day. Any time we go to a new city she always wants to visit the aquarium, it's kind of her thing. So my teenager and I made sure to save this for the last day in hopes that my wife would be able to enjoy it. And she did!

Yes that is a blue crab ---------------------->

There was a crawl tube for the kids to go through and feel like they were in the tank with some sharks. The little one initially wanted to go but as she started in the tube she changed her mind. (As you can see in the picture above). I thought I would go through the tube to show her that it was okay but as I started out I got a bit scared myself. The tube was a bit smaller than I was comfortable with and the glass made all the sharks seem much larger than they really were. Though I wanted to back up and not go all the way, I sucked it up and crawled the whole tube. 

Right before we made it to the jellyfish area, little one had a mini breakdown due to tiredness and hunger. We got her some snacks but it didn't help much. We walked a bit faster through most of the exhibits but this was the only section that seemed to calm her down. We hung out here for a bit before we left and headed back to the hotel.

Normally this would be the time that my wife would stay with the little one and they both take a nap but today (since she was feeling better), I thought that I would stay with little one. This would give my wife and our oldest some time to hang out and see the city together. I needed the rest and took full advantage of the quiet time. Little one went right to sleep and I was in and out of a nap. I gave my oldest daughter the camera with orders to come back with pictures... and she did!

The absolute last thing that I wanted to do before we left was get some Japanese cheesecake. Right by our hotel was this store called Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake. Everyday that we were out I passed this store and everyday it was so packed that there was a line outside the door. I saw a couple of people around the city with bags from here and figured this was a spot that the locals frequented. On the way back from their journey, my wife and daughter stopped at the store. They waited in line for over an hour for some made-to-order Japanese cheesecake and let me just say... the wait was well worth it!

This isn't a New York style cheesecake which is dense and very rich, this cake is light and although it's sweet it's not overpowering. I totally understand why there was a line all day everyday, this cake is amazing! If you ever happen to be in Toronto make sure you check out Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake, you'll love it!

Well ladies and gentleman, that wraps up my Toronto trip. We head back home early tomorrow morning. This was such a nice vacation and the city is so great. I can now say that I've been to Canada and I look forward to coming back and checking out Vancouver next time. Now it's back to out routine and back on my grind. Of course I'm going to need a vacation from THIS vacation.

Toronto trip day 2

Today proved to be a bit more of a struggle than yesterday. I guess the excitement outweighed any inkling of tiredness cause we were able to go, go, go yesterday. Even though little one slept MUCH better last night and we started off the day with a plan, it felt as though we were trudging through mud.

My wife wasn't feeling any better and took the day to rest and recover a bit from her strep throat. She got very little sleep last night so this morning was difficult. As she stayed in the hotel room trying to take it easy and have her body rest, the girls and I once again took on the city. 

I thought we should head to the CN tower and ride the elevator to the top. I was under the impression that we were relatively close to the tower and decided we should walk... bad idea. I should have gone along with my initial notion which was to get another day pass and take the bus/subway/streetcar because there was a lot of walking. The good thing about our long (very long) walk was that we got to see another area of downtown.

Our hotel is in the Yonge Downtown district which looks very similar to Times Square in NYC. This is always where our journeys start so today I took pictures of the area where we get on and off the subway train.




We walked through the entertainment district which was absolutely gorgeous, so I snapped some pictures there too. There were some sections along the street where people could site and relax on painted adirondack chairs. 

After what seemed like forever we finally made it to our destination, the CN tower. This is the tallest building in North and South America. For our general admission we took a glass elevator ride to the observation deck and the glass floor viewing area. For an additional cost you can go higher but I thought that 1,136 ft. was high enough for us.

Elevator ride

Elevator ride

View from the top

Ahhhhh!

No fear

I have to say that while I'm not afraid of heights I was terrified of the glass floor. My toddler wanted to jump and roll around on the glass and bring me along with her. My teenager was far back from the glass, standing next to the elevator. It's amazing how young kids have no point of reference for fear.

We stayed at the tower for a very short period till it was time to head back to the hotel for little one's nap. Back onto the subway.

Once again my wife was still not up to going out just yet but after her and little one's nap she said she would go out for a bit. In the mean time my teenager and I once again took this time to explore a bit more.

We walked further up the downtown area and headed into the gay neighborhood where we had a quick bit to eat.

We stopped at this nice pub and had some soda (you know I'm on vacation) and some appetizers. I simply had to get a picture of my daughters cream soda because I never saw PINK cream soda before. I'm sure the coloring will stain her insides but it looked pretty. 

For my quick bite I had mac and cheese squares. Did I happen to mention I'm on vacation?

I thought they would be gross but honestly they were really good. I couldn't finish all three though and once we were done we headed back to the hotel.

Thankfully my wife was feeling a bit better. She said she was at about 35% which must mean that she was at around 10% yesterday. We all headed to Old Town to see the St. Lawrence Market. Turns out the market was closed and was actually reopening in its new location on Saturday. But at least we got to see the outside.

Once we realized that there wasn't much for us to do in Old Town we got back on the train, got some dinner and headed back to the hotel to retire for the night.

Another day of fun and exploration under our belt, one more day to go. Tomorrow is our last full day before we head back home. I'm looking forward to our day tomorrow because my wife will be joining us for the entire day and we saved the best stuff for last.

So stay tuned!