Toronto - Our Summer Vacation

AWWA

The main reason we traveled to Toronto was for the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Annual Conference and Exposition (ACE) 2007. Here's a shot of Russ and I setting up our booth.

Renaissance Inn at the Sky Dome

Our hotel was right downtown and attached to the Rogers Centre, formerly the Sky Dome. The bar inside was nice and overlooked the field. On Thursday night the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League played their first game of the 2007 season, so we got situated right up front along the glass and watch the second half. Surprisingly it was very entertaining. We also practiced our bedjumping!

Casa Loma

In the early 1900s Sir Henry Mill Pellatt built Casa Loma, a 98 room private residence, the largest in Canada. However, due to financial reasons, Sir Henry was forced to sell Casa Loma. It is now run as a tourist attractions by the Toronto Kiawanis.

Nearly all of the rooms are now finished and are pretty nicely decorated with pieces from the time period. The amount of detail in things like the wood panels, fireplaces, ceiling panels, etc. was amazingly beautiful, but ultimately a waste of money for Sir Henry.

North Toronto

After our tour of Casa Loma we headed a little further north and stopped for a bite to eat. We ate at Yitz's a Jewish Deli, where we had proably our best meal of the whole trip. Then we found CUPCAKES! and ate them, yum!

Chinatown

Chinatown was just up the road from our hotel so we walked through it on Saturday. There was activity of all sorts, vendors of all kinds were selling fruit, vegetables, clothing, luggage, trinkets, souvenirs, junk. etc.

Toronto Skyline

On Tuesday morning, Abbey and Patty took a boat tour of Toronto. They boarded the Oriole and made their way up and down the Toronto waterfront.

Kensington Market

Kensington Market is a small section of town, west of Chinatown where local artisans sell anything and everything. Butchers, fish-mongers, cheese markets, bakeries, sweets shops, fruit and vegetables stands, etc. It's a neat little area that is a great hang-out for foodies and neo-hippies alike.

Little Italy

After touring Kensington Market, we walked to Little Italy and took it in. There were many cafes and bistros, more fruit and vegetable stands and better looking row houses than in Kensington.

Royal Ontario Museum

Because we hadn't done enough walking, we decided to stop at the Royal Ontario Museum and walk some more. It's always been there, but it's recently had a facelift, or permanent scar added, depending on how you look at it. A new section called the Crystal has been added to it's exterior facade. It jutts out at odd angles and is reflective in spots. I think I liked it, Abbey, not so much.

Distillery District

On Friday, we toured the Distillery District and took a Segway Tour of it. On the tour we learned about the area, but more importantly we got to ride the awesome Segways!!!!!

Downtown Toronto

Just a variety of shots from different places in downtown Toronto.

Niagara Falls

Upon leaving Toronto we decided to head East to Niagara and check out the Falls. It was a breathtaking sight and really amazing to see the volume of water making it's way over the edge of the falls.