Toronto Harbour Tours

Since I've been in Toronto a while and visited Toronto so often before, I have been running out of things to do that I haven't yet done. One thing I had been wanting to do for a while is a boat tour downtown Toronto, so I found one on Groupon that was inexpensive and seemed cool. This one was from Toronto Harbour Tours and cost $11.00 per person. it states that during June, July and August the cruises leave every half hour between 11 am and 5pm and every hour between 6 pm and 9 pm. Tickets are 24.95 if you purchase them at the location and 19.95 if you purchase them on the website. They have cheaper tickets for children and family passes as well. I had also read on the website that they stop halfway through at the Toronto Islands and your able to get off and get back on another one that passes by later on. I found a map of the route on the website.

We got to the location where you check in to take the tour around 4:10 pm, thinking we would be taking a 4:30 tour and stop at the island for an hour or two and grab another boat that passes by. When we get there we are told the tour is only going every hour, and that the one we would be on would be the last stop at the islands so we could get off if we wanted but we would only get half of the tour. I read quite a bit about the tour before going so I was a little sad we wouldn't be able to get off at the islands, we would have gone earlier if we had of known that. 

The tour itself was good though, the tour guide was knowledgeable and funny and gave us a lot of interesting information. The boat itself is fairly small, but it is covered with windows that open, it was pretty empty so it was good. The tour was only an hour so it felt a little short, but for the price I think it was well worth it and would be good with children especially if you go earlier and visit the island for a bit. There were some pretty views from the boat and you learn some things about Toronto's waterfront and the islands. I liked it, I think I would do another tour but make it a lunch or dinner one instead so it's a little longer.

The Grilled Cheese

A while back I started watching that show on the Food Network called "You Gotta Eat Here" when I knew I was going to be moving to Toronto. I am a pretty picky eater and tend not to like fancier foods, so when I saw the one for The Grilled Cheese in Kensington Market I was excited because the regular grilled cheese looked amazing. This is located at 66 Nassau St. which is a little south of College street and west of Spadina. 

They have a lot of different interesting types, but I am very plain. This is my second time going and it was equally amazing both times. Last time I got plain, this time my sister got plain and I added bacon. It is soo good, I can't even express how good these are. Grilled cheese was always one of my favourite things to get in restaurants when I was younger, but I was always that annoying kid who would ask what kind of cheese they used because there's nothing I hate more than a grilled cheese with a gross rubbery cheese slice. These are made to order and always take a bit to make since they are made fresh with a press, and are cooked a little slowly in order to melt the amazing amount of cheese that they put on these. 

You can watch the episode here: You Gotta Eat Here and see some of the other types of sandwiches they make. Also, there is a bar across the road that you can sit in and have a beer, and they will deliver to you. 

If you are downtown Toronto and looking for something to do, you can stroll around Kensington Market, do a little shopping and stop in here for lunch. There are a lot of cool little shops around this area making it an interesting place to spend half a day.

Monumentour

Back in January I got an email from Groupon about tickets for Monumentour at the Molson Amphitheatre, lawn seats for $20.00. These tickets were for the lawn section which I have never sat in before, but since I missed seeing Fall Out Boy in Toronto last year when they had their tour I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them for $20.00 in the summer time sitting in the grass. 

Monumentour is a tour with Fall Out Boy and Paramore which is completely in the United States except for the one show in Toronto June 25th. I have been excited for this concert ever since I purchased the tickets, and awaited it to be summer to go to this. Finally it's the week of the concert and it had been raining alll week. Since it had already rained for a few days I was hoping that it would not be raining for the concert, day of it was a little cloudy all day but looked promising. I made my way downtown Toronto by subway and went to take the bus to the Amphitheatre and it started to rain a little. There is a lot of construction downtown, so what would have normally been a streetcar to Exhibition was a bus, and had the longest line for any bus I have ever seen so we decided to flag down a taxi to take us the rest of the way since it was nearing the beginning of the concert. As I sat in the taxi, it started to POUR rain. So we get there, go in the grounds and walk towards where our tickets are for (about half of the Amphitheatre is not covered, including the lawn section) and decide not to stand there in the lawn for the opening band since I basically went for Fall Out Boy which was playing last. We found this small covered area that looked like it used to be a little outdoor bar section where a lot of parents seemed to be sitting while their children were in the concert section. We sat there for about an hour and the rain got harder and harder. 

We decided to go to guest services and see if there were any upgrade options to get within the closed sections so I could actually see what I came for. We were told there is no upgrade option, but you can purchase a whole new ticket and be in the section. These tickets were 60 dollars each and we had the option of being on the floor or the two front sections on the left or the right. So we got two of these tickets, grabbed some food and drinks and went to our new seats. I did not realize the seats we were given were the front row, all the way to one side. At this points we had missed the opening band completely, and more than half of Paramores performance. From what I did see of Paramore they were really good, one song she picked someone from the audience to come up and sing the end of the song which was cool. After they finished they covered the stage and started changing it up for Fall Out Boy.

Fall Out Boy started and it was a great entrance! There were fireworks and fire and smoke it was loud and awesome. They had a good mixture of old and new music and put on an amazing show. 

It was a a great show, I am very sad that it rained I wouldn't have minded sitting in the grass area and watching even though it's fairly far back. I'm also surprised there was no option of upgrading the ticket, so basically I could have just went that day and got a ticket at the box office and not have spent that $40.00. It was a good day though, and look how pretty the CN Tower was that night! 

Toronto Ripley's Aquarium

Last year the Ripley's Aquarium of Canada opened in Toronto located right underneath the CN Tower. 

They currently have a promotion called "Summer Nights" where you get $5 off admission after 7pm, making an adult ticket 24.98. I decided Monday at 7pm would be the perfect time to go, since children are still in school and the aquarium is open until 11pm giving me a lot of time and it wouldn't be as busy. The website shows the hours of operation for each day, some nights they are closing early for events. I purchased my tickets online for entrance between 7 and 8 since I read that the lineup to buy tickets is usually fairly long. I was able to just open the email they sent me and they scanned the tickets off my phone so no printing was necessary. Since we went in right on the hour it seemed really busy right when you go in, but the group seemed to disperse pretty quickly so we were able to look at almost everything without anyone around. The first section when you enter is called Canadian Waters which features species that can be found in the Great Lakes and the Canadian shorelines. 

 

 

Some of the things you see there would make you never want to swim again..Right away it reminded me of the Ripley's Museum I went to in Niagara Falls with all the interactive educational items around in each section. The next section you go through is the Rainbow Reef. This is my favourite section, I like the colourful fish and reefs. 

 

Next was the Dangerous Lagoon. This section has a moving walkway on one side you can stand on and the tanks go up and around you, so it's like going through a tube. When reading reviews I read a lot of people said to avoid the moving walkway, but since it wasn't busy when I was there we were able to stand on the walkway and focus spotting interesting creatures and taking their pictures without having to worry about walking. The tank around this section went very far back so it was fun to try to spot different things. 

 

 

 

After the moving sidewalk there are tanks that have tubes you can crawl through to see the sharks up close or take pictures of people "in the tanks". There is also areas where you can touch different animals, a food court and a playground area. So if you were with children this would be the place where you'd take a rest halfway through the aquarium. In this section there is a small tank full of clown fish that is hallow in the middle so you can take your picture with the fish. 

Next was Ray Bay and Planet Jellies. There were a lot of interesting species in these areas and a large area full of information about different types of sharks. There was also a giant take full of jellyfish with mirrors on either side and the lights would change colour.

 

 

 

There was also a section called Life Support Systems that is all about how the aquarium is run. This takes you back up to the top floor where the gift shop is and the top of the large tank. There is a small glass floor section that you can look down and see the sharks and other species found in the large tank, and you can see a lot of sharks swimming near the top of the tank. It took us just over an hour to go through the whole aquarium which is shorter than I was expecting from what I was reading, but this was probably because we didn't have to wait to look in any of the tanks, we were able to avoid the crowd of people basically the entire time. 

Regular tickets are 29.98 for adults, 19.98 children 6-13 and seniors and 9.98 for children 3-5 (children under 2 are free). They also sell seasons passes for 125 for adults, 90 for children aged 6-13 and seniors and 75 for children 3-5. The passes allow you to visit the aquarium an unlimited amount of times for one full year, and they are open everyday of the year. 

Woofstock

Last weekend we went to Woofstock with our dog. This year it was at Woodbine Park at the Beaches rather than St. Lawrence Market area. There were a lot of complaints about this due to parking and whatever, but I take the TTC so this was not an issue for me. I liked this location better, the grass and the trees made it a lot better for my dog then a city block. 

 There was a large grass area that had all the tents for the vendors as well as the food trucks. We got a lot of free samples and purchased a few items. This was a short walk down a pathway to what they called the activity area which also included the VIP tent.

We went to the VIP for a while and to get our bag, he loved laying in the middle of the floor in everyone's way. Then we took him to the obstacle course from PawsWay, he did all the obstacles but I think he was bored of them since he's so used to jumping so high over our furniture at home already. 

After the obstacle course we headed home, this time on a a fairly empty bus which the dog enjoyed since he could look out the window. The picture above is all the stuff we got, mostly for free. We purchased a bag for $10.00 from PJs Pets which had a lot of the stuff in it, and gave a donation to Blue Buffalo for their stuff. We won't be needing to buy treats anytime soon now :). It was a great event and I hope I get to go again next year!