Thankfully the slush is very quickly melting away and there is a definite feeling of spring in the air! To make the most of the good weather we decided to road trip it to Toronto again this last weekend. We planned to stay at Mel & Geoff’s place (thanks again guys!) on Friday night, drive down to Niagara Falls on Saturday and enjoy a Toronto Raptors NBA game on the Sunday.
My friend Luyen (another Aussie in Ottawa) joined us for the ride! Friday night the drive there was uneventful and after a long week of work we were all ready to veg out a bit. This was a good plan because it saw us up early on Saturday morning to enjoy the amazing weather!
Joep and I left Luyen to catch up with friends in the city and hit the road to Niagara Falls. We were forewarned by many people that Niagara town is nothing special. In fact most people advised us strongly against spending any amount of time in the town itself.
Upon arrival in Niagara (after a pit stop for Tim Horton’s coffee and doughnuts, naturally!) we understood why. Niagara is the biggest, kitchiest tourist trap I have ever seen. True story. It is quite a shame because the falls themselves are breathtaking! So instead of wasting time telling you about the town, I will focus on the things that are worth seeing. The Falls!
We weren’t expecting much because, lets face it, the Falls are pretty touristy and cliché buuuuut … our expectations were greatly exceeded! The first sighting of the falls is more than a little bit impressive. I think it is the combination of the mist and the sound of the water roaring. Throw in the fact that it is still winter (almost spring!) so there were huge icebergs floating in the water and icicles hanging from trees over the falls and you have yourself a pretty incredible view!
There was a surprising amount of snow still on the ground at the falls and some of the falls were still frozen solid but enough water was flowing to create the infamous mist around the water which, according to Joep, ‘though refreshing and invigorating, is also very annoying’ … that is a quote. That is why we love him. Still the spectacle of the falls is something that is definitely worth seeing. Especially on a beautiful spring day with clear blue skies and sunshine!
We entertained ourselves at the falls for a decent amount of time by pretending to jump in (don’t stress out mum! We didn’t actually climb over the barriers …), napping in the sunshine and building snow men. It was glorious!
Interesting fact (I thought so anyway …) - The first person to attempt to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel was a 63-year-old woman called Annie Taylor. She was a schoolteacher who, for some reason, thought it would be a good idea to climb into a barrel with her cat and float herself over the falls. She survived. As exciting as this sounded, we did not think it was a good idea.
Instead, once we had exhausted all entertainment options (excluding throwing ourselves over the falls in a barrel) we jumped in the car and headed to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a small town 30 minutes drive from Niagara and infinitely more beautiful. The midday was spent wandering around this gorgeous town, having a bite to eat and soaking up the atmosphere. All in all we deemed the trip a complete success and headed back to Toronto very satisfied!
Saturday night in Toronto – What better thing to do than eat yourself silly! A lot of travel books note that one of the greatest things about Toronto is the international food culture. A brief late afternoon dash through China town left us in no doubt about this! So when we got back to Toronto we met up with Luyen for a few beers before heading to dinner with Luyen and her mate at an all you can eat Korean barbeque restaurant.
Anyone who knows Joep right now is probably reacting strongly to the thought of Joep sitting at an all you can eat barbeque. I’m not going to lie to you, I had some misgivings about taking him to such a restaurant. All you can eat meat is something that Joep does not fool around with. He will literally eat ALL he can eat. And eat he did. The restaurant was fantastic and, despite our best laid plans to eat dinner and head out dancing, we ended up sitting at the restaurant until well into the evening cooking our meat, eating it and enjoying the laughs. A very very successful evening!
To round off the weekend on Sunday we had arranged for tickets to see the Toronto Raptors play the 76’s at Air Canada Centre. After a long breakfast of crepes (or as Joep calls them, craps) and a leisurely stroll around Toronto we settled in for the match.
What a game! The Raptors have been on a big losing streak and alas they did not break it during this game but they gave it their best shot! In addition, the Raptor’s mascot (a raptor) is the best entertainment I have seen in a long time!
After the match we road tripped it back to Ottawa and so ended a wonderful mini weekend away!
No comments:
Post a Comment