Toronto

So we made it out of Rochester around 11 and headed west. We had just recently been to Niagara Falls with Judy so we cruzed right on by there and into Canada. At the border we must have had the most uninterested customs agent who asked us all the required questions, but I’m not sure he cared about or heard the answers. No ID was checked and we didn’t declare the dog. He didn’t seem too bothered by the whole thing so neither were we. Two more hours on the QEW and we were in Toronto, late. Just before we got in we hit a weird patch of traffic that delayed us by 30 minutes and since we had already left late we were going to miss our dinner reservations.

Determined to make it, we sped to the hotel and checked in. Heather and the kids jumped in the shower while I hauled bags and the dog kennel up to the room. I got 3 separate comments on the kennel and what I had planned for it later, I love hotel. By this time it was 15 minutes before dinner and I hadn’t even gotten in the shower. Any other time I would have blown it off and gone somewhere else but we had reservations at the restaurant in the CN Tower, 360. If you eat there you can bypass the hours and hours worth of line to get up in the tower as well as the rigorous security checks. Because we were only spending the one night in Toronto it was our only chance to get up there with the kids. Heather called and got our reservations extended to 6 but if we were any later they would not seat us. I rushed to get cleaned up and get everyone dressed and out the door. At 5:45 we grabbed a cab outside of the hotel, 5:55 we were dropped off and began run-walking to get to the check-in. Over the glass bridge, down the stairs, up the corridor, through security, get our check-in slips. Time on the slip reads 6:00 pm on the nose. We had made it.

The 360 is a nice restaurant in the CN Tower. The floor of the restaurant turns 1 full rotation in 72 minutes. Heather and I found this more interesting than the kids did. The food was good and they had an extensive wine list that included a bottle of red for $11,280. While we were tempted to trade in the car and everything in it for 700 mL of grape juice, we refrained.

After dinner we wondered around the outside of the tower for a short while and then decided to head back to the hotel. As I was flagging down a taxi I was approached by a rickshaw driver who offered us a ride. I’m not sure if it was dinner or what but my radar for avoiding this stuff was off and I agreed. The four of us piled in and he started off. Never having ridden in one before I started to wonder what they cost. I figured they couldn’t be more than what I had in my pocket and the kids were having fun so I didn’t ask. Bad Idea. 18 blocks later we arrived and were informed that it cost $3 per adult per block. I didn’t have $108.00 in my pocket. After I picked my jaw up off the ground I informed the person I needed to get cash out of an ATM. It has just so happened that he dropped us off right next to one. I ran in to grab the cash to find an out of order sign on it. Walking back out I informed the man that I needed to find another one. “No problem.”, he told me, “Hop on I’ll give you a ride”. The second ATM worked and I paid for a lesson well learned.