The holiday season is upon us, whether we're ready or not. My amazing wife is, of course, on top of all the gifting. She really runs a tight ship when it comes to holidays and special events.
Anyway, if you're curious about the heading of this post, I can explain it best by simply stating we went to the zoo and it was 36 degrees out. Now, thankfully this was the Toronto Zoo, but before we talk about that we should back up a bit!
We had been wanting to get away for a bit and didn't want to travel too far. Something within 3 to 4 hours car ride. We brainstormed a bit and came up with a trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto. I know, we have this perpencity to travel north just when things are getting cold. We're just cold weather people I guess, and our offspring have no choice! I don't think we'll ever be retiring to Florida. We were looking for cost effective entertainment, another area my wife excels at. We found it in the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark. We made a short stop at the Niagara Aquarium first before heading across the border. We knew ahead of time that we shouldn't expect to be everly impressed, as it was built in the 40's or something and was quite small. The little lady really enjoys fish, and we got in for free with our zoo membership, so it was a win win! It was fun looking at some fairly exotic fish and some harbor seals, but I'm glad we didn't pay to get in. On to customs we went. Having been to Niagara Falls many times before, I honestly had no idea that on the top of the very parking lot we've used so many times there was a huge waterpark that's open year round. We got a hotel room in the Crowne Plaza, which is attached to the garage, so you walk through the loby and into the elevator that takes you to the park. It couldn't have been more convenient. We also lucked out and were upgraded to a king jacuzzi suite with a view of the falls. It was an awesome room. We got up in the morning and headed to the park. We were amazed at how big it was and also how we just about had the place to ourselves. It being a Monday, there were no lines on any of the slides, nothing was too crowded, and plenty of open chairs to put your stuff down. There was a kiddie area, a huge jungle-gym-like thing with water dumping all over the place, slides coming off, and one of those big barrels that fills up and dumps out every 15 minutes. We spent some time in the kiddie area before getting more adventurous and going to some of the bigger slides. We spent a good deal of time there with an initial look of slight fear, but all smiles when we reached the bottom! We then spent a bunch of time in the wave pool wading through the waves and doing a lot of people watching. We had a blast it's definitely something we're going to do again. We also enjoyed the nightlife down below the waterpark. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe, which had a large area to run around in just outside their doors. This came in handy more than once. We also made our way down to the arcade where a family had just hit the "jackpot" on a ticket game worth 1,000 tickets to be used towards arcade prizes. With their arms full already, they offered to give us some of them so we got a little prize.
We then headed out to Toronto to visit the zoo and the Hockey Hall of Fame. Arriving in the evening, we got settled in the hotel and then began looking for a place to eat dinner. Having been before, I remembered that there was an awesome restaurant where you could get what ever was your fancy, a la Wegmans prepared foods. It's called Marche and was just two blocks from the hotel. We loaded up the stroller and headed out. We all had wonderful meals to get us ready for our trip to the zoo the next day. Bringing all of our winter atire, we pulled into the parking lot to join the other 20 or so cars full of brave souls who ventured out. We were greated by a peacock as we entered through the gates. We then made our way through the amazingly warm and humid indoor habitats with free flying birds, great unobstructed views of the animals. We actually were only outside for a short period of time. The only let-down was the elephants were not being shown. It was a lot of fun though and we're definitely interested in going back during warmer months.
Upon returning to the city, we took a short respit before heading back out to Marche for dinner. Again, it worked out perfect with the avialability of all the different foods. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up.
Before leaving Toronto behind we had to drop in on the Hockey Hall of Fame. It's kind of interesting that the entry is through a food court under the shopping and business complex. We got our stamps and entered the shrine to the greatest sport ever conceived. "Lets strap knives to our feet, go out on the ice, make a hard solid disc out of vulcanized rubber, grab wooden sticks, and go hit that disc as hard as we can at eachother." Brilliant. Anyway, there was lots of goalie memorabilia which caught my attention. There were also a bunch of references to the local AHL club too, which was nice. We read a whole bunch and I played the shooter and goalie simulators. I got the high score for the day for the goalie simulator. I am apparently better than all the other tourists who stopped in that day, so I got that going for me, which is nice. We then made our way up to the trophy room, and there it was. Gleaming in the sunlight pouring in through the intricate stained glass arched ceiling and tall windows of the one time bank lobby was Lord Stanley's cup. OK, so it's the replica, not the true original. That was there as well. It was great being able to touch it and see all the names. I also really enjoyed seeing the MVP, conference champs, and other various trophies. Such works of art. So many other sports championships get and keep a version of their trophies. The NHL is one of the few that only lets you keep it for a short while, and then it's given to the new recipient. I think it might be what I love most about the league. Nothing is yours forever. Your just like every other team when the puck drops on the new season, waiting, hoping, driven to hoist it.
OK, enough waxing poetic, we returned home after grabbing a bite to eat in the food court and enjoyed decompressing in our own house. We were all in need of some rest and relaxation. It was a winderful trip and I know we all had a lot of fun.
