Toronto Trip: August 10-14, 2012

Megan, Peggy and I planned a short trip to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  The main purpose of the trip was to
take my grandkids (Cassandra who is almost twelve and Tyler, who just turned seven) to CANADA'S WONDERLAND.

Meg, the kids and I left my house in W. Laurens early on Friday morning, the 10th of August.  We hightailed it to Eastview Mall (outside of Rochester) so we could meet up with Megan's high school friend Karla Bailey and her boyfriend, and go to the LEGO store.  We arrived at the mall a couple of minutes after noon.  While Megan was trying to contact Karla by cell phone, the kids and I went on a double decker carousel.  Karla and her boyfriend arrived and we all purchased lunch (at different places) and we ate together.  I had a WAHLBURGER from Tom Wahl's.  Then we went to the LEGO store.

  I purchased each kid a birthday present (since both have birthdays in the summer).  Then we headed to Lockport, arriving around 3:30 or so.

Peggy put on a great cookout for our siblings and their families, and our cousin Becky.  Gail and Bob were there, Mike and Janie were there with Janies two boys and both of Mikes daughters were there with their boyfriends.  We had a great time, and we celebrated Peggy and Gail's August birthdays with a HUGE cake that Bob brought.  Mike set the three boys (Dillon, Dominic and Tyler) up with hammers,nails and logs so they could practice hammering. 

The following morning (Saturday) I packed a lunch and we headed towards Canada.  We had a long wait at the border, which was aggravating, and then when we got into Ontario, we found out that my GPS navigation system did not work in Ontario.  We found our way to the zoo and arrived early afternoon.  It was raining off and on, but not enough to hinder us.  We had a very good time at the zoo and then we headed to Katz's Delicatessan in Toronto.  Peggy had been there before.  I think we all enjoyed it!  Peggy and I shared a knish and a cabbage roll and I had a small bean/onion/celery salad.  The others all had chocolate cake for desert, but I passed on that.  Tyler's piece of  chocolate cake was absolutely GINORMUS  (a word he uses a lot).  

Then it was on to our lodging at CANADA'S BEST VALUE INN in Richmond Hill.  On the way there, we passed Canada's Wonderland and Megan and Cassy and Tyler all squealed with delight at the sight of the huge roller coasters.  I think we arrived at our hotel around 9:30 p.m. Peggy and I had a room adjacent to the room Megan and the kids shared.

The next morning we had the continental breakfast offered by the hotel and headed to CANADA'S WONDERLAND.  Unfortunately, we were reading the wrong mapquest and ended up in Toronto, but we eventually made it to Canada's Wonderland around eleven a.m.

At first, it looked like the day was going to be a bust, because we found out that Tyler would not be allowed on some of the roller coasters.  But it turned out that he could ride many of them.  We had lunch at the park, and spent the better part of the day going on various rides.  While Peggy and the kids went on THE BAT, Megan and I had a snack.  I had DIPPING DOTS and Megan had a huge funnel cake with ice cream and strawberries.

In the late afternoon, Megan and the kids headed to the waterpark and Peggy and I left the park.  We headed to Katz's so we could have supper there again, but  found it closed.  We went to a holocaust memorial and searched for a minute or two for a geocache there, but we were more interested in the memorial than the cache, and we did not find it.  We headed back to Canada's Wonderland and stopped at a place that offered takeout from the SWISS CHALET and we had chicken dinners.  I also had a poutine!

We met up with Megan and the kids at Canada's Wonderland and went on a couple more rides before
heading back to our lodging.

The following morning (Monday) we headed to Chinatown.  As usual, Chinatown was bustling, busy and very colorful.   We shopped, found a geocache (ESCAPE FROM CHINATOWN) and had lunch before heading back to New York. We went to a great chinese bakery and purchased a lot of items.  On the way back to the USA,   Peggy decided to use the bridge in Niagara Falls instead of the Rainbow bridge, and we were able to get through quickly and easily..

That evening,  Peggy had a meeting so we were on our own for supper.  We ordered a pizza and salad from
a pizzeria on Main Street (Papa Joe's?) and then went to the cemetery so I could show my fathers grave to Megan and the kids.   We explored the cemetery a bit and then went out for ice cream at LAKE EFFECT ARTISAN ICE CREAM.  It was the best ice cream we ever had.......especially Tyler's FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE.

Tuesday morning we headed back across the state.  We went through Honeoye so Megan could show the kids some of the places from her childhood such as Sandy Bottom Beach and the house we lived in from l978 through 1986, prior to moving to the Oneonta area.  We also went to THE WIZARD OF CLAY and stopped by Karla's house to see Karla for a few minutes.

We stopped in Canandaigua for lunch at Charlie's Restaurant.

It is a very kid friendly place, with a large menu and very reasonable prices.  Then it was back on the road so that Megan and the kids could make it home in time for supper with  Misty and her family.