Another old post from the summer - I'm actually almost caught up again! I thought I'd share some photos from our trip to Toronto for Alex's wedding. We extended the trip a number of days to try in cram in some additional visits with friends and family. To do that, we changed things up a bit and rented a condo through AirBnB, right downtown at the foot of York Street, near the Air Canada Centre. It ended up being a great location, for everything we had planned. Amazingly, I forgot my camera at home - unheard of for me - so I don't have a lot of photos from this trip, and most aren't very good.
We got in Wednesday afternoon, and took the train from the airport to Union Station. This was the first time either of us had used it, and we were quite impressed. Fast, nice trains and reasonable cost. They should have done this years ago.
After we got settled, we popped over to Steam Whistle for a quick drink, as I had never been. Cool place, decent beer and nice and close. That evening we met our friends Cindy and KJ for drinks and dinner, starting out at the patio at the Ritz Carlton, then heading out for dinner, and eventually ending the night at Mascot Brewery, my new favorite place downtown. As always with Cindy and KJ, it was a riot of an evening, and we had a great time.
Of course I had to head over and check out the new installation at the ACC.
Thursday and Friday were pretty relaxed days. Justine's parents came downtown one of the days, and the other we spent the evening with a number of Justine's friends from University. I kind of feel like they've adopted me pretty well at this point, and it's always great to see them. We also spent a bunch of time checking out the city, amazed with how much has changed since we moved away.
Of course, the main reason we were in Toronto was for Alex and Peter's wedding. For those unfamiliar, Alex is my niece, and we were looking forward to her big day. Mom and Dad came downtown and picked us up, to take us up to the wedding in Etobicoke. We went and had lunch before heading over to the church for the early afternoon ceremony. The ceremony wasn't as long as I expected it to be (which was great), and as we had a couple of hours before dinner and the reception, those of us without photo duty headed over to the local chain restaurant to have a drink and some appies, and to entertain the kids.
Dinner was good, the reception was fun, and I got a chance to catch up with lots of family. It was a lovely evening, and after Mom and Dad drove us up to Alton. Justine was heading home Monday evening, but I was going to stay through Wednesday, to spend some extra time with family.
Sunday was a family day, with lots of people around, and a chance to enjoy the Ontario summer. Monday, Justine and I had offered to take Mackenzie, Ethan and Lane on an adventure into the city for the day. We had a busy day - a trip to the Aquarium, a visit to the train museum, hanging out near the CN Tower, and then a stop for dinner on the way home. I'm not sure about the kids, but Justine and I were exhausted!
Tuesday was more hanging out with the family, and then Tuesday night Dad and I drove downtown to go to a Blue Jays game. Traffic was nightmare, and we ended up missing the first two innings of the game. Still, it was a great night - the roof was open, the weather was perfect, and while the team didn't win, we had a great time. As traffic was a bit of a mess heading out, I took dad over to Mascot Brewing and we had a drink, before heading home.
Wednesday I headed home, after a great trip.