Sonya's Blog - Day 49 - The Toronto Islands and The Hockey Hall of Fame

Sonya’s Blog - Day 49 - August 10th - The Toronto Islands and The Hockey Hall of Fame

Today was our last day in the Toronto area and we still had a couple of things we wanted to do in Toronto. As part of our sightseeing tour we were allowed to take a boat tour that went out to theToronto Islands and around Lake Ontario a little bit. Isaac was also really excited to go to The Hockey Hall of Fame. We got on the 9:40 GO Train and were downtown by 10:15. Today was the first day that we got checked for our tickets, I was beginning to think they never checked. We walked straight to the Harbour area to see when the next boat left. We saw a sightseeing bus pass us so we hustled to keep up with it. While we knew where the harbour was, we weren’t exactly sure where the boat left from. Our tickets for the bus had expired, but the boat tour tickets never expire, so we had to walk there. We hustled along pretty good and got a picture in front of the Pan AM Torch on the way:

The bus passed us while we were walking down the street to the harbour, but by the time we got down there they were still unloading and the crowd of people were just being led off to the boat, so we tagged along with them. We got on the boat and then it left right away, so it was perfect timing. It was a cloudy day and there was a chance of rain so we wanted to get the boat tour in before the rain started. It was a nice tour and the Toronto Islands look really nice. We were not able to get off at the Islands on this boat, it was just a tour. WE would have to get on a ferry to get off at the islands. It was a about a 45 minute tour and we were hungry for lunch when it was done. There was a brewery/restaurant near where the boat docked, so we headed over there. We were seated right away, but then nobody came to serve us. We sat there for 15 minutes or so and then asked if anyone was going to serve us. The lady took off to find someone and after a few more minutes nobody came and we had had enough. We left and decided to head up to Front Street where there was a street market with a lot of different food vendors. Blake had Fish and Chips, Natasha had a snow crab, on french fries with alileo sauce, and Isaac and I went to The Great Chuck and I had their famous burger and Isaac had the most unique hot dog, it had all sorts of stuff and was topped with potato chips and a fried egg and served in a croissant. He took the egg off and ate it separate and really liked the hot dog. We were right in front of Union Station which is across the road from The Royal York hotel and Isaac wanted to peek inside because I had told him it was a fancy schmancy hotel. We whipped across the street and walked through the hotel. When we came out, it was pouring rain. Went from no rain to pouring rain. We ran to a building and shuffled along the edge of it to stay out of the rain. We only had one more block to go to get to The Hockey Hall of Fame. We ran across the street and luckily there was a mall area which lead to The Hockey Hall of Fame so we got out of the rain.

The Hockey Hall of Fame was good, lots of hockey stuff, shocking I know. We looked at a lot of the gear and jersey’s on display. We then headed to the Tim Horton’s Theatre and they were showing a documentary of Game 8 of the 1972 Hockey Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. What a gong show, it’s hard to believe that the Russians would sink to such levels just to ensure a win and those Canadians were sure scrappy. The kids enjoyed watching it, they couldn’t believe all the drama over a hockey game. We then headed into the TSN 3-D theatre and they showed a cute film about some amateur hockey players playing game 7 for the cup (with a little mini-Stanley Cup up for grabs). The players re-enacted some classic moves from the players whose jersey’s they were wearing, the film would then replay that move from the player, like Gretzky and Orr. We all enjoyed that. We headed over to the intereactive part and got in line to be goalie. You were to block shots from some of the best hockey players right now like Crosby, Ovechkin, H. Sedin, etc. You had 8 shots on you. Natasha did the best, she blocked 6, Blake and I both stopped 4 and Isaac does not have goalie in his future, he stopped none. We then headed to the cup room to look at all the trophy’s and the Stanley Cup (well, it was a replica since the original is with the Chicago Blackhawks right now). Here is the pic:

We looked at a few more things and then decided it was time to head back as we had left Kizmet for long enough. It had not stopped raining, but we found the underground tunnel over to Union Station. Our train was due to leave in less than 15 minutes, so that was good timing on our part. By the time we got back to Malton, which is where we parked the truck, it was dumping it down. Blake ran to get the truck and then picked us up outside the doors. We had a quick stop at the store and then hurried back to the campsite. Kizmet was so excited to see us, but did not want to go out in the pouring rain. We waited an hour or so and it had stopped raining so Blake took her out. We had supper and then we watched Mrs. Doubtfire as the kids had never seen it. I haven’t seen it for years and it was so funny, we had a good laugh.

I had started reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline on the Train as I had it in my i-books and I have not read it yet. Natasha and Blake have read it and keep telling me to read it because it is so good. Natasha has the book copy back at the RV, which is good because I don’t like reading electronically as I find it hard on my eyes. I read a bit more before bed, but didn’t get too far as I was just so tired. It is really interesting, but I could not stay awake. This one is set after the world has used up all of its fossil fuels and there is massive poverty and not a lot of jobs. Most people spend their time in an online simulator program called OASIS instead of in the real world, because the real world is not as nice as OASIS. I am not too far in yet, but it is already good. There are all sorts of 80’s references so that is fun as well.

That’s it for me. We drive to Gatineau, Quebec tomorrow so that we can visit Ottawa. The camping in Gatineau was the closest to Ottawa that we could find.

Sonya