Here we go on our first real vacation of the year of 2002. This is the first time both Austin and I have been on a plane since the Sept 11 tradegy although Dallas has flown to see Oma and Grandpa. Once again Dallas has kept this trip a secret at least to me. Austin knows where we're going but even though I've asked him to please tell me where he wouldn't so that means Dad can be sure that Austin can keep a secret or he forgot where we're going and didnt want to tell me that. As always, I just assumed that we were going somewhere warm like the Carribean but I was way off! In fact, I thought that if we didn't go somewhere warm we would go to see Aunt Nancy in New Mexico. Again I was way off. Dad broke down and handed me the plane tickets while we were waiting for our flight to leave MCO, first I couldn't see the desitination but then I saw it. We are going to Toronto, Canada. Wow, what a surprise. So, I asked other than wow I'm excited about going anywhere but why Toronto? The reason was to see the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team play an at home game. It's a surprise for Austin and boy is he going to be happy. Austin, since turning the big 9 has become a very big sports fan. So Toronto or bust. We're now waiting at Chicago O'Hare airport for our flight to Toronto to leave. We (Dallas and I) are people watching while Austin plays with his Game Boy Advance. We've had plenty of time in betwen flights so we walked until we found Chili's Bar, had lunch and watched the United planes come and go from the terminal. Now we just sit and wait in Terminal B, Gate 4. None of us have ever been to Toronto so this will be very exciting, exploring new territory and in cooler weather. This is the first cold trip we have taken in years. Austin is hoping to see snow but I don't think that will happen.
The plane ride to Chicago was horrible. I seemed to have caught a slight head cold, this of course is not helping the situation with my head feeling stuffy and my ears hurting. The seats were so close together, you could not even move your legs. We didn't even get a snack, just juice. For the 1st hour I was trapped in my seat with these two guys in front of us who had terrible gas, were rude and keep rocking in there seat pushing against my knees. I finally had enough and moved to another row. We arrived in Chicago were the temperature was a nice 57 degrees. You could feel the coolness in the jet way. We had a 2 hour layover until our next flight left. We went to Chili's and had lunch. A burger for me, hot wings for Austin, soup and salad for Sharon. It was horrible. We went back to the gate where we sat for an hour and people watched.
Our plane left on time to Toronto, a short flight of an hour. It was uneventful, in fact kind of bumpy. When we finally arrived, I swear that the pilot took the long way to the terminal because we taxied for 18 minutes to the terminal gate, not stopping once. We went thru customs and headed out side to catch a taxi to the hotel. The taxi ride was freightening. We had this driver who's glasses were either real dirty or really scratched that you could not even see thru them. Thirty minutes and white knuckes later we arrived at the Sky Dome Hotel. The Sky Dome Hotel is a very nice hotel, and from the moment we arrived we were treated like royalty. Our room looks over the end of the Skydome and down towards King and Queen Streets, the hot spots of Toronto. We relaxed in our room and took a shower before heading out to dinner. Sharon and Austin were glad that I brought there coats with us. It must be around 52 degrees with a brisk wind which makes it feel much colder. We headed towards Queen Street where we were met by a bunch of men offering us ride in carrigaes. It finally took me to stop and turn to them and say No means No!!! It turns out that many of the reasturants actually have an age limit of 19, because they are labeled as bars. So needless to say where we wanted to eat, we couldn't. We ended up in this 2nd floor Bistro. I ordered steak and Sharon and Austin decided to split ravoili. The steak was horrible, mostly fat. Sharon and Austin got 3-4 ravioli's each in there order, then $75.00 later we were out the door. We headed back to the Sky Dome at the hotel restaurant actually named "Bistro" also. It is such a nice field. We sat next to the window over looking left field and munched on apple cobbler and ice cream. Fianlly after watching 4 innings of the game we headed back to our room as there were people waiting for the table. We all ended up crashing on the bed and soon went to sleep.
Downtown Toronto
Austin, with the Mounties
Sharon and Austin with the Mounties
No Privacey Dad ??!!!
Where can you find us?
