Day 14

Sleeping in a hotel for us is so very comfortable, but completely messes up our schedule.  The room-darkening curtains are heavenly and the kids sleep well past 8 in the morning!  It doesn't really help that they've been going to bed after 10pm either.

They started the morning with my mom playing games in her room while I made a phone call.  We ended up not even leaving the hotel until after 11am which really slowed us down for the day.  And of course, all those fun distractions along the way don't help!

Our first stop was the tallest building in the world - the CN Tower.  We were easily able to navigate to it as it's usually very visible from most streets.  On the way we passed through what seemed to be the business district. I love when beautiful, old churches are tucked in the middle of city high rises!

We were actually going to be "On top of the world" once more!

While we were waiting in line, we tried to convince the kids that Grammie got a discount on our tickets if we climbed the stairs.  Brayden was not happy.  But after a 58 second elevator ride (I thought it would never stop climbing!), our first stop was the 124th floor at the first observatory.  There were ooh and aahhs at the beautiful view all around.  The people looked like ants and the traffic looked like miniature hot wheels!

We made sure to spot Toronto Islands - our next stop.

We could see for miles and miles...

Next stop was the 147th floor or as we liked to call it the tippity top.  The windows were floor to ceiling and the view was spectacular.  Because of the smaller windows my pictures didn't turn out quite as good, but you can definitely tell a difference in the height!

Last stop was the glass floor and outdoor observatory.  There were so many people laying down on the glass taking pictures that we could barely squeeze in, but Grammie found us a spot.  Ryan and Laney loved it, Brayden not so much.  We had to talk him into it with the "once in a lifetime opportunity" talk.  And he would only lay back without looking.  He overcame his fear for a couple pictures!  It didn't help he was thinking about the Captain American movie he'd seen in the spring where the superhero fell 200 stories. "But he lived!" I kept saying.  "He had his sheild!" he would answer.

The outdoor observatory offered little photo opportunity as there was a cage all around, but the cool crisp air felt wonderful.  We spotted our island again and hopped on the elevator back to earth.

As we were passing the Toronto Aquarium, crazy Grammie decided we should go so we headed toward the line.  Little did we know the line was wrapped around the building with more than a 2 hour wait.  There was no way we were going to waste this day waiting in line!  We quickly headed for a refreshing ice cream snack and toward the ferry to take us to the Toronto Islands.  We watched as downtown floated away from us.

Diego had just visited Toronto for work and told us about this fun part of the city so we decided to try it. We stuck our toes in Lake Ontario first and skipped a few rocks.

The kids were excited to ride the tandem bikes, but with five of us we had to go with a tandem bike car.  I'm not sure just how much this attraction cost, but it was quite possibly the most expensive 40 minute workout I've ever had!  The girls were too short to reach the pedals, so we had 2 1/2 pedalers and boy was it tough to get going with all the cargo!  I had to stand up and pedal like in my 8 year old days!

This made it worth all that work -  love this view from the island!

After our workout, we visited the playround and "ate" at Laney & Ryan's "restaurant" then went to eat at a restaurant on the island before catching the ferry back to downtown.  The walk was nice as we went a little bit of a different way and we made it back just in time to have 45 minutes in the swimming pool.  After Grammie found out the 4-story slide requirements, all the kids rode it with big smiles on their faces.  Brayden decided to swim after the first time and the girls went down over and over until it was closed.  Give my kids a pool and they'll be happier than any amusement park anywhere!