Our Day in Toronto

At the beginning of August, my son and I went on a road trip. One of our first stops was Toronto, Ontario. We didn’t do a whole lot in Toronto, but what we did do was a blast.

Hotel:
We stayed at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel at 123 Queen St W.
One thing you may not see many places is that the self parking is completely off site. First of all, it’s somewhere “across the street” and you don’t have in and out privileges. I didn’t feel super confident about that so I chose to just valet. At least with valet, you have in and out privileges. Plus, you can request your car through a website so that it’s waiting for you when you get downstairs. It did cost close to $50 a night, though.
The room itself was very nice. We received 2 bottles of complimentary water. Plus, we had an amazing view!

The only downside was that there were some seriously loud people in the hotel that woke me up multiple times until 4am. I wanted to call the front desk, but they had a paper in the room saying there was a $400 fine for anyone that had a noise complaint so I didn’t. I wish I had, though.
There is a beautiful outdoor area in the middle of the hotel with large glass walls visible from inside the hotel. My son and I had a great time hanging out in this area.

Check in and check out were both incredibly easy and fast. That being said, we did those two things at very strange times (think 7pm and 7am).
There are multiple restaurants here. We did eat at Shopsy’s for dinner. I got a steak sandwich and it was delicious!

Food:
Of course, since we aren’t from Canada, we had to get some poutine. We decided to go to Poutini’s (1112 Queen Street West). We got the original poutine with just fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Let me tell you, it’s huge! I seriously should have gotten the small. But even my son, the pickiest child ever, liked it. Definitely check it out if you’re in town.

Activities:
Hockey Hall of Fame ($20/adult and $14/child)
This was probably the most fun thing we did while in Toronto and neither of us are even hockey fans. There are some great things to look at (my son loved the medals and trophies) and some great informative displays to read. But it’s the interactive things that really make the museum fun. You can take a picture with the Stanley Cup. You can be a goalie and try to stop the pucks. You can try to shoot past a goalie to make a goal. You can be a newscaster on Sports Centre. You can dress up like a goalie. Plus, they take some videos that you can access for free. It was a great time. We spent about 1 to 1.5 hours there. I’m sure plenty of people spend a lot longer there, but like I said before, we’re not really hockey people. You exit via the gift shop. We bought a mini goalie stick. I would absolutely recommend visiting here if you’re in the area.

Nathan Philips Square
This is located right across the street from our hotel, so we clearly had to make a stop. At first, we were just going to see the Toronto sign, but when we got there, we noticed a stage with dancers on it. It turns out, there was a children’s dance competition happening. We stayed to watch that for a while after taking our pictures with the Toronto sign. It was pretty cool. And it seems like the type of place that would constantly have something going on.

That night, I also went back to the sign to take a picture of it all lit up. It’s beautiful! I definitely suggest seeing the Toronto sign during the day and at night.

Owen's Notes: "I really liked the Hockey Hall of Fame. It had a bunch of hockey stuff. I even got to do a hockey shoot out! And after that, I really liked the cherry Tim Horton's slushy. It was the best slushy I've ever had."

Here are some other things that you can do while in Toronto that we just didn’t have time for, but I had on my list:
-Canoe Landing Park
-Lab Sense (ice cream)
-Beaver Tails (Ugh, I wish we had gotten some. They look so delicious.)