Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Toronto trip report

Summary (so you don’t have to read this lengthy report) – had great time with the kids in Toronto, ate lots of good food, did some sightseeing.

When I was going through security at SFO, they saw something suspicious in my carry-on suitcase. I had a small box of halvah for kids, so they took it out, swiped for explosives. While waiting for boarding, I saw flight attendants going to their plane to Tokyo, all in high heels. Don’t their feet get tired during a long flight? Maybe they need high heels as a weapon against unruly passengers?

It was the first time I flew Air Canada, and hopefully the last. Flight SFO-YYZ as fine, but I ordered a wheelchair. On arrival I and another passenger had to wait till everybody got off the plane, and then a long wait till wheelchairs were finally delivered. Flying back YYZ-SFO my wait at the designated area for disabled in Toronto was 1 hour 20 minutes to be picked up. At SFO I walked off the plane – no wheelchairs. Turned out, nobody requested them. I started asking all Air Canada employees, so after 20 minutes of waiting somebody picked me up.

This was the first time ever, travelling domestically or internationally, that there were no wheelchairs at the gate on arrival, or such a long wait to be picked up.

I saw many homeless people in Toronto, or maybe they just looked so? Surprisingly, only one man was washing windows at red lights, and 2 more panhandling, and this was all I saw. May be the weather, it was still cold.

We did some sightseeing, starting with the Toronto sign. Most of people are wearing black. It was easy for kids to spot me in a crowd as my jacket was red. Old City Hall is a working court, but we didn’t crash any sessions. They still have pay phones!! Had dinner at Asian Legend, and ran in daughter-in-law’s adviser from her college years. Art Gallery of Ontario has a very interesting Impressionist exhibit. Children took me to Aga Khan museum – everything about Islam, even The Moon: A Voyage Through Time exhibit (lunar calendar). The list of donors starts with 2.5 mln donation. Took a ride on 501 streetcar recommended on Trip Advisor, didn’t get it, sorry. Just a regular transportation, maybe needed to go from end to end.

We hoped to see cherry blossom in High Park, but it was too early, only magnolias were starting to open up. Unexpectedly, we saw llamas being walked around, or maybe llamas took people out for a walk. At Fort York I learned about the 1812 war with United States, never heard of it in the US. In USSR 1812 was the year of war with Napoleon. I liked that in one of the houses at the Fort we could put on soldiers’ outfits to take photos. It was fun. Evergreen Works is a nice place to relax or hike, it’s on river Don which is not in Ukraine, but in Canada.

The weather was mostly cold (for me, after San Francisco), or rainy, or windy. One day there were snowflakes in the air for very short time. It was funny, the first day out, whenever I sat down on a bench to rest, it would start raining. Finally the kids had enough, and told me not to sit on benches.

My first time at Costco was in Toronto. First, we were in line of 6 cars long (at every station) to fill the car with cheaper gas. Looked like the gas shortage in 1970s in US. Then, the shopping. Great variety, but the quantity… for me it would be an annual supply of everything.

This was a trip to coincide with one-year anniversary of the death of my husband, and some family matters to discuss and take care of, so there was not much sightseeing. Hopefully, next time more to see.