The drive from Niagara Falls to Toronto on a Sunday afternoon in August during the height of tourist season wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The traffic wasn’t terrible and the lush green scenery was pleasant. But after a morning and afternoon trekking all over the Ontario side of Niagara Falls, the grown-ups in the car were nearly overwhelmed by a wave of exhaustion. It was all we could do to stay awake during our journey! As an added level of complexity, albeit minor, our rental car, which we had picked up in Buffalo, only showed us velocity in miles per hour, so I was rapid fire calculating kph to mph so Sean could try to follow the rules (or knowingly not follow them) as the speed limit varied.

As seen in Graffiti Alley

When I was originally thinking through this trip, I had thought we might stop in at either Niagara-on-the-Lake or at St Catharine’s to visit one of the local wineries and sample the regions famous wines. As everything kept taking much longer than anticipated, we abandoned that idea for this leg of the trip, thinking maybe we’d shoehorn it in on our drive back to Buffalo the following Saturday.

By the time we rolled into our hotel and relaxed for a little while, it was getting pretty late. No one was particularly hungry, so we walked to Dairy Queen and let the kids have Blizzards for an evening treat, and Sean and I shared an order of mushroom-truffle noodles from a place called Petit Potato. Ian in particular seemed astonished that he wouldn’t be required to eat “real” dinner. (I did check with him to see if he was actually hungry, and he confirmed he wasn’t.)

We discovered on our way out to fetch dinner / dessert, that our hotel had a revolving door. Over the week, we discovered that many of the other buildings had them as well. The kids LOVED them. I have a notion this will be a defining feature of Toronto for them – the city with all the revolving doors.

Before we left Texas, our week in Toronto looked like it was going to be nothing but rainy days – we even brought our raincoats along. That first evening in our hotel when we checked the forecast, it showed us rain only on Monday. With that in mind, we chose to spend the next day inside at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Day 1 – ROM, Poop Cafe, Nathan Philips Square

We started our morning with breakfast at a nearby Tim Hortons. As I understand it, Tim Horton’s is to Canada as Starbucks is to the United States. I can tell you that no matter where we were on our trip, it seemed that there was always one nearby. Sean and the kids split a box of doughnuts while I had some kind of maple bacon breakfast sandwich.

Maya loves mass transit

After breakfast, we made our way to the subway station to head further into Toronto. We had chosen our hotel in part because it was right on the main north-south subway line. When we got there, we discovered we wouldn’t even have to leave the building to board the train.  The TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) manages the subway, streetcar, and bus system in Toronto. For the days we’d be taking the subway system, we went ahead and bought the full day pass, which got us access to subway, streetcars, and buses all day long.

The kids, since they were between the ages of 0 and 12, were able to ride for free. It was never entirely clear to us how to correctly get them through the gate. If there was an agent around, they’d walk them through a special gate, while we tapped through with our day passes. If there was no gate agent around, each grown up would take a kid, tap our passes, and walk two people through when our gate opened.

Old ROM, new ROM

The Royal Ontario Museum, or the ROM as it’s known to the locals, is impossible to miss. The Michael Lee Chin Crystal, named for the man whose donation made the project possible, is an angular metal-and-glass addition to the museum. The museum’s original structure is still there, standing in stark contrast to the more modern addition jutting out from it. I get the impression the locals either love it or hate it – rarely are their reactions ambivalent about the building’s aesthetic.

Maya and dragon

The museum itself is a behemoth encompassing art, artifacts and ancient culture, science, nature, and probably more that I’m not adequately categorizing. If we lived in Toronto, we’d buy a membership and visit often, letting our interests of the moment dictate which exhibits we saw. It is too much to consume in a single day. We saw artifacts from ancient civilizations from all over the world, tons of preserved animal specimens (including hummingbirds, to Maya’s chagrin), minerals, meteorites, replicas of dinosaur skeletons, and on and on and on.

The Ian-corn

We also sprung for the special exhibit, Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature. This exhibit lets you inhabit the world of Harry Potter and Newt Scamander for a little while, with particular focus on the magic creatures that exist therein. What I liked about it is that it drew the kids in by talking about dragons and unicorns but linked those magical creatures to the real world animals they may have derived from. Magical elements were featured throughout – drawers and cabinets that moved of their own accord, bowtruckles that would defend their trees, and nifflers that needed to be offered treasure. But there were also placards warning of the endangerment of certain species and information about real animals and what traits they share with the creatures of the wizarding world.

Artful, yes, but these chairs were too slippery to sit in comfortably

My only gripe about the Fantastic Beast exhibit, and I guess I should expect these capitalistic shenanigans by now, is that to exit you must go through a gift shop. Our kids have definitely gotten better about dealing with souvenir purchasing. A lot of that is probably a byproduct of them getting older, and some of it may stem from our requirement that they largely spend their own money on them. But, and I’m sorry to be this person, I still think they’re a giant hassle. I get so distracted with what the kids want and the negotiating and the gently talking them out of silly crap that I usually leave without ever having considered whether I might like something.

We had lunch during our visit as well. And it was … fine. I don’t remember if you’re able to leave and then come back later, but if the weather is good, that may be preferable to eating there.

After a very long and lovely visit to the museum, we took the subway over to the Koreatown area. During trip planning, I had watched a few videos of locals showing things they’d recommend in Toronto. In one, I learned about the Poop Cafe. Believe me, I know, it sounds gross. But the desserts looked pretty epic, and I knew that Maya and Ian would get a kick out of it. Think of it as the kid-centric reward for putting up with several hours at a museum.

Poop Cafe – it’s an experience

We walked to what we thought was the address of the Poop Cafe, and it was all boarded up and clearly closed. So sad! But then we noticed a sign pointing us to a new address, and a passing local said, “Oh, you want the Poop Cafe? It’s moved just a couple blocks away.” Sure enough, a short walk later, we were greeted by a statue of a happy pile of poop.

Oreo Freak Shake

Inside, the decor is on point. There are commodes for seats at many of the tables, cute stuffed poop emojis tossed around in some of the chairs, and a giant kawaii poop hanging out in the back of the store. The desserts are massive, magnificently garnished, exactly the kind of thing a kid would adore. Sean and the kids ordered towering Freak Shakes, chocolate chip for Maya and Dad, Oreo for Ian. I am not a huge chocolate person, so I ordered a lychee bingsu (shaved ice), which – to the kids’ delight- came served in a miniature porcelain toilet bowl. Everything was tasty enough, but the out of this world part wasn’t so much about creative flavors and exceptional execution. It was more about bathroom theming and over-the-topness.

Lychee Bingsu

There was a funny moment when Maya needed the rest room and we hadn’t yet located it. She was completely tickled by the irony that something called the Poop Cafe with its toilet bowl seats wouldn’t have a bathroom. Eventually we did find it, down the stairs and near a pile of commodes which we were guessing were destined to become additional seating in the future. All in all it was a fun experience, especially for the kids.

We were all still suffering a bit of a Niagara Falls hangover (we did a LOT of walking), so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest for a little while. Sean wandered over to the LCBO store across the street from our hotel. LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) stores are essentially government run liquor stores. We were able to purchase wine at a retail store, but I believe liquor can only be purchased from an LCBO shop.

Sean’s haul from the LCBO store

Sean went to the one nearest us out of curiosity. I suggested he try to come back with some wine since we didn’t get to try any while we were in Niagara. He came back instead with a “build your own” eight-pack filled with interesting beers for us to try out as we chose over the next several days.

City Hall at Nathan Phillips Square

Near sunset, we again all boarded the subway and headed toward Nathan Phillips Square to see City Hall and check out the famous TORONTO sign. The kids had so much fun wandering around the square taking photos and videos to their hearts’ content. After snapping photos as we entered the square, across from the sign, at the sign, and across from the sign again but from a higher vantage point, we decided we “needed” a late night snack (we really didn’t).

Kids hanging out in one of the TORONTO Os

We walked over to a small lineup of street carts. As we headed that way, we passed some folks, presumably without homes to go to, sleeping in quiet corners. While they slept, we also startled some very large and vigorous rats. The kids were delighted by the rats and were pointing and exclaiming. We used this moment to try to show them the sleeping people and how it would be kinder to keep our voices down and let them sleep. They seemed to take all of this in stride – I expected more questions, but none came.

After the Maya and Ian enjoyed some fries and Mom and Dad enjoyed some poutine, we took the subway back up to our hotel and crashed for the night.

Day 2 – Casa Loma, St Lawrence Market, Distillery District

We had planned for Tuesday to be our big touristy CN Tower and Toronto Islands day, but then we woke up to heavy cloud cover that would reportedly last all day long. Instead we decided to visit Casa Loma. After a slowish start, another Tim Hortons breakfast, a subway ride, and a walk, we arrived.

Casa Loma

Casa Loma is a castle-esque mansion built in the early 1900s for Sir Henry Pellatt. Apparently it took 300 people not quite 11 years to build. The castle is a nearly 200,000 square feet – the largest in North America.

After taking some outside photos, we bought admission tickets, picked up our audio guides (included with admission), and wandered around for most of the self-guided tour. We’d go to an area of the museum, punch the posted number into our guides, and then hold the thing up to our ears and listen to what the narrator had to say. I honestly found it interesting. Maya lasted for part of the first commentary before she was abandoning her guide. Ian made it through about half the tour before he as well was handing me his guide. And so it was that I went through most of the grounds with three audio guides hanging from my neck.

Inside Casa Loma

The house was interesting as a period piece. One of the facts I remember hearing is that at a time when the whole city of Toronto had maybe 200 telephones, there were something like 50 scattered throughout the house. As Sir Henry is considered to have brought electric power to the city, it is unsurprising that his home sports many features that would have been considered luxuries at the time, not least of which is electric lighting through the house.

Speaking of interesting luxuries, in keeping with our theme, the kids were weirdly interested in how the bathrooms worked. I too was taken with one of the features. It seems that Pellatt was ahead of his time in having a shower that had a multi-head set-up that was designed to spray him from all sides. His study had secret passages that we got to examine. We got to climb narrow spiral staircases into the castle’s two towers, from which the views of downtown Toronto were lovely.

Prince presiding

There were a few non-period visuals in the castle as well. My favorite is the portrait of Prince in, I think, the Great Oak Room. I thought it must surely be someone’s idea of a joke, and maybe it is, but the work was specifically commissioned for placement at Casa Loma, not by Sir Pellatt, obviously. These days the City of Toronto owns and operates Casa Loma as a tourist attraction and entertainment complex.

The lower level boasts a Hollywood Film Gallery, with movie posters and placards explaining how the given movie was related to Casa Loma. More films than I’d have anticipated have had scenes filmed here. Throughout portions of the castle grounds, we also saw evidence of the various escape room adventures hosted at Casa Loma. The odd dragon here and there, various props and clues and set design were tucked into towers and hallways and nooks.

“That unicorn looks mad”

At the tail end of our visit, we walked the underground tunnel to the stables. This featured Toronto’s Dark Side exhibit, showing images of fires and illnesses and whatnot that had befallen fair Toronto over the years. Sean and I didn’t get to read too much because by this point the kids were pretty all done, and we were just trying to at least get a glimpse of the grounds. Weirdly, to get back to the main castle, we were sort of shunted through this waxworks exhibit (except I think it was silicon, not wax) showing scenes from the movies that had been featured in the Hollywood Film Gallery.

At long last we were finally through the castle and ready to breath the open air. The nice thing about it having rained the day before is that the heat wave (think 90-ish degrees at the high end) had ended and lovely cooler weather (mid 70s-low 80s), the kind we had been hoping for, had descended. We sat outside for a while and hatched a plan to head over to St Lawrence Market to eat a late lunch and check out the market.

Inside St Lawrence Market

We had a lovely lunch courtesy of Buster’s Sea Cove. Each of us got seafood dishes we were pleased with, and Ian was able to get chicken fingers. The one sour note is that Maya had decided the lobsters in the tanks throughout the market were cute, and so she spent the better part of the lunch lecturing me about the cruelty of my very delicious lobster roll.

Macarons

After lunch, we had a stroll through the different levels of the market on the hunt for dessert and whatever else we might happen across. The meat and seafood counters had us wishing we had an AirBNB, so that we could cook some meals. The produce was varied and gorgeous. St Lawrence Market is boxed in by Market St, Front St, Jarvis St, and the Esplanade and helpful street signs have been placed throughout the building, presumably to keep you oriented.

Fountain at Berczy Park

After the market, we headed back toward our subway station with a few stops in between. I wanted to see the Gooderham Building, which is Toronto’s local flatiron, and we all wanted to check out the neat fountain at Berczy Park. This fountain features a bunch of dogs staring up at a golden bone. Water arcs out of their mouths, feeding the fountain. Tucked amongst them is a solitary cat who is of course looking an entirely different direction. I’ve read that he’s looking at some birds on a lamp post a few meters away, but I failed to notice that while we were there. The kids LOVED this fountain and we spent quite a while photographing various aspects of it.

Finally, we headed back to the hotel. We let the kids partake of the hotel pool, while we hung out and split one of our fancy beers and watched them play. After a little relaxing, we headed back out to see what the Distillery District was all about. This trip would require both subway and streetcar and unfortunately the street car we thought we were supposed to take didn’t appear to be running. Eventually we took a different street car that got us a bit closer and then otherwise hoofed it. All of this figuring out took some time, and so by the time we made it, most of us were pretty ravenous, even with our late lunch.

Parents at the Distillery District

The art throughout the Distillery District was a lot of fun to see. We spent a fair amount of time taking in the sights and letting the kids run a little wild with their cameras. By the time we found a place with suitable menu items for everyone, it was going to be at least a 30 minute wait just to sit down, and even longer to get food in bellies. And so it was that we had dessert for dinner arguable for the third day in a row. We went to a place called Cacao 70. I had hot chocolate, Sean had a shake, Maya had crepes, and Ian had a waffle. You should have seen Ian’s waffle. It was so buried in dessert items, I’m not sure he even dug down far enough to get to actual waffle.

This is Ian’s “waffle”

Indulgently fueled yet again, we took a quick jaunt back to City Hall so Sean could get a street cart hot dog he’d been craving and then we headed back to our hotel for the night.

Day 3 – Kensington Market + food tour, Graffiti Alley, Monkey’s Paw (book store)

By Wednesday, we felt we had earned a bit of a sleep-in. The only thing we booked ahead of time on this trip was a Kensington Market Food tour and that didn’t start till 11. We decided to take it easy and make that our first thing of the day. We ate very lightly for breakfast, suspecting that we’d have a very large lunch to work our way through.

Yonge-Dundas Square

We took a combination subway + streetcar trip to get ourselves over to Kensington Market. The cool thing was that the walk between the subway and streetcar took us past Yonge-Dundas Square, which is something we’d been planning to make a separate trip to at some point, but hadn’t yet worked it in. It’s sort of like Times Square in NYC or Piccadilly Circus in London with its big illuminated billboard screens. It might have been fun to wander around for a while and see more of the architecture of the area, but we did get a good gander of the area even just passing through.

Some people call it the smallest park in Canada

Entering Kensington Market was almost like walking into a different city altogether – the contrast with Yonge-Dundas Square couldn’t have been more stark. Everything was a tangle of color and aroma (mostly good), a hodgepodge of architecture, a staggering wealth of small businesses. We had a little time to kill before our tour was to kick off, so we wandered the streets a bit, soaking up our surroundings. The kids found a little playground  and alternated between playing on the structures there and pestering the local pigeons and sparrows.

The beginning of our food tour

At tour time, we met our guide at Nu Bugel, the end result of a fascinating multi-cultural journey. Bagels are a Jewish-Polish food. These bagels are honey boiled like the Montreal-style bagels, but served in a larger size like the New York-style bagels. To make matters even more interesting, the shop owners are Venezuelan. Multi-cultural bagels, indeed!

Our guide’s name William (unless you didn’t like the tour, then his name was Charles). He had a deep, resonant voice that carried well, even to the back of the pack. He came around to each of us, offering a small sample of both a coconut flavored bagel and a bagel  sandwich stacked with arugula, mustard, horseradish jelly, and smoked trout. He was also kind enough to provide plastic sacks for folks who needed to carry along the things that one kid or the other may not have enjoyed.

They didn’t like everything, but they seemed to enjoy the experience

We had never done a food tour before and didn’t really know what to expect. It just seemed like a fun way to get shepherded around an unfamiliar area and get to try more than the one restaurant we may have decided upon on our own. The kids, especially Ian, seemed to get a big kick out of it.

Our second stop was a Jamaican place called Golden Patty. We were each offered either a spicy or mild Jamaican beef patty, which was first ensconced in a curry crust, and then was sandwiched into some coco bread. This was one of Ian’s favorite things. For Maya, sadly, it did not pass the sniff test. For my part I thought it was divine.

We stopped then at a place called Jumbo Empanadas. Luckily, they had made two different sample size empanadas for us to try, one with some kind of mild white cheese and the other with a sort of meaty picadillo. The kids’ favorite part were the samples of Inca Kola that were supplied to wash it down with. William explained that it looks like Mountain Dew, smells like bubble gum, and taste like banana. He was not wrong.

Canada used to have an interesting rule that only dark drinks could be caffeinated. This meant that yellow sodas like Mountain Dew, which I associate with late nights in the computer lab, had to be decaffeinated. This topic came up because the Inca Kola is both yellow and caffeinated.

Maya and her rice dog

The next place we visited on our tour was Chungchun Rice Dog, which served Korean style hot dogs. The ones we tried were served in a rice coating – corndog-style. Then they were topped with an artful squiggle of ketchup and an optional powdered flavoring of some kind. Sean and I went traditional with ketchup and sugar. Maya tried a powdered garlic thing (which I think she was kinda meh about), and Ian had powdered cheese, which he loved.

Decor at the Fika Cafe

After the rice dogs, we went to a place called Fresco’s Fish and Chips where we had some double-fried cod and some spectacular kale salad. Sean and I wound up getting the kids’ kale salad, which after the debauchery of the past few days was most welcome. We ended our tour at a place called Fika Cafe. It’s a Swedish joint where we enjoyed crispy gingerbread tail-less horses and some iced Rooibos tea.

We walked away from the food tour having had an interesting and enjoyable experience. Our bellies were very full, and I had a bag full of things that the kids hadn’t eaten to snack on later if the need arose.

Maya figures this is how our black cat Nox sees herself

From there we walked over to the famous Graffiti Alley. Get this – Toronto has a Graffiti Management Plan. Here’s what the city’s website has to say: The City of Toronto’s Graffiti Management Plan is a proactive and cooperative approach to managing graffiti vandalism in the public realm while continuously supporting graffiti and street art that adds artistic vibrancy to Toronto’s streets.

We saw brilliant examples of incredibly talented artists having decorated walls and alleyways all over town, but nowhere was it quite so dense as it was in Graffiti Alley. The kids again went nuts with their cameras snapping photos of art both bright and dark, funny and sad, light-hearted and full of political commentary. Our food tour guide had told us there are a couple of Banksy’s around Toronto as well, but we didn’t bother with trying to find them. Our days were full as it was, and there was no shortage of street art to see.

Sometimes traveling with kids is hard

We tried to visit a local record shop, and it seemed pretty amazing, but there weren’t a lot of interesting deals hiding in their bins, as far as we could tell, and our children have not yet developed the patience to spend an hour flipping through bins of records, so we didn’t get to linger long.

The Biblio-mat at Monkey’s Paw

I had read about a neat rare book store called Monkey’s Paw. Sean and I are pretty much always game to visit a book store, but the thing I thought the kids would get a kick out of is that this place had a book vending machine – the Biblio-Mat. It was kind of fun and novel, but the kids were spent by this point. Sean took them outside to let me browse around in the store a little bit before we left.

Other than making a quick jaunt across the street to the Loblaws grocery store to pick up some goodies for snacks and breakfast and to a couple places to secure dinner (the kids’ first non-dessert dinner since we arrived in Toronto), we largely relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Day 4 – Canada’s Wonderland

Thursday was probably the day Maya and Ian were most excited for – Canada’s Wonderland! After a quick breakfast from our grocery store haul the day before, we took our car out the hotel parking lot and drove slightly northwest of the city to Vaughn, Ontario,   to the sprawling amusement park that is Canada’s Wonderland. Sean and I have loved roller coasters forever, and the kids developed a newfound devotion after last winter’s visit to Walt Disney World.

Tacky souvenir photo at Canada’s Wonderland

Ian was about 2.5 inches too short to ride some of the more thrilling attractions, but we had no problem whatsoever filling our day with rides that all four of us could ride. Sean introduced the kids to the concept of “coaster credits.” For each new roller coaster they ride, their tally goes up by one. Ian in particular seems to love keeping track of things, so I think the idea appealed to them.

Canada’s Wonderland itself was unexpectedly pretty for a park full of thrill rides. It is anchored by a manmade mountain, complete with a waterfall crashing over it, and greenery and flowers abound throughout the grounds. Bearing in mind that we weren’t able to partake of the most thrilling rides, the ride queues we were in did a good job of keeping you out of the sun, and seemed to pass reasonably quickly.

Maple leaf

Maya and Ian will tell you it was the best part of their trip, and they wonder why all of our vacations don’t feature amusement parks. For me, it was a fun way to add some variety to our days. Asking the kids to appreciate museums and culture and architecture and history for five days straight may not have been too much to ask, but it was more than I was going to ask.

Waiting to board The Fly

That evening, once we got back to the hotel and got the kids into bed, we were talking through what we wanted to try to achieve during our last full day in Toronto. I looked around at the CN Tower’s website thinking we’d see about buying tickets ahead of time to save time in ticket lines. Alas, all the early timed ticket entries were gone. And there were no tickets left for the special SkyPod level, which is a few hundred feet higher up than the main observation level. We decided that we’d get there as early as we could reasonably manage and see if more options were available on site.

Day 5 – CN Tower, Toronto Islands, Beaver Tails

We let the kids sleep in just a bit after their very busy amusement park day, ate another quick grocery store breakfast, and took the subway all the way down to Union Station to see what kind of chaos we could find at the CN Tower. We were delighted to find that there weren’t heavy crowds, that within minutes we had purchased essentially immediate entry to the tower, and that Skypod tickets would be available for purchase if we wanted them from the observation deck.

CN Tower

The Canadian National (or CN) Tower was the tallest freestanding structure in the world in 1975, when it opened. Of course this is no longer true today, but it is still tall enough to dominate Toronto’s skyline. The tower itself is 553 meters (1815 feet) tall. The main observation level is at 1136 feet above ground, and the views from this floor are superb. There is also glass flooring to look down through. The SkyPod is at 1465 feet, and while the views to me weren’t much different, it allowed us the potential to feel the tower swaying (if we did, it was just barely on our clear, near-windless day), and it let us get a good look at the folks who did the EdgeWalk.

These brave souls are doing the EdgeWalk

The kids are too young to do the EdgeWalk, Sean is uncomfortable with heights, and I wasn’t going to do it if no one else was, so we contented ourselves with watching from the SkyPod. They suit you up and strap you in so you can walk along the outside edge of the tower’s main deck. And it looks like you can turn around to face outward and LEAN OUT over the city. I can’t imagine how it must feel.

Once we’d finished at the CN Tower, we headed over to the Steam Whistle Brewery Biergarten for lunch. We lucked out and only had to wait a few minutes for a nice table inside, so we didn’t really get to linger on the grounds much before we ate. The food was decent – chicken fingers, sausages, a baked pretzel. The only Steam Whistle beer they had on tap was the pilsner, so that’s what I had.

Sean **loves** heights

One of the draws of Steam Whistle is that it’s located inside an old railroad roundhouse. There are old train engines sitting around on the grounds that kids can climb around on, so after lunch, we spent a few pleasant minutes letting them bounce amongst the engines. Then it was time to hoof it over to the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal to catch a ferry over to Toronto Islands.

We took a meandering route over to the terminal so we could walk along the waterfront a bit. The kids chuckled over the mallards who were floating around in the water, many with their heads tucked under a wing, enjoying an afternoon nap.

Toronto skyline

The terminal had ticket counters, but we were greeted by a sign with a QR code that we were to scan and purchase tickets on our phone. All tickets are assumed to be round trip, so we didn’t even need to show tickets on the way back. We took the Ward’s Island Ferry on the way over so we could get some nice views back at the Toronto skyline, the CN Tower prominent amongst the gleaming skyscrapers.

The walk along the southern waterfront was so serene, you forgot you were in a huge city

My original plan had been to wander along the waterfront till we got to the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, let the kids play a bit on the beach there, and then take the nearest ferry back. As it turns out, the walking distance was pretty far between these things. Sean’s knee had been suffering for all our walking around all over Niagara Falls and throughout the city, and it just wasn’t up to it today. Had we realized a little sooner how long the walks would take us, we might have rented a quad-cycle when we exited the ferry – it would have allowed us to pedal around and see a bit more of the islands than we managed to see.

More skyline

We decided instead that we’d walk to Centre Island Beach, some along the waterfront, some along the main thoroughfare through islands, and let the kids play there instead. I had suggested before we left for our trip that we might find time to let them swim in Lake Ontario, but we warned them its colder than the Gulf Coast swimming they’ve grown accustomed to. Apparently this idea of swimming in one of the Great Lakes took root firmly in their minds. When we got to the beach, we had them take shoes and socks off first to stick their toes in the water. Yup, they decided they were in. I took them to get swim-suited up, but they never really went too far into the water. I’m guessing it was pretty cold. Sean and I, for our part, plopped down in the sand and watched them play for a bit.

Fresh from a Great Lakes swim

After they played for a while, we all took a mosey down the Centre Island Pier to let the kids dry out a bit and to let the grown-ups cool off in the fresh breeze off the lake. Once everyone was again properly clothed, we took the long walk to catch the Centre Island Ferry back to the city. Centre Island is vastly more popular than Ward’s Island. That coupled with the fact that it was now late afternoon and most people were heading back into the city by this point culminated in a very lengthy line at the ferry terminal.

Ferry Boat ride

Astonishingly, after maybe 30 minutes of waiting for it to arrive, we managed to get on the very next ferry boat! Evidently, these things can hold a lot of people. The ride was again pretty. I’m sure a harbor cruise would have been lovely, but for less than $10 a person, we had a couple of nice boat rides across the water.

After disembarking the vessel, we headed straight over to the BeaverTails restaurant to have … Beaver Tails! These are doughnut like pastries that are flat and paddle-shaped like a beaver’s tail. The pastries are loaded up with any of a variety of toppings for your dessert pleasure. For example, Sean had brownies on his. Maya had some kind of Reeses Pieces peanut butter chocolate insanity that we probably shouldn’t have let her finish. Ian had a sort of cookies and cream one. And while I was eyeing the Pou-tail (a beavertail with poutine on it), I settled on the original cinnamon-sugar topped one. These were all tasty enough, and after dealing with Maya’s very messy hands, face, clothes, etc, we headed back for our last subway ride back up to our hotel.

Beaver tail

We saw lots of maple syrup in every souvenir shop near every tourist attraction. In the end, we did buy some syrup to bring back home, but it was in a liter-sized jug from the Loblaws across the street. We went to our now regular Petit Potato for dinner and had some kinda crazy omelet rice creation dubbed “omirice” that in this case came topped with a brightly seasoned pepper steak. We did most of our sorting and packing that evening while the kids relaxed and either played with their iPads or watched TV.

Our flight home on Saturday wasn’t till the evening, so we didn’t rush leaving our hotel. The plan had been to take the 90 or so minute drive back to St Catharines and eat lunch at one of the wineries since we hadn’t gotten to do so on the way up to Toronto earlier in the week. We were on the road before 10:00 and traffic was clunky, but we figured it would thin out once we got away from the main knot of Toronto. Nope. It was pretty horrible for the entire drive. Couple that with a few pitstops for our children and we first abandoned the plan to stop at a winery for lunch, and then we abandoned the backup plan to find an interesting joint in Buffalo to have lunch. (Sean’s comment about Buffalo, “I’m sure there are nice parts of Buffalo, but we didn’t see any of them on this trip.”)

Our Canadian food souvenirs

At least the border crossing back into the United States was faster. This time we crossed in via the Peace Bridge. I don’t know if it’s standard procedure, but our border crossing guard left you with the impression that he wasn’t a fan of Toronto. He grilled us about how long we’d been there, was it our first time, etc. Then he looked at Sean and said, “Why Toronto?” in a tone that suggested he didn’t not see the allure. Sean was caught so off guard that he shrugged and said, “Why not?” Eventually the guy waved us through.

Our flight out of Buffalo was fine. But then, our one hour layover in Chicago grew into a three hour layover. Our late but tolerable 10p arrival in Austin wound up being a 1a arrival. At least this time all our baggage arrived with us. We were all so relieved to be home. It had been a great trip but wow were we tired.

Bye Toronto

We loved our Toronto trip. I would have liked to see either the Art Gallery of Ontario or the Aga Khan Museum, but taking the kids to Canada’s Wonderland and seeing Toronto Islands and letting them swim in Lake Ontario were probably worthy tradeoffs. The city is clean and the people were friendly – there was never a moment we felt unsafe, and we did plenty of wandering around after dark. The subway system was efficient and not redolent of urine or spilled booze, a marked difference from what I’ve come to expect from certain types of mass transit.

The city, for us, was less about seeing particular attractions and more about going to different neighborhoods and wandering around. It’s the kind of place you might like to just live for a few weeks so you could try a different ethnic restaurant every night, make time to go see a play or a ball game, visit the ROM about six more times. The kids are excited that they got to visit a whole different country (wait till we get them to a whole different continent!), and they’re particularly enamored with their Canadian money, which they both agree is much prettier than American money. And we are excited we got to take them there.

  

For our final summer hurrah before the rigors of formal education set in, we took our overheated selves up north to the wilds of New York and Ontario. Our first destination would be Niagara Falls, NY, but first, we had to get there.

Connecting through Chicago-O’hare

On a quiet Friday evening, we flew into Buffalo, NY, retrieved our too-large baggage and headed to our rental car pickup. As has become our norm, we waited for something like 45 minutes to get a rental car. By the time we had finally made it to our hotel and settled in for the evening, it was around 1 in the morning, Eastern time.

Never mind the late arrival, we had vacationing to do! I had read over and over that the secret to Niagara Falls success on a weekend during the busy tourist season was to show up early. Given that, we drug our dead asses outta bed around 7, ate breakfast, and headed right over to Niagara Falls.

Maid of the Mist – this boat was just leaving as we got in line.

There are two boat rides you can take to get a little closer to the roar and spray of Niagara Falls. There’s the Hornblower, from the Canadian side, and the Maid of the Mist, from the American side. Both of them take you past American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horseshoe Falls. We had read that Hornblower used newer craft and that the Maid of the Mist, which has been in operation since 1846, was more historic. Ultimately, I think it came down to us wanting to have that experience on day 1.

Observation Tower from below

We stood in line to buy our Maid of the Mist tickets, and we couldn’t have spent more than 5 minutes in that line. We then spent another 10 to 15 minutes in line for the elevator, during which time, we could chill out and listen to the waterfalls and photo the boats and the Rainbow Bridge. Once we were down the elevator, we were outfitted with our fancy blue ponchos and basically only had to wait for the next boat to arrive. It saddens my little EE soul a bit, but we just missed boarding the Nikola Tesla and would have to settle for the James V Glynn instead. (I just looked it up. Apparently James V Glynn started at Maid of the Mist in 1950 as a ticket seller and bought the whole dang thing in 1971.)

I had had the presence of mind to pack along the kids’ glasses cases, so before we even really got started, I had their glasses and any unprotected electronics in my shoulder bag and under my poncho. The kids have waterproof cameras and Sean had his iPhone in a case as well as a GoPro for capturing the mayhem.

A little bit of American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls

It started out leisurely enough as we smoothly and quietly (electric motors, FTW) passed by the American Falls as they crashed down on rocks and boulders. Bridal Veil falls is barely separated from the American Falls. From out in the river, it seemed so small relative to the other two – more on that later.

A light mist from Horseshoe Falls

Then it was time to dive into the giant Horseshoe Falls. It’s poetic to call what was happening “mist.” It brings to mind gentleness and tranquility. But I’m gonna be honest here – as a contact lens wearer, I could have stood to don a pair of goggles. That “mist” was more like a steady rain carried on waterfall-generated air currents. I could literally feel my contacts trying to swim away. Sean was attempting to document through all the swirling water, Ian was kind of hunkering down (though he seemed to be enjoying himself), and Maya was trying to get as wet a she possibly could. I wanted to lean into it a bit and really feel the waterfall – and I did that – but I did it all with my eyes shut, so I wouldn’t lose my means of seeing.

After our journey

Once out of the main fray, I was able to squeegee enough water from my face to open my eyes again. We were all drenched. Luckily my bag had remained dry under the poncho, and it was warm enough out that none of us minded the soaking. It’s a good thing too, because we weren’t done yet! We walked up a little trail to what I think is called the Crows Nest.

Drenched blue ants, lining up to get more drenched

When we were trip planning, we had seen a photo of the American Falls that showed a string of blue poncho-ed people lined up on stairs just in front of it. I loved the perspective – you could see just how huge it was. Those people were heading up the stairs to the Crows Nest viewing platform. By this time, Maya had gone full fuck-it mode and ditched her poncho entirely – by the end, she was soaked through several times over. As we got nearer and nearer the waterfall, we were misted and sprayed again and again.

Rainbow in the foreground, Niagara Falls, Ontario in the background

As the light was diffracted through the ever-present mist, we got to see partial rainbows, full rainbows, even double-rainbows. Before we arrived, Sean kept telling me he would NOT be crossing the Rainbow Bridge into Canada – he intended to survive! However, having seen the prismatic effect of all that mist, it became clear where the bridge had gotten its name.

This girl – pure joy! (Not sure what Ian’s thinking about here)

After our soaking, we hung out at the top of the Observation Tower for a while, letting the cool breeze dry us a bit and taking photos. We were amused to find that we had arrived in New York in time to be sent a heat advisory. Yup – it was around 90. We came to cool off guys, what the heck? Also, we failed hard and didn’t pack sunscreen. Future travelers, you will be spending all day outside in the beating down sun. Let us be your cautionary tale! Wear sunscreen! Reapply!

After an unremarkable lunch that sadly cost more than our Maid of the Mist journey, we walked over to Goat Island, which is also part of Niagara Falls State Park. We wanted to take part in the Cave of the Winds adventure. You can only purchase tickets for this at the booth on Goat Island, and your tickets are for a timed entry. We got there around 1p and the earliest we could get in was 3:20! Were I to do it over again, I’d maybe pick up those tickets and then find food.

Horseshoe Falls from Terrapin Point on Goat Island. Note the boat barely visible through the mist.

We wandered over to Terrapin Point to get right up close to the top of the Horseshoe Falls.  The sheer volume of water moving over especially that part of Niagara Falls is incredible. After relaxing a bit and drinking in the sights and sounds, we decided we had plenty of time to kill, so we got some ice cream for the kiddos and lemonade for the grown ups and hung out for a while. A nice lady hanging out in the park overheard that I was having blister troubles and she gave me a bandage! Hooray for nice people.

We wandered over to see the American Falls from the Goat Island side as it crashed and splashed in all its glory. Bridal Veil Falls from the top is deceptive. It would be the most likely to kill you, I think. You’re wandering down a little stream and you barely notice it; then the stream just abruptly ends.

Bridal Veil Falls, from the top

By this point, we had gotten close enough to our 3:20 time slot to enter the attraction. It started with a small museum (which was delightfully air conditioned) and a small six-minute video providing a bit of history. And then we were ushered through a set of doors to wait for the elevator down (175 feet down, in fact) to the start of Cave of the Winds. Here we are in New York out in the full mid-afternoon blazing sun, waiting for 45 minutes for that elevator.

American Falls, from Goat Island

Once we finally made it down the elevator, they handed out yellow ponchos, but Maya didn’t even bother this time. As you’re reading reviews and things, you may see that they give out shoes to wear as well. That is no longer accurate. I believe to reduce waste, they’ve stopped providing footwear.

Cave of the Winds – as I understand it, they take down that decking and scaffolding each fall and rebuild it each spring

After baking in the sun for a while, we were quite content to let the waterfall douse us again. We walked along Niagara River for just a bit before climbing stairs up along Bridal Veil Falls. No longer did this waterfall appear slight. Now it was crashing down right next to us. Ian bent down at one point to just straight up stick his arm into actual Niagara Falls (he was so proud). We were again misted and sprayed as we worked our way up to the main attraction.

Hurricane, indeed – I think I heard up to 68 mile an hour winds can be experienced here. That’s Maya, without her poncho, by the way.

We finally made it to the Hurricane Deck. Between the water you’re lashed with and the falls-produced hurricane-force winds you are buffeted by, it’s definitely an intense experience. Maya could be heard giggling and squealing above the roar of the falls. Sean photographed himself leaning back into the water as it crashed down around him. Maya tells me it feels like rocks hitting your back but that she loved it anyway. Ian tried to stick it out and seemed to enjoy himself, but before long, he was asking if we could walk back down and stick our hands in the waterfall again. I again was wishing I had packed swim goggles so I could keep the water out of my contacts.

Sean enjoyed the Hurricane Deck as well.

Sean and Maya soaked up a little more hurricane. Ian and I walked down and played in the waterfall a bit more. And then we all met up and headed back to the top, make the long walk back to our car, and finally drive to Canada.

Our hotel was only about 2.5 miles away from where we were parked at Niagara Falls, but crossing the Rainbow Bridge into Ontario took up around an hour and 15 minutes. It was well past 7 before we arrived at our hotel, and it was even later before we had settled in a bit and chosen a place for dinner.

Glowing falls, as seen from our hotel

By the time we were done with dinner, it was dark. They light up the falls at night, and we wanted to walk along the river and see how all the glowy mist looked. We wandered along Niagara Parkway (I think), trying to see if there was a walkway down to the path that skirted the Niagara River. Alas, we found none, and by the time we worked out that there was no easy way down, it looked like the funicular (the inclined rail and cable system that runs up and down the side of the gorge) wouldn’t be open long enough for us to ride down, take our walk, and then make it back again, so we decided that we were too pooped to party, and we headed back to our hotel and called it a night. I will say, the view of the falls from our hotel room was beautiful, and we got to watch the lights a bit from there.

I always fuss about wasting money on a hotel we barely stay in, but it did not suck waking up to that view

We were again up and at ’em at 7. Today’s goal was to see the falls from the Canadian side. Everyone had told us the best views were from this side of Niagara Falls, and it kind of makes sense. You’re looking back at the lush greenery of the state park in New York. In Ontario, you’re seeing lots of hotels and a casino and other development. Also, in New York, you’re kind of *on* the falls, whereas in Ontario, you’re looking back across the Niagara River at the falls.

We started out with a lovely breakfast at our hotel’s restaurant. I got to try one of the Canadian specialties I had read about: peameal bacon. It’s essentially cured pork back / pork loin that’s been rolled in cornmeal (though originally, it was rolled in ground dried yellow peas, which were thought to extend shelf life). Mine were part of a lovely eggs Benedict. Sean and the kids’ food looked really fantastic too, and it was a relaxing way to start what was sure to be a busy day.

After breakfast, we took the funicular down to the pathway along the Niagara River. We entered the Table Rock Visitors Center – a touristy behemoth from which we were able to purchase our tickets for Journey Behind the Falls. This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You again queue up to take an elevator down to a series of tunnels that take you behind Horseshoe Falls and lead you to portholes looking from behind. It’s sort of unremarkable from a picturesque standpoint, but it’s pretty cool to be looking out from behind that vast volume of water crashing over the edge of the falls.

Woods family photo with the *back side of water* in the background

After a couple of porthole views, we eventually came out at the base of Horseshoe Falls, where we again got a proper soaking. Today, Maya had decided she didn’t feel like getting wet, and so her reaction to this experience was more subdued. Ian may have been getting tired of the waterfall action by this point; he kept asking if it was time to go up yet. Sean and I soaked it all in – the atmosphere, the natural splendor, the water.

Journey Behind the Falls

We did eventually meander our way up. We picked up a few drinks and snacks and wandered along the Niagara River for a little while. Our destination was Skylon Tower. I had noticed that if we dined there, we wouldn’t have to pay a separate admission to the viewing deck. And so it was that while the kids ate maple lollipops, I booked a 2:30 lunch reservation at something I normally would categorize as tourist schlock.

Mom and Maya in the Skylon Tower

The walk to Skylon Tower from Table Rock Visitors Center was manageable and very pleasant, at least while we were on the riverfront. The heat kicked in as we made our way up to the actual tower. When it was time for our reservation, we rode an elevator up to the restaurant level and were promptly seated. The restaurant makes one full revolution each hour, so over the course of our roughly hour-long lunch, we were alternately treated to views of the fall and views of the city. Food was … fine. Ingredients seemed fresh and of decent quality and the dishes were serviceably prepared. But, in the end, it was nothing to write home about. I loved being able to sit and watch the beautiful scenery slowly glide by, but ultimately the revolving restaurant at the top of a tower pretty much exactly met my expectations of mediocrity.

Panoramaaaaaah

After lunch we checked out the observation deck to take in those amazing Niagara Falls vistas for just a while longer. Then with a deep sigh, we made the long, hot trek to our car and loaded up for the hour and a half long drive to Toronto.

Ian and Dad ate there too

In conclusion, we loved our trip. There are tons of activities that we didn’t partake of and could still easily fill a couple days with Niagara Falls goodness. Is the area over-touristed? Probably, especially during the summer. Are services around the area overpriced? Of course. Is it worth visiting? Yup. Did we take too many photos of the same three waterfalls? Yeah, probably.

July has been a busy month – at least by our standards. And it’s been horribly hot and dry, even by Texas standards. It has been 100+ nearly every day this month and with no real rain to speak of. We had the tiniest spit of rain late last week, but I swear it was like the sky sneezed. It was over in moments, and any evidence evaporated almost immediately.

Missouri sunset

We were pleased to escape to more verdant surroundings for the first week of July. It started with a 12 hour drive to Missouri to see my family. I was worried since we were driving the Saturday of a holiday weekend that traffic would be wretched, but nope – it was smooth sailing pretty much the whole way.

Grammy and Ian – there’s always a craft around!

Dad and Carol always gather up their children and grandchildren (when they can) for Fourth of July celebrations. This year, the logical date for this to occur was actually on Sunday, July 3rd. Carol cooked an absolute mountain of food, and we spent the day eating, drinking, playing in the water, and messing with fireworks. And of course the cousins spent some quality time together.

Not gonna do fireworks, but she’ll hang out with Grandpa

There were bullfrogs to catch down at the pond. Both Maya and Ian seem to get a big kick out of them. A variety of daytime fireworks were available for the kids to practice lighting, with varying degrees of help from the bigger kids and grown ups. Ian was all in. He really liked the fact that he could do it on his own. Maya was 100% not all it. Fireworks do not smell good, and so she largely kept her distance. At one point, she put a covid mask on to try to reduce the gunpowdery aroma.

Ian loved the fireworks freedom

Later that evening, they put on a big fireworks show. I was worried that Maya wouldn’t want to participate at all, but she and I settled on sitting up on the screened porch, far away from the fireworks launch point. No debris fell on us there, and she was far enough away that the smell was diminished. The noise was still a little bit of a bother for her, but she handled it pretty well and seemed to genuinely enjoy the show. Her favorite part, I think, was some of the funny names that were given to the fireworks. I wish like crazy I had been smart enough to write some of those down.

Big bullfrogs

The next day – actual July 4th – was more laid back. The kids puttered around in the giant yard, playing with water balloons and catching frogs at the pond. Maya wound up having a bad headache, so we spent a fair amount of time resting (which was probably good after their late night on the third). Finally in the afternoon, she felt well enough that they could go play at the creek, and to stop and feed the fish on the way back. There are now several generations of catfish in that pond, and they’re all hungry. There are turtles and bluegill in there too, as well as some really fat bullfrogs. When we drove up, the big frogs were all lined up, gazing into the sun. Once Ian walked down to see them, they launched in rapid succession into the water with a big YERRRP to announce their departure.

Playing in the creek

Grammy was off to a concert the next day. It was at Busch Stadium, so they’d be outdoors, and it started in the afternoon, so they’d be in the hot sun during one of the hottest days of the year. The kids spent some time with Grandpa cleaning up the mess leftover by the water balloon debauchery the day before, and then we all rode the side-by-side up to the Circle U Bar and Grill in Sedgewickville. We ordered food, and then the kids went to play some video games in the little arcade area. Since they’d been good helpers in the morning, Grandpa loaded them up with quarters for the games. Lunch was good, and the kids had ice creams the size of their heads for dessert.

After lounging around for the afternoon, doing some laundry and making some hotel reservations for our big August trip, we again hopped in the side-by-side and headed to West End Tavern for dinner. The kids were delighted by the Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling, and they seemed to enjoy their chicken and fries and root beers. It was a much cooler ride back home, since the sun was setting.

The kids wound up watching an episode of X-Files and really liking it! It was about a sea monster or something, so I can see the appeal. They may be less interested in some of the other unexplained phenomena, and even less interested in government conspiracies. But who knows, maybe we can have family X-Files nights. Sean would be thrilled.

The next day was all about packing up and getting ready for the next leg of our Grandparent Triangle. Sean and I loaded up the car, and we hung out long enough to see Grammy for a little while before we left town. Then it was off for a roughly seven hour trip to Homewood, AL to see Sean’s parents.

Old man Hubert

We hadn’t been to their house since probably Christmas of 2018. We had warned the kids ahead of time that the house with all the kitties was now the house with only two very old cats, and that they would have to be very kind and careful with at least one of those old cats. Poor Hubert, old man that he is, is on his last legs. Luckily, he seemed to enjoy all the attention the kids lavished on him. They colored pictures of him and petted him endlessly, loving the fact that he’d walk around on them from time to time.

Ian and Gumball

They also met the outdoor cat. Their cousins AP and Steele had been to the house just before our visit, and had dubbed the outdoor cat Gumball. This may be because he is <ahem> an un-neutered male kitty. Anyhow, Gumball was extremely sweet and seemed to genuinely love kids. It seemed that he timed his visits for when Maya and Ian were outside to pet him. If Sean and I went out by ourselves, he was less likely to make an appearance. The kids have so many photos and videos of Gumball walking, talking, flopping, eating, and generally being a cat. It’s also important to note that despite the fact that Lolli and Pop have decided to leave food and water out for Gumball, he is not their cat. They aren’t sure whose cat he is – does he belong to someone, or should they seek a means to get him adopted?

The kids did a pretty good job of entertaining themselves while they were at Lolli and Pop’s house. It didn’t hurt anything that they were completely in love with Gumball and spent lots of time with him. We did walk to their creek one day to see if we could spot any snakes. We didn’t, but we did see a bluejay and what may have been a blue grosbeak (unconfirmed).

Lolli and Pop took the kids to the Patriot Park pool for a little while in the afternoon. Sean and I worked on boring grown up things while the kids played with their grandparents. We hear that they loved the slide at the pool but hated the courtesy breaks.

We had pizza at a place called Slice that evening, and it was really good. The kids enjoyed their “beers” (root beers), and their plain boring pizza. Harry and Helen had vegan pizza, and Sean and I had something with Calabrian chiles on it, which was divine.

Llama – looking menacing

The next day we headed south just past Montgomery and went to the Alabama Safari Park. This is the sort of deal where you buy buckets of feed and drive around a park full of exotic creatures, letting them eat from your bucket as you go.

But before any of that, we got to visit the sloths. You can purchase a special sloth encounter, and Lolli and Pop did just that. At our specified time, we got to enter a room with Flash and Lima, a pair of Linnaeus Two-Toed Sloths. We got to spend quite a while with them, feeding them carrots, zucchini, and summer squash. They can’t see well, so you have to hold the food where they can smell it, and then, in slow motion, they creep their lethal looking clawed arm up to steady the morsel while they munch. Fun fact (or at least our kids thought it was fun): those sloths only poop once a week. I feel for the poor caretaker that has to work on pooping day.

Lolli, Pop, Maya, and Ian, with Flash the sloth

It was interesting and weirdly relaxing to watch our perma-smile sloth friends lying idly about or climbing amongst the rafters with the slow clink, clink, clink of huge claws on metal. They seemed to enjoy back scratches, though I’m not sure they’re capable of frowning, so how would you know, really.

After our time with the sloths was over, we headed over to the bird enclosure to feed the budgies (which I recently learned is short for budgerigars). They weren’t really in an eating mood, so only one or two visited the kids for nibbles of what looked like millet on a stick. Maya, bird girl that she is, was completely in love.

After taking a few minutes feeding the giraffes some Romaine leaves, we wandered through the rest of the on-foot part of the park, getting sweatier by the minute. Before the drive and feeding part of our adventure, we decided to have some snacks and sodas (and to cool off in the gift shop’s air conditioning for a moment). While there, we kept seeing T-shirts talking about the Llama Mafia. “Ha ha – what’s that all about,” we might have wondered. We would find out soon enough.

Check out those antlers! Fallow deer.

We purchased a couple buckets of food for the kids and a couple more for us and headed on our merry way, Lolli, Pop, and the kids in the first car, and us following behind. The llamas saw us coming. They parked themselves right in the roadway till we had no choice but to stop. Then they sauntered up to the car window and without a moment’s hesitation stuck their heads inside the car. As we proceeded, they would cheerfully shoulder smaller creatures out of the way to get to you. Especially toward the beginning, it seemed they were the only creatures we’d get to feed.

Before too long, zebras and gazelles and little fallow deer visited the car for nibbles directly from the bucket or to silently request that we chuck some food their way. We had a few emu come to the car for a nibble, but the ostriches we had seen were tucked back in the shade.

Bucket thieves!

The camels were funny. They are huge and have absolutely no compunction about stealing your entire bucket of food. Harry and Helen and the kids were in the car in front of us, and we watched not one but two buckets deftly wrested from hands and greedily upturned before being discarded. When we drove up to the camels, I was so busy trying to photograph them that I nearly failed to notice them leaning into the car for our food bucket as well.

The most fun animal to watch eat though may have been the ostrich. Finally toward the end of our journey, we encountered one who seemed willing to come out and eat. By this point, I think Sean and I had donated both our buckets of food to the kids, but we thoroughly enjoyed watching the jackhammer pecking as the ostrich ate relentlessly from Harry’s bucket.

Eating with the regularity of a piston pumping

Later that evening, the kids hung out with Lolli and Pop while Sean and I met up with his long-time friend Jeffery. Thanks to COVID, it’s been a really long time since we’ve seen him too, and there was a lot of catching up to do.

On our last full day in Alabama, the kids got to go to Homewood pool with Lolli and Pop. We got to eat a vegan feast for dinner (well, the kids had some chicken fingers), and we all went to see the new Minions movie at the theater that evening. I heard lots of kid and grown up giggles throughout, so it was a nice enough way to spend some time.

The drive back to home felt so long, but we eventually made it. With a roomier car, unlimited iPad time, and kids who are older and more in control of their bodies, these long road trips aren’t as rough as they used to be. Jury’s out as to whether we’ll take more of them.

We got back to Texas and the kids had a week with last summer’s babysitter, Oriana. After some difficulties with the summer program we had originally signed the kids up for, we decided not to send them back and had to scramble at the last minute for coverage. They love Oriana. She’s very patient with them and is really good at art projects, so they were excited to see her.

That very next weekend, Holly and family offered to meet us at Cidercade. Cidercade is the antidote to the pain of a “normal” arcade, in my opinion. The kids love arcades, but when we take them, it’s always kinda painful. They have their tokens or game card or whatever, but they’re hesitant to spend their money because they don’t know if they’ll like a game. Then, probably because it’s a known quantity, they become overly obsessed with claw machine games, and then with getting enough tickets for the acquisition of cheap shit from the prize counter. They’re disappointed constantly. I truly want them to have fun, but I’m not sure those situations are it.

The boys

Enter Cidercade. For a $10 flat fee, you can play as many games as you want, and they have something like 150 of them. For an additional $4, you can outfit a kid with a soda cup that they can refill as often as they like. We joked that Maya’s favorite game at the arcade may have been the soda machine. No bullshit claw machines. No prize counters. Just game-playing fun. Ian could play a game as often as he liked to learn the rules. Maya could continue her Batman adventure over and over again, till her mission was complete. No crying about needing more quarters. No sadness that they got nothing from the claw machine. And as if all that weren’t enough, their pizza is pretty good, and they have hard cider on tap. This place is a solid 10/10 for kid entertainment in my mind.

The next week, the kids had their Encanto camp. It was a week-long all-day camp during which they and 20-ish other students and two teachers worked to put together a modified version of the Encanto musical. When I picked them up after the first day, Ian was nearly in tears because he didn’t get one of the solo singing roles. Then when we went through the scripts and he realized how many lines he had to memorize vs how many lines those characters had to memorize, he seemed to feel much better.

Ian was assigned the role of Chispi, the capybara that lived in Antonio’s amazing room after he received his give. Maya specifically requested the role of Pico, the toucan who accompanied Mirabel into Bruno’s cave. They both (along with a couple other animal characters) served as narrators for the story.

Pico and Chispi

We got to attend their production at the end of the week, and it was GREAT! All the kids did a wonderful job. Maya and Ian both did a great job of delivering their lines clearly and loudly enough to be heard. They didn’t let their stage fright get to them (though you could tell they were both feeling it a bit Friday morning). And they’ve both told us they’d like to do something like that again.

Our friend Missy was in town for a couple weeks for some teacher training. Several times during her visit, we hung out, ate together, plied her with cocktails. It was such a good visit! We had a weekend where Holly, Chris, Ruby, and Herbie came over and hung out. And just for fun, Anna came over too! I regret that none of us thought to photo the five college friends together, but we did have fun eating barbecue, drinking, and talking.

Missy’s came to visit!

The next week, Sean had again secured a reservation at Tiki Tatsu-ya, so we could take Missy to this wackadoo Tiki bar (where Sean desperately wishes he could be a regular). So that we could get responsibly knackered, we decided to book a Lyft to take us down and bring us home again. The adventure began already with our Lyft driver. Since there were three of us, we had half-jokingly pointed Missy to the front seat, since she’s such an extrovert, and Sean and I, well, we aren’t.

Dude had a dashboard full of rocks and minerals, which Missy commented on. I, perhaps unhelpfully, pointed out the Missy loves rocks! I’m going to guess that our driver didn’t need much encouragement from me, but I still regret my participation. Right out the gate, he wanted to know why the scientific community was so bent against acknowledging and studying the healing properties of crystals. Yes, really. And it just went on from there. Another highlight for me – why won’t the US put more kids into ketamine-induced “death” in order to reboot their brains and cure them of childhood disease? WHYYYYYYY??!!

Tiki Tatsu-ya

I gotta say, I’d have been a deer in headlights; sputtering speechless. Missy handled it all brilliantly. She responded as carefully as she could to his questions, demonstrating an open mind while still trying to quell his more outrageous theories. And as we crossed the river, I thought we were home free, and then Missy volunteered that she’s also a physics teacher. Fresh lines of inquiry were now available! Now our dude wanted to discuss black holes, but the way he said it was, “What do you think about black holes?” Errrr – that’s pretty open-ended. Luckily by then we were at our restaurant, and could exit the vehicle before Missy was grilled further.

Tiki Tatsu-ya was all you could hope for, as usual. This time we got to try some of the food, which was incredible. We also got to try one of the large-format drinks – a rum barrel. It was quite good, and the fiery theatrics were top-notch. If I’m being honest though, I enjoyed our individual drinks more. Thankfully our Lyft ride back home was a quiet one.

Rum barrel!

Missy was around a couple more days. We had dinner together. She let the kids play in her hotel pool. It was too hot to be very active. We later learned that it was central Texas’s hottest July on record. Good timing, Seattle lady!

On the last few days of the month, Sean went back to Alabama to attend his 30th high school reunion. The kids and I held down the fort, trying to keep the house un-wrecked while also taking care of things for back to school, home maintenance, and our upcoming vacation. We were pretty successful, and thanks to a surprise flight cancelation, Sean made it back home Sunday night earlier than expected. Now to decompress for five minutes before what promises to be a hectic August as well.