we love Toronto!! :)

Thursday after work, we loaded up the car with luggage, snacks and ourselves and made our way to Toronto. I love road trips. I even have the "how much farther" chant down to a tee "the more you ask, the longer it will take". ;)

The drive was nice, we made a couple of stretch and washroom stops and supped at a Timmy's on the way down. Once we arrived, we checked in to our favourite hotel and woke bright and early for our "surprise" trip to Canada's Wonderland. E was super excited and very happy to finally discover this surprise. She began mentally preparing her list of rides as we parked the car.

Her first pick was the Scooby Haunted House. Last year, that ride totally freaked her out and scared her to pieces. She has so totally conquered her fear of this ride and ruled it. Even as a big ghost jumped out from around a corner, she was startled and jumped a bit but then quickly recovered and told me "I'm not scared" triumphantly. My big brave girl!

The rest of the day was filled with many rides and the water park too. E went on the Lazy River twice; the first time she shared a tube with my dad, the second time, she insisted she wanted to be in her own tube. She is such an adventurous little girl! She was a little disappointed when the water park closed at 6pm but her enthusiasm returned when I told her she could still do some more rides in Kidsville. Around 7pm, her eyes were getting a little glassy (I don't think she slept much the night before due to her excitement; several times she woke up wondering if it was morning yet), so I gave her one last ride and a game. She won this adorable multi-coloured dolphin at a kids tic tac toe game. She actually had her balls land in the coloured spots which allowed her a big toy, but since she had her heart set on the dolphin (one of the smaller toys), the fella told her she could pick any toy she wanted since she did so well at the game. So nice for E to have such a special end to her day by doing well and getting her choice. Perfect.

The next day, we went to the Rainforest Cafe at the Yorkdale mall. This is such a big mall, it has everything. Normally, I don't like big, busy crowded places, but maybe it's all in the presentation. Wonderland and Yorkdale certainly qualify for big and busy but they are both so great! We had a fantastic time at the Rainforest Cafe. The meal was so-so, but the atmosphere was awesome! E kept jumping out of her seat everytime there was a "thunderstorm" so she could go get a closer look at the gorillas and elephants getting animated for the storm. I asked our server how often there is a "storm" and he told me every half hour. So we got to see 3 of them.

We didn't have room for dessert afterwards but decided to return the next day to try the "sparkling volcano". That was totally worth it! Ice cream and brownies shaped like a volcano, with chocolate syrup and caramel drizzled all over and a sparkler on top. The server brought plates but E led the way digging in directly with her spoon. It was a fun treat for a Sunday afternoon before hitting the road.

Once we got going, we decided to stop at the Big Apple one hour outside of Toronto. This place is way more developed now than it was when I was a kid. It has a much bigger presence than the large apple you can see from the 401. We picked up a couple of pies, some apple dumplings and a candy apple for E.

Between Wonderland, the Rainforest Cafe, the pool at the hotel and the candy apple, when I asked E what she liked the most, she had a hard time picking just one part as her favourite. She made a point of telling me how much she loves surprises.. mission accomplished. :)