Day 1 Um....not in Iceland
Let me start out today’s blog by talking about a pet peeve. Ok, so not really a pet peeve, but a saying I dislike. “When the world gives you lemons, you make lemonade!” I’m not sure why I dislike that saying so much. Maybe when I first heard it I liked it, but it’s way overused I supposed. Let’s say I prefer “When the world gives you lemons, you go to the mall for some retail therapy!” (Much better). But in an effort to go with the flow, today we made lemonade.
Last night we get at the STL airport plenty early and Guy noticed the plane had been delayed by an hour. Our connection was only an hour and a half-ish so we knew it would be close. Then StLouis decided to brew up a thunderstorm. Our late flight coming in from Canada was now grounded. For, well, let’s just say so long that we already knew we’d be spending the night it Toronto. We arrived in Toronto about 45 minutes after our flight to Iceland had taken off. There were gate agents there to give us new boarding passes for our new flight, the next day, at the same time. 11p. Ok. Except the gate agents didn’t have anything for us. Par for the course today. So we went to where we were directed and the agent rebooked us. Not in the premium seats we had on today’s flight. (We like to sit on the side with just two seats on an overnight flight. Understandable, right?) So looks like we are now back in a three section. Poor Guy. Let’s just hope they aren’t holding a toddler. The only good thing about them not having our tickets as we got off the plane is that she gave us overnight bags with a toothbrush, comb, razor, detergent, and saving the best for last...HAIR GEL! Guy has been saved by the lady at Air Canada! We couldn’t get our bags because they had to go through customs and it would be two hours before we could get to them. It’s midnight. We took our overnight bags, mustered up a “thank you” and headed for the Hotel.
We had clothes packed in our backpacks (In case they lost our luggage...kinda the same) so we had clean clothes for the next day. I crashed in my plane clothes after brushing my teeth and washing my face. I woke up the next day at nearly 9am. Guy, too. Showers and clean clothes felt good, but y’all know I don’t go out without makeup on. But back to that lemonade thing... Toronto saw a makeupless Beth - and no flatiron either. :) We ate breakfast on food vouchers given to us by Air Canada and got some transportation tips from the front desk. We took the shuttle to the airport where we caught an express train to downtown. It’s a beautiful day, full sun, with a high of 70. Good thing because our extra outfits happened to be turtlenecks. It worked.
We first walked around the CN tower, the tallest structure in the world until 2010. Next to it is where the Toronto Blue Jays play. Sad there wasn’t a day game, because that would have been COOL! (They play tonight). So we headed to the shores of Lake Ontario where we did a little boat harbor/island tour which took about 45 minutes. We sat on top and the outdoor air was lovely. The sights were nice and I got some good photos of the cityscape. From there we ate at the Amsterdam BrewHouse. A huge restaurant on the water. We chose it for its outdoor seating even tho the menu was mostly bar food. That’s ok, they had fish tacos, so I was set. Oh wait, they were out of fish tacos. Lemonade.....I wasn’t that hungry, so I got a house made pretzel (amazing) and Guy had fish and chips. I had a few bites. Lovely food.
From there we set out to catch the hop on hop off bus. We figured we had a few hours to see Toronto and that would hit the highlights. The gal who narrated the sites was fun and FULL of info. We learned a lot from our 2 hour ride around the city. The only thing we saw that we wanted to go back to (but didn’t have time) was the St. Lawrence Market. 120 food vendors were inside with one of the worlds best markets (or so says National Geographic). We passed by several museums, the distillery district, the Bata Shoe Museum, the entertainment district, Chinatown, Casa Loma (an awesome castle), and Eaton Center...a ginormous shopping center that gets more visitors per year than the Great Wall of China. The higher the floor, the more expensive the items, so we were told. Wow... people were everywhere.
At the end of the tour (nearly 2 hours) we hopped off because the traffic was terrible and we could walk faster back to the train station. We had to be back on within 7 hours of the purchase of our ticket for the return trip to remain included. Even with a quick stop into a pharmacy at the train station (eyeliner, mascara, powder purchase) we made it in time. Back to the airport where we caught the shuttle back to the hotel (they were holding our backpacks) then back on the shuttle (driver was confused) and back to the airport to get to the gate. Our bags are still here, we hope. Our flight to Iceland is on time and completely full. Guy will have a neighbor. Lemonade.....
Photos are posted in the left sidebar. Toronto will be “Day 1”.
From Guy: Everyone in Canada is rooting for the St. Louis Blues!!
Last night we get at the STL airport plenty early and Guy noticed the plane had been delayed by an hour. Our connection was only an hour and a half-ish so we knew it would be close. Then StLouis decided to brew up a thunderstorm. Our late flight coming in from Canada was now grounded. For, well, let’s just say so long that we already knew we’d be spending the night it Toronto. We arrived in Toronto about 45 minutes after our flight to Iceland had taken off. There were gate agents there to give us new boarding passes for our new flight, the next day, at the same time. 11p. Ok. Except the gate agents didn’t have anything for us. Par for the course today. So we went to where we were directed and the agent rebooked us. Not in the premium seats we had on today’s flight. (We like to sit on the side with just two seats on an overnight flight. Understandable, right?) So looks like we are now back in a three section. Poor Guy. Let’s just hope they aren’t holding a toddler. The only good thing about them not having our tickets as we got off the plane is that she gave us overnight bags with a toothbrush, comb, razor, detergent, and saving the best for last...HAIR GEL! Guy has been saved by the lady at Air Canada! We couldn’t get our bags because they had to go through customs and it would be two hours before we could get to them. It’s midnight. We took our overnight bags, mustered up a “thank you” and headed for the Hotel.
We had clothes packed in our backpacks (In case they lost our luggage...kinda the same) so we had clean clothes for the next day. I crashed in my plane clothes after brushing my teeth and washing my face. I woke up the next day at nearly 9am. Guy, too. Showers and clean clothes felt good, but y’all know I don’t go out without makeup on. But back to that lemonade thing... Toronto saw a makeupless Beth - and no flatiron either. :) We ate breakfast on food vouchers given to us by Air Canada and got some transportation tips from the front desk. We took the shuttle to the airport where we caught an express train to downtown. It’s a beautiful day, full sun, with a high of 70. Good thing because our extra outfits happened to be turtlenecks. It worked.
We first walked around the CN tower, the tallest structure in the world until 2010. Next to it is where the Toronto Blue Jays play. Sad there wasn’t a day game, because that would have been COOL! (They play tonight). So we headed to the shores of Lake Ontario where we did a little boat harbor/island tour which took about 45 minutes. We sat on top and the outdoor air was lovely. The sights were nice and I got some good photos of the cityscape. From there we ate at the Amsterdam BrewHouse. A huge restaurant on the water. We chose it for its outdoor seating even tho the menu was mostly bar food. That’s ok, they had fish tacos, so I was set. Oh wait, they were out of fish tacos. Lemonade.....I wasn’t that hungry, so I got a house made pretzel (amazing) and Guy had fish and chips. I had a few bites. Lovely food.
From there we set out to catch the hop on hop off bus. We figured we had a few hours to see Toronto and that would hit the highlights. The gal who narrated the sites was fun and FULL of info. We learned a lot from our 2 hour ride around the city. The only thing we saw that we wanted to go back to (but didn’t have time) was the St. Lawrence Market. 120 food vendors were inside with one of the worlds best markets (or so says National Geographic). We passed by several museums, the distillery district, the Bata Shoe Museum, the entertainment district, Chinatown, Casa Loma (an awesome castle), and Eaton Center...a ginormous shopping center that gets more visitors per year than the Great Wall of China. The higher the floor, the more expensive the items, so we were told. Wow... people were everywhere.
At the end of the tour (nearly 2 hours) we hopped off because the traffic was terrible and we could walk faster back to the train station. We had to be back on within 7 hours of the purchase of our ticket for the return trip to remain included. Even with a quick stop into a pharmacy at the train station (eyeliner, mascara, powder purchase) we made it in time. Back to the airport where we caught the shuttle back to the hotel (they were holding our backpacks) then back on the shuttle (driver was confused) and back to the airport to get to the gate. Our bags are still here, we hope. Our flight to Iceland is on time and completely full. Guy will have a neighbor. Lemonade.....
Photos are posted in the left sidebar. Toronto will be “Day 1”.
From Guy: Everyone in Canada is rooting for the St. Louis Blues!!
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