2007 Vacation in Canada

Saturday - Toronto
places: Music Gardens, Harbourfront, China Town
notes: 5 hours to Toronto. gardens nice, but small. harbour front had Phillipines festival. boat tour of islands was a rip off and totally not worth it. underground mall? we couldn't find it. things close too early in Toronto. walked by Rogers Centre and the basketball arena (Canada Air?). did not go to see tennis, haha, though the Rogers Cup was in Toronto. also skipped the Canadian National Exhibition and the CN Tower (walked by it). saw about 10 people wearing Toronto FC jerseys to support the team playing against Chivas USA in LA (correction: they did play in Toronto at BMO Field). did not see the result of the game but saw a flash of Sacha shaking someon'es hand. China town for dinner. saw Golovin up 2-0 in the third set to Jankovic. watched parts of Princess Mononoke and Kung Fu Hustle before sleep.

Sunday - Toronto to Montreal
places: University of Toronto, Allen Conservatory
notes: drove around University of Toronto, took photos of the outside of Parliament building and of black squirrels. conservatory was nice, especially since it was free! 6 hours or so to Montreal. play more Tales of the World on PSP until it ran out of power. signs only in French once in Quebec province. got to hotel pretty easily (right by Olympic Park). Dad too tired to go out (he drives the whole time) so dinner in hotel = Italian. scour TV (my brother) for English programming. see Torres's beautiful goal - yay! Frank Lampard, though, really showing leadership by lifting Chelsea sans John Terry. find out Man. Utd. lose derby - ouch. end up watching some Harry Potter: Chambre of Secrets while studying some BCS.

Monday - Montreal
places: Botanic Garden, Insectatarium, Biodome, China Town
notes: huge botanic garden is really nice too. lunch at garden restaurant - family "scared" by no English translation of menu until sign flipped around. brother says knowing Spanish doesn't help reading French menu, which is true. insectatarium small but nice. biodome kind of pricy for just four exhibits, but shows off animals living together in more natural environments (aka not a lion in a large rock cage). walk through Olympic Park sort of...walk by new stadium being built by Brocollini for the Montreal Impact, a local soccer team (USL?). night time head to China Town. food much better than in random restaurant in Toronto. went into same store where Dad bought nice cat picture before but nothing worthwhile. TV was America's Funniest TV Moments, Canadian Idol, CSI: Miami.

Tuesday - Montreal to Quebec City
places: Old Montreal
notes: saw Notre-Dame Basilica first. beautiful. went to docks. walked around through Bonsecours Market and up to City Hall. went to souvenir shop and Jackie bought T-shirt. ate French for lunch. get a bit lost on way to Quebec City. find out we lost map of Quebec province. on the road...take a nap and then begin writing diary. ate dinner at downtown Quebec City at a pub restaurant. Mom is feeling sick.

Wednesday - Quebec City
places: old Quebec City, Montmorency Park
notes: walk through Old Montreal. nice Notre-Dame Basilica, very shiny and golden. different than the other. walk by citadel by the river. took photo of Parliament. helped interpret menu for lunch. waterfall park was nice but smaller than expected. got a large cone of soft-serve dipped into chocolate. made a mess. also realized that my favorite "pasttime" of looking at random guys at tourist spots and "evaluating" them doesn't work so well now since the guys are either too old and usually attached (wife/girlfriend/kids) or too young (high schoolish). guess college-aged kids don't road trip with their parents. dinner at the hotel because brother it sick too.

Thursday - Quebec City to Ottawa
places: Parliament
notes: off to Ottawa in the morning. more sucky french toast that I didn't eat much of. yay for eating another bunch of chocolate pastries. out hotel , according to Dad, was like $1200 for 2 days! dude the tax is insane...can't afford to live there! walk to Parliament. took photos outside and it started to rain. bumming in the hotel room. yay PTI. ooh superclasico...hopefully Sacha doesn't kill anyone...by the way 30 runs in one game is insane.

Friday - Ottawa to Kingston
places: Kingston City Hall, Thousand Islands Cruise
notes: slow morning but no rain (yet). caught some SC before leaving and saw a Chivas guy red-carded but the scoreline 3-0. damnit couldn't tear my eyes away from it. now I'm spoiled...but I'll still watch anyway. need to stop desiring Milano cookies, especially at 9 AM. cruise at 12:30 PM. live music was pretty good. awesome weather outside, great for boating. damn long cruise though ~ 4 hours. I don't like being picke on, by the way. anyway got some more soccer updates from a footie show...must torrent Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid...oh and still haven't watched Sparta Prague vs. Arsenal...damn.

Saturday - Kingston to Troy
places: HOME
notes: heading home. only hit one rainstorm by Toronto. think I learned my bad eating habits from Mom. "fight" with Eugene over PSP to play crappy RPG Tales of the World. study more BCS - like the cool aspect of verbs. hate customs, take forever. yay home.