We took the red eye from Vancouver last night and landed in Toronto at 5:33 or some other ridiculous time this morning. When we finally got to stretch our bodies and walk around a little, the excitement of our arrival was enough to wake us up.
We skipped more traditional options of cabs or ride shares and took the Union Pearson Express train downtown to Union Station. Kevin has taken it once before so he led the way. It was super convenient to book our tickets through their app and to get on board. About twenty minutes later, we arrived at our destination, grabbed our luggage and hopped off.
You’ll recall that I had a to do list list while we were in Toronto and one of the things on that list was to have a Citro Booster from Balzacs Coffee. This is an all natural version of a neo citran – lemon, ginger, cayenne, honey – and it is so delicious. I had one when we were here back in maybe 2013 and I’ve dreamt of them ever since. Well, just imagine my excitement when the first business I saw in this city was Balzacs UP Express! We were starting to deflate a little so it was a good chance to sit down and get some nourishment. Kev had a coffee and a breakfast sandwich, I had my precious nectar and an equally incredible chia pudding made by Feast.
From there, we headed over to our hotel because we were going to drop our bags at the bell desk. As we rolled up to the front door, a valet offered to take our bags and store them for us. He also encouraged us to go to the front desk to see if they could get us a room. To be honest, we were so obnoxiously early for the 4pm check in time that we weren’t even going to ask.
We approached the quiet front desk and Fairmont Royal York (should be) employee of the month, Kavin, got us all set up with the first room to be cleaned and promised that we’d be able to stay in the same room (we had two different reservations.) He also gave us key card access to the pool so we could hang out there while we waited. We grabbed our swimsuits from our suitcases and headed to the health club floor.
We swam, we hung out, we got very sleepy.
Once we got dried off and back into our clothes, we went and hung out in the lobby.
When we’d first showed up, it was really quiet in the hotel, but by 9:30, the place was starting to buzz.
We got our room a little while later and immediately settled in for a nap.
By just after 1:30, we were refreshed and ready to explore. We hit the road and walked a few blocks over to the convention centre to check out the WWE Super Store that just opened this morning.
We got there and it was so much fun. It wasn’t anything more than exactly what was promised – a mega shop full of wrestling merchandise, but that was all we needed. We wandered around for about an hour and each chose two shirts to take home with us.
By then, we were hungry so we talked about heading to Real Sports for something to eat. We got there only to find out that it’s closed for renovations. We backtracked about a block and went to a place Kevin has been to a few times and really enjoyed, e11even. It was nice to sit down and eat something really good. It felt like an official kick off to our vacation.
I had one of their specialties, the sweet potato taquitos and they were DELICIOUS. I’d broken a few of the nutritional rules we’ve been living by, but I’d already had it in my plans that I was going to loosen up on the restrictions while we were here. So I did – and I had no regrets.
When we left the restaurant, we walked over to the Real Sports store at Scotiabank Arena and made a stop at Sport Chek to nose around in there.
We headed back to the hotel intending to take a break and go out again tonight, but once we were in our room, we decided to call it a night to properly rest and prepare for the busy days ahead while also trying to get on board with the time change.
