Roadtrip Sights

At the end of last month, I had the chance to go on a short, overnight roadtrip and, oh my goodness, was it so needed! I had been dreaming of going on a longer roadtrip for months (maybe even years at this point?!) and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I went to Toronto (for the second time ever) with my brother for a mix of business and pleasure, and I'm quite proud of how much we were able to fit into the short time we had there. I'll have more pictures and words about our adventures in Toronto later, but for now I just wanted to share a few snaps I took on the road, both getting there and back.

The views on the side of the road. It doesn't seem like much, especially because I'm generally a sunshine girl (and we had very little of it the whole trip) but at that point, we still had well over a foot of snow in our neighbourhood, so seeing this and not even a little bit of white around had me ridiculously happy. Not to mention, the whole way there and back, we saw gaggles of geese flying overhead constantly, which was just another much needed reminder that spring was not going to be far behind even at home. (Fast forward to today, just over two weeks later, thanks to much warmer temperatures and loads of rain, we now have barely any traces of snow left, the flowers in the front yard are popping up from under the ground at rapid speeds, and the tree buds are just about to burst - spring is in full swing!! But I digress.)

 Seriously, seeing the green of the trees against something other than snow made me so happy!

I kept seeing these signs on the side of the road every few kilometres, and it made me think that, in all of my years of life, I never actually saw any deer from the road. Well, as fate would have it, on our way back home, I saw no less than 4 of them (3 on one occasion, and another one later), so I had to take a picture of one of these signs as a happy reminder of this good fortune. :)

As we got closer to home, of course we started to see snow again.

I really enjoyed this trip. It was everything I hoped it would be: a nice break from the routine, a chance to explore and discover new things and places, and an opportunity to rest and recharge. Of course, as it always is, it's also been the reason for even more roadtrip daydreams ever since we got back...

Long Weekend in Toronto

I had a day off from work today, and in the course of relaxing and taking it easy around the house - read: being lazy and doing practically nothing - I spent a little time going through photos from the last few months. Not surprisingly, I haven't taken many of them , so I quickly found myself all the way back to July, to the Toronto and Niagara trip I took with my brother. I realized I never did share about the big city part of our quick getaway, although I really like how some of the shots came out. So I'm going by the rule of 'it's never too late' and once again taking a look back.

A picture perfect spot to enjoy our last breakfast in the city, in the courtyard of the hotel.

It was the kind of trip that came together on a whim - with no time for planning beforehand - and went by just as quickly, so I'm not sure that, being our first time there, we had a chance to truly get a feel for the city. However, in between dealing with the fatigue accumulated from a long work week and no time for rest before embarking on a day-long roadtrip, and trying to figure out what to do as we went, there were a few good moments. Of course, many of them came towards the end of the weekend, and they were the kind that makes you want to stay for just a little while longer even though you know you can't, so I'm really looking forward to going again in the future.

For this trip - and probably the next few ones too - I wasn't too curious about stepping onto the glass floor of the CN Tower, I was actually perfectly content with just admiring it from the inside of the car.

Before heading home, we stopped to take a long walk along the edge of the Ontario lake, to bask in the beautiful weather and admire the city view from across the lake.

One of my favourite parts about this trip - that sadly went undocumented - was having dinner with a dear friend at Fresh (my goodness, that beach fresh bowl on soba noodles was delicious! ) and catching up after two years of not seeing each other; one of my least favourite parts was realizing the moment I stepped back into the hotel room that I didn't take even one picture of our time together. I'm still kicking myself for it, but I guess that is just more reason to return sooner rather than later.

Niagara Second

Being a new employee means that I don't have any paid vacation this year and, inevitably, this summer. It has been quite a struggle accepting this thought; sometime I crave nothing more than a slow summer day when I can fully enjoy the sunshine and the warmth, which is not really possible right now. So, in an effort to still make the most of this season, I took last Friday off from work and headed on a long weekend roadtrip to Toronto with my brother.

Since we were going to arrive earlier than our check-in time at the hotel, we decided to keep going past the city and take a quick detour to Niagara. Our main purpose for going in that direction was to stock up on some all natural plant fertilizer by Agrogreen that my brother had found online. Since the shop was a short, 15-minute drive away from the Falls - which is practically nothing anytime, but especially when you've been in the car for about 10 hours - we couldn't pass the opportunity to take a peek at this wonder of the world.

• The Canadian side •

We had already seen it very well about 5 years ago, when we spent a week-long vacation there with our parents. So, a short stroll along the edge of the water, and a nice dinner at the restaurant across the street was all we needed to reignite those precious memories, and we were ready to head back towards Toronto to check into our hotel.

• The American side •

• Further up the river, where the Whirlpool tours take place •