Janice & Peter Get Hitched - A Toronto Wedding

Our good friends Janice and Peter got married in Toronto in October. David had never been to Toronto, so we booked six days to hang out with old and new friends and explore Canada's biggest city. Toronto is a very livable city. It might not have headliner tourist attractions, but what it does have is walkable, bikeable neighborhoods with a diverse population and great food. Just don't come in winter. :)

We stayed with friends in an AirBnB near Trinity Bellwoods Park. It's a really cute neighborhood just a couple miles from downtown. The weather was beautiful - mostly cool sunny days, and the trees were vibrant with autumn colors. This Toronto wedding blog post will start with two pictures of squirrels, and end with a picture of a world map. Because, why not?

Most of the squirrels in Toronto are black...

... but the park next to our AirBnB is famous for its white squirrels. We spotted one!

The main way to get from our AirBnB to the city was along Queen Street. This street is lined for miles with small commercial buildings with apartments above. Most of the shops are locally owned independent stores, which made it really cute. David found a vintage video game store and walked away with a few prizes. We also found a Japanese import store and bought a couple of really beautiful ramen bowls. It's nice to visit cities with corridors like this!

Queen Street, right near our AirBnB, was vibrant and bustling.

I'm not sure what they sell here.

A coffee shop sign. This was before the election. No comment.

As a city, Toronto feels like a mix between Chicago and New York. You often get views like in the next two pictures where it really feels like a big city. But with only about 5.5 million people in the metro area, Toronto is more similar in size to metro Atlanta. It's really amazing how much impact design has on how a place looks and feels.

One major complaint we had about Toronto was transportation. It's pretty hard to get around Toronto if you want to go further than a mile or two. They have really limited subway lines and the rest of transit is in-traffic street cars and buses. We ended up walking really long distances, which we're generally fine with since the weather was nice, or relying on uber. With the good exchange rate for American to Canadian dollars, uber wasn't so bad...but we still ended up stuck in traffic quite a few times. They do have a fairly comprehensive bike share and a few nice cycle paths.

View of the north end of the city's skyline from the University of Toronto.

The interesting architecture of the Royal Ontario Museum.

Chihuly exhibit at the ROM. This was a beautiful exhibit.

A huge new residential building. Condos are sprouting up everywhere in Toronto.

Of course we had ramen!

After exploring the Royal Ontario Museum and finding lunch, we met up with some folks for the first day/night of drinking. We started by some bars near the CN Tower and made our way gradually back towards our AirBnB. Toronto has lots of great bars and a real beer culture, so Paul was enjoying himself!

View of the CN Tower behind Union Station.

The top of the CN Tower doesn't fit in the frame. It's still the tallest structure in North America, not including radio masts.

We went to a lot of beer places in Toronto. This one was Bar Hop, where we had some excellent stouts and IPAs.

Surprise bachelor dinner, with lots more beer!

The following day we wandered around town a bit more and found some great Korean food. Toronto has tons of expat enclaves, including a Koreatown lined with restaurants and shops that reminded us of our trip to Korea. While there we found a restaurant that serves dalkgalbi (something we haven't found in Atlanta). It's basically chicken with cabbage and rice cakes (tteok) in a spicy gochujang sauce that's cooked in front of you! Yum!

After lunch, we met up with a group of the guys and the groom to throw axes for fun at BATL (we'd love to see a place like this in Atlanta). Axe throwing is surprisingly fun and we made a tournament out of it. Unfortunately, we didn't win...but didn't do too shabby!

Our AirBnB was in a cute residential neighborhood.

Koreatown was a short walk away.

We found dalkgalbi, one of our favorite Korean foods!

The official bachelor party started with an axe throwing contest. Yes, axe throwing.

David was better than Paul.

The axe throwing and tournament went on for about 2 hours. In case you were wondering, axe throwing can be dangerous...but luckily no one lost a toe or finger in the video below. :)

After the axe throwing, the bachelor party went out on the town for drinks and food before rejoining with the ladies for karaoke and more booze. So much drinking...you guys, you don't even know...

Downtown Toronto at night.

Private room karaoke!

The next day was still a full day before the wedding so we took time to explore more of Toronto. We found entire streets with tons of graffiti art, similar to Atlanta. We also found our way to some boxcar restaurants that included great poutine, which google tells us is probably the national dish of Canada according to a recent "poutition" to the government.

Here's a cool fish mural we found. There's a lot of street art in Toronto.

We also found some delicious poutine.

Pulled pork poutine from Nom Nom Nom.

That evening we were scheduled to join the wedding party for a rehearsal dinner down by the waterfront at Amsterdam Brewery. Due to previously mentioned transportation issues, we opted to just walk the two miles. There are lots of parks close to the lake and trails and beautiful green-space. After dinner, we wandered around downtown more with the wedding party and friends and found our way to a few more fun little bars and pubs.

A nice little park near the waterfront.

So. Much. Beer. This time at Amsterdam Brewery.

The view of the waterfront from the rehearsal dinner venue.

The next day was the big day! Janice and Peter's wedding! Since Paul was part of the wedding party, we just hung out with Peter all morning while he got ready and everyone figured out how to tie a bow tie. Early in the afternoon we took an uber over to the bride's AirBnB across town for them to officially get hitched ahead of the reception and "fake wedding" at the distillery district. The venue was really amazing. The space was cute and there was a beautiful outdoor area filled with flowers and lights and brick/cobblestone flooring.

Practicing tying bow-ties. Craig figured it out eventually, thanks to youtube.

A giant groom bib, to avoid food spillage. Necessary.

This was the official wedding. Shhh, don't tell anybody!

The venue was awesome. And the rain held off!

Cute!

The bride and groom in the distillery district.

We heart Toronto!

Really cool paper flowers made out of maps.

This is 100% candid.

Peter and Paul!

Janice and Paul!

The first dance.

Does every Canadian wedding come with a midnight poutine bar?

Post-wedding festivities. I love this picture. It was 5:30AM.

After a super late night, our last day in Toronto was mostly just resting up and detoxing from days of drinking and eating. We got together with the wedding party for brunch at the Craft Brasserie and Grill and we managed to meet up with Andrew and Brad, some of Paul's roller coaster friends back at the distillery district, for a final dinner.

We had time to squeeze in a little more beer with our friends Andrew and Brad - our final meal in Toronto!

Our AirBnB had a world map for guests to stick pins in for their home city.



We had a fantastic time at a beautiful wedding in a beautiful city. Congrats to Janice and Peter!

The True North Strong and Free

Ahhh, Canada. Land of beavers, maple syrup, moose, snow, loonies and toonies. Oh, and also home of Toronto, with awesome neighborhoods, great beer, tasty food, and friendly people. This past weekend I took a quick trip to America's hat to visit with friends, ride some coasters, and enjoy summer on the 44th parallel.

What better course of action shortly after landing than getting some local beer? We went to the Indie Alehouse, which had awesome beer and food. My IPA was fantastic. We made a quick stop at Bellwoods Brewery for another beer before bed.

Awesome beer at Indie Ale House

Drinking beer al fresco at Bellwoods Brewery

On Saturday we had a nice easy-going day, with breakfast, a quick driving tour around Mississauga, a stroll around the Port Credit neighborhood, yummy Pakistani roti and mangos, and a trip to the Distillery District. At the Mill St Brewery I fulfilled the requirement to eat poutine while visiting Canada. I also bought some awesome chocolate from Soma.

Two crazy condo towers in downtown Mississauga

Strolling in Port Credit, where the Credit River flows into Lake Ontario

So patriotic!

The remains of the roti

Someone broke down in the distillery district

Mmm, beer...

Cheers!

Liz and Nav are in awe of their charcuterie

Another IPA? Yes please

Liz's dog Parker. I think she remembered me!

Me with Parker in 2006 on Liz's Ikea chair

DORK ALERT! I usually don't give  much detail about my amusement park visits on this blog, but I want to share my thoughts on a few of Canada's Wonderland's rides. So skip this part if you're not a roller coaster fan.

I had an awesome time at the park with Brad, Andrew, and Jason. We bought Fast Lane Plus wristbands, which allowed us to skip the lines on most of the rides in the park. That gave us plenty of time to ride everything, have multiple rides on our favorites, and even time to leave the park for lunch. I highly recommend Fast Lane Plus if you're visiting the park on even a slightly busy day. My thoughts on a few of the coasters:

Leviathan - This monster coaster is tall, fast, and fun. It's easily my favorite B&M hypercoaster. The first drop is incredible, and the third hill, which is a twisting bunny hop, is awesome. We took full advantage of our wristbands and rode this sucker about 7 times in the last hour before the park closed. I still prefer Millennium Force, but Leviathan is a world-class coaster and makes my top 10 steel coasters.

Behemoth - Another good B&M hyperoaster. It may seem odd that the park has both Behemoth and Leviathan, but they're really quite different rides. I liked Behemoth a lot, but I prefer some other B&M hypers, like Goliath at Six Flags over Georgia and Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure. It's still a great ride, with some good airtime and a powerful turn-around.

Vortex - This is the best Arrow suspended coaster I've been on. It's fast, intense, and has some insane swinging action (even in the final brakes). It really makes me wish I had the chance to ride Eagle's Fortress at Everland before it closed.

Skyrider - Ahh, Togo stand-up coasters. In Mitch's steel coaster poll, Skyrider ranks 316 out of only 365 entries, putting it almost in the bottom tenth. It has uncomfortable restraints, slow loading procedures, and a few jarring turns. But here's the thing - I love this ride. It's fantastic. The airtime on the two hills is phenomenal, the loop is intense and smooth, and the final bunny hops are insane. If it weren't for the bizarre rib-cage restraints and the roughness encountered in the helix and final turn, this honestly could be a top 10 coaster for me. The airtime is just *that good*. I'm not sure why the other Togo standups (for instance, at King's Dominion) aren't as good. So if you visit Wonderland, give Skyrider a chance, and ride in the front row!

Overall Canada's Wonderland is one of the best parks in the Cedar Fair chain. They could use a good woodie or a launched looper to complete their collection, but it's already a well-rounded park with something for everyone.

Front entrance of the park

Andrew and Brad in front of the mountain and fountains 

Snoopy!

Leviathan flies past the parking lot

Behemoth's beautiful parabolic hills

Swings!

Leviathan has a pretty cool sign

Fountains at night

I hope to visit Toronto again soon with David. Liz and Nav were awesome hosts, and it truly is one of North America's great cities. In conclusion, Canadian accents are adorable.