Since moving to Ottawa, we’ve only been to Toronto four or five times, which is not a lot. I guess it’s because we have always preferred going to Montreal. It’s closer and more accessible to us, and my husband’s family lives there. It has become our second home here in the East Coast. And we’ve never really had any compelling reason to drive five hours to Toronto each way.
However, the last two times that we visited were quite memorable. The first one involved a first date of sorts (after having a baby) and an encounter with a celebrity. The other one involved fun family stuff with our little one.
It had been a couple of years since my husband and I had alone time together after becoming parents. We were busy with the baby and all our outings included hauling a stroller, a car seat, milk bottles, and a diaper bag. Rare restaurant trips involved going to family-friendly places, taking turns eating, and wolfing down our food fast to get on with our parental duties of feeding our baby and changing his diaper. Our days of fine dining, leisurely strolls, watching movies or shows, and spending long hours at museums seemed like centuries ago.
One day, an opportunity to watch the concert of a favourite artist came along and my husband did not want to miss this chance. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were coming to Toronto that summer and it would have been a pity if he didn't go, since the city was only five hours away.
We obviously couldn't take our toddler with us, so we made arrangements with my parents-in-law. We drove to Montreal, left our son and our car at their house, and took the train to Toronto. They were more than happy to babysit their grandson for the weekend. My sister-in-law and my two nieces also offered to help.
It felt strange just being by ourselves after two years. Our six-hour train ride from Montreal to Toronto felt so surreal. Suddenly, we had plenty of time to talk about things that were not baby or house-related...things that we used to discuss in length in our pre-parental days. It all started with Bruce Springsteen, of course, and then went on to our exploits in our younger years, from concerts to trips, and from outings with friends to work-related travel. Then we moved on to discussing more - music, movies, food, languages, books, politics, science, current affairs, even philosophy - just like the old times. It was a welcome break from talking about doctor appointments and vaccine shots, daycare activities and pick-up schedules, weekend playdates, grocery runs, home baby-proofing checklists, quotes from the fence or the lawncare company, AC and furnace maintenance, choices for snow removal service in the winter, and the like. Suddenly, it was just about us - as individuals and as a couple, not as parents or homeowners.
We booked a room at the Westin Harbour Castle, which was within walking distance to the concert venue at The Rogers Stadium. At the time of our visit, the hotel featured an Italian restaurant atop the building, with a 360-degree view of of the Lake Ontario harbour and the city’s skyline, and on a clear day, even a glimpse of Rochester on the New York side across the lake.
To start off our first weekend adult getaway, my husband took me on a dinner date there. Perched on the 38th floor of the hotel, it used to be a revolving restaurant, but even without the movement, it’s huge windows still provided diners with panoramic vistas of downtown Toronto and its surroundings, that is, if you walk around the restaurant. Again, it felt strange to go on a fine dining date once again, with us all dressed up sans baby stroller and diaper bag in tow. The elegant setting, with its dark red panels, gold leaf ceiling, brocade curtains, and mounted paintings featuring Venetian scenes, was a far-cry from the default kid-friendly restaurants we frequented in those days with casual decor, high chairs, mini-play areas, and colouring kits on the tables.
Seated by one of its expansive windows, it was hard to decide which one was more appealing - the spectacular views or the menu. The restaurant is known for its Tuscan cuisine and extensive wine list. My husband had a plate of grilled Atlantic salmon drizzled with champagne butter sauce (minus the citrus salsa) and served with mushroom risotto (substituted from the original zucchini). I had a pasta plate and it was delicious – linguini scoglio (with littleneck clams, tiger shrimps, calamari, PEI mussels, and Pinot Grigio garlic oil), paired with excellent Tuscan white wine . For dessert, of course, he had to order their tiramisu.
(Update: This Italian restaurant stopped operations since before the pandemic and officially closed in 2021. The vacant space has been occupied since June 2022 by another Italian restaurant that relocated from Casa Loma.)
My husband makes award-winning tiramisu, whose secret recipe he obtained from the mother of his Italian ex-girlfriend in university. He told me that this Italian mom loved him so much and that after seeing how much of her tiramisu he could eat, she shared her closely-guarded recipe with him (and I joked that he should have asked for her risotto recipe, too).
Every time we’d go to an Italian restaurant, he’d ask for the tiramisu, let me have the first bite, and wait for my verdict. Of course, the anticipated response would always be, “Yours is so much better, dear.” But in fairness, his tiramisu is indeed to die for, and he insists on using only the best ingredients, even driving all the way to Little Italy to get his particular brand of ladyfingers, mascarpone, and espresso beans.
Since our hotel is situated by Toronto's Western Harbour, we thought it was a good idea to play tourists and take a boat tour. The following day, we booked an hour-long narrated sightseeing cruise that took us to the lagoons of the Toronto Islands. We passed by historic Hanlan’s Point, the Island Yacht Club, Gibralter’s Point Light House (Toronto’s oldest structure and is said to be haunted), and the woodlands of the Island Bird and Wildlife Sanctuary. We were able to spy some local birds and wildlife and got a glimpse of its serene park space and a few sandy beaches.
As we sailed back to the harbour, we got the perfect vantage point for viewing Toronto’s skyline right in front of us, and to the east, the city’s industrial harbour, including a sugar refinery. We agreed that this was a good way indeed to get away from the hustle-and-bustle of the city, even for an hour and to enjoy this quieter side of Toronto. Afterwards, we lingered at the harbour, and had coffee by the ferry docks, just talking and enjoying the breeze.
Despite our limited time, we were able to do other things in the city that weekend. We took the hop-on-hop-off bus tour (since we didn’t have our car), and did the whole loop with the usual tourist rounds. But we spent extra time at the places we wanted to focus on during this trip – the CN Tower (where we ditched the idea of doing the then-brand new attraction EdgeWalk), the Royal Ontario Museum (where he spent most of his time at the Earth’s Treasures Galleries to look at rocks and minerals, of course, while I focused on the Arts and Culture Galleries), The St. Lawrence Market (for food shopping and sampling), and The Distillery (to enjoy the historic ambience and grab a beer).
We had cocktails and appies with ex-colleagues from Manila who met us with their kids at the hotel’s bar and lounge one afternoon. We also had dinner with a high school friend and her husband at a Filipino fusion restaurant on Queens, where we spent hours catching up over an array of stylized Filipino staples.
This part of our Toronto trip - a romantic date, a fast-track tour, and get-together with old friends - was short and sweet indeed, but it gave us a much-needed respite from all our responsibilities as new parents and bestowed upon us a chance to relive our carefree days.
Photo Credits:
wagjag.com, thedistillerydistrict.com, rcarpi (Trip Advisor), tripadvisor.co.nz, creatorscommune.ca
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