Niagra Falls + Toronto - Thoughts + Hip Little Spots

Our little trip to Toronto was a bit of a whim! I thought it was really fun because I had never thought of or necessarily wanted to go to Toronto or the Niagara Falls so I didn’t have any expectations at all and just sort of allowed Toronto to show itself to me. A week or two earlier, Chafin said he was going on a biz trip there and asked if I’d like to tag along and of course I said sure! It’s fun to live a different life for a little bit, working out of coffee shops and walking from our hotel which is always in the business district when we travel for his work. We have gotten a pretty good system down for seeing a city and it only takes a few hours for us to make the best plan for a trip and find the best places in the city. We’ve spent so many years perfecting our strategy! If you want me to share it in a future blog post soon, comment below!

After Chafin had wrapped up work it was the weekend and we stayed in an Airbnb in more of the Downtown part of town. We accidentally booked an Airbnb that was 6 feet tall only! That would have been fine, but Chafin is 6 feet 7 inches tall! Poor thing! He had to stoop down the whole time which was a bit entertaining for me. haha! For some reason, the water was also freezing cold in the shower. The air temperature in the morning and night was - 3 F and you know, you just want a nice steamy shower! It was all very adventurous though. I can’t stand to go unshowered in the mornings, so Chafin cheered me on yelling “it’s a refreshing mountain spring! isn’t it invigorating?!” at me for encouragement and shined a room heater on me. I did indeed feel very invigorated! And awake! And that little room heater sure was nice after! It was certainly a memory making experience and when all was said and done we were thankful to have a nice warm, cozy, clean place to stay!

We decided to see the Niagara Falls since it was a short trip away. We rented a Turo and drove and boy that was an adventure too! It was the same day that the snow storm decided to come. I think we spent 6 hrs driving there and back through all that snow when it should have been just a quick 2 or 3 hr trip. We did enjoy the time to talk together and had a hot dinner at an Italian place after! The falls were gorgeous and mesmerizing. I thought it was so fun we got to see them in winter, with everything covered in snow and icicles it was a winter wonderland! I felt like I was in Narnia or some other magical place in time! However, I was just the heroine of braving the cold and allowing myself to enjoy all that beauty at the same time!

Here are some of my Toronto thoughts + the best spots in the city!

What is Toronto like? Well, I was a little surprised and maybe a tad disappointed, I don’t think anyone said sorry to me the whole time I was there! I kept waiting for it. I felt like I would really fit in since I say sorry wayyy to much and have actually been working on not doing that! I’ve even said sorry on multiple occasions when someone has walked in on ME in a public restroom! One of those moments in retrospect you just look yourself in the mirror and shake your head and say “GIRL! whatcha doin?”. haha! Anyways, I think Canadians are a bit sensitive over it since it’s such a stereotype and they’re especially careful not to say it too much! They ARE really nice people though and I enjoyed the city!

It’s a grey city, I think. Almost a bit futuristic, with skyscraper apartments. If you look up, the sky is grey and the buildings are grey and austere and contain some of the worlds biggest companies. On the sidewalks are business people dressed in grey suits, looking austere, too. I felt that the buildings and the people were all apart of a smoothly running system, except for me, there in the middle, a girl with a vintage fur coat, long blonde hair, and a laptop from which she runs a one-woman business, a bit out of place there. It’s not a fast city, like New York, and it’s not unkind. It’s steady and strong and calm and clean. Inside the buildings are beautiful marble foyers with big art pieces and modern chairs. The people are prepared to withstand long and cold winters, and there is an underground path which is 18 miles long and many of the people walk around the city underground to stay out of the cold. The path looks like a shopping mall, lined with stores and restaurants.

We found many places that were just to our tastes. We love hip spots with good quality food, pleasant places to just sit and talk and people watch.

There were things we could do in the city, but we decided we would rather use the time to connect and plan together. We have been dreaming a lot recently, and we know none of it will come into fruition if we don’t seriously put the steps into practice that will get us there. Even more importantly, to find and research what the right steps to take are in the first place! It’s hard for us to sit down and talk at home and really be focused because we are always in the middle of projects. It was nice to just sit for hours where we had nothing to do but put our minds together over making things happen and how that will look this year!

The Best Coffeeshops we found were:

Neo Coffee Bar

Odin Cafe + Bar

Pilot Coffee Roasters

Sam James Coffee Bar

Sorry Coffee Co

Quantum Coffee

Goldstruck Coffee

The Walton

Versus Coffee

Early Bird Cafe and Kitchen

I was especially excited to go to two skin and make up stores that I order online from but have never been to in real life! They are:

The Detox Market

Deciem, The Abnormal Beauty Company

Some neat little shops to stop by are:

Mejuri

The Wanderly

Mjolk

and if you want to get your nails done? This spot looked so neat:

Her Majesty’s Pleasure

If we were going to do something other than just force ourselves to be totally focused for a few days, we would have checked out:

Art Gallery of Ontario

CN tower

Toronto Public Library

Harbourfront Centre Natrel Ice Rink

The restaurant scene in Toronto is quite prominate. We hear it is so good that people travel to Toronto just for it’s renowned food! We really enjoyed eating in this city and found some fun places! I’m sure there are so many other places one would enjoy, but the ones we liked were:

La Palma

General Assembly Pizza

Oretta

Grey Gardens

Ottos’ Bierhalle

Doma

Well, there you have it, our somewhat haphazard and fun little wintry trip to Toronto! If you ever happen to be there as well, I hope these lists of spots will save you time and make your trip better! I am thinking of continuing to do a little series of a journal of just our ordinary life and the quirky, odd, fun, and growing things that happen in normal life, what do you all think? I feel that it is more fun to hear a tale of the oddities and character of a city rather than just a highlight reel of all the best things. Shall I continue this?

Have a lovely evening, dear angels!Thank you for stopping by this snippet of Toronto!