It is not often that all five members of my family get a chance to spend quality time together, so when it does happen it means the world to me. This past weekend we piled into our family van and drove to Toronto, leaving Saturday morning and returning very late Sunday night. It was a pre-Christmas, short family vacation.
My husband and three sons are avid NFL fans, so for my husband’s birthday in August, I purchased five tickets to a football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Atlanta Falcons to be played December 1st in Toronto’s skydome. The NFL started scheduling games in Toronto a few years ago to increase their fan base in Canada. From what I saw, it seems to be working; what a crowd! My family members are all Miami Dolphin fans, so were actually cheering against the Bills for the Falcons, as the Dolphins are battling with the Bills for a wildcard spot into the playoffs. The game was very exciting and although the Bills got off to an early lead, the Falcons fought back and won in overtime, due to a turnover by the Bills which resulted in a Falcons field goal.
Although our eldest son graduated from Queens University in Kingston and has never lived in Toronto, he has visited friends there often and so made a great tour guide of the city. We stayed at the Hilton Hotel on Richmond St West, right downtown, within walking distance of the CN tower, City Hall, the Eaton Center, lots of great restaurants, and of course the stadium where the game was played.
Fortunately, the weather was not too cold, so we enjoyed the walking tour of Toronto Saturday night. The Christmas lights throughout the city were quite beautiful and there were lots of people out to enjoy the season’s festivities around City Hall. Sunday, game day, was rainy but the stadium is covered so we were very comfortable.
Even the traffic was bearable; we parked at the Hilton and walked everywhere, so after the game when everyone was heading to the subway and the parking lots around the stadium, we were able to get to our car and get out of the city with no delay.
We were all exhausted Monday morning for work and school, but the thirty-six-hour, short family vacation was lots of fun.
