Michelle's Travel Adventures

Toronto Trip #1, May 3 – 5, 2024

It’s very rare for us to leave beautiful Prince Edward Island in the summer because we truly feel like there is no better place to be than here at home. But this summer looked a little different than any summer before because Macy took a summer internship at RBC Global Asset Management in Toronto.  Thus, we had the summer in which I found myself flying to Toronto not once, not twice, but THREE times!  

The first trip to Toronto was the first weekend in May to move Macy in to her new spot and get her settled.  We found a condo for her to rent on the corner of Peter and Adelaide, which was a good central location that was within walking distance to her office.  We had grand ideas that we would arrive on Friday, get her settled by Friday evening and have the rest of the weekend to relax and explore. Hahahahahah we could not have been more wrong!  The condo needed some MAJOR cleaning, which took all afternoon and evening on Friday, from sunrise to sunset on Saturday and into Sunday morning.  I will not bore you with the details or re-traumatize ourselves.  We’ll just leave it at that.

However we did take breaks to nourish ourselves and on night one we went to Khoa San Road for a delicious Thai feast!  We didn’t have reservations but we were able to get 2 spots at the bar without too much of a wait.

Our Khoa San Road Food Order:

fresh spring rolls.  Housemade chicken sausage, lettuce, carrots, Thai basil, mint, chilli and tamarind sauce.

Papaya Salad.  Green papaya, long bean, cherry tomato, roasted peanuts, carrot, green chili, dried shrimp and garlic

Bangkok-style chicken pad thai – rice noodles, tamarind, egg, tofu, bean sprout, pickled radish, shallot, chives, dried shrimp, fish sauce, roasted peanuts and lime.

Pork Pad Gra Proa – ground pork, red bell pepper, onion, garlic green chili, basil, with fried egg on rice.

All the food was delicious!  I would reorder everything except maybe skip the papaya salad (not that it was bad, just the other food was better).

On Saturday morning we continued to clean and organize, so we just grabbed some Starbucks on the corner and continued to work.  For lunch, we need to get out into the fresh Toronto air (lol) and walked to La Carnita for some yummy Mexican food.  

I got a traditional margarita and Macy had the OG Chelada (Sol beer, Clamato, lime and habernero).  Don’t judge our day drinking, we needed it to boost our morale!

Oh yeah, we got food too.  We split a bunch of different kind of tacos.  All were yummy. I did not drink the bottle of tequila on the table.  I swear!  It was filled with water!

For a sweet treat after lunch we walked to Le Gourmand on Spadina for their famous chocolate chip cookie and some coffee.  These cookies deserve to be famous!  I’m actually so sad as I am writing this, because I wish I had one this very second.  Sigh. Cookies are my favourite type of dessert and this chocolate chip cookie is definitely one of the best.

We headed back to the condo and for the rest of the afternoon we cleaned….blah blah blah…

We made dinner reservations at Myth for Saturday night so we polished ourselves up, popped some bubbly to celebrate and headed to dinner.  Myth is a beautiful Greek restaurant and we were really looking forward to the experience.  

We happened to be there for Greek Easter, so when we arrived there was a basket of eggs at our table with a card explaining the game Tsougrisma.  Each player holds their egg and taps it against the other persons egg, trying to crack the others egg while leaving your own whole…and the winner will have the best luck in the coming year.  Macy’s egg was the least cracked so hopefully she’ll have good luck this year!

Cocktail time!  Macy ordered an espresso martini and I ordered a Fortune Teller which has a card attached to your glass with your fortune on the back.  My card said “when the cat’s away, the mice dance”.   UMmmm…. that’s pretty much a given, not much of a prediction hahahah!!

For food we shared:

Greek salad

Halloumi Souvlaki – grilled halloumi, mushroom, za’atar, truffle honey, black truffle.

Grilled cordon the cob

Lamb Kebabs

And instead of dessert we had a glass of Mastiha

The food was very good, it didn’t necessarily blow us away, but the worst part about our whole experience would have to be the service.  And not by our actual server, but by the hostesses.  Who kept coming by our table and giving us a running time of when we had to leave, and literally when two hours was up, we were asked to leave.   Before we even had our bill!  I’ve never in all my time eating out had ever experienced anything like it before!  I love Greek food, this place could have been an amazing experience, and for the price you pay you shouldn’t feel like there is an actual timer going to go off and get booted from your table.

On Sunday Morning we had a few more tasks to finish at the condo and after we got those done we did a trial walk to Macy’s office to see how long it would take her to walk on Monday morning.

Then we walked to The Well and had lunch at Mandy’s.  The salads were tasty and the place was super busy.  It’s a cute spot but hella expensive for a salad!  2 salads, a sparking water and a juice was over $75!  

After lunch we explored The Well, which is a cute new development that is worth checking out.  

Luckily my flight home got delayed so I got a few extra hours with Macy.  But we eventually had to say our goodbyes and I had to wrench myself into the uber to the airport.  I was literally crying my eyes out (it felt like a part of my heart was ripped out) but my driver was the sweetest man and just kept saying you’re a good mom to care so much.   I think that’s why I procrastinated these Toronto blog posts for so long.  It was daunting to delve back into these emotions.  I know that she wasn’t on the opposite side of the world.  It could have been worse.  I know. But it’s the furthest and longest time we’d been apart.  Just 1,632 kilometres.  Not that I was counting or anything…

Toronto Trip #2, June 2 – 5th, 2024

Our second trip to Toronto happened to be a work trip for Stephen that I was able to tag along.  Upon our arrival to the city we quickly checked into our hotel, we were staying at the W Hotel on Bloor Street, dropped off our bags and jumped into an uber to Macy’s condo.  She was waiting for our arrival and greeted us with chilled Corona’s and spicy peanuts, such a good little hostess!  This was the first time Stephen saw her condo so he got the grand tour which took about 30 seconds because it’s a studio apartment and it’s pretty tiny.  

Stephen had meetings that evening so he had to head back to the hotel and Macy and I went to PAI for dinner.  We didn’t have reservations but the wait time wasn’t too bad.  We ordered a cocktail at the front bar and we were going to drink our cocktails in the waiting area but by the time our cocktails were made there were 2 spots available for us at the back bar.  Let me just say this.  If you like Thai food, then this is probably THE BEST Thai food you will ever have in Canada.  I am officially ruined for any other Thai food here.  It’s either PAI or go to Thailand.

Macy’s cocktail was The Lowry (The Bulldog of Bay Street) – how could she not try that one!  And I ordered a Thai Mojito.  Both were delicious.

For Food we ordered:

Chef Nuit’s Chicken Pad Thai

Khoa Soi with beef – fresh egg noodles in a golden coconut milk curry topped with crispy noodles 

Pad Gra Prow – basil stir fried ground pork, red bell pepper, onion on jasmine rice and topped with an egg

Everything tasted amazing.  

It was a work night for Macy so I walked her back to her condo, we hung out for a bit and then I ubered back up to my hotel for the night.

On Monday morning I shopped around the Yorkville area with a friend and grabbed some lunch on the outdoor patio at Trattoria Nervosa.  Then I hopped in an Uber and met Macy at her condo.  She got the afternoon off so we went to do some shopping at the Eaton Center.  It was a home game day for the Jays and the Eaton Center seemed extra busy and a bit overwhelming, Aritzia and Abercrombie were especially bonkers.  Lines ups for the fitting rooms were practically out the door.  After our shopping excursion at the Eaton Center we walked back to her condo for a quick outfit change.  

Tonight we’re headed to the Jays game and we went across the street from Macy’s condo to General Assembly Pizza to meet with Stephen and get some pre game food.  We ordered the Green Kale salad (so good!) which had Kale, pistachio, toasted sesame, pecorino and lemon vinaigrette.  And the Lamborghini pizza (Yumm!) which has mozzarella, lamb sausage, white onion, za’atar, yogurt, mint and parsley.

After our pizza and salad we walked to the Rogers Center and found our seats for our first ever Jays game!  But of course we had to get some merch first!!!  We got the hats, we got the beers and we even got some hot dogs!  What a night!  Oh yeah, there was some baseball stuff that happened too!  Go Jays!

Tuesday morning I was on my own again but Macy was getting the afternoon off so I walked from our hotel down to her office.  We decided to go to Landwer for lunch.  It’s a busy spot so we were put on the waitlist, but got a table in under 20 minutes.  I ordered the Chicken Fatush salad and Macy ordered the Salmon Salad.  I think the fatush salad was superior.  But the best part of the meal was the iced halva latte!!! OMG I will forever dream about this coffee!!!

After lunch we headed to Yorkville so I could show Macy around this area of Toronto.  We found a cute little designer consignment store and Macy spent the afternoon trying on vintage Chanel dresses.

Tonight Stephen had a dinner at the Art Gallery of Ontario that Macy and I were invited to go as well.  Before dinner we had a quick guided tour of the exhibits and then sat down for a 3 course meal with some of Stephen’s business colleagues.  

I honestly can’t remember what we did during the day on Wednesday!  Blogger fail!!! That’s why I should never procrastinate this long!  But I do remember what we did for dinner that night!  Hahahah I’ll never forget a meal!  

We met Macy at her condo after work and then we walked to Tutti Matti for our dinner.  It’s a tuscan style Italian restaurant by chef Alida Solomon

We started with an order of arancini and then we split the Luca Luca pizza which had tomato, nduja, olives, homey and for dinner latte.

For pastas we split an order of pappardelle with braised pulled brisket and an order of rotini with summer peas, pancetta and pecorino.

The restaurant has an open kitchen and our table was across from the kitchen so we had great views of everything going on in the kitchen.  When the night started to slow down, Stephen couldn’t resist chatting with the chef.  Who happened to love PEI and oysters so we had a great chat and she ended up sending over a delicious dessert on the house!

And that’s a wrap for Toronto trip #2! A few less tears were shed saying goodbye this time.

Toronto Trip #3, August 1 – 4, 2024

We booked this mother and daughter’s trip when J Lo first announced her tour dates.  But when she cancelled her tour we decided to keep our travel plans since our flights were non refundable and we were just really looking forward to seeing each other.  I flew from Charlottetown and arrived Thursday afternoon.  I took the UP Express train to Union and then walked to Macy’s office to pick up her condo key.  It was so awesome to see her, but especially awesome seeing her at her place of work!  Proud Mom moment! 

After Macy got home from work we took an uber to the Yorkdale Shopping Center, which was a LONG drive in traffic.  But it was a fun shopping experience.  We shared a “Pookie’s Salad” order at Chic-fil-A in the food court.  Pookie’s order is fire ya’ll. Lol.  IYKYK

The Uber back to Macy’s condo was a lot faster than the way there thanks to less traffic on the roads.  Makena’s flight was landing around 10 pm so once we got back to Macy’s condo, we went across the street and ordered some General Assembly Pizza to have with Makena once she arrived.  To save some $$$ we decided to forgo a hotel and we all crashed at Macy’s condo.  I slept in Macy’s bunk with her and we’d bought an air mattress off Amazon that Makena slept on.

Friday morning Macy had to work, so Makena and I explored Queen Street and did some shopping.  Then we walked down to Landwer Cafe to meet Macy for lunch.  Makena and I are on vacation so we ordered cocktails.  Makena ordered an Arak Twilight ( which has Arak *an anise flavoured spirit, mango puree, pomegranate, fresh lime juice).  And I had a classic caesar.   For our meals Makena and I both ordered the Chicken Shawarma sandwich and salad.  Really tasty!  And Macy ordered The Landwer’s Shakshuka with challah bread.  The challah bread was AMAZING!

Macy headed back to work after lunch so Makena and I continued to wander around the city….and ended up at Le Gourmand for some chocolate chip cookies.  We decided to expand into other flavours and bought a mixed half a dozen to have for treats over the weekend.

When Macy got home from work, we had some drinks and prepped for our dinner plans.  After a drink (or 2) the girls wanted to get Jays tickets for the next day.  So we went on Ticketmaster but couldn’t see any tickets available.  We thought that seemed odd. Then I remembered that last time we went to the Jays game Stephen got our tickets off an app called Game Time.  So we looked on that and saw that the Jays were playing NY Yankees.  Fun! So we bought the tickets.  Toasted how smart we were for getting cheap tickets and then left to go for dinner. (Hint…this is foreshadowing…)

So…..  for dinner tonight we walked to Cafe Renee, which we could not get reservations for, but we were crossing our fingers that we could get still get a table.  And luck was upon us tonight and we landed a fantastic table on the street side outdoor patio.  It was a beautiful summer evening and we were feeling pretty happy to be together.

Starting off with our drink order:

Makena had an Espresso Martini.  Macy had an extra dirty martini.  And boy did they make it diiiiirrrrtyyy! Wooowee!! And I had a French 75 which was delicious but I spilled half the drink after my first sip!!! Oops!  Our server was lovely and gave me some extra Prosecco to top it up.

For our meal we shared an order of Steak Tartare (very good) beet salad (delicious) and the Raviolies Du Dauphine (to die for!!!) Ricotta & Spinach Gnudi (incredible!) and then we finished with the Steak & Frites (OMG soooo good!)

Now it’s Saturday morning and here’s where it starts to get interesting.  We get up and start getting ready for the day.  Macy gets her Blue Jays jersey on, we’re all looking sporty and ready for the Jays game.  I’ve got my Jays cap on.  We’re ready to go get some breakfast and head to the game!  So we’re out on the street, we’re walking to our breakfast spot.  And we start to notice that no one is wearing Jays gear.  Like no jerseys anywhere.  I comment on it, we all agree that it’s odd.  Maybe it’s just early in the day.  We get to our breakfast spot and order our breakfast. While we’re waiting for our food to arrive I think to myself that I should double check the time of the game.  So I google today’s Jay game.  And I find out the Jays are NOT playing the Yankees in Toronto today.  The Jays are playing the Yankees in the BRONX, NY!!!!!!  OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDD.  LMAO.  So I guess we’re not seeing the Jays play today hahahahaha!!!!

So change of plans!  Macy discreetly removes her Jays jersey and I take my jays cap off.  We decide to walk down Queen Street to Ossington to explore that neighbourhood. We stoped at Mejuri and bought some matching earrings for each of us as a keepsake from our trip.  

And then we decided to stop for lunch at Mama’s Taverna.  I loved this little Greek restaurant.  I got a Mastiha me Lemoni cocktail which I LOVED.  We shared a Horiatiki salad, hand cut potato wedges with feta aioli, and an order of tuna on toast.  Everything was delicious and I highly recommend.

Believe it or not, we’re starting to hit the wall on eating.  However we came all this way and Bang Bang Ice Cream is across the street.  So what’s a foodie to do?!  Sometimes you just have to loosen the belt and carry on with plans! Hahaha But seriously, if you’re a fan of homemade ice cream and cookies this is definitely a place to check out!

After ice cream, we needed a good long walk so we walked back to Macy’s which was about a 40 minute walk.  And then we flaked out at Macy’s for a while …until we were ready for dinner lol…

Our last night in Toronto and we decided to try our luck at getting into PAI.  The line up wasn’t too bad, so we ordered drinks and sat in the waiting area while we waited for a table. 

Our cocktails of choice tonight are: Macy – The Lowry.  Makena – Tea Mac.  Michelle – Thai Mojito.

For food we ordered:

Moo Ping Pork Skewers

Mango Slaw Salad

Khan Soi beef noodles

Chicken Pad Thai

Makena was ready for bed after dinner so we walked her to the condo, and Macy and I decided to go for a walk.  We walked to the popular bar area….and Yikes!!! That was crazy.!!!  You’re officially old when you hear yourself say “I can’t believe people are wearing that out!!!” Lol.

We decided that was not a great area to go with your mom!  So we walked back to Macy’s neighbourhood and stopped at Figo’s outdoor patio for a nightcap and chat.

Sunday:

Our last morning in Toronto and hard to believe the weekend flew by so fast!  We walked to The Well and explored the shops and spent some serious time at the massive Indigo store there.  Then we went down to the food court.   This is a serious foodies food court people!  We decided to get some smash burgers from Rosies and their famous banana pudding for dessert.  No regrets!  That banana pudding is insane!

With our bellies full, we walked back to Macy’s and said our goodbyes.   Not as many tears this time either.  Only a few more weeks until she’s home!