I want to be CaNADIAn

So, you might not know this about me, but I'm stubborn (*I'm expecting an overwhelming "WHAAATTT??!!"*). Yes. It's true. So when I decided a month ago that we should make good use of our 3 day Memorial Day weekend by having a girls trip to Toronto, I was bent on going. Then after all 3 of the girls backed out of the trip, I stuck to my stubborness and said: "well, WHATEVER. I'm STILL going. ALONE!" even though I knew I would hate a 9 hour drive EACH WAY all by myself absolute hell. But that's what stubborn people have to deal with. They have to stick with their game plan no matter what. So I finally convinced Kelly to re-consider her dessertion of the plan and come with me on the following principles:
1. I would be on my best behavior
2. We can do anything SHE wants
3. ...I forget what the 3rd one was, but probably another thing that made me completely submissive to her wills of the trip.

So she agreed. (I win. ha.)

We left Friday afternoon (still loving my half day Fridays) and started our trek up. We took my car since we've taken hers for like the past bajillion girls trips, so it was my time to pony up car time. Downside? My car's a manual, so Kelly couldn't drive. And has no cruise control. My right foot got some good foot exercise during this trip.

We make a pit stop in Detroit for dinner. Detroit's known for its chili (like Cincinnati, and also "Greek-based" chili with the odd ingredients of nutmeg, cinnamon, cocoa, and whatnotelse) and has 2 famed diners that have existed since the 40's and are RIGHT next to each other. Challenge on: we get a coney dog from each place and determine the winner. First up: Lafayette Coney Island -- definitely a dive diner focused on food, not atmosphere, basic, simple, but yummy. Next: American Coney Island to the left of it -- it's got that 50s American diner feel, red-and-white checkered tables, the waiters wearing those paper hats (they gave us some too), more focused on starting conversation with you and making you feel at home. Consensus: Slightly biased by the welcoming atmosphere from American, but as for the food itself, liked the bun and onions more from Lafayette, and the dog and sauce more from American. They should really just combine their recipes ;)

We peruse Detroit a little more by car, experience 7 seconds of DEMF (Detroit Electronic Music Festival), point at pretty buildings, then make our way to the tunnel to Canada. I don't know why, but border control ALWAYS makes me nervous for no good reason. The lady asks me how I know Rhu (my friend we're staying with in Toronto) and I stutter, say "umm" a couple of times, before Kelly blurts out "through Couchsurfing". What am I so afraid of? Whatever. I wonder if border control gets trained on different variances of nervousness and which are the types of nervous to watch out for b/c they're hiding crack in the trunk and which are just silly girls getting nervous for no reason, except that they have the power to just deny you entry into the country.

Then we realize, oh crap, our smart phones are roaming. TURN OFF TURN OFF! AIRPLANE MODE! AH! $15/MB? ARE YOU SERIOUS? So whoops. We don't have a GPS or map to get us to Rhu's place. Last thing I ask border control: "um, which way to Toronto?" Oh the days before smart phones...

We get into Toronto around 11, an hour after we should have because we drove past it for 50 miles... silly Toronto not having better signs stating "DOWNTOWN TORONTO! Stupid tourists exit HERE since you don't realize what these other street signs are!" Anyway. We get there after finding that out and getting free wi-fi from some McDonald's. Meet Rhu and Thuy at his place in Koreatown, which is an uber sweet pad, and get some late night drinks and food at a Korean place (duh).  There's so many restaurants here, it's almost overwhelming, and the fatty inside of me had a heart attack.


 Next day was Rhu's birthday. Funny enough, he couchsurfed with me last year during my birthday. And got me cupcakes. So it was payback time :). Went to High Park for a picnic with his friends. So legit. When *my* friends do picnics in parks, we bring beer, burgers, and chips. Rhu's friends? They BBQ Bugolgi, bring home made dumplings, and make cake from scratch. Yeah, wow. We ate, we played badminton, and we digested. Then, Kelly and I headed off to be tourists and find Toronto Island.We took the streetcar back into town, and when we got off to ask for how far down it was to the harbor, the nice girl at the ATM machine said "only like 6 blocks -- if it wasn't like a bajillion degrees right now (it was 72 degrees), I'd say you could walk it, but you should take the steetcar." Oh Canadians. It's all relative, I suppose. We walked it. And survived. 

Took the Ferry to Ward's Island. Super cute place. Idyllic houses that felt like they belonged in fairy tales or JRR Tolkien books. Got rolo and smarties flavored ice cream from the ice cream shop and wandered around. Found a BEACH! Who knew I was getting my beach time in on this trip? So we lounged around there for an hour, eavesdropped on some funny conversations, got hit by frisbies and balls a few time, and listened to Kelly's "summer mix" playlist from a few years back. ("Is that Incubus? Aren't they from, like, the 90s?") Then walked around the island some more (24,000 steps that day according to the pedometer! Ohhh yeahhhh!) and headed back for some Nicaraguan food then headed to the bar where Rhu's friends DJed the night away to an epic dance party.


Sunday was a late start... first things first: brunch in Chinatown. Got some bubble tea then headed to House of Dumplings for the most amazing dumplings I've ever had... steamed and then pan-fried on the bottom for a crunchy bite. Nom. It was "Doors Open Toronto" weekend, which meant 300 of the historical architectural buildings of Toronto had free tours, so we scoped out a couple of them (not the CN tower... $26 to go up to the top? No way.) Walked some more. Ate some more. Ate. more. Headed back for Indian food for dinner (yes, we ate more), then went to the Comedy Bar for Sunday Night Live. A lot funnier than I expected :P Good times, ending a good night with good conversation and some funny memories ("hi, will you sign my yearbook?" and *kitten paws at Kelly*). We escaped and drove around to satisfy our last hour before last call and ended up getting pizza in the gay district :)

Monday morning, we grab some breakfast with Rhu -- while at the breakfast place, Rhu sees my car getting ticketed and we run over. "Oh no! Am I too late? Is there any way..." "You don't have to pay. You have out of state license plates so the system won't recognize it." Suhweeettt! Note to Canadians: get US license plates.

Two hours later we're in Niagara Falls. We didn't wanna do a big pit stop, so instead we literally did a drive by. Giganto waterfalls? Pshh, easily seen from the bridge back to the US. Getting out of your car to take pictures is overrated. We cross the border (yay data service!).
 

Next up: pit stop Cleveland. Originally we were thinking of doing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but we were running late, plus a little tourist-overwhelmed so we booked tours of the Great Lakes Brewery instead! We get there... and they're closed. Wtf. With our super pouty faces, we cross the street to a winery where they tell us about another brewery around the corner that we should try instead. Still with our pouty faces we get to Market Garden Brewery and ask if they do any tours of their brewery. No... but the manager felt so bad for us with our pouty faces ("we came AL the way from Toronto to go to the brewery and we're on our way home to Cincinnati...") that he gave us an impromptu brewery tour complete with a free flight of beers. Market Garden Brewery, you are awesome. We stayed for some good dinner and dessert to give them our support too (and told the manager about Christian Moerlein for when he'd visit Cincinnati in a month).  

4 hours later we're back home in Cincinnati. Loved Toronto and all that (food) it had to offer. I'd be a fatty if I lived there.