Chapter 18
Goodbye USA, hello Canada!!
Well, today was the day. (Do I start every chapter like that?!)
Today was the day we were leaving America! Noooooo! It was very sad! After over a year of planning our American holiday, it had come to an end! I know, I know, we still had Canada to explore, and Ireland too, but this had always been our America trip so it was sad to say goodbye! And also, we had to leave New York! Boooo!
As the song, Leaving New York by REM played in my head (or was that my iPod headphones?), we took off for Toronto. Leaving New Yorks never easy
Ohhh, poor us. And poor Michael Stipe. But nevertheless, our sadness eased when we discovered that our plane from New York to Toronto featured little personal tvs, and we could choose between 25 movies to watch! Yahoo! I chose to watch The Da Vinci Code, even though the flight only took about 50 minutes, and the movie goes for over 2 hours. Oh dear.
And so, we arrived in Toronto!! And Canada!

I later got to watch the rest of The Da Vinci Code, and wished that I didnt. Heh. Tom Hanks, get a haircut. Anyway, Toronto! We caught a cab to our hotel, which was in a great location, just down the road from lots of restaurants and a big shopping center. Yay! As we were being driven down the streets of Toronto, we whispered to each other, Toronto looks like Melbourne! And it does! It really does!
And it doesnt just look like Melbourne (in Australia, where we live), but it feels like it too! It just has that relaxed, multi-cultural, artsy vibe. It got to the point where I actually felt really sad, because I felt like we were back home, and our trip had fully ended. Pht!
It was around 4pm when we arrived at our hotel, so straight away we went for an explore to the shops and the restaurants. And they were just like American shops, really! They even sold Hersheys bars! Wah!!? All that stocking up of Hersheys wasnt even necessary! We found a nice restaurant and dined on some chicken quesadillas, some traditional Canadian food. Or not. Hehehee.
To be honest, that day was a bit of a Meh day. It was cold, and we missed New York, and for some reason, we took that whole night to adjust to being in Canada. Maybe because we felt like we were in Melbourne, but with Hershey bars. It was all just a bit odd.
But the next day was much better! We awoke after a big sleep in, feeling much more settled and ready to explore the city. Yahoo! We headed to a fun Canadian pub / restaurant thing for lunch, and watched some American grid iron football with the locals, cheering and yelling and pretending we knew what was going on. And after that, we went on this
.
A Hippo Tour!! Whats a Hippo Tour, you ask!? Its a bus tour that takes you around to all the touristy sites in Toronto, and then heads straight into the water, and turns into a boat, for a water tour of Toronto! Weeee! It was actually quite fun, even though I was sure we were all going to sink and drown when we went on the water. Hehee. Our tour guide was young and fun, and we learnt a lot about Toronto, even though I cant really remember anything, except this
Its a Chinese dragon, made of plates! Haha! Okay! Toronto was turning out to be wackier that I thought!
Heres DF and me aboard the Hippo, having a lovely time!
And heres a photo of the Toronto skyline, taken from floating on top of one of the many lakes
We never actually did make it up the CN Tower (that really big pointy tower!), because wed just been up the Empire State Building, and I guess we thought not much could compare to that! And also, it cost around $25 each, and wed rather spend that on clothes. Heh. Bad.
For dinner that night, we decided to head to a groovy little jazz restaurant called Nawlins. You know, like New Orleans with a southern drawl. We had originally planned to go to New Orleans, but then came the hurricane, so we abandoned those plans. So this restaurant was the closest we got to New Orleans, Im afraid. It was yummy though!
Except
while we were in the restaurant, it started to rain. And I mean, really rain. And did we have an umbrella with us? Of course not, were Australians! We decided to brave it and venture into the rain. Heres me, standing like a fool in the rain in the middle of Toronto
But guess what! While we were walking through the rain, we remembered that Toronto has miles and miles of underground city, to hide from the snow! Woohoo! We found an entrance, and went for an explore through the underground city.
Except it was scary since we had no idea where we going, and there was nobody else around, so we felt like we shouldnt have been down there. So we went up into the rain again, and decided to run for it, all the way home. Heee! Now when I think of Toronto, I think of us running like mad people through the rain.
We eventually made it back to our hotel, where we showered, dried off, and went to sleep in a cosy warm bed. We had a big day the next day we were heading off on a day trip to Niagara Falls! Weeee!
Now, even though wed had a big sleep, for some reason, I was tired that day. I just felt a bit fuzzy and not quite with it the whole day. And for some reason, DF wasnt saying much either, so we both just sat and stared out the bus windows sleepily. And because I was in a bit of a fuzz all day, I really dont remember much about the bus trip to Niagara Falls! Actually, I think I fell asleep. Whoops!
But after a couple of hours, we arrived at Niagara Falls! We had 30 minutes to explore the little town (and the big Hersheys store! Wahhh!), before heading to a restaurant for our planned lunch with the rest of the bus members. The majority of the bus members were aged between 70 and 80. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but we felt slightly, uh
young.
Our lunch was planned at a beautiful buffet restaurant which overlooked the Falls, and would have been very romantic, except that we had to share our table with a 76 year old couple from England. Hehheee. Lets just say there were plenty of awkward silences over the lunch table that day.
Heres a photo taken from the restaurant, overlooking Niagara Falls. Awww, pretty.
Next, we ventured onto The Maid of the Mist! You know, the boat Jim Carrey goes on in Bruce Almighty? You can actually see the boat in the above photo, heading into the falls. And, HAHAHAAA! We thought it would be a leisurely, cruisey little boat ride, when actually, it was literally like having a cold shower. I dont know how close we actually got to the Falls, but it felt like we were right underneath it. At one point I was screaming and hanging onto DF for dear life, who was laughing hysterically. Just like being back on a ride at Disney, really!!
Here we are, wearing our beautiful Maid of the Mist ponchos. If we werent wearing them, we would have been absolutely drenched!
After that, we were given an hour or so to explore the area, and to take lots of pretty photos. DF and I had this photo taken by one of the old ladies on the tour
DF was still being a bit quiet at this stage, and said to me, Lets go for a walk this way. Oooh, okay! He sat me down on a little park bench away from other people, overlooking this view
It all felt a bit funny and nervous, and then he turned and face me on the seat, and said in a quiet little voice, Julie
will you marry me?, and presented me with a gorgeous engagement ring!
Eeeeeek!
(By the way, Julie is me.)
Hehee! Without thinking, I laughed and said, Okay!! and we kissed and hugged and giggled! Oh, and he put the ring on my finger. Yayyyy!! How exciting!!
Apparently hed been waiting to ask me all day, hence his nervousness and his quietness! And I was just phased out and had no idea! Heh! Originally, hed planned to ask me at our romantic lunch, but then the old couple were seated on our table, so he couldnt. Then he was going to ask me on Maid of the Mist, except it was so wet and crazy, he couldnt! Hed been carrying around the ring (in its box) all day, in the front pocket of his sweater! If you look really closely in that photo of us up above, I reckon you can see the box outline in the pocket! Hehee!
But not only that, hed been carrying around the ring all around America! He was going to ask me in San Francisco, our first stop, but apparently there was never a good moment! So then he was going to ask me at Disney World, but he thought I would think it was too corny and embarrassing! He said there were lots of nice times in New York that he wished he could have asked me, but he didnt have the ring with him. It was hiding in the safe in our hotel room! Heee!
Now, I wont say I had no idea that he was going to propose. I had a thought in my head that maybe he might propose, somewhere on our trip. Because about a month before we left, hed been dragging me to jewellery store windows, and asking me which ring I would like, if we were to get engaged one day. Hehee. But by that time in our trip, Id given up that he was going to ask me. I had a feeling he was going to ask me in Vegas, but that didnt happen. Then I had another feeling he was going to ask me when we were in Washington, but that didnt happen either, so I gave up hope! Hehee!
So anyway, back to that day at Niagara Falls! The ring fit perfectly on my finger, because hed measured the size against one of my other rings. He had a jeweler design and create the ring. Aww! So here it is! I just love it!
Pretty much straight after we had a cuddle and a little chat, we had to jump back on our bus! We contemplated telling the bus driver, but we decided that no, wed rather keep it a little secret, just between us! So we sat on the bus, huddled together looking at the ring and giggling. Which is what we did for the rest of the day, really!
On the way back to Toronto, we drove through some gorgeous scenery and little winery towns, and we stopped at a lovely winery, and tried ice wine for the first time! YUM! I want to go back to Le Cellier now, just to drink more ice wine! Its so sweet and
icy!
But to be honest, wed done enough sight-seeing that day. All we really cared about was giggling and cuddling and looking at the ring! Hehee! Time flew pretty fast on the way back to Toronto really, and when we arrived back to Toronto, we realised we were starving, so headed out for dinner at a little steak restaurant just across the road from our hotel. We had some champagne to celebrate, then headed back to our hotel to call our families back in Australia to tell them the good news! Yay!
Wow, what a day! And what a couple of days in Toronto!! Wed only planned to stay in Toronto for 3 nights, and although we felt like wed seen only a tiny part of it, the next day we were heading to Montreal! Auh! But even though we were only there for 3 nights, we had lots of fun. I have very fond memories of Toronto, and would definitely like to head back there another time to explore!
So with an engagement ring on my finger, and with DF feeling very relieved, we were heading off to Montreal!!
Next up
Ooh la la, were in Montreal!