The Crow's Nest: Summer Tourists...Part 1

I guess its better late than never to finally get around to posting our summer vacation tourist pictures. Like I mentioned before, the last week of our trip up in Toronto was spent doing all the tourist things which kept us very busy. We ended up getting a coupon booklet called a "City Pass" that basically had admission tickets for 5 different city attractions at a reduced rate. Since they all sounded fun to do, we figured it would be a better deal to do it that way vs. paying at each place. We had a blast seeing all these places. We went to the Ontatio Science Center, Royal Ontario Museum, CN Tower and the Toronto Zoo. The other place also included on the pass was Casa Loma - but unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could make it there too. I also happened to notice that a lot of the major cities had these passes for sale (including Houston) and thought maybe one day it would be fun to be a tourist in our own city and see the different things. Its a neat idea when visiting different places - and they definitely save you some money - can't go wrong there!!

Our first stop was the Ontario Science Center. Talk about HUGE!!! I had never been there - even when I lived up there. I think you needed a couple of days to go through the entire thing. Now I understand why so many schools go there for field trips - very educational with a wide range of things to see and do. Andrew had a blast seeing all the exhibits and doing fun experiments.

Andrew had a blast on this thing - you pulled yourself along the disc thing and you ended up spinning around like crazy - I was dizzy just watching him. No wonder there were padded walls all around!

After the Ontario Science Center we took the bus and subway down to the Royal Ontario Museum. Again, another place I had never been. This place was huge too - way more to see then we had time to. There were some awesome things there to see - they also had a special exhibit for dinosaurs - Andrew enjoyed that.

There were also tons of exhibts of all different animals and reptiles and sharks. It was so neat to see all these things up close and personal.

We were exhausted by the time we were done with these 2 places - they were tons of fun, but completely wore us out - I can only imagine how many miles we walked that day! Brookie was so happy when we got back home that day....she spent the day having fun and playing with Grandma.

She loves her "Bubba"

The next day we woke up early again and headed back on the bus and subway back downtown to the CN Tower. This time Brookie got to join us. She loved getting to ride the bus and subway - this girl was OBSESSED with all the buses she saw everyday from Grandma's balcony. Plus she got to go on a choo-choo train (ok - it was just a subway, but to her - it was as good as a train!)

Going for a subway ride for the 1st time...

She loved sitting beside her big brother like a big girl....have I mentioned how crazy this girl is for her big brother??? It is the cutest thing!!! So anyway, we ended up waiting in line probably close to 2 hours to go up in the CN Tower. During that time, the weather turned stormy and really rainy so by the time we got to go up, the viewing quality had gone way down. But we didn't really mind - we had all been there before (minus Brooklynn) and had perfect clear weather so we got the full effect that time. We still had a good time though. Of course both kids loved the glass floor...that thing still freaks me out to this day. You are 114 stories up and they have a section of the floor that they have removed and just put glass down so you are looking straight down at the ground. It is the most un-natural feeling in the world. People go around jumping on it, stomping on it, laying and sitting on it - its crazy. Here are a few pics of the kiddos on the glass floor. They are fearless!!