Out of Town for a few hours. Planned a family trip to Toronto Center Island. Packed food and drinks, and there we were driving downtown. Skyscrapers everywhere and more skyscrapers will soon scrape the sky. We almost scraped the sky ourselves when just getting to the island cost us forty-six dollars flat – parking $30, ferry ride $16, prepared lunches – priceless.
“Hi, hi” – a little boy waved at me. It was our neighbour’s son. You can run, walk, drive, ride, hike but you can’t hide from Aurorans.
No one should ever worry if they get lost in downtown Toronto. Just find Yonge Street and head north. Yes, it is the same Yonge Street that is also here in Aurora.
Only 40 km from the beginning of Yonge Street to Aurora. That would have been a nice drive on the longest and historic street, but no, we chose to take the highway and scratch our heads in traffic.
Despite the high cost of this short trip, we had a great family time on Centre Island today.
Now, if you have nothing to do, you can count windows. That is a lot of windows, a lot of glass, and never mind, this is only one of the buildings out of many, many more.
COMMENTS
Marvin the Martian said: September 1, 2011 at 11:25
“Okay, I took your subtle hint and came over here to see what the fuss is about. 😉 It’s always nice to read your stuff, so now I will have more of it to read. I don’t think you have RSS feed active on this site? I can’t link my Google Reader to it. I don’t want to subscribe by email just because I have enough emails to sift through. Hm. I will figure it out. I’m glad you had fun on your trip to Toronto! Fascinating history of Yonge Street! Very cool! 1796 was such a short time ago.”
Anna Lozyk Romeo said: September 1, 2011 at 15:16
“Hey Marvin, no worries about reading, just do whatever you can, lol. I don’t know how to fix the RSS feed on my site, but I know that if you use this link http://www.livinginaurora.ca/feed it seems to work for me. I tried in my MS Outlook and Blogger, and it works. Yes that was fun trip. I am sure you know it too, as you been here before.”
Michael said: September 5, 2011 at 09:12
“Anna the Big Blue bus may be a solution for your costs to go to Toronto and back. But then again with a young son like yours perhaps skipping the blue bus for another day may also be an option.
My wife and I have found it to be much more economical to go down via Finch Station especially on weekends. There you can get a $10.00 day pass for the TTC (parking there not included but is probably lower than $30.00) for a weekend day (i.e. either Saturday or Sunday). you can take your son on the TTC all day anywhere it goes. We usually hop on and hop off for adventures of the downtown.
As for the blue bus and places to go. You could take your son up to fairy lake. Simply board a Northbound VIVA Blue (Newmarket Terminal bound) bus from Orchard Heights, Wellington Street, Golf Links Drive or Henderson Drive to Eagle Street and transfer to the YRT 56 Eastbound to Main Street Newmarket. (Note: hold onto your VIVA ticket as it is good for two hours on both YRT and VIVA). Your son will love the big blue bus as it trundles up and down Yonge Street and announces all the stops (Geek factor: The announcements are made 250 metres from the stop location and the announcers voice is named: “Crystal Clear” or “Crystal” for short) on top of that the bus is articulated (i.e. an accordian bus). The wow factor will be there just before you get off as the VIVA Blue turns west off of Yonge Street onto Eagle which makes the bus bend in the middle. He will then get a taste of another bus as you go east on Eagle on a smaller YRT bus. Big vehicles seem to be impressive to young boys for some reason.
Once you get off at Main Street Newmarket Fairy Lake is to the south and follows the Holland River southward. This is pretty park full of ducks and geese. Further along the path and over the bridge in the park is a playground (another great stop for you!). If you keep adventuring southward you will end up at Mulock Drive where you can pick up YRT bus route 57 westbound back to Yonge and the “Big Blue Bus” to Aurora. Otherwise you can keep walking to Aurora along the Nokiida trail. O.K. this last part isn’t a great idea with a little person in tow….but nonetheless it makes the connection between Aurora and Newmarket from your adventures all the worthwhile. Happy adventuring! Michael”
Anna Lozyk Romeo said: September 6, 2011 at 00:38
“Michael thank you so much for taking a time to give me all this information. I don’t know much about the Big Blue bus so it helps. We always talk about it, that one day we will go on the adventure. Matthew already knows it a lot about it, just by seeing when we drive in the car – he always get excited about the Viva bus. I will definitely try your recommendations. Thanks again and enjoy your week.”
