Tuesday, June 13, 2023. This morning started off much slower than the previous few mornings. We were able to sit down for a bowl of cereal in the apartment and the girls got to catch up a bit on their morning TV shows.
With our walking shoes on, we headed out to enjoy the morning on a walk over to the CN Tower. We managed to snag the opening time slot up to the cheeseburger (main observation) level and promptly got to enjoy a full panorama of Toronto. Then, at 9:40 we made our scheduled way up even higher to the macaron (skypod) level of the tower. Yes, we have cheesy nicknames, but what do you expect from Wisconsinites? After a little bit of hesitation, we all managed to settle in and enjoy an even wider view of the city.
Once we made it back down to ground level, we continued our morning walk to the pier to catch the ferry out to the Toronto Islands. 20 minutes later we disembarked and headed for the bike rentals on the far side. As an alternative to walking around the islands, we opted for a 4-seater quadricycle. Despite 4 sets of pedals and 4 peoples worth of leg power, this thing was quite a bit of work. And in true Monroe fashion, we pedaled our way around the islands hunting geocaches 🙂
As we wound our way around, Carson would hop off the quad and take a girl with him down the random paths to find an adventure lab answer, then hop back on and we’d venture off to find the next one! After a couple of quick finds, we happened across a busy cafe and stopped for a lunch of breakfast sandwiches, hot dogs, fries, and hummus. Then, back onto the quad for a few more caches. Unfortunately, (or maybe thankfully?) quads were not allowed across any bridges. So, the girls and I took the quad over to a playground while Carson ventured across a forbidden bridge for a couple more caches. When we tired of the playground, the girls and I headed decided to just pedal around to kill some time. However, as we were passing the forbidden bridge, Mackenzie spotted Carson on the other side and decided that she wanted to help him hunt out the elusive Tupperwares while Ellie and I hung back goofing off with the quad. About 20 minutes later, Mackenzie and Carson emerged successful but potentially tromped through poison ivy. Fun.
With the gang back together again, we decided to call it a day and return the quad, then head back to the mainland. But not before we found a couple more caches (or maybe they were Adventure Labs? Or maybe Where-I-Go’s? Shoot, I can’t tell the difference!) As we stood out on the far edge of the fishing pier, we noticed the wind start to pick up and the dark clouds start to move in. Since we had absolutely no desire to relive yesterday’s misery, we started our walk back across the island to the ferry. Thankfully, we managed to dodge the rain and make it back to the mainland dry.
Finally back ashore, and I apologize if I’m repeating myself, we continued our walk, managing to find a couple more geocaches along the way. One stop in particular required us to count brass fish in the sidewalk in front of the Toronto Harbour Commission. After several attempts by all members of our family, we finally settled on 41, or maybe 37, or maybe it was 40? After enough time coming up with various totals, an employee took pity on us and asked if we wanted him to tell us the correct total? YES, Please!? For anyone interested, there are 41 brass fish in the sidewalk.
From there, we headed straight back to the apartment for some well deserved time off our feet. So, up 32 floors and through the door that requires a legit key thingy, we mercifully found a sofa just waiting for us to sit on it! By now, I was ready to order a couple of pizzas for delivery and get the girls through showers, then off to bed. But a quick time check and we learned it was only 4:00! Just a wee bit too early for dinner and bed… So, the girls turned on Croods 2: A New Age and Carson went back out for a couple more caches, while I pretended to read my book while dozing on the bed.
Carson finally made it back, we ordered the pizza we were planning for, and finally got to make our way through showers and getting the girls off to bed. Unfortunately, Carson and I still needed to finish up the laundry that I had started earlier in the evening using a dryer that got plenty hot but didn’t really dry anything, as well as repack all of our bags in preparation for the start of the next leg of our journey in the morning: the TRAIN!