Exploring Toronto

The next day, J and I spent the whole day visiting tourist spots. First stop was CN Tower. I guess if you are visiting a city that has a high observation tower, you kinda have to go there. The weather was pretty nice that day, so we got a clear view of downtown. 

Afterwards, we headed to Against the Grain at Corus Quay for lunch. The place has an outdoor patio with Lake Ontario and Toronto Islands as the view. It was a great place for a sunny summer day.  I ordered steak and J opted for their mushroom flatbread. 

Tavern Steak - Grilled 8oz striploin steak topped with demi-glace, served with fresh hand cut Yukon Gold fries

Mushroom Flatbread - Truffle cream, enoki and king mushrooms, and Fontina cheeses and truffle oil

Harbour Square is the next place on the list. We walked from the restaurant since it's not that far (and it gave us time to digest the food we just consume). We took the ferry and headed to the Toronto Island Park. I have to say we had a fabulous weather that day. Seeing the clear blue sky already made my day :) 

Toronto, ON

As far as my traveling plan for the year goes, Toronto was my last stop for the year. I've been wanting to go to Toronto for a while now. My best friend from high school lives there and she's been telling me to come over to visit her since she have visited me before when I was still living in San Francisco. At last, after she nagged me for a couple of years now :P , I finally got a chance to go.

I arrived in Toronto on Thursday morning. The weather was pretty chilly. My friend picked me up from the airport and dropped my off at her apartment since she had to work. I spent my morning shopping for some stuff that I forgot to bring and most of my afternoon napping since I couldn't really sleep on the plane. I was pretty out of it before lunch time. After I woke up and showered, I decided to go for (late) lunch. My friend's apartment is right on top of the biggest sports bar in Toronto, which she recommended to me earlier. So I went to the Real Sports Bar & Grill to kill time until my friend is back from work. Since I went during odd hours, the place was pretty empty, but it sure is huge. The food was pretty good as well. They had one of the best sweet potatoes fries I've ever had. 

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Sweet Potato Fries (Click to enlarge)

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Classic Fish & Chips (Click to enlarge)

Chicago x D3 D4

We paid a visit to the Field Museum on the third day. The museum is huge and they have many interesting exhibits to see. The T-Rex fossil kinda reminded me of the movie The Night at the Museum. I wish we had more time but because we're trying to visit other places, our schedule was packed and we rushed through our visit a little bit.

Afterwards, we headed to Giordano's for some Chicago's signature deep dish pizza. We had to wait for an hour or so so we split up and walked around the area. Some did shopping some just went to the nearest Starbucks to wait and rested our legs. The restaurant called us when our table were ready and we headed back to the place. The food wasn't bad, but I think it was different than what I expected. I wasn't mind blown.

After dinner was over, we headed back to our hotel because we were done for the day. All the walking around took a toll on us that night so we decided to turned in for the night.

Next day, we went for brunch before we go to the airport. We thought filling our stomach before a couple of hours flight might be a good idea especially knowing how sucky airplane food can be. We went to Over Easy for brunch. The food was really good. All of us were satisfied with what we ordered. It was a good ending to the trip.

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Blarney Stone Bennedict

Sweet 'N' Salty Pancake Platter

Easy French Toast

Sassy Eggs

Chicago x D2

Next day, we started our day with brunch. We went to M. Henry for some new american food. The place was pretty packed and we have to wait a couple of minutes for our tables. I'm usually the type of person who doesn't eat breakfast, but since we're skipping lunch, I guess I just have to deal with brunch for today. 

Latina Omellete

Fried Egg Sandwich

Veritable Vegan Epiphany

French Toast

After stuffing our stomach with all those food, we drove to downtown and started to explore the area. We went to Chicago river, Cloud Gate, and Navy Pier (and their surrounding areas) on foot. There was a lot, and by a lot I mean A LOT, of walking involved that day. The hot temperature didn't help to make it easy either. One thing that I felt when we roamed around the downtown area was feeling sooo small. Chicago is probably one of the cities that has the tallest buildings that I've ever visited. Everywhere you look, you could probably easily spot tall buildings. I felt shorter than usual walking around those buildings. 

Cloud Gate (The Bean)

Since we ate pretty early today and didn't have anything after our brunch, I got really hungry after walking around. So we decided to stopped by Wow Bao that happened to be on the way. I seriously felt like I was going to faint since my stomach was pretty empty. The place have a good selections of chinese buns, which were perfect for snacking before our late dinner reservation.

and then on with our journey...

Then we stopped by Magnolia Bakery, which supposedly has the best banana puding. But we got there pretty late in the afternoon so they sold out. The place was really nice though. I like the interior of the bakery.

Then we went to one of the Garrett Popcorn shops, one of the common souvenirs tourists took home with them when they visit Chicago. 

Then when it was dark enough, we made our way to the Skydeck to see the night view of Chicago. Since it was the holiday weekend, there were so many people there. There were a lot of lining up, pushing, and shoving involved just to stand on the glass boxes. It was mad. Wouldn't recommend to go there during weekends or holidays. 

Then, we headed to Purple Pig for our late dinner. 

Deviled Egg with Arugula & Capers

Roasted Bone Marrow with Herbs

Chicken Thigh Kebabs, Fried Smashed Potatoes & Tzatziki

and that's day 2.

Chicago on the 4th

On 4th of July, I flew to Chicago with a couple of friends to visit a friend of mine. We arrived in the afternoon and went to Ming Hin Restaurant in Chinatown for dinner. Supposedly, the restaurant is pretty famous according to my local friend and the food was really good. Afterwards, we stopped by Joy Yee for some bubble tea since it's in the same area. Their bubble tea is really good. 

We were originally planning to go watch the fireworks after dinner, but we were a little too late since people already filled up the pier and the police closed the streets. So we were in the area, heard the fireworks sound, but fail to see any in any directions. I blame the tall Chicago buildings. They practically made it impossible for your to see far without any obstruction. Since we were also already tired from the trip, we went to our hotel and checked-in instead and call it a night.