We had a late start today. We were so tired from yesterday, we all needed to sleep in. For brunch, we took an Uber and ate at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen. The place is popular in the area and came recommended by a local and we read about it on travel blogs. The blueberry soufflé pancakes were the best pancakes I’ve ever had!

Next stop: Kensington Market – a colorful neighborhood with fun shopping, coffee shops, restaurants, and art. This is the “Garden Car” that is parked in the area.

We stopped at Seven Lives tacos and shared a couple of tacos. They were really good!

Then we walked over to Chinatown.

Passing Chinatown, we walked over to Graffiti Alley. There was a lot of interesting art here

From Graffiti Alley, we walked toward our hotel on Queens West. On the way, we found a gelato shop and stopped for ice cream. I got an affogato.

Then we stopped at Nathan Phillips Square to take pictures

For dinner, Nat found a Thai restaurant she wanted to try called Pai. The wait for a table was over an hour but the food was really good.

Favorite part of the day:
Tyler: gelato
Me & David: brunch at Mildred’s
Nat: dinner at Pai

We arrived in Toronto and checked into our hotel around lunch time. After settling in, Nat found us a place to get lunch that was a short walk away. After lunch, we walked around the area and went shopping at Eaton Center, a large multi-level mall. We weren’t even there for more than an hour but we were exhausted by the over-night flight where we got little sleep, so we headed back to our hotel to rest. Tyler wasn’t that tired, so he went across the street to get ice cream and played chess with an old man there. Our hotel is right across the street from Nathan Phillips Square.

Lunch at Rolltation. Sushi burritos!

Tyler got udon with chicken

After a short nap, Nat did some research and found a Japanese izakaya called Kinka Izakaya for dinner. The walk there was just under a mile. The evening was nice and warm and lots of people were walking around. We shared multiple dishes and all were really good! By the way, the legal drinking age in Canada is 19. Nat was happy about this!

Happy Father’s Day, David!

The view from our hotel room

Favorite part of the day:

Me, David, and Nat: dinner

Tyler: Getting ice cream from the ice cream truck across the street

This year for our summer vacation, we’re heading to Toronto & Montreal. It’s the kids & my first time to Canada but not David’s. He’s been to Vancouver. The trip started out very stressful. 14 hours before our flight was set to depart (which was supposed to be Sunday morning at 6:15 am), we were notified that our flight was cancelled!! About about an hour later we got another notification that we were rebooked for a new flight but it was much later with a connection in New York and we would lose a day/night in Toronto. So David called the airline and after about 2 hours, he was able to get us booked on Saturday night with a red eye flight connecting via Nashville. With the accelerated schedule, we rushed to pack and got to the airport with time to get in a quick dinner.

Nat’s first year of college is complete! The year went by fast. We drove down to SLO and moved her out of her dorm today. She had a lot of stuff! She had a fun first year of school and made lots of new friends, joined a sorority, and got a job on campus.

Before moving out, we had lunch at a Japanese restaurant in downtown SLO

The car was completely full!

Wileen and James finally got married! We’ve all been waiting for this day for a long time. From the moment they got engaged, we’ve been excited for the wedding day to come! Their wedding was in the San Diego area at a venue called Ethereal Gardens. It was a beautiful place for a wedding! Since the wedding was “away”, it felt like a mini family vacation, which was nice.

We all had a wonderful time celebrating and catching up with family and old friends. Congratulations Wileen and James!

There was a tea ceremony before the main event for the uncles and aunties

Nat helped manage the sign in table along with Uncle Preeda

Every seat was filled.

Sadly, this was the only picture the four of us took together the entire weekend!

3/25/23

Cousin Wileen had a cousin’s bachelorette and Nat was invited too. She’s part of the big girl’s club now. We spent a day in Carmel at a couple of wineries. The weather was perfect and it was a perfect day for being outdoors, enjoying wine and good company. We’re all excited for Wileen’s big day!