Almost two years ago now, my best friend Nina and I hopped on a flight to Toronto, CA to watch our beloved college coaches get married. Also around that time, I began writing a blog post to recap it all and never published it. We took plenty of beautiful photos, so without waiting any longer (two years was plenty of time..), here is a recap of our time in Canada :)

Our first stop was lunch and drinks at Barcelona Tavern. The weather was perfect - we had just escaped the Oklahoma/Texas summer heat - so we sat outside and enjoyed the moderate temperatures of the north.

St. Catharines

St Catharines has an adorable downtown. We wanted to stay forever, but we were just stopping through for the wedding and a quick lunch at a coffee shop/bistro in downtown St. Catharines. If we would’ve known better, we would have planned for more time in St Catharines, but I guess that just means we have to plan a trip back.

The Wedding

Of course, the wedding was the whole purpose of our trip. It was in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario - just outside St. Catharines. It sits right on the border of Canada and the United States. You could see “New York land” from where we were sitting during the ceremony. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception - and so much fun too!

A day and a half in Toronto

The night of the wedding, we had a bus ticket booked to go back around midnight, as that was the last bus leaving St. Catharines for a while. We quickly realized we wouldn’t want to leave the wedding so soon, so we skipped the bus ride. This meant possibly not making it back to Toronto that night, but it was worth it to celebrate our coaches all night long.

P.S. We found our way back to Toronto safe and sound. The risk was worth the reward!

Nina and I were #teamnosleep for the entirety of this trip. It’s the best way to make the most of a short trip :) So of course, we were up early the next morning and ready to start day 1 of 1.5 in Toronto.

We walked all over the city, caught buses here and there and spared no iced coffee in our pursuit to make the most of our day and a half.

Toronto was buzzing with street markets all around Sunday afternoon - plenty of street food to go around.

We made our way to China town by dinner time, but we couldn’t resist a little rest stop and water break at an American classic - Krispy Kreme.

We happened upon Graffiti Alley on Queen St., pretty close to our Airbnb and central to a lot of things. You’ll learn in Toronto that King St. and Queen St. are great points of reference for getting around. The trolley/bus system is super easy, too!

I would recommend walking through Graffiti Alley! There is some really cool art, and it’s great for photo ops, too. We spent quite a bit of time looking at the graffiti and snapping some photos here.

We ended the day at The Lockhart, a Harry Potter themed bar. I will admit that I am not the biggest Harry Potter fan, but this bar was a cool place even for a non-fan. They had a full menu of themed drinks and snacks, and the bar was decked out in Harry Potter everything.

Last Day

Our last day was packed as we tried to fit in all the last few things we wanted to do. The first thing on our agenda for this half day was a visit to the CN Tower. This is touristy and all, but the views were nothing short of amazing.

We met up with Rachel and Louisa (teammates of ours who came for the wedding separately) for breakfast at Eggspectation. It is technically in “downtown Toronto”, although not very descriptive (or helpful when writing a blog post). This is a great area because there are endless options for shopping, restaurants, some touristy things (the Toronto sign!) and more.

If nothing else, it’s a great starting point for finding ways to explore the city.

After brunch and a quick coffee break, we rented some bikes and rode them along Lake Ontario. I wish we had done this earlier because it was a great way to enjoy the beautiful weather and see the city.

We rode from downtown Toronto to the Humber Bay Arch Bridge, where there is a great view of the city skyline. One of our stops along the way was Sunnyside Beach - a little park on the edge of Lake Ontario.

Nina and I had to run to catch our fight later that day, so we had to return the bikes close to our Airbnb. Although the time rental was relatively cheap and easy, note that returning the bikes to an alternate location can add additional fees - still worth it for the time we spent that afternoon biking around Toronto.

This trip was short but so much fun for all of us. We got to see the beautiful wedding of our coaches, see the city of Toronto and visit St. Catharines. We made the most of our few days!