Day 10 – Ripley Aquarium and more exploring of Tornoto
Today started very early (for Danielle anyway) who got up at 5.30am local time to watch the royal funeral. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, she fell asleep by about 9pm the night before, but was awake again from 1.30am until close to 5am. Jet lag is a thing for both of us on this trip!
After breakfast in the Executive Lounge at the hotel, we decided to head out to explore some of the highlights of Toronto. Here’s the catch, when you travel spontaneously, and don’t pre-book attractions, you find that most of the things you want to see are not open! It seems Monday (and sometimes Tuesday too) are like ‘days off’ here and of the 6 attractions we were considering, only two were open today. One of these was the Ripley Aquarium, and so that is where we headed.
To get there, we followed the PATH. We didn’t mention PATH yesterday, but yesterday was our first exploration of it. Basically, here in North America some of the bigger cities have devised underground connections, so that you can get cross the CBD without having to go outside at all. A blessing in summer whilst in a Heat Wave, and a blessing in winder during the bitter cold. We first discovered such a thing in Minnesota, USA back on our first trip. They have the same thing here in Toronto. Our hotel is also joined up, so we were able to get from our Hotel, through to the aquarium without having to go outside at all. When we went through yesterday (being a Sunday afternoon) everything was closed, and it was deserted and very barren. Today, being a weekday, every shop possible was open and people everywhere. It was quite a different experience and much more to see.
We made it to the aquarium, without difficulty. We weren’t too sure of this attraction and tickets being $44 CAD each, but we definitely got our moneys worth. If you are in Toronto, we recommend checking this place out. There was every kind of fish you could imagine, from small ones (bright and shiny to dull) to huge fish (called a potato fish). There were sting rays, sharks and sword fish, ones with long noses and open mouths, and even a little Dory fish, who managed to get himself/herself? trapped between the glass and the rock and kept going around in circles (short term memory?).
Part of the journey through was Danger Lagoon. This was a convey belt ride through tunnels with all sorts of fish all around you. A bit like Kelly Tarltons on steroids. The whole journey through the lagoon would have taken about 15 minutes just allowing the convey belt to carry you along. Here were the sharks, sting rays and other scary things. Check out some of the close-up photos! Some of the sharks liked to relax on the glass covering the tunnel, so you got a real closeup view of the underside of the shark, as well as on top. And sting rays and sword fish too!
There were other tanks and exhibits, information about shipwrecks on the lake and lots of other interactive sites. The last part of the journey spoke of the aquarium’s use of salt and water to make the habitats for the fish and how they keep everything at the right temperature and climate
They do a great job of explaining all the pumps and filters required. Due to complicated reasons a lot of the water is not taken from the sea but starts off as filtered city water with just the right amount of salt added. For more information on the life support systems here is link
Finishing off here, we headed back through PATH to find some lunch at Five Guys (more Root Beer for Danielle) then back to the Hotel to relax by the pool for the afternoon. One thing to note about Toronto, it’s like Auckland with four season in one day. One moment we are lying relaxing in the sun, the next Danielle is running inside with all our stuff as it is pouring with rain!
After hors d’oeuvres in the Executive Lounge (we will have quite a few of our meals here) we decided to head off along the waterfront to watch the sunset and get nice photos of the Toronto skyline. We ended up in Trillium park and spent a lovely hour or so taking photos, wandering around and watching the sun go down. There is a sculpture in the park (we were debating whether temporary or not) called 1000 faces. It is a big ball of little reflective panels that reflect the light, sun and surroundings and move with nature. A good place, the sign said, to stop and reflect.
