Second stop: Toronto, Ontario

Greetings from Toronto!  We've had the great pleasure of stopping in this great city for a few days before taking off for our European adventure.  Fortuitously, it was cheaper for us to fly to Vienna through Toronto than directly from Washington DC, so it was a nice opportunity to meet up with some of my extended family in Canada that we hadn't seen in a while.

We stayed with Neel (technically an uncle by Bengali terminology but more like an older sibling to me) and his lovely wife, Tiasi.  They have two adorable kiddos, Anik and Avani, pictured below with their proud Papa.

We only had a few days to spend with everyone, but really got to do/see a lot.  Our first day in Toronto was spent at the Historic Distillery District, which started out as a grist mill in the 1830s, later became a whiskey distillery, and is now a mixed retail / restaurant area surrounded by condos (a small part of the area houses a currently functioning distillery, though).  

Cool sign we saw at the distillery.

A sampler of four beers at a local brewpub called Mill Street brewery,
where we also stopped for lunch.

I'm very unskilled at taking selfies but I wanted a picture with Neel.

Atlantic salmon with beer broth, chickpeas, and various other veggies.

Delicious pasta with beer-braised pork sausage in a rich tomato sauce.

We also walked along the waterfront in the Humber Bay area after lunch since it was a gorgeous day!

The Humber Bay Bridge

A view of downtown Toronto from the waterfront walking trail.

We came home that afternoon and grilled up some meat, potatoes, and corn for the evening.  Actually, correction: Neel cooked everything and we did nothing except play with two really cute kids.  By the way, we really had a ton of fun getting to know Anik and Avani.

Me with Avani.

Joe pushing Anik around on a scooter.

  

The next day, we headed to the Ontario Science Center for a few hours, then over to Neel's parents' house for another fantastic cookout and a bit of a family reunion.  Coincidentally, my parents were visiting Toronto so we got to spend the evening with them as well!  My mother and Neel's mother (her aunt) were also very close growing up so it was nice that they got the chance to catch up.  

A Ghosh family photo at the Rainforest exhibit in the Ontario Science Center.

From left to right: grilled chicken kabobs, tandoori chicken, and spicy grouper fish.

The food spread of deliciousness continued.

Chaanachur is a tasty fried snack but some mixes
are better than others.  This one is specifically
a Bangladeshi mix made by "Ruchi" which is
barbeque-flavored.  The bag was almost empty by
the end of the night!

A fantastic family photo.  From left to right: Joe, Neel, Anik, my dad, my mom, Neel's father (Dadu), Tiasi, Avani, and Neel's mother (Dida). 

Everyone loved Anik's little sister, Avani.

I think this picture is so cute! Check out that little belly.

Avani playing peek-a-boo with her grandmother (Thamma).

Sadly, we had to leave Toronto this afternoon but we are off on a new adventure -- this time, to explore Vienna, Austria!  It turns out that that our flight is delayed four hours and we'll miss our connecting flight to Vienna from Brussels due to a large-scale power outage in the area.  Yikes!  So, we'll be stuck in the Toronto Pearson airport for several hours, but it could honestly be way worse. 

For example, I coincidentally sprained my right ankle this morning (which is actually sort of crappy) so Joe (and others) encouraged me to ride around in a wheelchair to prevent further injury and inflammation to the area.  I was initially averse to the idea but agreed that it was better to rest up before we start walking around a whole lot.  Also, since people in wheelchairs receive priority in airport security, we got to skip the lines, woohoo!  We also received dinner vouchers because of the delay in our flight.  On top of that, with Canadians being the nicest people on the face of the planet, we've gotten to use the free wifi at the amply available iPad stations around our terminal.  If you don't believe me about how nice Canadians are, check out this sign:

Restaurant purchases not required?!  WHAT?! This would never happen in the US.
Notice the rows and rows of iPad stations behind this sign, by the way.

We'll update more on our travels when we finally get to Vienna!