TORONTO
Another high point of my visit was dinner atop the CN Tower
at 360 Restaurant. The food is fabulous—entrees include Atlantic
salmon, Alberta prime rib, roasted Ontario chicken and Perth
County pork belly—but experiencing the view is all-consuming.
Towers are great places for contemplation. The day had been
rainy, but the clouds cleared as the sun set. And as darkness
fell, lines of traffic lit up in angry red streaks below … while I
quietly devoured my carrot and quinoa cake. cntower.ca
Morrell-West told me that operators often package Toronto
with Niagara Falls as a day trip. In other cases, she said,
Toronto is booked as a multi-city tour that can include
Ottawa, Montréal and Newfoundland.
And Somarr iba was eager to tout Toronto’s professional
sports teams. “The fandemonium here is awesome, and you
can get your sports fix all year ’round,” she said. The teams
360 Restaurant in the CN Tower
CITY SPOTLIGHT
she cited are the basketball Raptors, hockey Maple Leafs, foot-
ball Argonauts, soccer Toronto FC and baseball Blue Jays.
Oh yeah, the Blue Jays. I almost forgot.
Due to my tight schedule, I was unable to experience
something I had enjoyed during a visit to Toronto years
earlier: a harbor cruise. Courtney Mayer of Mariposa
Cruises was willing to hold the boat for me, and she
can help tour operators hold a special event aboard one
of the company’s six ships.
“Along with regularly scheduled 45-minute harbor
tours, we have lunch, dinner and weekend cruises for
groups,” she said. “Tour operators book directly with us.”
Operating from April to
Dec. 31, Mariposa Cruises
also offers private events
for visiting school groups
and can assist with event
planning for as many as
575 guests.
mariposacruises.com
Missed the boat
Pie, please
I had pizza in Toronto I had never before entertained (and I
entertain a lot of pizza): a marinara pie with no meat or cheese,
pizza with double-smoked bacon and kale, and a sushi pizza.
All were memorable.
Tanks for the memories
Planet Jellies at Ripley’s
Aquarium of Canada
32
January 2018
BY MARY CATHERINE DORSETT, NTA STAFF
While visiting Toronto for Tourism Cares in late October, I had the pleasure of
touring Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. I rank this as a must-see on any visit.
The aquarium includes four touch tanks, the largest horseshoe crab tank in
the world, an enormous jellyfish tank, Ray Bay (with four species of stingray)
and the Dangerous Lagoon, an action-packed exhibit that features a tunnel
with a moving sidewalk. You can hop on and off to admire stingrays, sea turtles
and fish as they swish over your head.
For the more adventurous visitor, the aquarium gives you the chance to suit up
and swim with the sharks. Reservations are required for this popular program.
While I strolled through the galleries, I saw staff divers swimming about, clean-
ing the tanks, feeding and checking up on the aquatic life. (One diver was carving
a jack-o-lantern underwater!)
While you’re there, be sure to check out my favorites: the scarlet cleaner
shrimp in one of the touch tanks and Planet Jellies, an otherworldly gallery of
backlit jellyfish. ripleysaquariumofcanada.com