Toronto, Ontario - 2010 (Day 4)

DAY FOUR - Casa Loma & The Royal Ontario Museum

I went to get the car around midday (for the last time this trip), seeing we didn’t have much planned for our fourth day in Toronto. Mama Hog had seen a 98-room castle called Casa Loma, which was used in the films X-Men and Chicago, and we learned that it was not too far from downtown Toronto, so we made plans to visit it.

The night before, I had also seen an ad for a traveling exhibit that would be featured at the Royal Ontario Museum the following day, called The Emperor Warrior and China’s Terracotta Army.

Casa Loma turned out to be a crowded affair, and the interior seemed to be too dark to get any decent photos, so we hung outside and took snapshots of the exterior before heading back to Craven Cove.

Once back, we realized that lunch beckoned. A restaurant located on Queen St. E. caught our eye. The Tulip Steakhouse they called it, and, according to their accolades, including favorable ratings from Zagat and rave reviews from Timeout Toronto and Trip Advisor, among more obscure sources, we figured the food would be awe-inspiring. For starters, the mashed potatoes tasted like they came straight out of the box, which we believed they did, even though we were told otherwise, and the chicken parm. sauce, which is perhaps the most crucial element of that meal was sub par. Mama Hog thought the corned beef sandwich was the worst she’d ever had (it was unseasoned and bland). I wanted to try their “World Famous Steak” that night, but lunch put me off altogether, so we tried Casa di Giorgio Ristorante down the block, which served decent pizza (not Italia good, but decent nonetheless).

Following lunch we hit the museum, which was free after 3:00 p.m., but we were told that tickets for the Terracotta Army exhibit were sold out. We headed down to the exhibit entrance anyway, and the female “gatekeeper” let us in after giving us some trouble (free of charge). We were glad we got in for free, because what they advertised on TV wasn’t what they offered. The most exciting part of the Terracotta Army experience, in fact, was the gift shop associated with the exhibit itself. Following that, we then made our way to the second level, where dinosaurs awaited us. We took a few shots of skeletons on display and called it quits since the museum was closing.

We were homeward bound after that.

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