We awake to rain showers in Hamilton which continue all morning as we arrive at Niagara Falls. The falls are as spectacular as I remember as a child even with rain and gusting winds. It is Ray’s first time there. The town itself is a bit Vegas-like but given the weather and time of year, is quiet. We find the grounds of the park to be nicely groomed with beautiful flower gardens and we learn that the objective of the park foundation was to maintain the view free of charge to all, which is terrific.
It takes us 90 min. to get to Markham, a suburb of Toronto, which we had been told has the “best Chinese food and dim sum in north america.” The reception host at the Hilton Garden Inn asks me what brings us to Markham, and I reply, “the food!”
With great anticipation, we walk across the street and arrive at the Dragon Boat Fusion Restaurant at 2; the timing is not coincidental as we were told each day people start lining up at 8am for the 10am opening, and the lines continue until 2. Today it so happens is a slow day and we get a table immediately. The challenge is deciding what to order. We wish we had more people with us. After all, how much can 2 people eat? Apparently quite a bit, as we do pretty well, though we won’t need to eat again for a week! It is truly the best dim sum we have had since going to a floating restaurant, the Jumbo in Hong Kong nearly 40 years ago.
After all this food, we need to walk it off, so we take the subway to downtown. The CN tower is open and we watch the sunset and lights of Toronto from 1,100 ft high. It is a crystal clear evening.
Toronto is a lovely city, very diverse, clean, safe and with a very efficient public transportation system. We are quite impressed with what appears to be a good quality of life here.