#TBEX 2013 Highlights and Lowlights + The Rest of Toronto

If you didn't notice I have been putting off writing about the TBEX Conference itself. It is so much easier to write about the things I did rather than try to distill what I learned into a blog post.

Check out my other TBEX and Toronto posts first if you missed them:
- Pre-TBEX: Toronto Photo Walk
- Toronto: The Food and The Parties
- Learning How to Use a Knife in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market
- Seeing Niagara Falls from Toronto by Bus

Highlights

The Venue: TBEX was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Center South Building. I noticed that if you needed some time for a breather, it was very easy to find a spot to get away from everything. And there were tons of places to sit!

The Keynotes: I attended two keynotes. The first was given by Trey Ratcliff from Stuck in Customs. He shared stories and his beautiful photographs. The second was from Dave and Deb from The Planet D, where they spoke about the current state of travel blogging. While some complain that you don't really learn much from keynotes, which I think is true, it is my belief that keynotes serve more of an inspirational (aspirational) purpose. As in, one day I aspire to get paid for what I do. 

Keynote from Trey Ratcliff, Stuck in Customs

Speed Dating and Access to Brands, DMOs and Destinations: I'm a small fry but I had a chance to network with and pitch to DMOs, destinations and brands in both informal and formal settings. While I only had one speed dating appointment, I really learned a lot from preparing for it and going through the experience. 

TBEX Speed Dating

The Swag: Who doesn't love getting free stuff? The best things I received were a solar charger from American Express SPG and Gogo Inflight sessions. Also, my current favorite pen was from Google.   

Lowlights

Overcrowded Sessions: I picked out a number of sessions to attend before the conference started but was unable to attend any of them. The breakout rooms were way too small. I even tried to attend second and third choice sessions to no avail. Good thing lots of the sessions slides are available online for me to review. 

Snobbery: I am not a professional blogger although I wish I could be. I just don't make enough/anything from writing my blog. I realize that there are some people who are able to do it, but that doesn't mean there isn't room in the travel blogging sphere for both professionals and non-professionals. That is why it really irks me to hear and see the snobbery put out there by some professional travel bloggers. 

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After TBEX was over, I had almost all of Monday to further explore Toronto. The weather was amazing! 

Since CN Tower was so close to us, we decided to go to the top and enjoy the view. Unfortunately, it seemed that every school kid in Toronto was having a field trip that day. It was loud and they were running amuck, so we went it and out pretty quickly. 

The views were gorgeous though!

CN Tower has a section with a glass floor. Scary, huh? All of the school kids were jumping and sitting on it so I could barely get a photo.

After we elbowed our way out of CN Tower, we passed by Rogers Centre and visited the Blue Jays Shop.

It soon turned into lunch time, so we met up with a friend for lunch in Kensington Market, which I wrote about in my food post. We had some time left before Rebecca had to head to the airport, so we walked around Kensington Market. There are so many interesting boutiques and restaurants, plus a bunch of cool street art.  

 

I said good-bye to my sister, and then headed to the Art Gallery of Ontario, where I planned to spend my afternoon. Only thing was that it is closed on Mondays! Fail! 

Instead, I walked around Chinatown and took a long leisurely stroll back to the Downtown Core.

  
I decided to spend the rest of my day at a coffeeshop to catch up on email and blogging before it was time to bid Toronto adieu! 

Disclosure: I received complimentary entry to CN Tower from Tourism Toronto and swag from assorted TBEX sponsors. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here. 

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Seeing Niagara Falls from Toronto by Bus Tour

Since it took me almost 33 years to finally make it to Toronto, who knows when I will return for my second visit! With that in mind, I decided that Niagara Falls was a must-see during my TBEX trip. I looked into booking a day tour for a number of reasons, but the main reason was because I was expecting to be dead tired from the conference and wouldn't want to drive.

Most of the tour operators pick up and drop off passengers at each of their hotels, which makes the day pretty long and wastes a good amount of time for a tourist who is visiting for only a short time. Chariots of Fire, on the other hand, picks up and drops off at three locations around the city. This allows passengers more time to enjoy Toronto. We picked them as our tour provider for this reason.

Our bus picked us up from the tour stop at 33 Yonge Street at 7:30 am.

We left Yonge-Dundas Square, the third and final pick up point, at 8 am and were on our way to Niagara Falls.

During the drive to our first stop, the driver gave us an overview of what our day would look like and told us some fun facts. Quite honestly, I tuned some of it out, tried to nap and checked my Twitter feed.

About an hour later, we reached our first stop of the day: Skylon Tower. It was an extra $12CAD to go to the top of the 520-foot Tower.  A glass-enclosed elevator took us to the observation level, where there are indoor/outdoor viewing decks. From there you can enjoy views 775-feet above the bottom of Niagara Falls.

From the observation level, we could see the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario. 

The other city of Niagara Falls (in New York) was also visible from the top of Skylon Tower.

Of course, we were there to see the three waterfalls that are collectively called Niagara Falls. There is the largest falls, the Horseshoe (or Canadian) Falls. This view also gave us a sneak peek into what was in store for us later that afternoon when we were scheduled to ride the Maid of the Mist. See that tiny boat? That was going to be us.

Then there are the American Falls on the left and the much smaller Bridal Veil Falls on the right.

After we were done with the observation level, we perused the gift shop. There sure is a lot of maple syrup!

From Skylon Tower, we traveled to Table Rock to see the Falls from a different angle: the top! Being up here made me think about the mind set of the daredevils who decided to go off the falls in a barrel or other contraption. Hey, this looks like a great place to jump off from!  

Look at that mist! 

 Image Credit: CruisingGoddess

Maid of the Mist was the next item on our agenda. The Maid of the Mist is a boat ride that takes you past Skylon Tower to your right and the American and Bridal Veil Falls to your left and into the center of the horseshoe of Horseshoe Falls. You will get wet on this ride. Rebecca and I brought waterproof pants to wear over the shorts we were wearing. Before boarding the boat, we were each given a blue poncho to put on.  

Image Credit: CruisingGoddess

We decided to grab spots on the top deck to be closer to the action. That's me all ready for my misty boat ride. We had clear views of Skylon Tower where we were standing. 

Then we approached Horseshoe Falls. The wind was whipping and the mist? More like the waterfall is raining on you! At this point, I couldn't see a thing so I just held my camera up and snapped away. From the progression of photos below, you can see that my camera couldn't see anything either! Maybe I should wipe down my lens? Hah!

Poncho protection did some good, but it didn't keep me completely dry. Water trickled down my neck and sleeves. Sad face.

But as we turned to make our way back, the sun was shining upon the American Falls! So gorgeous. 

After Maid of the Mist, we had some free time so we decided to have lunch at one of the food counters there. We continued on our way and passed by some interesting things and made very quick photo stops. 

We saw Red Hill's steel barrel, which he used to face the falls (successfully), Niagara Whirlpool, Sir Adam Beck Power Station (I'm quite sure I have no idea why this is part of the tour), and a lovely 40-foot Floral Clock. 

We also passed by the Living Water Wayside Chapel, a tiny 10 foot by 10 foot chapel, which has the distinction of being the smallest chapel in the world. 

We arrived a short time later in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, an adorable if super touristy destination. We had some time to explore the town, so we took a walk around and browsed some of the shops. 

We took a break to enjoy some snacks. Rebecca had a beef patty from Niagara Home Bakery, and I had black cherry gelato from Nina Gelateria. We also purchased some macarons to enjoy later. Mmmmm...

 

Our final stop for the day was Diamond Estates for some wine tasting. Diamond Estates is Dan Aykroyd's winery. Yes, Dan Aykroyd has a winery!

For the tasting, we tried two ice wines and an unoaked chardonnay. Something I learned that day is that ice wine is made from grapes that are frozen on the vine, hence the term ice wine. The ice wines we tried were a riesling and a cabernet franc. I really enjoyed the cab franc. Sweet with a hint of raspberries. 

We made it back to our drop off spot in Downtown Toronto as promised at 5:00 pm, which gave us the whole night to wander the city some more and rest. It was a packed but fun-filled day!

Tour cost: $60CAD plus taxes

If you missed any of my other Toronto posts, check them out:

- Pre-TBEX: Toronto Photo Walk

- Toronto: The Food and The Parties

- Learning How to Use a Knife in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market

Learning How to Use a Knife in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market

Rebecca the Cruising Goddess and I spent an afternoon in Toronto learning how to cut things. Before the conference, I signed us up for a tour entitled "Shop with the Chef at St. Lawrence Market." The tour wound up being more chef-ing than shopping. While I know my way around the kitchen, I wouldn't say that I have great technique. Despite the number of television cooking shows I have seen in my day, I still learned a lot from this experience.

Our knife skills class took place in the Market Kitchen, which overlooks the stalls of St. Lawrence Market. When we entered the Miele Gallery and saw these station set-ups of cutting boards, knives and veggies, I knew I was going to have to work for my lunch!

Before the start of our class, we were treated to some goodies from Carousel Bakery. I have been dying to try their famous peameal bacon sandwich. For the uninitiated, peameal bacon is cured pork loin rolled in ground cornmeal. I found the sandwich to be pretty salty and dry but I am so glad I tried it. To round out our snack, we had pasteis de nata (Portuguese egg custard), which I ate a million of on my trip to Portugal last summer. So yummy!

After we enjoyed our treats, our cooking class began. 

We were taught how to make different cuts for vegetables, such as a chop, julienne and mince, and how to prepare a variety of fresh herbs. We also were shown some tricks to preparing whole garlic cloves and how to make garlic paste. The coolest part was seeing how a chicken is broken down. I have never purchased a whole chicken before in my life, except to boil it. Maybe I won't be afraid to next time!

Watch out, I've got a knife! 

After about an hour and a half of cutting and wiping down our cutting boards, we got to eat some great food: a light salad, a vegetable soup and an amazing rhubarb crumble. 

We had a short amount of time left to explore the sights and sounds of the market downstairs. It was fun to see all of the great product available for sale every day of the week. I had a great few hours visiting this historical and food-filled sight! 

In addition to the Knife Skills Class, St. Lawrence Market offers a number of other classes, including "Make and Takes." Visit their website to learn more. 

Website: St. Lawrence Market

If you missed any of my other Toronto posts, check them out:

- Pre-TBEX: Toronto Photo Walk

- Toronto: The Food and The Parties

Disclosure: I attended this cooking class free of charge as an attendee of TBEX. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here. 

Toronto: The Food and The Parties

During my stay in Toronto, I only had a few opportunities to try out the local eats. After our Toronto Photo Walk, Rebecca (big sister/Cruising Goddess) and I stopped for lunch at Mother's Dumplings to try their handmade dumplings. What else?

The two of us shared orders of xiao long bao (pork dumplings), scallion pancakes and steamed shrimp dumplings. I thought the first two items were excellent, but the skin of the shrimp dumplings seemed dry to me. This was more than enough food for the both of us, and we left stuffed!  

Later in the day, Tourism Toronto hosted the TBEX Opening Night Party at the beautiful Roy Thomson Hall. 

Toronto is well-known for being an extremely diverse city with 50 percent of its inhabitants being foreign-born. This diversity was showcased during the Opening Night Party. There were different food stations set up around the Hall, each representing a different ethnic neighborhood in Toronto. Chinatown was one of the "neighborhoods" that I stopped by to get myself a cute take-out box of lo mein and dim sum! 

A highlight of the evening was Ninutik Maple's presence! They were on hand to create some yummy treats. Maple syrup was ladled onto a bed of ice to chill and then a cube of cheese was wrapped in the frozen maple syrup. Below is a video of the process.

There was also a pretty dessert table with lots of little sweet delights to sample.



And there was even a gummy bear carving station. Now, that is something I had never seen before!

At the end of the evening, we were treated to a surprise performance by Canadian musician, Serena Ryder. 

The next night, we attended Expedia's Viewing Party, which was held at Shopsy's on Centre Island. Since Centre Island is an island, we had to take a short 15-minute ferry ride to the venue. This gave us some awesome views of the Toronto waterfront! 

We got lots of fun foods during the event from build your own burgers to sno-cones and cotton candy. 

On the ferry ride back to Toronto, we also got to see the skyline all lite up. I love the different reflections of color on the water. So pretty!

There wasn't an evening event on Sunday, so that gave us another chance to try out some local restaurants. We decided on Japanese since we had been eating some pretty heavy meals. We found Yuzu No Hana to be very close to our hotel as well as highly rated on Yelp. 

Rebecca and I shared the tuna avocado tartare. I also ordered a salmon handroll, yellowtail nigiri and tenzaru soba. Yes, that was a lot of food, but so yummy! 

I also had the not-so-brilliant idea that we couldn't leave Toronto without having tried poutine. Since Smoke's Poutinerie was only a couple of doors away, I convinced sister to make one last stop for the evening with me. If you don't know what poutine is, it is a Canadian dish, originating from Quebec, of french fries topped with gravy and cheese curds. I had to try it but found it super salty and not very appetizing.

On our last day in Toronto, we met up with Professor Wong, one of my oldest friends/former neighbor/high school buddy and current Toronto resident. We had lunch at Wanda's Pie in the Sky in Kensington Market.

I had the brie and nut pate sandwich, which I thought looked and tasted like meat loaf. Interesting, no? We also shared a terribly cute rhubarb pie!

You might think I'm crazy for saying this after looking at everything I ate, but I wish I could have tried more food and explored more of the neighborhoods! Next time!

Mother's Dumplings
421 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, ON M5T 2G6
Canada

Yuzu No Hana

236 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 1W7

Canada

Smoke's Poutinerie

218 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 1W7

Canada

Wanda's Pie in the Sky
287 Augusta Avenue
Toronto, ON M5T 2M2
Canada