{winner's circle: toronto candada}

john won his 6th winner's circle trip (in a row) for opening new accounts.  this year's trip was to toronto, canada.  we decided not to extend this trip so we flew out of chicago on thursday. 

 thursday night we had the awards dinner with all the other winners.  we got to dress up and eat delicious food.  we went back to our hotel and crashed pretty early.  we were greeted with snacks and learned that smarties in canada are chocolate.  so strange! they also had ketchup flavored potato chips.  they were interesting.

on friday we went on an excursion with other gfs people to casa loma.  this really rich guy who had a monopoly on electricity built this castle for his wife.  it had 96 rooms, secret passage ways, underground tunnels to the stables, pool, bowling alley, movie theater, etc.  it even had a guest room that was designed for royalty visiting canada.  he was hoping they would stay at his castle but no royalty ever did.  he only lived in the castle a short time because he lost all of his money and the city of toronto took it over. 

 this was the room that was intended for royalty.  the whole castle was really interesting.

 afterwards we went to flor de sal, a mediterranean restaurant.  i had rabbit alfredo (green noodles, oil based sauce).  it was really good and the desert was to die for! i had a really bad headache coming on so i spent a few hours in the hotel resting while john went to st. lawrence market.  friday evening we had the divisional dinners and we ate at the cactus club cafe.  we both loved our meal and again the desert, oh my!

saturday we didn't have anything planned during the day so we went to graffiti alley and checked out this landmark.  it was pretty neat.

then we headed to the distillery district in old town toronto.  it is a cobblestone walkway lined with shops and restaurants. then we walked down by the pink umbrella beach and sat by lake ontario.  it reminded me of lake shore drive in chicago.

that night we went to the hockey hall of fame for dinner. they had lots of different buffet style tables set up. we were told to wear our favorite sports jersey so we had to represent the cubs!

we aren't huge hockey fans but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a picture with the stanley cup. 

we flew out early sunday morning and got home in the afternoon.  we were glad we didn't extend our tirp as this was probably our least favorite location for winner's circle.  however, it was still great to spend time with some of john's colleagues and experience a new city!