Toronto Blue Jays - September 5, 2011

Although we have been to many Tigers games, our family goal to visit the ball parks of every Major League Baseball team officially kicked off with our visit to the Toronto Blue Jays in August of 2011.

The kiddos at Niagara Falls - our stop on the way to Toronto

A view of the stadium from the CN Tower

The sculpture on the outside of the stadium

Toronto Blue Jays home stadium The Rogers Centre (known more popularly as the Skydome)

My made to order pasta dish with veggies

Toronto had the most AMAZING food, including this dish - a made to order pasta dish that came in a cardboard container that made it easy to eat in the seats.  It was heaven for a vegetarian at the stadium because there were so many awesome veggie-friendly eats.

Some of us were more drawn to traditional ball park food

Did I mention the seriously amazing foodie culture at this ball park?

A beautiful ball park that was largely empty and devoid of fans on Labor Day weekend.

On the way out of town we dipped our toes into Lake Ontario so that we could say that we had officially visited every Great Lake.

OUR SPECIAL MEMORIES OF THIS TRIP:

• Toronto has a massive and beautiful stadium, but it was like a ghost town in there.  My Canadian friend Cheryl says that this is common, but that I really need to see the fans at a Maple Leafs game to see where Canadian hearts are really invested.
• They had the most amazing food scene.  In addition to all of the traditional ball park favorites, they had a pasta bar, a huge fresh food area, salad area, grab-n-go healthy food section and lots of cuisine options.  My favorite was the made to order pasta bar that is cooked in a pan in front of you.
• We had to leave the game (which went into extra innings) in the 11th inning because we had to drive back to get the kids ready for school.  The game ended shortly after we left.  
• We visited the CN Tower for spectacular views of Toronto and saw that the CN Tower offers the opportunity to strap into a harness and dangle on a catwalk over the edge of the observation deck.  
• We collected some Lake Ontario sand for the son of our friend so that he could have sand from all of the Great Lakes.  We also put our toes in Lake Ontario.  
• We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in Toronto.  It was cool walking over there, but the skies opened up and we had to take a cab back to the hotel.