Day 4 of Toronto Vacation: Casa Loma and Royal Ontario Museum

This is a special day; you'll understand why as you read along. We woke up at 7:00 AM and prepared for the day. 

Casa Loma

Our first destination is Casa Loma. We took Line 1, got off at Dupont Station, and walked to the bottom of Baldwin Steps. The long staircase will take us to Casa Loma. 

Baldwin Steps

Apparently, it's not a castle but a castle-style mansion of Sir Henry Pellatt. It has 98 rooms and was the largest private residence in Canada.

We're in front of Casa Loma.

The exterior is magnificent. I also love the two secret passages in Pellatt's ground-floor office and the library. On the third floor are stairs to the towers of the mansion. Overall, it was an impressive home.

We're in front of the pumpkin cart.

One more picture before more tourists arrive!

Inside the Library

Their house has a Conservatory!

This narrow staircase is one of the secret passages.

After two hours in Casa Loma, we walked back to the train station to Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

We walked around ROM for four hours, and it felt like we were rushing through things. Honestly, you can spend a whole day here reading and learning about all the displays. I made a comment that we don't have a museum this big in Vancouver, and he said, well each floor or section here is a separate museum in Vancouver. For example, we have the Museum of Anthropology (first and third floor of ROM) and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum (second floor of ROM).

Royal Ontario Museum

Inside the Royal Ontario Museum

I love the life-size displays in the China exhibit on the ground floor.

The canoes inside the Indigenous exhibit remind me of the one in the Museum of Anthropology in BC.

I enjoyed the Dawn of Life gallery on evolution and our common single-cell ancestors.

The dinosaur display is mind-blowing in both size and numbers!

Of course, a selfie with the T-Rex is required.

Biodiversity: Life in Crisis highlighted all the creatures that are endangered. 

My favourite display in the Earth's Treasure Gallery is the 1-million dollars gold coin - only five were minted!

The evolution of Style in Europe is like walking through a time machine and travelling through the changes in style at home.

A mummy. It's my first time seeing one up close, and I got goosebumps.

There are so many displays and pictures, and I recommend spending a whole day here to appreciate everything. Unfortunately, the fourth floor wasn't open because they were preparing for a new exhibit.

We finished here close to 3:00 PM, and we hadn't had lunch or any food after a muffin and scone at 8:00 AM this morning. I'm starving and felt dizzy. I already can hear my mom's voice "nagpapalipas kasi ng gutom." (roughly translated to "skipping meals caused your headache!.")

After looking at everything, we went to the cafe downstairs and hurriedly ate croissants. They're stale. Then, we met with Mitch! She's the maid-of-honour at our wedding and the main reason why we decided to fly to Toronto and have a vacation.

She's here for about two weeks, and we're just excited to meet with her and spend time.

We went to Sugo for lunch, and they have delicious spaghetti, meatball, and American-Italian food. Unfortunately, after a few bites of food, I started getting a bad headache and wanted to throw up. I felt cold too. I had to stop eating; my husband and dear friend were worried. I felt so bad for ruining our good time.

We agreed to return to the hotel with Mitch and just took a Lyft. I felt slightly better when I burped. We exchanged gifts in the hotel room and had such a fun time catching up. I also ate our leftovers, specifically the garlic bread.

Stickers from Mitch ordered from our friend Clair!

With food in my stomach, we walked to nearby Fugo (we had dinner at Sugo and desserts at Fugo, LOL). Instead of ice creams, hubby and I opted for mini donuts and tater tots.

We said our good nights since Mitch was still very much jetlag.

My heart is full of love to see our dear friend.