Gingerbread Cafe Fans: 1 ME: zero

Okay, you win! I don't care any more, this is obviously a really big deal to those of you who posted rude comments about my blog entry, and honestly I couldn't care less who goes or doesn't go to the Gingerbread House Cafe!

For those of you who don't know (meaning you Mom, these people don't seem to get that you are the only one who reads this?!?!?!), I wrote a bad review about the Gingerbread House Cafe, and some people read it ( I know, so exciting, people other than my immediate family taking time to read my thoughts), and instead of responding in a similarly sarcastic and funny tone, or just letting me know their own ideas in a civilized way, they FREAKED OUT! Actually thinking that I was blaming the restaurant for the kid falling while I wasn't paying attention to her, and literally getting pissed that I didn't like the decor...I know! Who cares if I don't like it!....but apparently my opinion is very important to these anonymous people, and since I appear to be SO influential (what other reason could people have for going so far as to call me a bad parent for my review!) I thought I could either tell them where to go, or better than that not GIVE A SHIT! 

So there it is, I don't care, I give in, I blog for fun, you don't like it, get off my page and read something else!

...but I still don't like the place ( ...and that's okay, we are allowed to have differing opinions), and to be honest even if I were tempted to give it another try, now knowing a little bit more about the kind of people that hang out there...let's just say I like an easier going crowd, life's too short to be so uptight.

Beached Baby

Finally summer seems to have arrived and no better way to commemorate a rain-free day than heading to the beach. Packed up the kid and headed to Toronto Island (YAY! Strike over!) with my brother and sister (happy birthday) for the afternoon....and to be honest I'm finding it hard to come up with any witty comments because there was really no part of the day I can complain about, and when I'm not complaining I really don't have much to say...just ask my husband (boo, bad joke!)

When I woke up this morning completely unprepared for the upcoming adventure I felt slightly overwhelmed, thinking I would need to organize a transport truck worth of supplies, I wasn't too sure how the day would go, but after 15 minutes had passed and I realized I had everything ready it kind of clicked that I wasn't heading off to some secluded tropical island...it's a 15 minute ferry ride from where I parked my car.

Once we paid our $6.50 for return fare on the ferry and lined up I realized I was not the only genius mother of a baby that thought this would be a fun day trip, we were swarmed with strollers, I'm pretty sure their were more strollers than adults...it had a bit of children of the corn vibe, that is if we were to walk into that town about 8 years before the movie was made and the 'children' were in diapers...does that make sense??? lotsa babies, that's all I'm saying.

The boat docks and it's a mad exodus toward the water, and who the hell are we to think for ourselves, so we follow. Along the way I see a ton of picnic blankets swarming with kids and happy parents, a splashpad and playground, bike rentals, kids playing on the beach...even in the water, not something I would advice, but those 8 year old kids weren't glowing green when they came out of the water so what do I know.

After a small picnic we headed to Wards Island Beach, the walk over on the board walk was not only picturesque but for the first time in 4 months got the little one to fall asleep in her stroller and stay that way giving me a whole 45 minutes of uninterrupted tanning...pretty much that alone is why this will go down as one of my favourite summer places. The beach was great, busy enough that you didn't feel like you were trespassing on private property, but no annoying people playing soccer near your face and not running to catch the ball before it hits you on the head making you cry out in pain so everyone looks over and you get really embarrassed...not saying that it ever happened to me or anything...

Overall, great place to take the babies!

SOME TIPS:

• Parking will cost $15 cash
• Ferry kiosk only takes cash
• Cheap picnic food suggestion - chinatown bakery, we got pork bun/sticky rice/chicken pies/spring rolls/sausage bun (and 3 of each) for under $10...just ignore the fact that Chinatown is inundated with rats and you'll be fine
• Lot of goose poo around, watch where the baby crawls