Last week, my husband and I spent a couple of days in Toronto, Ontario, Canada — a quick getaway that took more planning than anything else! It all started last Christmas with a gift he gave me — four class passes to the Hourglass Studio in downtown Toronto. Faithful readers will recognize this gym as it is the flagship of Lyzabeth Lopez, the online trainer with whom I’ve worked for the past nearly three years. Lopez got me into training. She was the first to guide me to a formula that is working for me, a hard-gainer who has long struggled to maintain and put on weight.
It was a thoughtful gift but we waited until last week for me to use the passes since Lopez recently had a baby boy and was not working for a few months. Although, she is back she’s not teaching classes every day so I wasn’t able to workout with her but I still had the opportunity to meet her and her family! She was, of course, genuine and kind. I don’t know what people expect someone with more than two million followers on Instagram to be like but we are all human. She was warm and friendly and we joked about back fat and crazy babies like old girlfriends.
The two classes I took with Elizabeth were Upper Body Madness and Booty Builder, a metabolic conditioning and muscle workout respectively. While I was a bit out of shape for the cardio in the metcon, it was still super fun and a departure from my normal lifting routine. Booty Builder was a bit more my jam! Both had elements I am used to from the traditional Train with Lyzabeth online program, as well as her most recently developed TWL App. I can see how those two products derive from her in-person gym classes. It was also really fun to workout in a group setting again, something I don’t usually do at home.
I got the workouts out of the way early in the trip so we could enjoy Toronto for the remainder. We logged over a dozen miles walking around the city’s neighborhoods, trying the food, wine, beer and visiting the markets and shops, including Curiosa, where one can purchase all things Harry Potter! One night we went the tourist route and visited the CN Tower for a sunset dinner; the views were incredible! Our final of the three nights featured a wine bar crawl through the Little Italy and Portugal neighborhoods, which was super fun. It’s not every day we try different, expensive wines!
Here are the trip details:
Who? My husband and I
What? Our somewhat annual getaway trip without the kids
When? June 26 – 29, 2019
Where? Toronto, Ontario, Canada (We stayed in an AirBnB a few blocks from the CN Tower. Billed as the “apartment in the sky,” it was a corner apartment on the 45th floor of the building.)
Why? To meet Lyzabeth Lopez, do a few workouts and see the sights of the city
How? We drove the three-and-a-half-hour trip passing into Canada at Lewiston, New York.
There were too many wines to list here and because I was relaxing too much I did a terrible job keeping track of them. We visited Pellar Estate’s tasting room at the St. Lawrence Market, where we tried their wines for the second time, purchasing our favorite Icewine, Vidal Blanc. The one we enjoyed at the Sotto Voce Wine Bar was a lovely 2014 Montepulciano Tombacco. We also had a few interesting Portugese white wines at the Salt Wine Bar, and a couple more European wines at Sapori.
Getting away for a few days was a wonderful way to reset, but it was not nearly long enough! I’m looking forward to a longer time away from work and responsibilities hopefully in a few weeks, this time with the kids in tow. Special thanks go to Papa for taking care of them while we were away, driving them to field hockey, cheer and honor band rehearsals. While they had a great time vacationing with him, they deserve a family trip, too! Cheers!
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