Our weekend in Toronto was a true whirlwind. From touchdown to takeoff, we had about 54 hours to explore – definitely not enough time to get a full feel for the city but enough to whet my appetite to return. The first thing we noticed was how diverse it was, with neighborhoods such as Greektown, Chinatown (more than one), Little Italy, Little India and Little Malta; restaurants representing what I’d assume are a large percentage of cuisines around the globe; and streets filled with people speaking a range of different languages.

Since we had so little time, we kept our exploration tight, staying mainly around the harborfront area and a few hours in Queen Street West. Here are my five recommendations for things to do and eat:

1. Stay at The Ritz-Carlton First we were greeted with Champagne at reception. [heart] Then we discovered the adorable Toronto skyline shown above waiting for us in our room. I don’t know what that sandwich cookie was that’s in front of the chocolate, but it was amazing. Everything else was, too, but that one really stuck out. Our room had floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at Lake Ontario and the CN Tower, which glowed with changing colors at night. The onsite restaurant, TOCA (TOronto CAnada) hit all the right notes and had this really fantastic cheese cave. Oh, and the plates! They were all hand-painted by the hotel’s resident artist, Jacqueline Poirier, and they’re totally adorable.

Luckily, we had a chance to hang out by the salt water pool (I had a great nap on one of the oversized cushioned lounge chairs), and I spent a few hours in the spa getting the signature My Blend facial. I was especially excited to find out that a light therapy mask was part of the treatment; it looks like a mask from Friday the 13th but I really think it did good things for my skin. I can’t forget the Club level, either: the food offered changes throughout the day, and there’s always coffee, booze and snacks (lots of gummies). I would have been content never leaving the hotel, but then i would have missed out on so many other things, like …

2. Bang Bang Icecream Located in the West Queen neighborhood, this tiny (tiny, tiny, tiny) dessert spot with a long (long, long, long) line specializes in portable ice cream treats. There’s a selection of different frozen flavors that you can choose to sandwich between homemade cookies, in a cream puff, in a Hong Kong waffle cone or – OVERLOAD ALERT – a cinnibun. We did The Everything cookie (peanut butter, oatmeal, pretzels, chocolate) with burnt toffee ice cream. I loved this. LOVED! We split an ice cream sandwich, which I think was the way to go.

3. Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada We weren’t quite sure what to expect. After all, it was a Sunday, it was raining outside and the place was swarming with small humans. And we were two big humans. (A bit bigger after our stop at Bang Bang.) But we were fascinated by all the crazy different types of fish. I wish I had a good photo of the paddlefish we gaped at, but shooting through glass – especially with my iPhone – is a challenge. But you can see one here. About halfway through the path through the aquarium, you land on a moving walkway and find yourself gliding through a glass tunnel: fish above and to both sides. It was so cool to feel like I was right next to sharks, stingrays, sawfish and all sorts of other sea life. Then to cap it off, we hit the jellyfish tanks, which are bathed in a revolving rainbow of light.

4. Anything at SOMA Chocolatemaker … but especially the bicerin, a drink from Torino, Italy, that layers temperatures and flavors: dark drinking chocolate (hot), espresso (hot) and whipped cream (cold). We shared one, a move that I’m regretting in retrospect. And even though I’m trying to put a moratorium on my chocolate buying (my hoard back home is still quite large), I couldn’t resist picking up one small Ruby Red Bar studded with red berries and a small box of truffles (Douglas fir, Arbequina olive oil, brown butter, pistachio crisp).

5. Hanji Gifts I’m almost as addicted to paper products as I am to chocolate, which made stopping in at this cute gift and stationery store a no-brainer. They had a super nice assortment of laser-cut greeting cards, the kind you find all over Asia, as well as cute gifty things, rows and rows of colorful paper by the sheet, notebooks, stickers, Washi tape, little books, more notebooks – GAH! Somehow I walked out empty-handed; I guess my paper self-control is stronger than my chocolate self-control.

There’s a lot we did that I didn’t touch on – going up to the observation deck of the CN Tower, walking around Kensington Market, eating (eating, eating, eating) and purchasing children’s books in Chinatown to help Ian with his Mandarin – but even if I wrote more, I couldn’t give the city the love it deserves. Next time.