This is the second of five articles about trips to take across Canada. I was inspired to do this series after I was disappointed by what Canadian tours G Adventures offered on their website.

Canada's 150th birthday cannot be complete without visiting the country's capital city... but which one should you visit? While Ottawa is the current capital of Canada, there have been four other capital cities, and it has changed seven times. It started in Kingston (1841 – 1844) and then moved to Montréal (1844 – 1849), believing it to be safer from the Americans. After the citizens of Montréal burnt it down, it rotated between Toronto (1849 – 1852 and 1856 – 1858) and Québec City (1852 – 1856 and 1859 – 1866). Finally, it was placed right on the border between the two provinces in Ottawa (1866 to present day). This tour ventures into each of these five cities and explores what makes them so unique.

Since the capital flip-flopped location seven times, it would be much more convenient to go through the cities geographically then historically. If we started in the West, we would start in Toronto, Ontario, Canada's biggest city. While G Adventures only mentions the CN Tower and Kensington Market, there is much more to see in this city. You could visit the 18th century Casa Loma Castle, stroll through the artistic Graffiti Alley, visit Ripley's Aquatic Aquarium, or go drink and dine in the Distillery District. Looking for more outdoorsy stuff? Check out the Toronto Islands, the famous High Park or the Toronto Zoo. You can even take a boat out onto Lake Ontario and see the city's iconic skyline!

Although Jollibee was founded in 1978 in the Philippines, it isn't well-known in the West. Appearance-wise, it is a mix between KFC and McDonald's. Their mascot – Jollibee – is a red, anthropomorphic bee, inspired by the friendliness of Mickey Mouse. They have several other mascots too, much like McDonald's, but Jollibee is the main figurehead.

The restaurant opened its first Regina location (2830 Quance Street) in December 2019 and had people camped outside prior to opening day. I can't think of a single restaurant in Regina where this has happened before. Jollibee only has approximately 1,200 (no, I didn't miss a zero there) restaurants worldwide so for it to pick Regina is a testament to our city's diversity and the booming Filipino community.

I know many new restaurants have hiccups when they first open, so I gave Jollibeea little over a month before I visited. I ended up going on a cold, blustery winter night, and I wish I had gone in the daytime to get a better picture of the outside of the building. From what I could see in the pitch blackness, the building was white and grey with white letters on it. There was also a statue of Jollibee outside, welcoming people in, similar to McDonald's and their benches with Ronald McDonald. The statue really surprised me, as it isn't something a lot of fast-food restaurants have.  

It feels like February is the month where a lot of my blog's plotlines are tying themselves up. First, there was confirmation from the City of Regina that the glockenspiel I was vying for will finally begin construction, then there was a major update on the cemetery walking tours (coming soon) and now there's something going on with Jack Keaton's. As interesting as this all is, I will be excited when my travel blog can go back to being about, well, travel. I'm sure you will be too. Thankfully we have some adventures at the end of the month that will be a nice change of pace.

For those who don't recall my episode with Jack Keaton's BBQ and Bar, about a year and a half ago (October 2018) I had an online disagreement with the owner of the restaurant. I was attempting to collaborate with them, but they decided to shut down all communications and essentially "ghost" me. After months of ignored emails, I wrote a negative review on their Facebook page, stating that the management was hard to work with. The owner replied and angrily responded, after a brief exchange of words, that I should "get off my ass" and come to his restaurant.

So I did, and I did a review on it and it was not a positive one.