Last weekend, The Real Housewives of Atlanta shut down Caribana and proved that Canada is the impromptu girls trip you didn't know you needed.
Known for being one of Canada's largest street parades, our favorite Georgia peaches made it clear that they did not come to play. Celebrating the 52nd anniversary of Caribana, Kandi Burruss, Cynthia Bailey, Porsha Williams, and Kenya Moore were glammed and jeweled from head-to-toe in their carnival costumes and from the looks of their social media, Toronto did not disappoint.
Although you can only partake in this Caribbean music festival once a year, there are tons of other squad-friendly experiences that you and your besties can experience together for the first time.
The only thing better than a weekend in the 6 is spending it with your squad, and xoNecole is here to give you the ultimate girl's guide to Toronto for a trip that you and your tribe will never forget. If you and your girls are considering catching a flight to Canada, here are 6 spots you should check out while you're there:
Museum of Illusions
If you've been lucky enough to check out the Museum of Illusions in New York, you'll love the Instagram-worthy content you'll be able to capture at the Museum of Illusions in Toronto. Coined as a "fitness center for the brain," this attraction is sure to be a win for all age groups and offers a sensory experience that will give your girls trip a one-of-a-kind, not to mention it costs less than $25 bucks.
Body Blitz Spa
You and your tribe deserve to be pampered like the queens that you are, so level up your self-care game and head over to one of the most highly recommended spas in Toronto. Known for their therapeutic Dead Sea salt pool and eucalyptus steam room, this facility offers packages, starting at $195 for three hours and also offers a 10% off discount for groups.
The Distillery District
You can leave your rental car at the hotel for this pedestrian-only attraction. Don't let the Distillery Districts old towne vibe fool you. The dope mix of vintage and contemporary makes for a great day of art, food, and getting lit at some of the local bars. If you make it down to the district during the winter months, you'll also get a glimpse of the annual Christmas Market and Toronto Light Festival.
CF Toronto Eaton Center
No matter how different you and your friends may be from one another, there's no doubt that the CF Toronto Eaton Centre will have options that your whole tribe will love. With over 250 stores in one mall, this attraction is any shopper's dream, and if you're balling on a budget, it can also be a good place to grab a bite to eat and people watch.
Ripley's Aquarium
If you and your girls are looking for a walk on the wild side, Ripley's Aquarium offers an array of over 20,000 aquatic animals and the longest underwater viewing tunnel in North America. If you're feeling bad and bougie, the aquarium also offers a service where you can hire your own professional photographer to get some high-quality shots of you and your girls during your experience.
CN Tower
The tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere now offers an adrenaline-inducing experience that you and your girls need to add to your bucket list ASAP. Standing at more than 500 miles high, you can get your whole life at the CN Tower, which offers a variety of experiences including but not limited to eating at a revolving restaurant in the sky and standing hands-free off the edge of a building that overlooks the city (if you're brave). Even if you decide to play it safe, even your least adventurous homegirl will get a kick out of this attraction.
Featured image by Instagram/@Porsha4Real.
RELATED
Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak
