Queensway Motel Toronto

Today basically, I just worked and then we met up with Laine in the afternoon. We picked Bangkok Garden, a restaurant just around the corner because it had mediocre reviews on TripAdvisor. It turned out to be really great (if expensive).

We went to bed really early zzzz.

By the way, we got a great deal from Hotels.com for our hotel, BTW. Props to my employee discount once again!

... there are no cars, parks and sandy beaches.

I like Toronto, Kensington Market was like a small Camden and had a hip Brightoneque feel to it in places, Chinatown was cheap to shop and stay in and full of character. The bars were cheap and friendly compared to Montreal & Quebec. The students there give the city a young feel to it, I would be happy to go back one day.

But now it is time to start the road trip, and find the real Canada!

Exchanging the isolation of northern Ontario's wilderness for the densely populated, urban wilds of Toronto, we roamed the city’s streets for twelve hours. We pounded the pavement up and down Yonge Street, from College St. down to Lake Superior (which lies at the southern edge of the city), and east- west on Dundas St., through Chinatown. Downtown Toronto was bustling on this weekend summer day ...

... from the pool pump into the ground and out to the pool is ******* out water. Oh, what perfect f'ing timing! I mean, jeez, kick me in the nads why don't ya! Off to the pool store I go for help with 2 hours to go before the airport limo arrives. So I'm at the pool shop and the guy says in an Alabama drawl (Christ knows where he got that from)..."well, ya can wrap it with this here ...

The flight amazing enough was on time and slept a little which I don't usually do on the plane. We had to go through customs so since I had bought two bottles of Pisco, I had to rip my secure bag warranty to put the bottles in since I couldn't check it in. Just bad...policy!

Decided to grab some Tim Horton's Ice Capacino and a sandwhich which I missed :)

Then, the wierdest thing happened....I arrived around 7AM my flight was ...

... mysteries, with a ballroom, a cool library, even a beautiful white and black tiled conservatory. I was almost expecting Professor Plum to be stalking the hallways with the lead piping. We walked around the place, and soon discovered that there was even a long underground tunnel from the house that lead to the horse stable and garage. This particular tunnel even ran under a main road and was quite cold and icy, considering its lack of ...

... with Marion (from Sydney), she was in SP that week and it was great to spend time with her and Chris, I was also fortunate to meet other friends of there's (Jorge, hope your well mate, I'm looking forward to meeting up with you in a few months!, Chris see you in the UK Jan...). It was nice to chill with an old friend...I would have loved to meet up with Eleci there too, but she was out of the country. Next stop was Campo Grande and then onto The Pantanal, I was out there for ...

... connection in Chicago. When we made it to O'Hare we ran for our connection, luckily it has also been delayed. As we arrived at the gate they were boarding our seating area. I was so thankful that we had made it. While I was running to the plane I did notice that there was a really cool ceiling above the traveling walkway, rainbow coloured lights and stuff. At Toronto, we waited a while for our luggage to appear, but it turned up ...

... the attention of Choir, Orchestra, and audience and was a highlight for all. Standing ovation followed and some Choir members wondered whether Ms. Gartner could join them for the rest of the tour! What a heartwarming ending to such a wonderful experience. Hearts were touched, lifted, and filled with hope and love as the Choir and Orchestra concluded their performances in the first stop on the 2007 Midwest Tour. And on to Chautauqua, New York . . .

... I'm going to take it easy until after the Xmas silly season and then just into the new year Jeopardy will call and I'll go down there, win some cash, become a 5 time champ, and win a new car. Then when the shows are on TV Alanis Morrisette will see me and become enamored with my charm and trivia abilities (or is that trivial abilities?) and we'll fall in love. Just in case that doesn't work I do have a Plan B. I have noticed that some people wear bracelets with WWJD ...