Travelogue: Toronto

[bigmacbear]

Friday, October 11

(Links with a star* are considered NSFW. Hope this helps.)
Got a late start preparing for the trip, mainly because I blundered into following a thread on /. that fj happened to post. Once I get suckered into that, I tend to not "come up for air", so to speak, for some hours. Drove Brandy down to the "puppy motel" down in Bristol, NY (45 minute drive each way), stopped to change money at a branch of my credit union in Victor on the way back, packed with some haste and helped gmjambear pack the car. We left at about 3:15 PM, about an hour and a quarter behind schedule. Over the previous few days I noticed the Rainbow Bridge had much shorter wait times into Canada so we chose that crossing. Other than a few bouts with heavier traffic, the trip was pretty uneventful.
We arrived at the Toolbox* about 6:50 PM, checked in and drove over to Mike's On Mutual* to meet kj for the first time, and join up with him, mathan, and scottybear for dinner. kj introduced us to his friends from Minnesota who were also staying at Mike's. We ended up at a Japanese grill on Yonge near Wellesley. The place was a bit crowded, and as there were five of us, the thinnest person in the bunch had to sit in the aisle. kj was rather surprised and amused to be picked for that role. Dinner went rather well; we split an order each of sushi and kimchi, as well as polishing off our entrees (pork on a bowl of rice with miso soup, or chicken teriyaki, for the most part). After dinner we stopped by a bar on Yonge Street where mathan and scottybear's roommate was involved in the annual Emperor and Empress ball (he being the Dowager Emperor), and then on to Woody's so kj could get signed up for the hockey tournament. At Woody's we went our separate ways, mathan and scottybear to go home and prepare for turkey roasting the next day, kj to stay and hang out with friends and fellow competitors, and gmjambear and I to return to the Box, where he rolled off to sleep, and I chatted with some of our other Toronto friends for another hour or so before rolling into bed myself.

Saturday, October 12

We took the bus and subway into town, had breakfast at a Tim Horton's, and went to see kj's first of four hockey games at the Varsity Arena on the University of Toronto campus. These games were part of a fairly large gay hockey tournament. It was gratifying to see a huge rainbow flag hanging up in the arena, here about to be passed by the Zamboni:

I took some pictures of the game to send to kj afterwards. It was fun to watch but I think gmjambear understands the game a lot better than I do. Hey, if you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter. ;-) Unfortunately kj took a spill toward the end of the game but he was able to shake it off and return to the game in the final minutes. Afterwards we had a nice chat and found out the opposing player had caused the spill by high-sticking. Here are pictures of kj in action and posing with gmjambear after the game:

After the game we walked to the nearby Royal Ontario Museum (ROM for short). In all our trips to Toronto we hadn't gone there before. We saw the feature exhibit about China, but what I wanted to see was a new exhibit just opened that day on Inuit art, especially some intricate carvings of polar bears and other animals. We also saw some Greek and Roman statuary. While there were quite a few examples of male nudes among the statuary it was difficult to find one that was, ahem, intact. It's amazing what tends to get knocked off of statuary over the millennia. ;-0 Afterwards gmjambear got this picture of me outside the museum:

We went on to do some shopping. gmjambear wanted an almanac with the names of Juno Award recipients (the Canadian version of the Grammy Awards) and wanted to see if the DVD of Monster's Ball in Canada was the longer, more explicit version than that sold in the U.S. (it is). He found both at a store called Chapters. He bought the almanac but wanted to check another store, HMV, for the DVD. We went on to the Eaton Centre and found that HMV did have the DVD but it was cheaper at Chapters. We chose not to go back for it though. By this time (it was getting close to 3 PM) I was getting hungry. We had fish and chips in the food court and split a soft pretzel dipped in butter and Parmesan cheese. Then we hopped the Queen streetcar back to the Box and chilled out for a bit.
Our original plan for the evening had us watching kj's second game and then possibly going for dinner in town. However, gmjambear called and found that pretty much the whole contingent from Bear Towers (mathan, scottybear, grizz416, our friends Brian and Drew who aren't on LJ... yet, and some others) were going for dinner in Mississauga, about half an hour's drive west of downtown Toronto. So we took in the first period of Game Two and headed for Mississauga. Dinner at Boston Market was very good and the staff were very interested in our opinions, so they passed around questionnaires which we filled in and were rewarded with individually wrapped Toll House cookies. We got back to the Box and saw some of the folks who had been around on Friday, as well as shadcub and his partner (whom I'd met on Friday but gmjambear hadn't), and some other folks from Bear Buddies Toronto whom we hadn't seen in a while. About 1 AM I suddenly found myself with a bit of a headache, so I turned in early for a change. It wasn't long afterward gmjambear got to bed as well.

Sunday, October 13

We began our day with a short expedition around the corner from the Box. It seems the local clubhouse for the Hell's Angels is nearby, and gmjambear has been wanting a picture for a while. So he got one. ;-) I also took a picture of him at the former front door of the Box.


After taking some pictures we had the Toolbox's traditional Sunday brunch, which was fabulous as usual. We ate with shadcub and his partner, and our friend Goody joined us. After we finished eating we went out on the patio, had a nice chat, and said our goodbyes.

We then checked out of the Box and headed home. There was no problem re-entering the U.S., and we took the opportunity to pick up Brandy and then take a scenic drive in the countryside before returning to Rochester. All told, the return trip took about five hours including picking up the dog and stopping for more pictures along the way.

All in all, a relaxing weekend. It was good to see friends old and new, and to be in Toronto on our own rather than for a bear event.

Updated 12/27/2008: photos re-hosted at livejournal.com from home.rochester.rr.com and disclaimers revised