bigmacbear (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigmacbear) wrote2005-08-16 04:28 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2005-08-16 04:28 pm
Weekend in Toronto
Lengthy description of our Toronto trip follows. For those who would prefer just looking at the pictures, they're here.
Gary![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gmjambear and I took the Cat (fast ferry) from Rochester to Toronto. After passing through Customs (where all three of the inspectors were rather cubbish in appearance), we headed for the home of Bill bitterlawngnome and Danny djjo and got settled in. Soon Daniel danthered returned home as well.
After dinner we headed off to O'Grady's for their Friday Bear Night. Outside Wellesley station we ran into Shawn2fruition and friends and had a brief chat along the way, but they were headed elsewhere and we ended up not seeing them at the bar. We had a chance to chat with some folks we hadn't seen in a while, and saw a couple fellow Rochesterians who were up for the weekend.
We spent the late morning and early afternoon at Bill's studio for a photo shoot (if you haven't seen the results, some samples are here in his journal).
Afterwards we took the Spadina streetcar and passed the Chinatown festival in progress. We went on to Harbourfront, where we had lunch and got some pictures. From Harbourfront we walked to the CBC headquarters and found the museum there was closed. We walked around back of the CBC building and found some sculptures of some curious-looking critters, which looked like half-size sheep with rabbit ears.
We then walked up to Metro Hall and got some pictures of the park beside it with a large fountain, then took the PATH underground walkway system to City Hall and got some pictures of the unique architecture of the buildings and plaza. From there we walked up through the Eaton Centre to the World's Biggest Bookstore a block past Dundas near Bay, where I picked up a Barenaked Ladies songbook.
As the afternoon wore on into evening, we headed up through the campus of Ryerson University to the Village, where we had an excellent dinner at the Village Rainbow (where we'd seen Danny, Vanvaneramos and his daughters having lunch on Pride weekend). After dinner we returned to Bill and Danny's to rest our sore feet (and other parts of the anatomy) from all the walking.
Later at night we ventured back to the Village, browsed at Priape (I wanted to see if they had a leather bar vest for Gary but he wasn't interested in the one they had), got cold drinks at Timothy's and swung past O'Grady's but didn't see anyone we knew.
Sleeping in a bit, we had breakfast at a bakery a block west of Bill and Danny's on Dovercourt, then hopped on the subway to Jane station where we caught the bus to Jane and St. Clair. There wasn't much point to this excursion except for the fact that the Barenaked Ladies wrote a song ("Jane") about a girl whose name they derived from this intersection. So we got a few happy snaps and caught the bus and train back to the Spadina streetcar.
We got off at the Chinatown festival so Gary could get some money (he banks with HSBC and there is a branch on Spadina in the middle of Chinatown). Nothing much that was for sale there looked appealing so we walked back along Dundas Street toward downtown.
Along the way we passed the Art Gallery of Ontario and decided to go in and spend some time browsing the exhibits. Emerging from the gallery I was fairly hungry so we stopped in for lunch at a Quizno's Subs shop in a mini-mall along Dundas Street.
Then it was back to the World's Biggest Bookstore so Gary could pickup a resume book he'd seenthe previous day. That left him a bit short of cash so we returned to the HSBC via the subway and streetcar. By this time the festival was largely breaking up.
On the way back we took the Ossington bus past our usual stop to shop at the IGA for some soda pop and juice (and we threw in a box of ice pops for good measure since they'd run out of them the previous evening). Then we returned to the house for the traditional Sunday dinner party.
At dinner we saw Bill, Danny, and Daniel; Liakoo, the chef whose picture has been featured prominently in Bill's journal; Stephentoken_otter; Randy rfmcdpei; and Allison and her friend Avril. Of these we'd already met everyone except Liakoo, Randy, and Avril. Avril had just been on a whirlwind tour of the Caribbean for her job, and remarked about the incredible amount of racial tension she found there, perhaps a remnant of the "divide and conquer" approach of colonial powers, England in particular. Dinner (pastitsio with lamb and chicken, salad, and bread) was just wonderful, followed by key lime or lemon tart. After dinner I called my father on the occasion of his 81st birthday, and rejoined the conversation.
After Allison, Avril, Liakoo, and Randy had left, we watched Logan's Run on DVD. I'd read parts of the book (it was my sister's) but had never seen the film. There were a few unintentionally funny moments that called for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment, but all in all it wasn't too bad.
We took the Dovercourt and Wellesley buses to avoid some of the rush-hour crowds on the subway, only boarding the train at Wellesley station for the short trip to Union Station. After a brief cab ride we arrived at the ferry terminal in plenty of time. We had breakfast on board and read the papers we'd picked up in Toronto. When we arrived in Rochester and cleared Customs we saw a news photographer from another Rochester station who is a member of Gary's union, and Gary said hello to him before we left. It turns out the city is looking to hire an administrator to take ferry management off the agendas of the handful of city officials, which is why a news crew was waiting for us.
Friday
Gary
gmjambear and I took the Cat (fast ferry) from Rochester to Toronto. After passing through Customs (where all three of the inspectors were rather cubbish in appearance), we headed for the home of Bill bitterlawngnome and Danny djjo and got settled in. Soon Daniel danthered returned home as well.After dinner we headed off to O'Grady's for their Friday Bear Night. Outside Wellesley station we ran into Shawn
2fruition and friends and had a brief chat along the way, but they were headed elsewhere and we ended up not seeing them at the bar. We had a chance to chat with some folks we hadn't seen in a while, and saw a couple fellow Rochesterians who were up for the weekend.Saturday
We spent the late morning and early afternoon at Bill's studio for a photo shoot (if you haven't seen the results, some samples are here in his journal).
Afterwards we took the Spadina streetcar and passed the Chinatown festival in progress. We went on to Harbourfront, where we had lunch and got some pictures. From Harbourfront we walked to the CBC headquarters and found the museum there was closed. We walked around back of the CBC building and found some sculptures of some curious-looking critters, which looked like half-size sheep with rabbit ears.
We then walked up to Metro Hall and got some pictures of the park beside it with a large fountain, then took the PATH underground walkway system to City Hall and got some pictures of the unique architecture of the buildings and plaza. From there we walked up through the Eaton Centre to the World's Biggest Bookstore a block past Dundas near Bay, where I picked up a Barenaked Ladies songbook.
As the afternoon wore on into evening, we headed up through the campus of Ryerson University to the Village, where we had an excellent dinner at the Village Rainbow (where we'd seen Danny, Van
vaneramos and his daughters having lunch on Pride weekend). After dinner we returned to Bill and Danny's to rest our sore feet (and other parts of the anatomy) from all the walking.Later at night we ventured back to the Village, browsed at Priape (I wanted to see if they had a leather bar vest for Gary but he wasn't interested in the one they had), got cold drinks at Timothy's and swung past O'Grady's but didn't see anyone we knew.
Sunday
Sleeping in a bit, we had breakfast at a bakery a block west of Bill and Danny's on Dovercourt, then hopped on the subway to Jane station where we caught the bus to Jane and St. Clair. There wasn't much point to this excursion except for the fact that the Barenaked Ladies wrote a song ("Jane") about a girl whose name they derived from this intersection. So we got a few happy snaps and caught the bus and train back to the Spadina streetcar.
We got off at the Chinatown festival so Gary could get some money (he banks with HSBC and there is a branch on Spadina in the middle of Chinatown). Nothing much that was for sale there looked appealing so we walked back along Dundas Street toward downtown.
Along the way we passed the Art Gallery of Ontario and decided to go in and spend some time browsing the exhibits. Emerging from the gallery I was fairly hungry so we stopped in for lunch at a Quizno's Subs shop in a mini-mall along Dundas Street.
Then it was back to the World's Biggest Bookstore so Gary could pickup a resume book he'd seenthe previous day. That left him a bit short of cash so we returned to the HSBC via the subway and streetcar. By this time the festival was largely breaking up.
On the way back we took the Ossington bus past our usual stop to shop at the IGA for some soda pop and juice (and we threw in a box of ice pops for good measure since they'd run out of them the previous evening). Then we returned to the house for the traditional Sunday dinner party.
At dinner we saw Bill, Danny, and Daniel; Liakoo, the chef whose picture has been featured prominently in Bill's journal; Stephen
token_otter; Randy rfmcdpei; and Allison and her friend Avril. Of these we'd already met everyone except Liakoo, Randy, and Avril. Avril had just been on a whirlwind tour of the Caribbean for her job, and remarked about the incredible amount of racial tension she found there, perhaps a remnant of the "divide and conquer" approach of colonial powers, England in particular. Dinner (pastitsio with lamb and chicken, salad, and bread) was just wonderful, followed by key lime or lemon tart. After dinner I called my father on the occasion of his 81st birthday, and rejoined the conversation.After Allison, Avril, Liakoo, and Randy had left, we watched Logan's Run on DVD. I'd read parts of the book (it was my sister's) but had never seen the film. There were a few unintentionally funny moments that called for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment, but all in all it wasn't too bad.
Monday
We took the Dovercourt and Wellesley buses to avoid some of the rush-hour crowds on the subway, only boarding the train at Wellesley station for the short trip to Union Station. After a brief cab ride we arrived at the ferry terminal in plenty of time. We had breakfast on board and read the papers we'd picked up in Toronto. When we arrived in Rochester and cleared Customs we saw a news photographer from another Rochester station who is a member of Gary's union, and Gary said hello to him before we left. It turns out the city is looking to hire an administrator to take ferry management off the agendas of the handful of city officials, which is why a news crew was waiting for us.
no subject
no subject
HUGS.