If it's Wednesday it must be Toronto

The trip to Toronto was uneventful, we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. There were no skycaps for Air Canada at the curb so we had to stand in line but even with only one person at the counter we weren’t there long. Next to us on the flight was a family of four, with two small girls. The father was sitting next to me and the wife was sitting with the girls. I had to laugh; he said that his kids were good travelers, never whinny (not like the two kids five seats ahead) But I couldn’t help notice that he promptly curled up in a ball and went to sleep the minute the plane took off with earplugs on and his eyes covered–so how would he know? His poor wife had to deal with the girls. At one point I had to wake him up to go to the restroom and sure enough his wife was complaining to him when I got back to the seat that she needed a break. She then sat next to me and said, “watch, they’ll go to sleep the minute they’re with him.” And they did. He was so smug about the girls not being a handful that I just knew his wife was seething inside.

We got to Toronto, and took the bus into downtown. There were these two girls, one was English and the other Welsh and they didn't shut up all the way into town and they were loud. The shuttle bus let us off near Ryerson University. We were only staying one day so we picked the Econolodge on Jarvis and Gerard. Not a bad hotel for the price, but oh, Nirvana...it was across the street from a Harvey’s Restaurant. I thought I had gone to heaven. About the only thing better would have been a Tim Horton’s on the other side. But, hey, this is Canada, we were sure to find a Tim’s on the next corner. For those uniformed, Harvey’s has the BEST hamburgers in the world and I haven’t had one in 20 years. I was ready but a bit worried that my memory would be better than reality--it wasn’t. I had a cheeseburger with poutine...ah, heaven. After that we went back to the hotel to sleep which we couldn’t do since our brains were still on California time. Even though we had woke up at 4 am in California. Needless to say, we were tired the next morning but that wasn’t stopping us from seeing the Holy Grail of hockey, Lord Stanley’s Cup.

We decided to walk down Yonge Street to the Hockey Hall of Fame and I didn’t recognize one building. I left Toronto in 1977 and boy, has it changed! Yonge Street was all strip joints, t-shirt shops and pubs and now it’s all high rise buildings. I did glimpse my old apartments in the distance and it looked like a dump. In '77 it was a nice building. I lived on the 32 floor and we weren’t even near the top. At the time it was the tallest building I’d ever seen but now it looks pretty small. I did notice that the street were pretty clean. I had taken it for granted when I was there but now seeing it as a tourist I could see that it was a pretty nice looking city.

The hockey hall of fame is pretty amazing. The room where the Stanley Cup is on display is beautiful. It used to be a bank so it was very stately and majestic. But the best part was the stained glass dome right over the cup. There it was, on a stand under that stained glass dome. I could almost hear the angels breaking out in a hallelujah chorus as we walked in. Just majestic. But the best part–you get to touch it! Yes, I put my hands on the Stanley Cup! Even better, I gave it a big hug and then touched the Leaf’s 1967 team and said, “This is the year” to which some people in the line said “Amen.” Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit but there were people that agreed with me. They also had the old cup on display, it’s very tall and skinny, and all the other trophies that the NHL gives out. They are all pretty impressive, but nothing like the Stanley Cup. Bruce was thrilled looking at all the Detroit stuff like Gordie Howe's gloves and uniform. It was a very enjoyable way to spend a morning.

After leaving there, we went back to the hotel, picked up our suitcases and headed over to the bus stop for the bus to Kingston. We sure did a lot of walking that day. In Kingston, Erik picked us up for the drive to Brockville. Well sort of, they live out by Graham Lake Rd near Mallorytown. We were so tired that we just sat around. I was home but not quite home yet. Until I drive down King Street into town I wasn’t home yet.