13 MAR 2004 – 14 MAR 2004
amanda and i got up saturday morning and puttered about a bit getting ready for our trip to toronto. we were going to meet erika for bfast, but we were late because the final arrangements were made when i was taking a shower, and i had not realized exactly what time we were expected. fortunately, we managed to get to the bfast place right was she was leaving, so all turned out well.
after bfast, we headed directly to canada via the peace bridge. toronto is quite close to buffalo; in some ways is amazing that we do not travel there more often. we readily found our hotel, the fairmont royal york, right downtown across from the train station. our room was rather nice; amanda had asked for a room far away from the elevators, so we got a corner room with many windows. after my usual investigation of the all the nooks and crannies of the room, we headed out.
we walked around downtown for a bit and then headed out to the mec store which was a reasonable walk away. we passed a lot of the theatres toronto is known for and which we had briefly thought of going to for a musical, but we decided that the choices did not really interest us.
we also passed a poor homeless guy who was asleep (or passed out) whose stuff was surrounded by pigeons who were eat all of his food. later, i was talking with amanda about whether or not i should start giving money to people on the street (assuming of course that i had it and can spare it). i usually do not since the common wisdom (or perhaps i am mistaken) that it is better in the larger scheme of things to help support fixing the reasons why people are homeless, one should not encourage panhandling, etc. etc., but is it proper for me to judge that when i as an individual can directly do something which a specific person? after all, most of us are closer for homelessness than we think or want to be (but i tend to be paranoid about such things) anyways, we came to no conclusions and it is still something that i am thinking about.
i also was thinking about how polite all the homeless people were in edmonton that i had seen who always wished me good well even tho i did not give them anything and how they differed from other urban areas. like, say, the last time i was in boulder, where most of the people seemed to be young adults �slumming� (e. g. people who were traveling about and whatnot and needed money to either support their itinerant lifestyle or to �get home because i ran out of money�). tho, in reality, i suppose those types are a small fraction on those in the denver metro area (or maybe they just hang out in boulder).
anyways, we made it to mec, and spent much time looking about at stuff. really just a lot of looking, since we hardly need any hiking or camping equipment, at least until we get more free time to actually go (e.g. our sleeping bags are not fit for freezing temps anymore). tho, i like wearing hiking clothing in general, as it fits my �ruggedly functional� criteria for things. i did not buy anything tho. amanda thought about getting a fleece jacket with a windstopping liner that she could wear alone or under her shell jacket, but she decided to pass. we also looked for a bag/purse thing, but nothing was really appropriate. actually, we looked at a lot of things, but nothing was really appropriate. it was a fun, tho.
we hung out at second cup coffee on our way back to the hotel, then wandered about the train station later when we actually did get back. we also idly perused the stores underneath the hotel which are part of the underground tunnel system under toronto; there was actually a very good game (board) store there, which was surprising to me given the location. i talked about lions and tigers and kenya and norway with a couple of the workers much to the confusion of others customers there. we then explored the hotel for a bit before getting ready for dinner.
we had dinner at the 360 restaurant in the cn tower. it was a relatively short walk through various train and pedestrian tunnels from the hotel. we had been there a couple of years before with amanda�s coworker tammie. after the ride up the tower, we were seated practically immediately. this time, it seemed we had a better seat (although all the seats have great views). amanda and i both had to avoid looking straight out of the windows, tho, as we both got a bit nauseous; the restaurant rotates around the tower every 72 minutes. the service was very good, even tho the waiter (�az� what a great name) actually forgot a side order i made. the wine guy was quite good; he was one of those people who gracefully move stuff around with one noticing it, everything was in the right place, always had the clean side of his towel/cloth/thingy shown to us even tho he surreptitiously cleaned stuff off constantly, etc.
a lot of the people around us got these special seafood towers� large platters of food stacked up on each other with a wide variety of seafood. obviously, we did not get one of those.
our shared dinner menu:
– tender young salad leaves, winter radish, and maple vinaigrette: simple but good
– winter bruscheta three ways: organic roasted red beets, fennel seed, italian parsley; forest mushroom, unfiltered olive oil asiago cheese; roasted garlic & white pur�e, broccoli rabe, balsamic vinegar — the beets were so-so, but the other two were very tasty. i ate most of the broccoli one much to the chagrin of amanda
– creamy cauliflower soup with blue cheese — the soup was very tasty. amanda and i remarked on how disgusting cauliflower is and how whizzing it up with cheese, cream, stock, and whatnot can make it taste quite delectable.
– roasted portobello mushrooms on braised winter greens, crispy blue cheese polenta, lemon and pine nut gremolatta — very tasty (tho nonfishytarian amanda ate most of it). i still do not know what a gremolatta really is.
– pan seared atlantic salmon roasted butternut squash, house smoked salmon risotto, almonds, oranges and capers — in spite of my yakking to amanda about salmon �people get really excited about salmon. it�s just another oily fish!�, much to her amusement, this salmon dish was quite exceptional. the risotto itself was quite memorable (and i will remember it).
– banana cream pie with gingered dark chocolate sauce — this dessert was excellent. the pie also had candied ginger in it which was unusual and tasty.
– dark chocolate tower with preserved summer fruits — the fruits were a bit, eh, but the tower itself was rich and tasty
after dinner we headed down to the viewing area below the restaurant to check out the sights. they have an area where one stands above thick glass and polymer plates so one could look directly beneath ones feet to the ground far below. it was funny that most people did not do so, but merely peered over the illusionary �edge� instead.
the elevator person on our way down filled us in with various bits of trivia, but was very disappointed that no one had any questions. �no one ever has any questions� she said sadly.