My favorite city

Since we were discussing Rick's surprise trips in my last post, I have to share this one in Toronto. Growing up close to Toronto and Ontario I spent a lot of time up there. I am a city girl who grew up in a small town/city so of course I loved Toronto. 

At the time I felt it was like NYC only cleaner and safer to me.(back then anyways)

One week Rick said he had plans for me. 

He told me to pack an overnight bag. 
Oh, I loved these spontaneous trips. Of course, I asked where we were going so I knew what to bring to wear. He would tell me NOTHING. Oh, how do I pack if I get no hints? That was the only thing that bothered me about these surprises to be honest. 

I did what I could and overpacked as usual.

Once we got past Buffalo I had an inkling, but once we were at the border I kept saying, Toronto?  He said maybe. I said, "Oh not Hamilton." If anyone reading is from Hamilton, I'm sorry but it's just not as exciting as Toronto to me.  He would just laugh.  I prayed it was Toronto. Yes, I'd been there many, many times, too many to count, but it was my favorite. I wanted to say, "Gee I hope it's Toronto" but if it weren't he'd be disappointed so I didn't say that, I just thought it. 

But Toronto it was. We had such a blast. We went to a comedy club which was so popular in the 80s. (yuk, yuk's) 

Now Rick saved for this trip. Toronto is not cheap, just like NYC is.

We kept getting hit up for money from panhandlers. They asked for Loonies. (their dollar coin) At first, he gave some a loonie, but then it got out of hand. This one man had on very expensive shoes.  At the time I knew the designer but I don't recall now, except they were very expensive shoes and in nice shape and polished. His clothing was nice as well.

Out of nowhere when asked by this nicely dressed man for money, Rick did the sign for being deaf. We had just taken (ASL) sign language classes. This guy then began to YELL as if that would help. I had to hold back my laughter so I crossed the street or I was going to lose it in front of him and he'd know I could hear. But he said loudly, "SORRY MAN!" and he walked away with no money from us. 

Rick joined me across the street and we signed for a bit until he was out of sight. I asked him what made him think to do that?  He said, "I saved for this trip, I was not giving more money away. And did you see his shoes and clothing? Nope, he had more money in those shoes than the cost of our expensive hotel room." Well, he made me laugh. 

I admit I felt a bit uncomfortable because what if he got these nice things from a 2nd hand store I tell Rick. Rick said, "Margaret, seriously do you believe that? Stop feeling bad for him. Besides if you are correct he is making a lot from others. We've given our share of money to many already"

He made valid points. I can't say that it didn't still bother me a tad but I got over it eventually. I'm a softy and Rick is a good foil so it balances.

We went to a fun place for lunch. I said I wanted a small salad since we had reservations for dinner and I sure planned to eat well at dinner. 

My salad arrived and it was so huge we laughed. Everything was so big regarding food the whole weekend. It was a great day, but I knew if I ate this whole salad I wouldn't feel like eating much for dinner. 

We headed back to our hotel to chill a bit. We drank some wine at the hotel bar. Then we chilled in our room before getting showered and dressed for our dinner date.

We went to dinner. Now this was before I knew I was celiac and I ate nothing but gluten. What fun. I ordered fried mozzarella for an appetizer. I do not recall how it was stated on the menu but I was assuming mozzarella sticks. Rick ordered crawdads for an appetizer. (eeewww)

When our appetizers came to the table we both had our mouths drop open. EVERYTHING was huge. 

I swear my cheese was a pound block of cheese. 

It was a block of cheese that was deep-fried. No sticks. I asked if it came with a difibulation. Our waiter laughed. 

Rick's appetizer, which he thought would be a max of 6 came in a big bucket and there were 50 or more. 

OMG, why was everything so big today? Oh, how we laughed.

As we sat and drank our wine, unable to eat more appetizers for fear of not being able to eat our main meal we watched the wait staff. At one point 6 of them carried out a sandwich or bruschetta, of a long loaf of bread for a table of 6 near us. This was enough to feed a small country. Again we just laughed and said, "They need to change the name of this place to wear your eating pants or something along those lines" 

When my dinner came of fettuccine alfredo, made with 3 cheeses, I swear to you it was a pound of pasta. Should that not feed a family? I could never eat all of this and I didn't, but I did take it to go and ate it the next day, cold in our hotel room. (we had a small fridge in our room) As Rick did with his dinner, which I don't recall because I am self-absorbed...tee hee.

We left the restaurant and we were so full we decided to walk. No taxi tonight. We came across some music but couldn't see where it was coming from so we just kept walking towards it. It was a man playing a guitar who could really sing. It was a lower-level shopping area and he was down below. We hung over the railing and listened and applauded. He had his guitar case open of course and we threw down some loonies. A crowd grew and then we were all singing along which seemed to make this man so happy. He asked for requests, and he obliged. It was a fun crowd that was now all around us and we had fun. We stayed for what seemed like a long time. A real concert and we were all singing and having fun.

We walked back to our hotel because we felt so damn fat and full. We took a wrong turn. No GPS, no phone in the '80s. I had a small map in my purse and pulled it out. A couple asked if we needed help. We said we did indeed. They told us the direction to walk (turn around) and told us about a fun bar on the way to our hotel we should stop at. Okay, we will, we say. 

As we walked Rick said, are you up for that? 

I said I wasn't sure I felt so full but maybe. As we got next to this bar we heard the music and decided, let's give it a try. Oh my goodness what great music and fun. We stayed for hours and then continued our walk back to the hotel. We collapsed. For breakfast, we ate some of our leftover dinner and talked about what a crazy fun evening we ended up having. 

Every time I've been to Toronto I had more fun than I even expected. I've probably been about a dozen times over the years. It never got old to me.

In the 70s I went with my first husband and I got a free album of Robert Palmer when the man said to me, If I smiled he'd give me the album for free." It was the album I chose so I looked around and thought I was on Candid Camera.  He laughed and said, "Smile."  

I did and he handed me the album. I went out to the sidewalk where I was meeting my husband who was in another store next door. 

He asked, "Did you get the album?" (Secrets, was the name of it)

I held it up and said, "I did, and it was free." 

He said, "How did that happen?" 

I explained and he said, "Gee glad he didn't ask for sexual favors"  

"Oh, I'd have paid for the album you ass if he said that, or maybe not, he was damn cute" We both laughed.

But that weekend up there was so much fun, he personally liked the Molson tour because he drank Molson Ice like water. 

Yes, we bought a few cases of things we couldn't get in the US and had to declare them at customs. 

I just remember the man telling us, "Good choices"  

Ah, in the old days when the only thing we worried about at the border was hiding the pot. Ah, The '70s.