Tuesday was another wonderful “Educators’ Evening” at Playhouse Square. Several times a year, the playhouse invites teachers to come up to see a presentation on a play, then hear a talk about the play, and then see a play, all for free (and they even feed you). Meredith gets to go because she teaches English, and they let me come along because I coach an improv theater group. It is a pretty fantastic program.

Last Tuesday was a play called The Devils’ Music, based on the blues singer Bessie Smith. All of the things that were discussed in the play were factual, although the dialogue was created by the playwright. The Educators’ Evening discussion was based on how perspective is important to any story. We had some good discussions on the importance of perspective in both English classes and history classes, and as educators we were encouraged to think about how to represent multiple perspectives in our classes.

The pre-show talk was focused mostly on the events that led up to the blues as an art form, and some of the founding figures of the blues who were an early influence on Bessie Smith. We also got the background on Bessie’s early life and how she started into show business at a fairly early age.

The actual show was set entirely in an empty speakeasy-type saloon. Bessie and her band had just walked out on a show since the theater management was asking her to use the back door since she was a black singer. She refused and left. The play takes up from that moment, and we see much of Bessie’s life as told from her perspective in snippets. There were three musicians on stage with the actress playing Bessie – a sax player, a piano player, and an upright bass player. All three were amazing musicians.

The woman playing Bessie is a professional singer, and she raised the roof on the place. Man, that woman could sing. She was a very engaging actress as well – she got the audience on her side right away, and kept me engaged for much of the play. Her voice and stage presence were both huge.

I liked the play on the whole. I did start to “drift” from Bessie as she kept telling more and more stories of a hard partying lifestyle that seemed to be a near-endless stream of alcohol and sex and fighting. She did not seem to have any stable relationships in her life, at least as presented in the play. She was a huge talent and a huge monetary success, but by the end of the two hours, it felt hollow to me. I felt sorry for Bessie, and sorry that her life seemed so tragic to me.

The play was well done, and the music was grand, and given that it was all for free, it is hard to complain. Even when a play leaves me with questions, it still makes me think, and that is good theater.

Sunday morning was the marathon, and so Mer and I were up early (around 4:30, I think). Since the race started at the oddly specific time of 7:03, I wanted to get there a little before 6:00, which meant leaving around 5:00. We made it out the door on time, and we got to Birmingham a little before 6:00. To my great delight, we quickly found on-street parking that was only two or three blocks from the starting line. That is an advantage to a smaller marathon (there were about 5500 total runners for Birmingham, counting the half-marathon).

We walked to the starting area, and took advantage of the port-o-johns (several times, with my usual pre-race jitters). It was quite cold – only twenty-eight degrees, and I while I was smart enough to leave my sweatshirt on, I had taken my sweatpants off in the car, leaving my shorts-clad legs to deal with the cold. I did not care about my sweatshirt, so I was not concerned if it got lost at the start of the race, but I did want to keep my sweatpants. It turned out that Mer and I were able to maintain contact up to the beginning of the race, so I could have kept my sweatpants on. Ah, well. It meant some pre-race shivering.

I’m not sure if it was an indication of laid-back southern habits, but in the northern marathons I have run, runners are in the starting chute forty-five to sixty minutes before the race starts. I got into the nearly-empty chute about thirty minutes before 7:00, and there was almost no one in the chute. It was disconcerting. With about fifteen minutes to go, the chute began to fill, and with ten minutes to go, the chute was crammed with walkers and slower runners trying to make their way to the back of the line against a sea of unyielding bodies. I have to admit that this annoyed me somewhat, especially when I spent the first two to three miles dodging these slower runners who lined up way too close to the front (race etiquette says you should line up according to your anticipated race pace, which is handily posted along the chute; sadly, many people ignore these things).

The wheelchair racers started at 6:53, to an abrupt-sounding command of “go” over the PA system. We had a similar blunt command at 7:03 that was odd to me. Usually, in all the races I have run as an adult, we start them with a playing of the national anthem. The lack of music made the start seem rushed. Mer gave me a kiss and wished me well and headed off to a vantage point at about mile two on the course.

I won’t go into great detail about the whole race. It is a 13.1-mile loop, done twice by those running the full marathon. The course is quite spectator-friendly in the downtown area, where runners can be easily seen two or three times on each loop. Once the race leaves downtown, spectators get a bit sparser, although I was pleased that there were some spectators along much of the race. The race goes up a slight, but long, series of hills from miles 18 through 24. I did not notice them at all on the first lap, but they finally forced me to walk at mile 22 on the second lap. I ended up walking about 1.5 miles of the last four miles of the race, which was too bad. I was on track for a personal best time (of 3:28) up through mile 22, and that slipped away as my legs gave in to fatigue. I ended up with my third-fastest (out of ten) marathon time, just edging 3:36 at an official time of 3:35:54.

Mer was a great sport, as she stood around and cheered me along. She saw me start, and then saw me twice more on the first loop. She saw me at the end of the loop, and then again on the course, and finally a few hundred yards from the finish. It is remarkable that anyone would get up at 4:30 on a weekend to go and stand in the cold for four hours.

After the race, I met up with Meredith, and she walked and I hobbled back to the car. We drove back to Kelly and Paul’s house, stopping for some candy bars along the way so I could get a little food back into my system. Kelly and Paul and family were going to a dinner party at a friend’s house at 2:00. Mer decided to go along, but I passed, as I did not feel up to it. Instead, I slept for a few hours before limping downtown to eat at a Waffle House and then a Coldstone Creamery. I met everyone back at home, and I made a quick peanut butter dessert for my sister, who loves peanut butter. I got to read a story to WCNep before he went to sleep, and I got to wind up WCN before her mother told her she had to calm down and go to sleep. Mer and I passed the short remainder of the evening chatting with Kelly.

In the morning, I caught Paul just before he left for work. Mer and I went along with Kelly and the kids as she took them to school. We got to see the schools and classrooms of the kids, and said goodbye to them. Kelly then took us to Another Broken Egg, a breakfast place right on the river. It had a pretty view and great food, and the only slight downside was that we had to leave at 9:30 to make our flight in Atlanta; that meant we had to rush breakfast a bit more than we would have cared for.

The drive back to Atlanta was less tedious than the drive in the dark on Friday had been, but it was still less than riveting. We returned the rental car with happy efficiency, and we were at out gate a little over an hour before the plane was supposed to take off. That gave me time to get a crepe for Mer as a dessert treat. I found the crepe-making process fascinating to watch, to the extent that I bought a crepe-maker when I got home. I’m looking forward to trying it out.

Our flight to the Akron-Canton Airport was smooth and on time, and we were able to walk to our car in the “remote” lot (one of the great joys of the small regional airport). Since we were south of home, we decided to swing through Hartville to go to the Hartville Kitchen, an excellent Mennonite restaurant, where we both ended up eating too much.

It was certainly a whirlwind tour, but it had been a great trip to Alabama. I wish Kelly and her family lived closer, but I am grateful we have been able to see them twice in the last twelve months.

A few months ago, my sister sent me an e-mail asking me if I’d like to run with my niece. Alabama schools have joined up with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, as well as Mercedes (who has a plant in Alabama), to create a kids’ marathon. The program is for grades K-5, and the children run 25.2 miles on their own, in stages of 1/4 mile to 1 mile. If the complete their 25.2 miles, they then run the last mile of their run on the actual Birmingham Mercedes Marathon course on the Saturday before the full adult marathon. I love to run, and I adore my niece, so it was a no-thought process to say that I’d love to come down and run with WCN (World’s Cutest Niece).

Last weekend was race weekend, so Meredith and I flew from Akron/Canton to Atlanta, which was a pretty cheap (and direct) flight. It still left a three-hour drive, which was not helped by a thirty-minute wait in line to get our car, but we were underway in time to get to Kelly and Paul’s place around midnight Alabama time (1:00 am EST). Since Mer and I had worked a full day, it was a long drive to end the day, coming in at around three hours. Happily, the drive was uneventful, if also not terribly interesting in the dark.

On Saturday, Mer and Kelly and WCN and I all piled into Kelly’s van to take the hour-long drive to Birmingham. I was grateful that the race was late morning, so Mer and I still got around seven hours of sleep. I was in the way-back of the van with WCN, while Kelly and Mer were in the front seats. WCN and I played a game where we took turns hiding coins in one of our fists, and then the other had to guess the correct hand. We hammed it up by opening the “wrong” hand or by clenching our fists, and we had a good time.

Kelly and Mer dropped us about a block from the main square where the race was to start, and they went on a quest to find parking. WCN and I walked to the park and planted ourselves by a pretty fountain, which is where Kelly said WCN’s classmates were going to meet for a class picture. The place was mobbed, and since WCN is short and I do not know her classmates, we did not find them. Happily, Kelly found us and then located the class for me, so that worked out fine.

I was impressed at how well-run the race was. The race officials had the kids line up behind signs that had their grade levels printed on them. When the time came, they called the grade level out, and the runners walked through a chute to a staging area. A set of volunteers would raise a rope stretched across the street, the runners would advance to the next rope, and so on until they got to the starting line. It worked well. Since the runners were timed by chips on their running bibs, there was no mad crush to get to the front.

While the kids are still in kindergarten or in first grade, an adult (usually a parent) can run with the child. After that, adults are not allowed. WCN is in first grade, so this would be my only time to run with her, unless and until she gets into road races later on. WCN and I got called to the first grade maker, so we said goodbye to Kelly and Mer, and we lined up. We then were allowed into the chutes, and up to the corral system, and finally to the starting line.

WCN is adorable, and she held my hand for over three quarters of the mile race. We kept up a good pace, especially for her little legs, and she had a great attitude. She smiled a lot, and she finally asked politely if we could walk some after we hit the half-mile turnaround point. She did not walk long, however, and we started running again. I learned a happily injury-free lesson – I took my eyes off the road to say something to another adult, and promptly ran into the back of a little girl, whom I was able to catch so she did not fall over. Never take your eyes off the road when there are short runners around! The rest of the race was without incident.

There were a ton of spectators along the course, and the whole thing was supervised by enthusiastic National Guard members, who were giving out a ton of high-fives to the kids, including to WCN. It was a good experience. We crossed the finish line, where we were greeted by Batman and the Green Arrow, since the race weekend also has a “Superhero 5k” on the Saturday before the marathon. Later, in the marathon expo, where I was picking up my race things for Sunday, we also saw Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and The Phantom. It was much fun.

After the race and the marathon expo, we walked the several blocks to the car. Kelly offered to take us out to lunch, and we agreed that this would be welcome. She said she had an idea for dessert, and along the was she decided some real food might be good, so we swung into a mom-and-pop BBQ place. The place was busy, but we found a seat, and we ordered. The food was quite good. After lunch, Kelly took us to her treat place she had in mind – Steel City Pops, a gourmet popsicle store. I have to be honest – I was not too thrilled. I’m not a huge popsicle fan; they are cold and hurt my teeth, and they taste like fruit, which I would rather eat or drink. I held my peace, though, and it was a good thing. Steel City Pops had a line out the door, and I found out why. The did have fruit-variety popsicles, but they also had cream-based ones. I was suddenly quite interested, especially when I saw that they could dip the popsicle in chocolate. I happily ordered a creamy peanut butter popsicle dipped in chocolate (Mer got the same), and happily munched on that. It still hurt my teeth a little, but it was worth it. Steel City Pops really seems to be onto something – they have a super-fast-turnover, quality product for which people line up, even in the out-of-the-way spot where the store is located.

We got home in the late afternoon to discover that Paul and World’s Cutest Nephew (WCNep) were home. WCNep had been to a Star-Wars-themed birthday party, and was touting a newly bought light sabre that made motion-sensitive noises. It was very cool. Paul announced that he was going to show WCNep Star Wars for the first time, so I joined them both in the master bedroom, where we watched the movie. WCN joined us partway through the movie, snuggled up next to me, and pretty quickly fell asleep. It was a grand way to spend time with the extended family. After the movie, Kelly made the adults a lasagna (the kids had hot dogs), and we chatted around the table until it was time to put the kids to bed. I went to sleep soon after that myself, since I had to be up early the next day for the marathon.

Last Tuesday (the 5th) Mer and I had dinner over at Cardinal Village with Dale and Carlene. We have the goal of eating with them once a week or more, and Tuesday seems to be the day that works well. We had a very pleasant dinner. We could not linger long after supper, though, because we had another outing.

We headed over to a local coffee shop called The Nervous Dog, where we were attending Jonny Capps’s “Celebration of Life” party. Jonny had invited us and some of his friends over, and he bought pizza and wanted people to hang out and visit. Many years ago, Jonny had walked in front of a moving car, and he was fortunate to survive. So he threw a drop-in celebration on the anniversary of that event.

It was a small but fun gathering. Jonny really seems to know 1.5 million people, and the people he knows are interesting and fun. While we were there, one of our “daughters,” Katie, was there too, and there were three other people we did not know, along with Jonny. I got a hot chocolate (which was quite good), and we all sat and talked for about an hour. It was a grand time, and I am very happy Jonny had the opportunity to celebrate.

Last Saturday, we slept in, and then got ready. Sadly, Vicki, one of Mer’s good high school friends, had lost her father a couple of weeks ago when he had a heart attack while living in Florida. There was a local, Akron-area memorial service at 11:00, and we had the flexibility to go.

I had never met Vicki’s father, but he sounded like a warm and generous man. Mer says I would have really liked him. The service was quite moving, and there was a dinner held afterward, for which we stayed. We got to sit and visit with another of Mer’s old classmates, who was really funny and personable. We also got to chat with Vicki and then her older sister for a few minutes. It was a sad reason to get together, but it was good to see these old friends of Meredith’s.

In the evening, we had yet another play to see. Since it was a play about golf, I had invited my co-worker Phil and his wife to come see it with us. Phil loves golf, and I thought it would be much fun to get together outside of work. Happily for Phil and Laurie, their first grandchild was being born this weekend in Chicago, so they took off Saturday morning, which was quite understandable. Mer and I thought about whom we could bring instead, and it worked out we could get together with another English teacher, Lesa, and her husband Jay.

Lesa and Jay met us at our house, and Jay drove. We headed up to Chagrin Falls, to the Chagrin Valley Little Theater. I was very excited for the evening. The Fox and the Fairway was written by a playwright who had written a fantastically funny play called Lend Me a Tenor. Tenor is one of the funniest plays I have ever seen, and I thought that golf would lend itself to good-natured mocking.

It turned out to be simply entertaining with a few laughs along the way. The acting was fine, and the staging was fine; the play was just not in the same league as Tenor. It was still a fun reason to get together, and it was a solid enough play, but it still left me slightly disappointed, since I’d had such high hopes of it being hysterically funny. My best take on the play, after my thinking about it, was that it did not have enough high-energy moments (the classic “door slamming” elements of farce).

We did have a great chance on the drive back to hear about Jay and Lesa’s mission trip to India back in November. They were helping to train teachers who teach the members of India’s lowest caste, and it sounds as if the conference and teaching went really well for everyone.

On Friday, Mer and I invited two colleagues to join us for the evening. Maggie, CVCA’s French teacher, and Liz, an English teacher, met us at our house, and the four of us drove down to Akron together. We were having an evening out, with dinner and a show.

Maggie had suggested we eat at Lockview, a tavern known for having gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and other comfort food. We were all pretty enthusiastic about that. We got there and got the last free booth before there started being a wait, and we had an excellent dinner. The only slight hitch in the evening was that for some reason I had difficulty hearing Maggie – I do not know if it is her tone of voice or her volume, but in the crowded restaurant, I could not always hear her. We did not have time for dessert, but I promised everyone we would make it up after the play.

We then made the very short trek to Actors’ Summit Theater, where we were to see the evening’s production of Fiction. None of us had ever heard of Fiction before, and I only knew what I had read from the online blurb on Actors’ Summit’s website. I was delighted to find out that Sally Groth, one of the company’s finest actors, was playing the female lead in the three-person play.

Fiction turned out to be excellent. It is the story of two authors who end up reading each other’s journals, and although we see more and more of their lives laid out through the flashbacks, it is not always clear what is fictionalized and what is real. The playwright kept the tension of the play going all the way to the end, and it was a pretty amazing evening of theater. What a great show, and it was really well acted and staged.

After the play, we headed toward home, but swung by Friday’s to get dessert, as promised. We got to chat about the play and other things, as well as munching on some pretty fine food. It was a very happy evening with good company.

Yesterday (Thursday), after school, Mer held her second annual Shakespeare Showdown at CVCA. The Showdown involves students acting out short speeches from any of Shakespeare’s plays. They are not allowed to use any costumes or props. This year, Mer had twelve students participating, and had a crowd of about twenty-five people on hand to watch. The winner of the competition goes on to the regional competition in Cleveland in a few weeks.

The sponsors of the program send a judge, and then the school provides two judges, which, in this case, turned out to be me and our friend and colleague Dubbs. The judge from Great Lakes Theater was a very friendly young man who was very enthusiastic about the evening.

The competition was quite good this year. No one “tanked,” although several students needed to be prompted for a line here and there, and several were visibly nervous. They all had reasonable interpretations of the text. In the end, all three of us judges independently came to the conclusion that four of the twelve were the best. We could only have one winner and one runner-up, and we hashed that out quite quickly because once we stated what we thought, we more or less agreed on the placement. The winner of the competition was a young lady who played Lady Macbeth, and the runner-up was a young man who played Shylock. I was pleased for Meredith, though, in that the second annual Shakespeare Showdown was a tremendous success, at least from my perspective, and I’m looking forward to seeing the regional competition.

My birthday was on the 24th, but we normally put off any celebrations until the following weekend. Mer was in charge, naturally, since we like to surprise each other on our individual birthdays. Mer added to the fun by having plans for both Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, we headed off through a moderately snowy night to Twinsburg High School, where the Twinsburg Community Theater was putting on a production of the musical The Music Man. The Music Man is a play about how a huckster named Harold Hill dupes an entire town into buying band instruments, and how Harold falls for the town librarian along the way. It is a fun musical that I am quite fond of, and, increasing our interest, there were two CVCA students in the production; one was in the chorus of townspeople and the other was playing the daughter of the mayor. Additionally, the play was directed by a former CVCA mom.

The play turned out to be enormous. When they advertise as a community theater, they were not kidding. They had a cast of over 120 people. Most of those actors played townspeople and sang chorus parts, and many of them were children from about five to about twelve, but it was very impressive to see that many people on stage.

On the whole, the play was solid. Marian, the town librarian, had a beautiful voice and a radiant smile. This was opening night, and it showed in some nerves on the parts of some of the actors – there were some dropped or flubbed lines, and some of the actors had “nervous feet” when they were standing. The backing music for the production was simply played from a computer, which was a little disappointing, but understandable given the size of the on-stage cast. The CVCA girl who played the mayor’s daughter did a fun job with it (the character is pretty ditzy), and Mer and I both had an enjoyable evening.

On Saturday, Mer took me up to the Cleveland area, to a middle school. It turned out that the middle school had a professional-looking auditorium, and we were there to see another musical, by Heights Youth Theater, called A Little Princess. Needless to say, there were a ton of little princesses in the audience. The lead character in the production was being played by a senior at CVCA, and she did a fantastic job. I knew she could act, but I did not know she could sing.

Speaking of singing, the cast was stacked with talent. Most of the actors were in 7th-12th grade, and the vocal and dancing and acting talent were all top-notch. Mer and I both kept looking at our programs to see the ages of the individual actors, and we were almost always imagining them to be several years older than they were. The director also called in a friend of his to play the father of the lead girl, and I about fell out of my chair the first time he sang – he filled the place with his voice. According to his bio in the program, he has acted at Playhouse Square in Cleveland and sung in the Cleveland Opera. What a voice.

So, while I found the plot a bit saccharine, the spectacle on stage was engaging. I was delighted at the songs and the dancing, and that made up for any shortcomings in the story.

After the show, Mer took me to a burger joint called B Spot. I had wanted to try the place for some time, based on some pictures I saw of their shakes, which looked pretty amazing. They were, and the burgers and fries were pretty tasty too. After supper, we wandered over to Barnes and Noble. Mer had a gift card for the store, and we happily found out that you could use the gift card in the cafe. So, we loaded up on several pastries, and headed home with our baked goods.

Lest you think that my birthday was simply about seeing CVCA students perform in musicals, Mer also gave me tickets for us to go see Guys and Dolls at Playhouse Square in the spring. I love that musical, but have only seen it once at a community theater; I am looking forward to seeing what the Playhouse can do with it.

On Thursday, we finally managed to get together with our friends Matt and Clarice. I see Clarice every week when she helps me with my Royal Fools improv group at school, but I had not seen Matt in months. We headed over to their place, where we then made a quick trip to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for takeout. Sadly, I mistook what a “regular” burger was; it turns out to be two patties, so I ended up eating four hamburger patties as well as french fries. I was very full pretty early in the viewing of the movie that was the main event of the evening. With the help of one of Matt and Clarice’s cats, who flopped down on one movie when presented with two options, we spent a very happy time watching the old 1930s film The Thin Man.

Mer and I had heard the name before, but we had never seen The Thin Man. What a treat. It is a light-hearted mystery thriller, and the main couple in the film who solves the crime is one of the most wonderful screen couples I have ever seen. They are witty and sarcastic with each other, and they clearly are crazy about each other. The chemistry between the actors was perfect. A tremendous film that is worth seeing, and we are looking forward to seeing the sequel (there were several made).

Sunday morning was all planed in Toronto – I was going to take Mer to a local mansion called Casa Loma that is based on a castle. I ran over to a nearby Tim Horton’s coffee shop to get breakfast and to use their wi-fi connection, and upon trying to look up the hours for Casa Loma, I discovered it had closed that day for renovations. Ah. Plan B, except I did not have a Plan B.

What I did have was a city map that the hotel had given me. On one side, it was very detailed in the downtown area, and then on the other side, it was more general, showing the farther reaches of the city. When I was back in the hotel room waiting for Mer to finish getting ready, I looked around the map for potential things to do. I initially settled on the Toronto science museum, which also happened to be near Greek Town, but then I saw that way out in the east of the city was an area that looked like bluffs overlooking Lake Ontario. I like vistas and lakes, and it looked to only be a few blocks from the nearest subway stop, so that became the new plan.

We headed out via the subway, and got to our stop after about thirty minutes or so. We then started walking in what turned out to be pretty darn cold weather. We walked south, and I kept looking for the first major cross-street on my map. We walked. I looked. We walked some more. I kept looking. I started to worry. We finally came to the street, and I was confused. It was the first of three major cross streets we needed to find, but we had been walking for some time. We continued on. And on. And on. And it was cold. I finally caught a glimpse of the lake, which seemed to be discouragingly far away. We kept on. Finally we stopped a friendly woman who told us we were a long ways from the bluffs, and was amazed when we told her we had walked from Kennedy Station. She recommended walking the fairly short distance to the Rosetta McClain Park, which overlooks the lake from fairly high up.

We took her advice, and we were still a good fifteen minutes from that park. It was worth finding, though. It was very pretty, with paths and tons of trees and a formal garden area, and the south end did look out directly over the lake. We wandered around for about twenty minutes or so, and then we needed to head back. I decided we should catch a bus if we could find the right one, to take us back to the subway stop. Mer was aghast to find out our transit passes covered buses, and wanted to know why we had not taken one earlier. The simple answer was that I simply had not realized how far the bluffs were from the station. Ooops. Anyway, we caught a bus, and got back to the hotel via the subway.

We grabbed a quick snack of cookies from Mer’s dessert stash, and then headed back out on another very cold walk. This was all in the downtown area, and every piercing wind brought with it the question from Mer as to why we were not taking the streetcars. Again, the simple answer was that I did not know where the streetcars went, and we could end up way off track, and we had a deadline.

I walked with Mer down near the Rogers Center, to an apartment complex. Mer thought I was crazy and/or lost again, but I found the building I was looking for after asking one person for directions. It was an apartment building, where we were greeted at the front door by Ben. Mer then understood.

Ben and Heather are musicians who have given concerts in our house and in our area. Mer and I are huge fans of their music, and Heather and Ben had agreed to share in the birthday festivities. We wandered up to Heather’s apartment, where we got to meet Heather’s significant other and Ben’s significant other. Mer was delighted. We talked together as a group for an hour or more, and it was delightful company. Ben then played various instruments while Heather sang for an hour or so, with the rest of us joining in on the choruses. Mer and Heather sang a couple of duets together, and it was wonderful. By this time, we were quite hungry, so as a group we headed over to Chinatown, to a place that serves various dumplings. Mer went with Ben and the others via car, while Heather and I walked. We got to go past the Rogers Center, where a monster truck rally was just letting out, which felt festive. Heather and I chatted as we walked, and got to the restaurant after the others were seated. We ordered various kinds of pan-fried dumplings, and ate very, very well.

After supper, Ben and his girlfriend had to go, and Heather’s boyfriend had an engagement as well, so Heather walked us back to King’s Street, where we hugged and said goodbye. It was a pretty perfect afternoon and evening, and had been the cornerstone of my birthday plans for Meredith. What gracious people.

Mer and I stopped by Tim Horton’s just as they were closing up, and we bought some doughnuts as dessert. We went back to the hotel, where we ate them, and then read while I took occasional reading breaks to watch the Patriots-Ravens playoff football game, but with only halfhearted interest; mostly I read.

Monday morning, we slept in, as the hotel had a generous noon check-out time. We packed the car, but before we left the city, we both wanted to go see the bluffs we had been trying so hard to see the day before. So, we headed east in the car. We got most of the way there when I spied a huge sign advertising hot chocolate. It turned out to be a Belgian chocolate store, so we stopped in the area. We both agreed we needed some real food first, so we went into a pub called The Fox and the Fiddle. It was not busy yet, as it was not yet noon. Oddly, it took about forty minutes to get our food. The food was excellent, but we never got any explanation or apology from anyone as to why it took so long. Odd. After lunch, we went over to the chocolate store and bought about twenty dollars’ worth of chocolates under the excuse that we needed to get rid of our Canadian money. Thus supplied, we proceeded to the bluffs.

We took a couple of minor wrong turns in the area of the bluffs, but we eventually found our way down to the lake. It was beautiful, and we had almost the entire huge park to ourselves. The bluffs are clay-and-sand cliffs, not made of rock, which is unique in the area. The park itself gave wonderful views of the lake and the cliffs, and it was well laid out, with paths throughout. The day was quite cold with the wind, but not unbearably so. We wandered in the park for about thirty or forty minutes before we had to leave.

We stopped at a doughnut shop on the way back into the city to use their bathroom, as the restrooms in the park were closed for the season. We always buy something at stores when we use their restrooms, so we left with a cookie and a pastry, which were consumed on the way back out of the other side of the city.

We had smooth driving all the way to the border with Buffalo. There was some snow along the way, but nothing too bad. We had to wait at the border for about twenty minutes, and then we proceeded through Buffalo. Just south of the city is when the snow started to pick up. Then it really came on. Then the police closed Route 90 (the road we were on) because of weather conditions. Thus began hours of white-knuckle driving and lots of prayer. It normally takes three hours to get from Buffalo to our house. On this Monday, it took seven and a half (including dinner). We pulled into our snow-free driveway about 12:30 at night. Once we had unpacked the car, I called work and left a message that I would be late on Tuesday. There was no way I was going into work on four hours’ sleep after that drive. Don’t get me wrong – both Mer and I were very grateful that we were safe. It was some of the worst weather I have ever had to drive in. I just needed some sleep before facing work.

So, that was our Toronto adventure, in honor of Mer’s fortieth birthday. We had a wonderful time, and think highly of Toronto and of Canadians in general. Everyone we met was very nice and polite, and Toronto seems quite easy to get around in. We are looking forward to going back.