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.