November 20, 2003
Toronto, the weekend of a lifetime.
This weekend I got to live my dream, it isn't often that everything happens to be perfect all at once but when it does, you make sure to fully enjoy it. :)
At first, I did think it wasn't going to happen, how can something so great, happen to us? Then dh didn't make it to Zoe's skating lesson on friday. After her skating hour, he called and ask that I start packing, he'd be home shortly. Well... time did pass by but dh still wasn't home, I really started to think this weekend wasn't meant to be. Our train was to leave the station at 11:30pm, either we were on it or not. You all already know from my previous post that we DID make it on the train though! LOL! (Hey, I'm trying to add drama to my story!) ;) We took a taxi with our bags, to get to the train station faster, I did get to buy a magazine for the trip and chose to get the latest Interweave Knits. We went to relax a few minutes in the 1st class lounge at the train station, it sure was an exciting experience for us! LOL! It's not like there's tons to do in the lounge, mostly it has leather chairs, free drinks and tv to watch. It sure did help build our anticipation for the night ahead though, what will it be like to sleep in a moving train?
Finally we were invited to board the train, our room was the tiniest space I ever saw. Once settled in aka throwing our backpacks on the beds, we went to the lounge wagon. The view from the train was magical, all we could see were the lights from the city that was sleeping by now. Soon enough and even though we felt like staying up all night, we went to bed. I was almost more excited about sleeping in the top bunk bed than the fact that we were sleeping in a train. Well.... if only I had gotten over that excitement, instead, I stayed awake most of the night tossing and turning and just day dreaming about the weekend ahead. I had researched some places to see, eat at and stores to stop by on the internet, I was also recommended a few addresses by some locals and had studied many maps to try to get a 'feel' of the city before getting there.
Our morning wake-up knock on the door let us know it was now 7am, got cleaned up, dressed and went to eat our complimentary breakfast at the lounge cart. People, Via Rail employees like the travellers were all so nice, we talked around with just about anyone over breakfast and some much needed coffee. Around 8:20am we arrived at the Toronto Union Station, we were now in a city that would keep us dreaming for the next few days. :) We got our gear together and left our backpacks at the luggage "daycare". LOL! We didn't know where we would sleep yet so lugging the bags all day would have been pretty heavy and of course, would have slowed us down. No time to slow down as dh had to work this weekend after all. ;)
From the Union station, there's a loooong corridor that goes right to the CN Tower. Carl was so excited to go there, I thought it would be boring but I was wrong, you do get pretty excited once you are so high in the sky and see everything. It sure makes things in perspective, we got to see where the Eaton Centre was and also spotted a few of the hotels I had on my list to check out. We then went shopping at the Eaton Centre, which is a LOT bigger compared to Montreal's Eaton Center. Maybe it's because they had so many stores I never shopped at, like: Old Navy (LOVE that store!), Gymboree, the Disney Store. I also made sure to include on my list a few restaurants I wanted to eat at, like Taco Bell and especially the Red Lobster!!! The chain has closed it's restaurants in Quebec, I used to love eating there. So..... in our weekend we actually ate there twice! LOL! Also they pitched in a free Red Lobster baseball cap as a souvenir for us, how can you not like them! ;)
After a quick lunch, we went on the hotel hunt to see where we would be sleeping for the next 2 nights. I had checked out some prices online but since we didn't want to pay with credit cards, we couldn't reserve a room prior to getting there. Also I wanted to see the hotels before choosing which one we'd be at. Just the attitude of people towards us made us strike two places off my list of 5. Then there were prices that were just too much and smoking rooms weren't what we were looking for. Finally we found the Days Inn, which was situated at a great area for us to still be close to everything by walk. Hey, they even had a poor but sadly we never got time to go in for a swim. The room was brightly colored with NO flowery bedspread, instead there was a cheery striped comforter on the bed and it looked like a young hip room. Which was better than those grannie's boring grey/brown rooms from other places. From our 7th floor room we could see pretty well all the surroundings, it was pretty nice to see. :) The hotel has 23 floors but still we got the attention that a smaller hotel would give to it's guests. We never felt like they were overwhelmed by all the guests. There were many liberals there as Paul Martin was being named prime minister the exact same weekend. I ever heard a rumor that he was staying in the same hotel we were. Oooh..... must be a good hotel, right? LOL!
Then... Carl suggested we take the streetcar to Romni Wools. Yippeeeeeeeee! Going to Romni was my whole excuse for coming on this weekend away from home! LOL! I couldn't have been more excited to go there. Once we got in, I kept telling dh, look, look, LOOK!!! They have everything I ever saw online, patterns, yarns, needles, books. Look Carl, touch this yarn, wait touch this one, oh oh oh and wow NORO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES, they had the Kureyon I had only seen online, I sure ain't going to be on a yarn diet while I'm in TO! LOL! Had already planned my budget for yarn and I did VERY well by not blowing it on the 1st day. LOL! Since I know that in Montreal I do not get a good service, a good yarn selection and that they are over priced, I made sure to have enough yarn to keep me busy for a while. ;)
From that day, I got FOURTEEN balls of Kureyon yarn, yes that much!!! Hey remember, I don't know when I will make it back to this city, I want to be sure to have enough yarn forever! LOL! The Kureyon yarn is for: a booga bag (hey, everyone's doing it, so you know I just gotta try my own too), scarf, felted mittens, hat combo to brighten up our cold months ahead! :) Got the FiberTrends felted mittens pattern and the Noro Kureyon cable scarf pattern. They had the scarf in store and it looked even nicer than the pictures I had seen on the internet. Since my memory isn't too good, I got the scarf pattern so that I could make it once I get home. I went to the store's basement and got to touch oodles of coned yarns, roving and anything I could put my hands on. LOL! They had the softest of chenille's in there but I left it as I didn't know what I would even knit with it. The staff couldn't have been nicer, for a saturday the store for buzy with customers but still the 3 sellers there were very friendly and didn't seem at all stressed out with everyone there. Apparently they get many customers from Montreal go there, I explained that it was VERY easy for me to understand why. They laughed when I told them how LYS sellers would look at me weird when I would inquire about bamboo circular needles. "Oh dear, those needles simply do not exists. Where did you get such a crazy idea?" Romni, of course, sold said needles, also pearl, rosewood, casein and Brittany needles that I never have seen before. When we paid, I thanked everyone there for their time, friendliness and simply for having this store exists! LOL! Yes, I was a tad over excited by the whole experience! ;) I would be willing to save money just to go back the Romni and take a class or two of knitting. They simply exceeded my expectations, to have people who love their job working in a LYS is the greatest of all. I LOVE Romni Wools!!! :)
We went back to the hotel to unload off all this yarn, I almost didn't even want to go supper after all but hey, I couldn't pass up the opportunity of checking off one more thing from my list, so seafood for supper it is. Walked, walked and walked to Red Lobster's then walked back to the train station, got our bags and oooh, walked some more back to the Days Inn. Then I called Kate to see at what time we could meet the next day aka sunday. It was SO weird talking to someone I only know from blogging, I was too excited to talk straight and kept searching for my words. LOL! We did hit it off right away on the phone, so I wasn't too worried about when we would meet up. Again, if all goes wrong we can always just sit and knit! LOL! While talking with Kate, dh made some new friends in the hotel's lounge. Then they were off for a few rounds in the bar and I went to an internet cafe for a half-hour. By that time I was VERY tired, still couldn't believe we were in Toronto and the kids were home, that I got to shop at Romni and even took the streetcar. LOL! Our day had been perfect, Carl had made new friends in the bar and they were having a grand time. I took the opportunity to sneak back into our room and start playing with my new Kureyon yarn. :)
For a first day in TO, we sure didn't get too bored! LOL! ;)