Toronto Trip March 2011 Day 7 March 8

LAST UPDATED: October 26, 2025

This is the 7th and last in a series of posts dealing with my 2011 trip to Toronto and vicinity. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports (typos, bits I don’t feel like making public). Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of a year later or to add further clarification. These are indicated by “NOW”. 
 

More nighttime kitty activity again (Artemis).  I wanted to do a final exploration.  I left my bag at Aidan's place because it was already packed thus heavy, but my camera still had over 1000 photos in the memory card.  I walked to the McDonald’s across from the ROM on Bloor, then went south along Yonge, visiting a couple Shoppers Drug Mart because on the way over a lost a few things such as my electric razor due to my bag opening up.  So I was searching for plastic ties.  Neither had any.  I visited Dundas Square, when roughly around the time I was going to head back anyway I ran out of photos.  Taking a subway from Dundas to Bloor stations (north) and Yonge to Ossington stations (west) I managed to get space for a few more photos by temporarily changing my camera settings to the lowest quality.  I decided this time to exit Ossington from the further side to Aidan's place this time, as I wanted to do something different.  This worked well because I found a dollar store en route.  The guy there didn't speak very good English but I found the ties I wanted to stop zippers from opening up.

[UPDATE September 19: I won't put a damper on most of my trip reports by mentioning this in the earlier days' reports, but Artemis has since passed away. The McDonald's across the ROM closed but another later opened, albeit with not as nice of a view. The subway trains were the 1 Line thenn the 2 Line]
 
I hung out with Aidan for a bit, and then took a subway train west to Kipling.  There I meant to get on the 192 Rocket transit bus to the airport but got confused and got on the 191 Rocket to Humbert College which stops on the same stop.  I realized my mistake too late and had to double back a ways (I later learned that my friend Dave  was on the bus probably further back but I hadn't noticed him and he hadn't noticed me until I was leaving the bus.

I took the 191 bus going the other direction to East Mall.  I crossed the street and saw a 192 bus just leaving.  I waved dramatically and shouted and thus managed to get that bus.

[NOW: The 192 bus has been renumbered 900.]

I checked in at Lester B. Pearson Airport in Mississauga.  One of my bags was overweight.  She let it slide but told me to put it through oversized.  I did that and then rode a tram that takes you to two other sections of the airport; this was just to take photos from above so I got off back where I started.  I decided to go through security a half hour ahead of time.  This proved to be wise because after wandering around a little and grabbing lunch from a bit of a line-up at Tim Horton's, it was already time to get on the plane.

The seat I thought was mine turned out not to be,. but that worked out because the guy who actually had the seat offered to trade.  There was some wing but not enough to kill the view and probably helped it at points.  The first part of the flight was through the States, returning to Canada at west Saskatchewan.  Some clouds, some not. I'm pretty sure I saw Lethbridge.

In Vancouver (actually Richmond), there was a separate section for oversized baggage at Arrivals but as it turned out my baggage was now back in the regular section.  For the first time, I rode the Canada Line's airport section, getting off at Bridgeport, where there was a wait of about half an hour.  I took the 620 bus to Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal.

[NOW: The Canada Line SkyTrain and the 620 bus are TransLink.]

There was an hour before the next sailing so I asked if the snack bar where the terminal was was open. The ticket lady instead directed me instead to the building ion the vehicle area, where I grabbed some Chinese food at Wok n Roll.  There wasn't much to choose from and I passed on one selection I wanted because she wanted an extra dollar for it but it was edible.  I made my way to terminal 5 to Victoria (actually Swartz Bay) where I found that the snack bar I had asked about was indeed open.  The lady there looked bored, maybe because the ticket people keep sending passengers wanting to eat elsewhere.

I got on the ferry which seemed to have a different layout than any I'd been on before, even the newest ones.  I decided to get a highway bus to finally finish the trip home and so bought a ticket.  I grabbed a couple of tall glasses of water from the express restaurant and partly watched a hockey game mainly because it was fascinating to see how much later the subtitles came on after the spoken words.

[NOW: The ferry was a BC Ferries one. I took a coach bus downtown that may have been Pacific Coach Lines at the time.]

Arriving at the bus depot in Victoria (I couldn't get off at Douglas & View because my heavy bag was underneath) I got home and thankfully had no messages and no notices from View Towers.  I dropped off my stuff and went to London Drugs for a new electric razor; the cashier asked me how my day was going.

[NOW: I have moved twice since living in View towers.]