Toronto Trip June 2012 Day 10 Thursday June 14

This is the tenth and last of a series of posts dealing with my second and most recent trip to Toronto. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports.  Due to how recent the trip was, there are only minimal updates to report.

Forgot to mention: saw a flock of eagles flying over the river en route to the hostel yesterday; maybe even they're impressed by the view

I got up early and walked back to the falls to get some final photos.  It seems that all the camera work there is regarding the guy crossing the Canadian Horseshoe falls tomorrow.  A CityTV guy interviewed me "man on the street" style so I might be on the news. If you do see me let me know.  He asked me what I thought (it was a bit unusual but if he does it more power to him), if I thought he was actually going to do it (I don't know him well enough to answer that), if he was crazy for doing so (well, aren't we all a bit crazy?), and where I'm from (Victoria BC).  I think answering early in the morning might help my chances; my answers were thus shorter, better for sound bytes.

[NOW: No luck there.]

It was also nice only seeing a few people around. A lot easier to get around without bumping into anyone.  Once again there as some rain localized to the Canadian Horseshoe falls; so the falls themselves must be causing the rain.

I walked to Clifton Hill for some final photos of the tacky area of the town and grabbed a small frozen lemonade from Tim Horton's.  I also got photos of some dinosaurs at the Dinosaur Golf Park getting a paint touch-up.

I then walked back to the hostel, seeing a lot of squirrels along a nature path.  When I reached an area with lots of trees I heard a loud rustling sound. It turned out to be the largest squirrel I've ever seen carrying a paper bag up a tree.

At the hostel I had a small breakfast (a couple muffins and a slice of bread).  

A big day today for me, so I'm off!

[NOW: The above was written in the morning; the rest I wrote the next day.]

I left my watch by the hostel computer the night before but luckily the manager found it. I walked to the downtown area.  A comic store normally open at 10 was open at 12:30 that day. Another was opening up at 10:30 but I managed to get a peek and decided it wasn't worth risking by bus over.

It seems that Megabus Canada is either part of or has a deal with Coach Canada because that bus turned up instead, So in some cases like Niagara Falls you *can* buy a ticket in person but only at the Coach Canada rate (if it's a real Megabus, it's strictly online booking). Luckily I figured that out.  An accident slowed things down just as I was arriving in Toronto but I still made it in at a decent time. I met up with Aidan downtown; we grabbed lunch at a hot dog stand outside the bus terminal and ate at Dundas Square. We parted company then I checked out the so Called World's Biggest Bookstore and BMV Books on Edward St before heading up Yonge. I bought DVDs at Sunrise Records, visited NDJ Books and ABC Books and bought more DVDS at another Sunrise Records. Turning left on Bloor, I walked to Zoinks and bought I comic collection I'd been considering since the first day). I grabbed some vanilla Coke at a convenience store near Aidan's place and then grabbed my stuff and tried to repack by weight.

I bought a subway token. I had trouble getting my stuff through, but a voice from some speaker (probably from a very remote location) told me that a door would be unlocked so I could get my last bag through. I took the westbound BD to Kipling Station.  There, making sure I was getting on the 192 Rocket bus to the airport and not the 191 Rocket to Humbert College, I arrived at the airport. When I checked in, I allowed part of the bag to rest on the metal and not the conveyor belt because I knew my bag was pushing things in terms of weight and figured the scale was probably on the belt. Once I got my ticket I left before anyone noticed that my bag was probably overweight. I wanted to ride the free tram connecting  terminals but I had cut things too close to get those aerial photos so after passing through security I grabbed dinner at the A&W by my gate.

The skies were mostly clear on the way back until around Alberta. The plane landed and while I was too late to catch the transit bus to McTavish Par & Ride, I had a slight chance of getting the 72 just after it left there. The weather wasn't as good as the Golden Horseshoe area, but it was still nice enough to skip the Airporter. I passed two women. A woman in a car offered the free of us a ride to the nearest bus stuff. The two women declined, wanting to enjoy the walk, but given how heavy my stuff was, I couldn't decline.  When the 72 bus arrived at my stop, I saw the two women in the background, so far for the bus to wait for them, so I'd have had to have run really fast to make this connection. Easy enough without my stuff, but the DVDs, hardcovers, etc were a game changer.  Finally made it home. Part of the work I wanted done while away was done but some wasn't.  There was a phone call from Wed from someone wanting help with their yard. I decided that since I was already a day late anyway, I could call them later today instead, not up to any phone calls that night.