Toronto '07

Last weekend, myself and Krista took a long overdue trip to Toronto. We went up for four days, and it was a great time.

We previously had planned to go up in September, but unfortuantly, just a few hours after we arrived in the T-Dot, we got a call that Ks grandmother had died. Back on the plane, and back to Newfoundland we came. We had pre-paid our stay at the hotel, so I figured all was lost in that department, but they were awesome about it. They left us with a full credit which we were able to use this time. The Holiday Inn on King is a super hotel, and I would reccomend it to anyone.

We had four fun-filled days in which we did an awful lot of stuff. We did the touristy walk around, I met up with an old friend for dinner, went to a Raptors game, spent an afternoon in the Royal Ontario Museum, saw The Phantom of the Opera, and went to the 2007 Canadian Autoshow.

The autoshow was the highlight of the trip for me. It was great for a bunch of reasons; anyone who knows me will know I'm nuts for cars (especially Jeeps) and also, Steve, Adam, and Scott came in for it, so we had an awesome afternoon together. Anytime you bring a group of Engineering Buddies together after a long absence, hilarity is sure to ensue, and this was no exception.

The first memorable moment was when we stopped to watch one of these demonstrations where a guy basically tears up the paint on a car with keys and 'magically' restores with a rub from the super-secret wax formulation. A guy with a pretty heavy Rastafarian accent is spouting his schpeel (did I just make up a word?) and the wax is doing its job. He finishes the presentation with the standard "Normal price is $60 per bottle, Car Show price: $20! But wait !!! the first three customers get a second bottle, FREE!" He then proceeds to place packages of wax in mine, Steve's, and another guys hand. Hes talking as he does it, and hes kinda hard to understand.

Me and Steve look at each other, and are kinda confused, wondering if its free. The third guy ponies up the $20 and walks away. Steve looks at the sales guy and says "I'll give you $30 for the two packs." Dude is pissed! He takes Steve's package away and gives it to Scott, looking for his $20. We all just kinda shrug and start to walk away, giving the guy back his stuff. Steve is about 15 feet away and the dude shouts out to him. He looks around, takes off his microphone and says "just give me the money." without a trace of any accent. He does not look happy. Steve hauls out the $30, and we walk away with 4 bottles of wax thanks to Steve's awesome powers of negotiation!

Did I mention we got bonus shammys? I can't wait to ruin the paint on my truck this spring. I think I might use sandpaper.

A few pics from the afternoon are located here.

Other random Toronto Pics from the weekend are here.