Our final days of Toronto...

We slept in and recovered after our marathon flight back from Vancouver. When we did venture out, we went birthday shopping for me at the Eaton’s Centre which is a big mall downtown. Alison spoiled me with some essentials that I needed, which was good, because I had to limit the amount of stuff I could carry in my luggage.

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Friday evening and Tony and Craig had organised a bit of a shindig for my birthday, but also as a farewell for Alison and I. Tony came and got us from our apartment and we headed down to the Drake, a bar we had been to a number of times over the previous months – it was super cool, so we just kept going back. We had a little sectioned off area and had an array of beautiful food to keep our stomach’s lined. It was as a heavy night of drinking. I had countless drinks bought for me, shots of every variety, constantly one if not two drinks in hand. We shared the night with a whole bunch of people that we had become friendly with during our time in Toronto, and it was great to go out with a bang. Thanks again to Tony and Craig who organised and catered the evening.

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We finished up late Saturday morning back in the apartment with another drink in hand. Tony stayed the night on the couch and Alison and I tried to sleep soundly through till the morning. By the time we woke up, Tony had gone and I was knocking on deaths door. Well and truly on struggle street. We had originally intended on going to a baseball game, but that was never going to happen. Alison found me on the bathroom floor around 3pm using a towel as a pillow and with a face cloth across my forehead. It was the coolest, darkest and quietest part of the apartment – and I stand by it. It was a quiet day in, nothing happened.

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Sunday we were feeling better. We had organised to go and visit some of Alison’s family in Toronto. We’d been pretty slack, because it took us 4 months to travel 45min away to see Alison’s family. We thought it was time. Alison’s pop’s sister from Malta lived in Etobicoke (pronounced Et-obe-ee-co) which is an outside suburb of Toronto. When pop moved from Malta to Australia, his sister moved to Toronto and he hasn’t seen her for 45 years or so. Needless to say, Alison had never met her. We met Francis (pop’s sister) and her daughters and their family. Alison was blown away by how similar her pop is to Francis – and there was definitely a large resemblance, there mannerisms, there humour, it was uncanny.

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During our final week in Toronto we did a tour of a brewery across from the Skydome downtown, followed by a Blue Jays game. The Jays game definitely doesn’t pull the numbers that a Maple Leafs game does, but the atmosphere was still great and we had a good time. The Jays won 8-1 beating the Kansas City Royals.

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On the Friday night (my birthday) Carlo (Tony and Craig’s cousin) mentioned a concert with Hot Chip and The XX that was on Tuesday the following week. We went along gladly and had a great night. Both Hot Chip and The XX put on a great show. Following the show, we went to an after party at which one of the XX was DJing, we ‘could’ have had photos etc as per Vampire Weekend, but not knowing the XX quite as well, we decided against it.

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Wednesday night we met up with Philli and Jen at their place, we enjoyed a great dinner with them and said our farewells.

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Thursday night we headed to Claire and Bernie’s, and again enjoyed a lovely dinner, and we were spoilt with a farewell ice cream cake which was super awesome. We stayed the night, said our farewells and was out the door early Friday.

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We headed back to Toronto as we had organised to rent a car and drive north to Craig’s cottage in Muskoka. We picked up the car early and drove up. I got pulled over for speeding early on in the piece, but the innocent tourist Australian charm got me out of jail yet again. So we continued on our way and arrived in the early afternoon. It was very different to the last time we were there, which was in the peak of winter and everything was under 4 feet of snow. This time it was sunny, starting to turn green and bearably cold. Alison and I made ourselves comfortable and we relaxed and enjoyed the peacefulness. Craig came up later in the evening, and after a fireworks display to rival Sydney’s New Years eve, and a movie we headed to bed. In the morning Craig and I ran a couple errands, and he ventured back to Toronto, late Saturday afternoon. Alison and I just relaxed, watched movies, read, ate and escaped. We headed back to Toronto late Sunday night, and we were more or less given the all clear to fly to Europe.

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The next few days was a mad dash to pack up and clear out. We had to clear out a whole bunch of stuff from the apartment, and we had to (still have to) send home a huge amount of stuff to Australia. We had somehow accumulated so much stuff. It took all day Monday and Tuesday to pack, and clean. We said our good bye to Tony on Monday over a few drinks at the pub across the road. Tuesday night we spent with Luciano, again we said our goodbyes over a few drinks. And early Wednesday we got up and Craig had offered to drive us to the airport, so we ventured out, said our goodbye to the apartment, Craig and Toronto. It was sad to go, but we were also excited about the next leg of the trip and the adventures that lay head.

West Coast Canada

We spent the last few days in Toronto before we headed west, doing bits and pieces, saying the occasional good-bye, and starting to more or less wind things down, as initially the intention was to return to Toronto, pack, say final goodbye’s and then disappear to Europe. Our Viking volcano friend ensured that this was not the case. So our Toronto stay was extended further – not that it was a bad thing.

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So as I said, the days prior to our trip, we were very busy saying final or almost final goodbyes. We spent a night with Claire and Bernie (aunt and uncle), I had a boys night at Tony’s playing foosball, and then the day before we left, we headed east on the train to see my cousins Karen and Richard and their two boys Jack and Lucas and their small horse (Great Dane) Simon. We were lucky – we didn’t buy train tickets, we knew we were supposed to, but we didn’t have time as the train was arriving. Of course the inspectors found us mid-trip demanding to see our tickets. Sweet Alison and I played the innocent travelling Australians that thought we could buy the tickets at the other end – needless to say we got away with it. It was Easter Friday and we had great weather, you may see photos of us wandering around in shorts and t-shirts, exciting stuff. We had a great time hanging with the family, drinking on the front lawn and engaging in all types of activities, hockey, lacrosse, nerf shooting, snake handling followed by snake avoiding. We had a great dinner a number of drinks then headed out on the train back to Toronto. By the time we arrived back home it was shortly after midnight, and by the time we’d done the final pack and clean-up it was close to 1:30 by the time we got to bed.

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At 4:00am the alarm went for us to get out of bed. 4:30 we were in a cab airport bound. Juuuuust made the plane detouring via Dallas, but we each got a row so we could attempt to sleep. The next plane from Dallas to Vancouver was delayed by two hours, so by the time we arrived in Vancouver it was late afternoon, and we were exhausted. Originally we had planned to hop straight on a bus up to Whistler, but we just couldn’t do it. So we spent the night in Vancouver recuperating.

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We caught the bus to Whistler on Sunday morning and arrived in the early afternoon. We were immediately blown away by the village and the surrounding mountains. For those that have not spent any time in Whistler, it’s kind of like Perisher or Thredbo in that there’s snow – and that’s where the similarities end. It’s enormous, the mountains are spectacular, the village itself seemed to be alive with energy. Being a holiday destination, everyone seems in high spirits, so it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement.

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We were super lucky and were able to stay with Alison’s friend Helen and her boyfriend Adi, so upon arrival in Whistler we headed to their place which is only a 2 minute drive or 5 minute bus ride from the mountain. Helen and Adi were working so we settled in, and became acquainted with the cat with 28 toes, until Helen arrived home. We headed to the village to visit Adi at work – the GLC, a bar right at the foot of the mountain. On Sunday night they have an event through the winter called ‘Fire and Ice’ which involves skiers doing jumps through a ring of fire, I thought it was cool, anything can be made cool with flames. We headed out for dinner in the village and enjoyed the company of Helen and Adi.

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The following day arrived and it is was time to hit the slopes; after sorting out equipment and lift passes Helen, Alison and I boarded the Blackcomb gondola and set upon a 20min ride up the mountain. At the top of the gondola we moved to the chair lift adjacent and continued our ascent. There seemed to be endless mountain and chairlift heading in every direction. After a smooth start, minimal falls, a plethora of green runs, and some confidence gained, Alison and I ventured out alone to tackle as much as we could. It was a painful day for both of us, not used to the gear or using certain muscles, but it was sensational. At the end of the first day, although slightly battered and bruised we were anxious to do it all again the following day.

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Day two was great fun, but visibility throughout the day was poor to say the least, which makes everything slightly more difficult. We had yet another amazing day on the slopes but were getting increasingly sore by the end. All in good fun though. Another day of exhaustion meant that we didn’t head out ‘partying’, instead opted more often than not for a relaxing night in to rehabilitate.

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We skied (Alison) and snowboarded (me) for the following 4 days, so a total of 6. We got better and better, and both Alison and I are eager to get back to it as soon as possible. Rather than walking through day by day, I’ll note a couple of highlights (and low lights).

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Hiking up the back of a glacier and then riding down the side. Getting to the top of the glacier, hidden from the village and most greenery, we could have been in the middle of Antarctica, it was very barren, but beautiful. We arrived at the top and it was clear blue skies, and within minutes visibility dissipated to nothing, so it was like riding blind. I was heading down a fairly steep section and fell a few times, but it I was in 2 feet of powder snow. I couldn’t see or hear anyone else, and it was awesome, it didn’t matter how fast I went, or how hard I fell it was like landing on sponges. I know that Alison didn’t share my excitement about skiing powder this time, as I’m told it’s harder to ski powder than it is to snowboard, but generally we both loved skiing in lovely soft powder snow.

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It was only a few minutes later that I was brought straight back to earth. To get from the glacier back to the main mountain runs, there’s a series of reasonably flat roads. For those that haven’t snowboarded, as silly as it sounds, travelling along a flat road is quite difficult (or maybe it’s just me). Travelling with your board flat is when your most likely to catch an edge, and every bump is capable of throwing you to the ground. So, trying to pick up as much speed as possible heading to the flat road, I was moving fairly quick when I hit the bumpy icy road and before I knew it I was doing a couple of forward tumbles at high speed on my head. I came to a stop eventually and didn’t know which way was up. I survived, was a little dazed, had a severe headache, but I lived to tell the tale; and it was at that point that I decided to get myself a helmet.

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Other highlights were hitting the terrain park to tackle some huge (small) jumps. Undertaking some random black runs early on in the week, not realising it – and getting through it unharmed. Later in the week, we purposely tackled a number of blacks and although they were a challenge, we made it and loved it.

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The final day in Whistler was Helen and Adi’s day off, so we decided to do something a bit different, we headed down to Squamish to hike ‘The Chief’. Although Helen was hungover, Alison and I were sore and Adi was full from polishing off his Mcflurry just prior, we walked up and up and made it intact. It was a beautiful trail and a rewarding view from the top. We had a lot of laughs and made a new chipmunk friend at the top. Back in town for our final night and Helen and Adi took us out to Sushi Village where we had the most amazing sushi meal. A great day to finish our time there. It was a great time for Alison and I, and I know Alison (and I) appreciated the time catching up with and hanging out with Helen and Adi.

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We left Whistler early the following morning, not wanting to leave, and just making the bus (we had to chase it to the next town). We headed to Vancouver where we were met by Claire a family friend. She took us over to Stanley Park and drove us around, which was great, unfortunately we only had 2 days in Vancouver, but had we had longer we would have loved to spend more time in Stanley Park. We were told by a number of people that the aquarium was good to see – and if my memory serves me correctly I went there when I was a young chap. It was great, I made friends with a turtle and Alison decided she wants a pet otter. We stayed with Claire and her husband Alan in Vancouver in their beautiful apartment and we were spoilt with cooked breakfasts and dinners. We spent the following day touring Lynn Canyon park, a Dam (that I can’t remember the name of) and Granville Island. We had another lovely dinner, and then I was spoilt with a birthday cake as it was my birthday the following day.

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My birthday! What a day. We had an 8am flight which meant 5am wake up, 5:30 in the car, 6am arrive. We were lucky to get on the plane as it was quite full. We flew to Dallas where we had a 5 hour stop over. Initially we planned to check our bags immediately, then relax in the airport, and enjoy a nice birthday lunch. This however was not the case. The Icelandic volcano struck that morning and the airport was flooded with people trying to get to Europe, we got stuck in the midst and ended up standing in line for 3 super frustrating hours. We did however get to see the most famous ‘things’ in Dallas – the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, whom were checking in next to us. Once we had finally made it through customs, we only had time for a quick bite to eat at TGI Fridays which was surprisingly good. The plane ride was long and uncomfortable, and we finally made it, we landed and got through customs, and as the clock struck midnight, our bags slid down onto the conveyor belt. We finally made it home about 1:30 exhausted, glad to be home but wanting to return to the West Coast.