Take Off! My Life and Times in Toronto
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
My wife's favorite beach is being celebrated at it's 75th anniversary. If you're from the NYC area, you've almost certainly been there. If you aren't, you're still more likely to have been there than not. Raise a glass to one of New York's natural wonders.
Alanna is really, really good at Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), the dancing arcade game that has become a quasi-workout fad. She really enjoys using a "pro" metal dance pad (like the one at The Main Event in Plano, shown here):
Barbara and Anne can be seen in the background. Anne wants to get into this game (it's reminiscent of the aerobic step workouts she used to teach at the McKinney YMCA). I just know I'm too uncoordinated to even try ...
As soon as I arrived in McKinney, I had Melanie drop me off at Reid's Academy, where Alanna is working on her Black Belt.
She was having a rough day made worse by the appearance of both parents and her grandmother. But she soldiered through (I'm surprised how rough they are with the kids) and survived another session.
I got to see Leo's new glasses, too.
He looks kinda like a cross between Harry Potter and Tina Fey from SNL now ...
Commodore Ray Bob Staton, leading the Weatherby Lake 4th of July boat parade, as recorded by the Staton Associated Press.
I'm so proud that he finally joined the Armed Services, even if he had to start at the very top due to extreme old age ;-).
This is the Luann cartoon for my 42nd birthday:
Is he channeling me?
Ok, I'm FORTY-TWO today.
Deal with it!
Sigh.
"Six by nine ... forty-two? That's the Ultimate Question?" -- Arthur Dent (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).
I just got off the horn with Anne in Dallas -- they're back in the U.S. of A. My brother is waiting for them with her car, so she should be home around 10pm or so. Awaiting her is an insane Persian cat who has left her surprises everywhere, according to the friend who watched over her while Anne was gone.
Look for Alanna on line later tonite ... two days without the Internet has certainly driven her mad, too.
Update -- they're all the way home, safe and sound. The cat is probably driving Anne nuts as I type this.
While we all went down to the Canadian side of the Falls on Friday, today's weather was orders of magnitude better. We had clear skies, and lots of sun. While everyone else went to the Journey Behind the Falls, I walked along the Niagara River stopping to photograph the river and falls.
A close up of the Horseshoe Falls from the Table Rock observation deck.
Two of the Maid of the Mist boats between the American Falls (in the background) and the Canadian Falls. The Rainbow Bridge is visible in the background.
The American Falls and the Table Rock observation decks in the foreground. Rainbow Bridge and Maid of the Mist elevator and platform in the background.
A close up of the Table Rock tourist building and the Horseshoe Falls, taken from the 28th floor of the Embassy Suites.
The Ontario Power Plant and the older and defunct Canada Niagara Power plant, along with the Niagara Falls Park tourist parking lot along River Street. The Botanical Gardens building is between the two power plants.
This is the whole enchilada ... the Canadian (Horseshoe) Falls, Table Rock tourist center, the power plant water inlets, and on the left, Goat Island's viewpoint of the Horseshoe. Niagara Falls, NY is in the background.
Barbara took this family portrait. I need to work on it a bit ... I had the camera setup to over expose the background in order to get our faces more clearly. Of all the shots, this is the one where the kids are not frowning or looking away :-( !
I took Anne to Peller Estates Vineyard for dinner this evening.
We visited the facility when we first drove into Niagara-on-the-Lake (we came up the Niagara Parkway). We were still dressed for Marineland, so we didn't hang out for too long at the wine store.
We had a late reservation, and so we arrived at nine on schedule. Anne quickly chose to order the James Beard Tasting Menu:
She urged me to join her in this, and I agreed. So, for the first time I had oyster fritters, bison, and foie gras. On the whole, it was rather good. I was surprised how rich the 6 yr. old cheddar tasted, for example. Anne was in heaven, and since she had the wine with the meal, was able to enjoy five different Peller drinks.
For dessert, they served a "Valrhona Dark Chocolate & Cabernet Franc Icewine Cube":
By the time this was served, we were so stuffed we could barely finish it (in fact, we didn't). We were there until 11:30pm, after which we only had enough strength to crawl back to the B&B and crash (ok, I did watch a bit of SNL).
Saturday evening before eating at Peller Estates Vineyard, Anne and I went downtown to look out over the lake, do some shopping (I needed a necktie), and take a carriage ride.
You can see the map-themed tie I bought (ironic, given that tomorrow is Father's Day) tied (badly) around my neck. Anne was reluctant to take a horse ride, but I insisted and we got a surprisingly interesting tour of the town, some inside dirt (a Hong Kong woman is buying all the best hotels and B&Bs), and found out the driver was friends with Linda Evangelista's brother.
Historic Fort Niagara (the one we ... America ... used to attack Canada) is clearly across the river on the lake. A local said that the U.S. Coast Guard still used it. I thought that was rather tacky of us.
We had a good view of Toronto 35 miles across Lake Ontario.
On our second night in the Niagara region, Anne and I stayed at the Victoria Street Bed and Breakfast on (where else?) Victoria St. in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
This is the B&B that Brian and I visited a few weeks back. I didn't get to see the Winter room in the inn that I reserved, so I took this room sight unseen:
I knew that we had a large bath and a sleigh bed, but the owners took my plan for a belated honeymoon to heart.
While I was in the bathroom, Anne started laughing out loud. When I came into the room she challenged me to "spot the hint". It took me a few moments to spot the blocks on the mantle ... and burst out laughing myself. I had to explain that I had told the owners that this was to be a surprise, 14 yr. after the fact honeymoon. At the time I told them this, I had completely forgotten that our trip to San Antonio in 1993 was are "real" honeymoon. Doh!
Take a trip with us now, through time and space. To the late 1960's, and to Southern Ontario. To ... Marineland.
It was my idea to drag the kids, Anne and her mother to this theme park. I figured there would be decent animal shows, and a good aquarium. I knew that they boasted the "longest" steel roller-coaster, so I figured that the kids would like that.
What we found was a theme park that has scarcely changed from the 1960's Marineland that I remember going to in California when we lived a few miles from Marineland of the Pacific.
The first thing we did was stand in line for twenty minutes to attend the main animal show. They used seals, a walrus, four dolphin and a smaller female orca in what was largely a traditional yet extremely corny show.
One of the highlights was the unintended switching of walruses as Walrus #1 refused to come down the slide (from my vantage point, I could see the staff struggling to get the beast to move). In case anyone has forgotten ... the Walrus is one ugly critter! Not cute like Mr. Seal.
The show included four very frisky dolphins who did the usual high jumps, flips and squirting the staff. They are so agile, it's startling sometimes. When the orca was brought out these guys made themselves scarce in the adjacent pool.
What Marineland would be complete without a stunt orca? This female was amazing to watch ... an eighteen foot long uber-dolphin that eats fifty pounds of fish a day.
The show ended with the requisite "wave good bye".
A viewing tank held a large collection of Beluga whales. Two of the females were pregnant ... they look like double-wide dolphins.
Alanna and Leo rode this vomit comet ... it's a "Scrambler" that climbes into the sky.
We all rode the Dragon Mountain roller-coaster. The ride ops said the ride was four minutes long ... and it probably was. A very, very long steel coaster that felt like two regular coasters combined. It was cleverly built into a mountain side, with hidden turns and two inversions plus a head-banging cobra head.
The park has only a handful of attractions spread over an enormous area, which meant we spent most of our time walking, walking walking.
After dinner on Friday, Anne and I retired to our "Fallsview" room. Around midnight, I took these photos from the 14th floor of the Marriott Renassance Fallsview.
This image is looking down the Niagara river towards Lake Ontario. The new Casino dominates the image (and the parking garage in front it) but the Rainbow Bridge is visible as a line of lights behind the Casino, and to the right of the Skylon Tower.
Here is a closeup of the Rainbow Bridge. Cars coming from the U.S. still covered half the bridge -- at midnight. When you gotta gamble, you gotta gamble.
I arrived early on Friday, leaving Markham at 11am and reaching the hotel around 12:30pm. I pulled up to the newly built Marriott Fallsview hotel on Fallsview Rd. (seen on the left in the picture below).
As it turns out, I didn't have a reservation here (I had a reservation, just not at this Marriott). In fact, there are two "fallsview" Marriott hotels in Niagara Falls, and they're both on Fallsview Road. The one I had a reservation with was across the street from the enormous new Fallsview Casino, which just happens to block our view of the American Falls. We stayed on the 14th floor, which is the lowest level of the glass rooms in this image (we were right smack in the middle of the floor).
We ended up a block down the street from the Embassy Suites, where Barbara stayed on the 28th floor with the kids. Thanks to her room, I was able to take all of the spectacular aerial shots of the Horseshoe Falls and surrounding areas. The Konica Minolta Tower was right outside her window.
This weekend it's back to the Falls.
Anne's mom is driving her and the kids to Niagara Falls, ON on Friday, where we'll all spend the weekend there until I take them to Toronto's Pearson airport late Sunday and send them home.
Anne and I will stay in the Marriott Fallsview hotel on Friday night, and then on Saturday we'll stay at a bed and breakfast in Niagara-on-the-Lake (yes, the hyphens are part of the real name). Barbara will keep the kids at the Embassy Suites back in Niagara Falls. Saturday we'll go to Marineland, Ontario and see the orcas and manatees.
This will be my umpteenth trip to the Falls, so I'm acting more as tour guide than tourist. It'll be fun to be on the "cool" side and for the wife and kids to finally see the falls in their full glory.
I took the family to Whitney Point, NY yesterday after visiting Paramount's "Canada Wonderland" theme park. We drove across the Peace Bridge after a more-or-less uneventful trip down the ETR and the QEW through the Niagara region.
We got into Broome County, NY around 10:30pm, stopping at Anne's mom's home briefly. We spent the night in a Fairfield Inn (Marriott points!) and went to Barbara's around 10am. Anne and the kids are staying the week until Friday, when Barbara drives them back to Niagara Falls, ON for the weekend.
All of Anne's siblings were there: Stephen and Sue Gerard with their two sons Adam and Ben. Paul and Chira Gerard with their son Mitchell. Barbara's brother David and his wife Margie also came to visit on Sunday, so it was a big reunion for Barbara.
I drove back from WP around 5p, and things went swimmingly until I hit a 45 minute backup on the QEW just east of the 406 interchange. The highway was backed up for 12 km! Blew my awesome trip time (I was on track to make the entire drive in 4h 15m -- instead it took 5h 5m) but I still got to the RI around 10:30pm.
Sunday was a family reunion for Anne's mom, Barbara Decker. Her brother and all her children and their kids showed up for an afternoon together in her Whitney Point country home.
As soon as I got to her house, I started working on getting the laptop working for Alanna. I was able to activate the WiFi tap without incident (and for you war drivers, there's a WEP enabled so don't bother!). As soon as it was working, she was back on line (to Barbara's dismay).
Unfortunately for me, Anne's brother Stephen is a real photographer. He grabbed my camera and capture some "precious moments" of myself, much to my horror ;-).
Here I am as Hank Hill from King of the Hill. Imagine my surprise in discovering the steering wheel is just a prop on this thing. In the trailer is Adam (not pictured) and Ben Gerard, Stephen's sons, Mitchell Gerard, Paul's son, and Leo. That's right, four grandsons and Alanna the only girl.
Here I am reliving my days in the circus as a stunt rider. This made me appreciate the work my motorcycle was doing on my behalf.
David and Margie Decker got the "kids" playing baseball (of sorts) in the front yard. Paul (Anne's brother) was the favored hitter. Behind him is Margie, Alanna and Mitchell, his son.
But Leo drove some nice grounders under the gazebo. On the deck is Stephen, Anne, Barbara and standing behind Leo is his great uncle David Decker.
Alanna was the suprise home run hitter (they should have known better, she played softball for a while).
And of course, Paul tried to knock them out of the 10 acre property.
We did the Toronto theme park located a short drive from the RI (just up 400 from the ETR). We arrived around 10am and found the line of cars leading to the entrance rather spectacular. After some derring-do, we were parked and inside this compact yet full featured amusement park.
The Paramount tie-ins were abundant and amusing. I found many references to Jimmy Neutron, which was produced by an old HS friend (John A. Davis). We saw the Spongebob character walking around the park, too. It was wall-to-wall Spongebob, and almost no Star Trek to be seen!
The first ride we stood in line for (about 1h) is the new Tomb Raider coaster. This was our first "lie-down coaster", essentially a mouse-style coaster with the added bonus of corkscrew flips thanks to the enclosed cage cars. It was a bit of a head banger, and really not much of a thrill ride.
We didn't ride this vomit comet, but we were amazed to watch it balance upside down on some runs. Note the irony of using the Space Shuttle in a theme park ride. A startlingly large number of rides fell into the "spin and puke" category, including the infamous "Spinnaker" ride that graced Six Flags Over Texas in the eighties.
Anne and Alanna rode this stand up coaster (the name of which escapes me). Leo decided not to ride while in line, so I just took him through and we waited for Anne and Alanna to report. They said the stand up coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas is better.
One surprising sight was dozens of carp swimming almost out of the creek at the feeding bridge. These fish were aggressive and most had their snouts out of the water. Scary.
We rode the hanging gondola ride which is similar to the XLR-8 at Fiesta Texas, and the "mountain train" which is the run-away mine train inside a cave. It was fun, but like all the rides we experienced, very short. No single ride was more than a minute, which was dissappointing. The park was very clean and attractive, but the themes were very dated.
Anne and I went to Le Select for dinner tonite.
We left the kids on their own at the RI (they had all the gear and an entire hotel full of staff backing them up), and drove down Leslie to Don Mills, then across to the DVP and downtown. Traffic was pretty insane thanks to a Blue Jays game, but we found our way to Queen Street and the same parking garage I used last week when I came down to get Melanie's Lush soap.
We walked down Queen Street and visited Lush. Anne found some massage oil bars and some soap she wanted to try. We looked in the silly boutiques and marveled at the urban critters.
At Le Select, we were seated in the front table (#1) by the window. We had a good view out the front but were not really in the romantic section of the restaurant. Anne had lamp chops and cous cous, whereas I ordered the prix fix flank steak and frites. Anne enjoyed the meal, the brandy, and the time away from the kids at the RI ;-).
Took Anne and the kids to Scooters for the Wed. night family skate. There were two young kids' birthday parties going, but other than a small swarm of rugrats on roller-blades, we had the rink to ourselves.
Dinner was at a local Boston Pizza. The power was out for an hour before we showed up, so the restaurant was understaffed and hobbled. Service and food were ... well lousy is the word I'm going with here. We passed on a Wolfgang Puck restaurant, too!
 The Royal Alexandra Theater | Tonite we went to see Mamma Mia! at The Royal Alexandra Theatre on King Street. Astute readers of this blog will recall I went to see the musical months ago. It was just as good for me this time, although we were in the nose bleed section (upper balcony ... waaaay upper balcony). Almost all of the upper balcony was full of 7th graders from Western Ontario, almost in Manitoba. They had come to Toronto earlier in the week after nearly 24 hours on the road in chartered buses. Their chaperons were rather stunned to find themselves in a very adult (and ribald) musical. It was fun watching the kids squirm. But it was great to finally get to share the musical with Anne and Alanna and Leo. We had a great time. |
Today we went to the CN Tower. All week the air in Toronto has been smoggy, so no one has even seen the tower before today. I was wondering if Anne was going to go through with this -- but not only did she go up the tower, she put a foot on the glass floor!
We had a spectacular view of the Blue Jays game going on in the Skydome below us.
Leo was very reluctant to get on the glass floor, but he was delighted to roll my carcass over it!
The things kids'll do to their parents. That really is me lying on the glass floor, 1,122 ft. above home plate (or so it seemed).
After we descended the tower, we did the Lego Racers VR ride, which was amusing but nothing to blog about, so I won't.
We were in a bit of a pinch for time as we were planning on eating at the Horizon's Café at the CN Tower, and it was closed for a group event. Instead, we went to the Texas Lone Star Grill down Front St. after being taxied there on a rickshaw.
We visited the Pacific Mall today. I had never been there, so it was an adventure for all of us. Anne looked longingly at jade and black pearl jewelry, Alanna lusted after plushies and Pocky ("pocky ... pocky ... pocky ... mushroom -- mushroom"), and Leo found almost every console game store. Anne picked up some fried squid bits, and Alanna and I stocked up on Cowboy Bebop posters and cards.
We had an uneventful trip to Toronto. Amazing.
We drove down to Clemmie's around 11:30, and took John with us to D/FW (he drove our car back to Clemmie's ... thank you!). After a non-working escalator and a bit of a wait getting our boarding passes, we were in the terminal with an hour to go. I took the kids to McDs for lunch while Anne more sagely ate an A Bon Pain sandwich. I got the kids (and me) some plane munchies, and we boarded (right behind my on-again, off-again boss from ATI!).
The flight was fine. I was able to spot our path across Lake Erie, and even pointed out some landmarks to Alanna (she had the window seat).
We got to see all three Terminals at Pearson thanks to the ever so slow shuttle bus, but we dashed to our car and were only second in line to pay and exit. Kudos to Anne and the kids for expert cargo insertion! Driving back to the RI was a relative delight.
We have two rooms, one for the kids and one for the adults. We did the pool (my first time in it ... it's nice) and this morning everyone got an early breakfast. So far it's looking good.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday dear Alanna ...
Happy Birthday to you!
See you tonite kiddo! I'm wearing my Snuffer's T-shirt in your honor ;-).
After I finished the chores in Buffalo, I started back to Canada on Saturday afternoon. I got as far as the Grand Island toll bridge, took a look at the line, and decided to head to Barbara's afterall. It took no longer to drive to her place than it would have to claw my way back to Canada ...
I arrived around 6p, bearing a new Wireless G router. Around 8p, she dragged me off the computer and we went to dinner (and to Kohl's so I'd have something to wear today). I eventually got the router working, so she can share her DSL connection, despite the "tech support" of her ISP. Has anyone heard of the PPoA protocol? I think they were making it up as we went along ...
Today I embarked on a home repair mission. I attacked the guest bedroom with gusto, finishing the stuff that has been almost there for some time. I put cover plates on the wall sockets, installed a door knob on the bathroom (I had to carve the door a bit to get the hardware to line up), reworked the ceiling fan/lamp, reassembled the trim and handles on the casement windows, and vacuumed the floor to get the wood shavings up.
Then I went downstairs and repaired the shower temperature control.
I finished with cleaning up the wiring in the office, and fixing the file cabinet door that was jammed. I really wanted to sort out the guest room and the office before Anne and the kids arrived ... this way Alanna can use our laptop without disturbing Barbara's PC, and the guest room will be fully functional for Anne.
Fixing up around the house reminded me that I don't do this at my own home very often and I found (to my horror) that I missed doing it!
I took lots of photos around Whitney Point and Barbara's home, which I'll post tomorrow when I get time.
These photos of Leon Wassall, my parents, and his two grand kids were taken in June, 1964. I think these were taken at our home in Dallas on Buchanan Dr., near Ferguson Rd. and LBJ. The cat in the foreground is Natasha Ling Lee, according to Ray.
Some of you gave money to me just before I left for the Great White North to buy a slide scanner so I could scan some 3,000 family slides. The work is tedious, slow and exacting (around twenty minutes per slide). Here is a "gem" from some of the earliest slides, without a date but labeled "Randy and Jinx before wedding" which would place it in 1960, I believe.
More to come. [NOTE: the scanner can eliminate scratches but large region blemishes it cannot clean up mechanically, hence the gunk in the sky in this slide]
I took the kids to the newer (but no longer the newest) Snuffer's Restaurant for lunch with the Schmalrized's. Kim arrived first and then Charles showed up with Claire.
Today I braved a long bus ride, band concert and my own impending doom to spend 10 hours trudging through Six Flags Over Texas with my daughter.
Actually, I wanted to go ... I love the Park.
We had to get up at 5:45am to make the 6:30am roll call for the buses. I had to ride on a different bus than Alanna, which upset her and horrified me -- the bus I was on could quaintly be called the "boy bus of terror". As I climbed on board, two 8th graders were beating each other heartily. The father "in charge" was the dad of one of them. Memories of bullies and their dads flashed before my eyes. This same dad was on his cell phone almost the entire day ... if he couldn't leave work behind why did he volunteer?
Before the park the Dowell MS Wind Ensemble performed at a UIL event. They played three pieces and were the first to compete. As we left for Six Flags, one of the parents was carting out two large trophies, which Alanna took to mean that her band won the competition -- if so, that was the fastest competition I've ever seen. A group photo was taken by a photography firm that used all digital SLRs so I talked shop while the photos were taken.
Did I forget to mention how proud I am that she's in Band?
The Park ... ah, the Park. It was a beautiful day, mild (low 80's, a miracle in May) with some clouds but no precipitation. I signed up to be the contact parent from 1-2p (figuring I'd be eating some kind of lunch then, which is what I did). Alanna's friend Kelsey's dad was going to escort her and her friends around the park, but it turned out that the kids were let loose. I tagged along with Alanna's group, which meant they were the only escorted group.
We rode Titan, the log ride, Mr. Freeze, Batman, the Shockwave, Yosemite Sam's Mine and the Vibora. For being at the park as long as we were that's not all that amazing a list. But we were all dragging by the afternoon (none more so than I), so a lot of time was spent in an arcade, which normally I wouldn't step foot into. Alanna even found a DDR machine but she was so tired she couldn't just blow it away like she normally does.
The bus ride back was more fun as I rode with Alanna, but most of the kids collapsed in sleep for the first half of the ride, only to erupt from sleep to talk, scream and sing the whole rest of the way back.
I'm just glad I got to go with my kid on this oh so special right of passage for Texas kids -- their 7th grade band trip to Six Flags. Click here to see the photos I took of my trip in 1976.
Charles Schmalzried alerted me to an ad in the Dallas Morning News (page 14L, Sunday edition) for my grandparent's old home in West Highland Park. It's back on the market for $469,000. A virtual tour is available. It's pretty disgusting to think we sold that home in 1989 for $133,000. I wanted to buy it and finance it through my great uncle, but he wasn't interested in hanging on to the property and was queerly obesessed with liquidating the place. It was on the market from the start of the Texas Oil Crash of '86 right up to the end of the Savings and Loan Crisis of 1989.
From the ad, it sounds like a lot of money was poured into the place. The photos bear this out:
Anne and I were married by a JP in our home in McKinney fourteen years ago today. I won't be home until tomorrow evening, so I can't be with her on this special day, but I want her and everyone to know how much I love her, and how much she and our family mean to me. The essence of being married is knowing that someone else cares about you, and children make the bond that much more special. I'm very happy to say that I'm very much married to Anne Rohn Gerard!
PS. No, she didn't make me say this ;-) ! ("Youse guys"|"Y'all" know her too well)
My son Leo is nine today! His birthday party is this Sunday, delayed so I can attend and also to not be on a weekday. Happy birthday, Leo!
After leaving LunaCon I stopped at the home of Stephen and Sue Gerard (Anne's younger brother and his wife), and saw my nephew Ben (their youngest son) for the first time. He's two years old ( and change), and is a spitfire. He follows the lead of his older brother Adam (their first child), which can lead to some interesting moments when it turns out that there's only one copy of Mom or Dad and they have to share.
Stephen's car was totalled earlier in the week (a week that will live in infamy in their household due to a rather large collection of SNAFU) and he was picking my brain about a replacement car. I offered my Golf TDI for a test drive, and he found it peppy and he liked the very good driver ergonomics. The iPod on the dashboard didn't hurt, either. I hope he and Sue can get his replacement wheels soon and with minimal extra cost.
I had a good time hanging out for a while and seeing the boys in their native environment. They've really taken over the house ;-) and have some rather fun toys ... no I didn't palm any Legos! That's a damned lie! :-)
I just added a new category I should have thought of last night: Family.
This first entry is for Alanna who made Honor Roll at Dowell Middle School. I was able to photograph her receiving her certificate from the Principal Gavin Goodrich. I'm very proud of her accomplishments in school, band and Tae Kwan Do. Anne and I push her to work hard on school, band and TKD. Like most kids, she resents it but the pay off is earning this kind of recognition. This last month, she also earned a spot on her TKD Demo Team. She's just fabulous!
In accepting the award, she performed the traditional bow that she does in TKD when accepting a new belt. I thought that was both classy and a clever way to do something more than wave at the audience or act up like some of the other kids. I'm sure Mr. Goodrich was baffled with the action ;-).