Weekend Update Part 2
Here's the quick and dirty (EDIT: I just finished and noticed this isn't really quick and the "dirty" part is pretty misleading too. Sorry) of after events since I'm rather tired and just in the library at the moment.
Friday:
Boyd, Shawn, Simon, Alex and myself jump in the car and make for.... Niagra Falls! Neither Boyd nor I cosidered it before but Simon brought it up and Alex knew the route really well so we went. 2 hours later we got to see the beautiful Falls lit up at night (no wonder its the honeymoon capital of Canada. We were outside watching the Falls and outdoor speakers were playing "love is in the air" or something), play slot machines (and lose a few bucks) in a casino, and wander through the touristy attracts that lined a couple of streets. It was really surreal to me. Hard to believe I was really seeing all this stuff. There were haunted houses, Lego museum type thing, 3D and, yes, 4D adventure attractions. What's 4D? You go in, watch a 2 hour show and come out at the same time you went in? No, apparently its a 3D movie with special effects in the room or something. Celebrity and Famous Killers Wax museums, Ripley's Believe it or Not and Guiness Book of World Records museum. We just had a look around. Later we, except Alex, went into a Haunted House type attraction called "Creatures" that was a little expensive, a little lot too short but still pretty creepy. Picture walking down utterly, pitch black hallways guided only by small yellow lights on the ceiling. You can't see your hand touching your face. Then there's spooky noises, suddenly a strobe light comes on and a dummy is hanging from a rope or a plastic monster pops out of some windows. Then there's real people who reach out and touch you from hidden windows they open and close while snarling at you. Kind of creeps you out.
We left there and stopped at a Ghetto Time Horton's (tm) in St. Catherine's or somewhere for refreshments where were got 60 odd timbits for the price of 40. But they screwed up our order in other ways. Twas funny.
Saturday:
Just Boyd, myself and a rented car hitting the big city. We left in the afternoon, tried to park at a mall in uptown TO only to find it impossible to find the road leading INTO the mall. That's right. We circled the entire mall 1.5 times before we found a road turning off to the right; to get to the mall on the left hand side of the road. My sense of logic hurts. We took the subway downtown and I got to see some of the swanky sky scrapers and parts of Queen Street. All very nice. We headed to the CN Tower and got to take pictures as the rosy sky faded to dark and the city lit up. Very awesome view. I also got to stand on the glass floor and look down 110 odd stores. Freaky, freaky experience. We walked around outside the pod in a mesh enclosed area. That was way more unnerving that the glass floor. Something about the wind blowing on you that rattled my nerves a bit. A greater feeling of exposure. Anyway, that was an incredible sight. I bought a tall shot glass as a souvenir.
From there we walked through the downtown a little more. I saw Speakers Corner at the Chum building. SC is a dirty, slummy looking corner. Really. The door looked like it was smeared with blood in one place. The city has a lot of odd quirks about it. Like the side of the Chum building has half of a car sticking out of the second or third floor with some lights flashing and wheels spinning. Why? cause they can apparently.
We hit the Easton Mall and all its fancy (read: super expensive) boutiques. Guess, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, etc etc. I got some clothes at Urban somethingorother that were a steal tho. Then the mall started closing. It was 7 o'clock. A huge mall, packed with people in downtown Toronto closing at 7 o'clock on a Saturday. WTF? Skip that, hit the subway (connected to the mall) and go back up to the Yorkdale Mall where the car was parked. We shop around until it closes at 9. Damn straight. Boyd and I got some nice jacket things at Old Navy that were half off the clearance price. So we got really nice jacket things for about $7. I got one simliar to that in SJ for my b-day that was... I dunno, $45 at least I guess. So that rocked.
I wanted to buy xmas gifts for people but I didn't have much time to shop. Moreover, the malls all consisted of expensive boutiques, shoe stores, and expensive jewelry stores. No joke. A few home decor stores and the like. Not exactly xmas gift material. However, I did find a little sump'm sump'm for Cheryl. I'll have to make a trip downtown here to "treasure hunt" as it were.
So we got back to Waterloo around 10:45 which is pretty good. One pizza and some SNL later we hit the hay for a 4 our nap before getting up to drive to TO for my flight out at 7:25. That was a little harsh but I made it here fine and Boyd didn't fall asleep on the drive back to Waterloo so all's well that doesn't crash.
A wonderful trip that I'd love to repeat. Big kudos and thanks to boyb for the great idea and being a wonderful host. It was an awesome trip man and definitely something I'll remember for years to come. All the same it was nice to be home and see Cheryl again. Ahh the rock. I have missed ye.
On a side note BE WARNED: I hate City Wide taxi b/c they charged me $20 for the ride from the airport when Jiffy brought me up for about $12. When I informed the cabbie that it was a "pretty fucking expensive ride", pardon my obscenity, he said something about the Airport Authority setting that price. To be fair I was half expecting it because when I went out there were only City Wide cabs and some guy taking orders from people. I told him where I was going and he directed me to a cab and told the cabbie it was $20. I should have stopped right there but I thought "nah, they can't possibly be charging that much for this ride". I should have told him to take me back to the airport so I flip off that guy and call a Jiffy cab. Never again. Fuck you City Wide. You have lost this customer. I don't care what the Airport Authority says about it.