Was it Christmas, or Labour Day?

Had an amazing weekend. Lots of walking and lots of once in a lifetime events. Len and B came to visit. I picked them up at the airport Friday. We came back here. It was L's birthday, so I baked a cheesecake. After cake, we promptly set out on our first of many walks around Toronto.

We went to dinner in Chinatown. We went to the same place I went to with Mom. As we walked up the stairs we heard lots of music. They have ballroom dance lessons on Friday nights. More like ballroom line dancing. They invited us to join them which we did. Then they would not let us sit down the rest of the night.

After dinner, we went in search of a dance club. We walked for what seemed like an hour and finally found a club with music the 3 of us agreed on and had a cover less than $20pp. The club was awesome and I will definitely go back. There is no dance floor; people just dance everywhere - on the booths, tables, walls, stairs... I think we left at 2:30.

Saturday we got up and took the ultra-touristy Hippo Tour where you ride on a big embarrassing yellow and purple amphibious vehicle. But it was fun and very informative. I learned a lot about my new city. Plus we got to see some of the airshow from the water.

We came home and got dressed for Cirque du Soliel's Kooza show. It was incredible. The contortionist walked around herself. The high wire act was the best I have ever seen. I was very tense the whole time they were up there. They even had a teeter board. Great show. We ate dinner after the show in the college section. Another 2am night.

Sunday we went to the ROM - Royal Ontario Museum. Decent, but will be much better when they open up the remaining planned exhibits in the next few years. We ate hot dogs from a stand on the street for lunch.

Then we got in the car and headed towards Niagara Falls. We were very lucky on the way. Traffic had come to a sudden stop. We were in the middle lane and a car in the fast lane was not paying attention to the fact that the cars in front of him were stopped. Luckily, all of us in the car saw this, so I braked more than I had planned, just as the car hit the car in front of him, sending it across the freeway - right in front of me! - and into the car in the right lane. 2 more car lengths, and we would have been hit instead. We pulled over and called 911. It was good to see that 4 other cars pulled over to help. Looked like everyone was going to be fine.

So, we headed back down the road. B was the best tour guide. He showed me places I would never had gone to - whirlpool, rapids, shortcuts to avoid traffic. We at dinner in the Skylon, their tower and got the best seat in the place - right by the window in between the American and Horseshoe Falls. Perfect to view the lights on the falls, which was beautiful.

And we had a special surprise - fireworks. Have you ever looked DOWN onto fireworks? It's pretty cool. After the fireworks, we went to the casino and then drove home. Again, 3am.

Monday we went to the CN Tower. In addition to the normal CN sights, this time we were eye level with the fighter planes for the airshow. Then I drove them to the airport.

Since I was out, I figured I'd go to the mall. It's Labour Day. I drove to the mall - it was closed. I drove to Ikea - closed. Home Depot - closed. Best Buy - closed. Grocery store - closed. Wal mart - CLOSED. Yes, Wal Mart and grocery stores were closed.