Vacation Madness!

So, just finished up a whirlwind vacation period (as I write this, still have 1 more day til I go back to work, and that Sunday is packed, but I am done traveling). I took 12 days off work (18 total with wkends); flew between 3 cities (Toronto, Niagara Falls/Buffalo, Detroit); and logged over 1100 miles roadtripping to Los Angeles and back. This is the first major travel I've done in over 2 years (since June of 07; Bonnie & I have done a few extended weekend trips to San Diego, Portland, O.C. and N Carolina, but nothing more than 4 days). Overall - it was exciting, and frustrating in some regards, and exhausting & unsettling by the end (I've slept in the same bed on consecutive nights only twice in that whole time : 2 nights in Toronto, and 3 nights at my parents'), but I realized the best part about all of it was visiting with family and old friends.
So, I'll write up summaries/observations of each segment of the international tour (Toronto, Niagara Falls, Detroit, and Los Angeles), hopefully in the next few days. Here's Toronto:

Toronto

DAY ONE, Saturday:: Had a direct flight from SFO to Toronto. Started with some drama, when I realized I had booked the Shuttle pickup for the wrong date... Bonnie kept a cool head in a crisis, we tracked down a cab, and made it to the airport in plenty of time. It was technically an international flight, so that added extra steps to the travel of course, but the flight went smoothly (on-demand entertainment: I watched Star Trek, Wolverine (for the first time), and Night at the Museum 2). We (OK, all Bonnie) made our way on public transit from the airport (I got cranky cos we had a long wait, and the bus was crowded, and because the subway stop took us through a shopping mall with all our luggage). We caught a cab in the rain, through especially crowded streets, but soon got to the Gladstone Hotel. Very neat place - an old boarding house that's had the rooms redecorated by local artists, along with old school manually-run elevator. We were staying on Queen Street West, in the heart of one of Toronto's several hipster BoHo districts, fun & artsy things going on, so we walked down the street to get a taste, stopped at some galleries and bakeries, got some authentic poutine (fries, with melty cheese curd, and gravy), then caught Karaoke night at our hotel. Then back to the room to strategize the rest of our weekend.

DAY TWO, Sunday:: Walked further down along Queen Street West, caught some breakfast (Canadian bacon!), stopped at the Mocca(they had a hockey-themed exhibit, go figure); and passed through Chinatown and the very gentrified but hip Kensington Market. Utlimate destination was the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Word on the Street festival. The WOSF was pretty amazing - to see that caliber of production, and that number of people showing up for a lit fest. Plus I got to meet webcomic Ryan North, originate of Dinosaur Comics! Then we walked through the gay Church-Wellseley Village neighborhood : had lunch at a cafe, a 50-ish expatriate, ex-Navy guy struck up a conversation after seeing the tourbook on the table, he had some interesting insights into how Toronto had changed. Then back on the subway & bus, to catch dinner at an Italian restaurant (we wanted to go there, based on how busy it was the previous night).

DAY THREE, Monday morning:: This was the day for us to drive over to Niagara Falls, so we took the bus & subway Downtown to see the CN Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world, where you can allegedly see for 50+ miles on a clear day. Unfortunately, it was socked in with fog, but we got a a few breaks in the clouds and saw some nearby sights... Picked up our rental car a few blocks away, and then drove back to checkout of the hotel. Had a bear of a time getting back onto the freeway (no onramp near the convention center?? REALLY??) - we had to go a few km East, then turn around to get back on the Westbound freeway, ugh. But we made our 1 1/2 hour drive to Niagara Falls, which will be the next chapter in the blog!