2006.09.29-2006.10.07

Canada, eh? It had been thirteen whole years since my last visit outside the USA's borders to the great white north; back then, I was in Alberta as the lead trombonist of my junior high school's jazz band, not really sure about the goings-on in the world. The biggest news item at the time was the Branch Dividian psychos in Waco, TX, and I was just starting to get into following the San Jose Sharks and the NHL. My, how times have changed.

Sherylen's aunt was getting married in Toronto, and the whole family was invited. And by extension, future-family (this would include me) was invited also. Taking a week off from work (and even missing the chance to skate in the Californiens' first-ever playoff game), I had a grand ol' time in Eastern Canada.

2006.09.29

Since I am unable to sleep on airplanes (even this red-eye flight that left from Vegas at midnight PDT), I stared out the window for most of the 4-hour flight. It was akin to staying up until 4am, which I'd done many times in my college-aged youth....

Here's a shot of the Detroit area (all the bright lights) around 5:30am local time, 90 minutes before landing in Toronto.

And later on, here's the sunrise somewhere over the London, Ontario area (home of Joe Thornton!)

Upon arrival, my body was ready to crash; unfortunately, it was 7am local time, the sun was shining, and the relatives from the east were there to greet us, ready for a fun-filled day of...whatever it is that relatives who hadn't seen each other in years do: talk, eat, hang out, and catch up. About the only thing there wasn't time for was sleep.

Sometime in the afternoon, a group of four of us -- Sherylen's Aussie cousins David and Kim, Kim's fiancee Margaret, and I -- were recruited in helping with the wedding banquet prep work: creating placecards for the guests, and fluffing out some fake, plastic flowers for use in decorating the bride & groom's getaway vehicle, among other things.

David poses with a few of his "masterpieces" -- sure, he may look like your typical 20-something Asian guy, but once he starts talking, it's quite amusing...he speaks perfect English, with an Australian accent.

And along the lines of unfortunate abbreviations when taken out of context, I drove by this sign along the side of the road a few too many times:

This reads like an ad for an online porn site or something like that.

2006.09.30

This is it - the day of the big Wedding Banquet (I found out only after the fact that the actual ceremony had taken place 2.5 weeks earlier, and that this was just the banquet). But first, the morning would be spent taking pictures in a scenic Japanese garden/park right around the corner from one of the relatives' houses.

I was first amused, if you will, that the park (as well as the street), was named Kariya, as if in honour of the Nashville predator (nee-Colorado-Av, nee-Anaheim-Duck) who dives a lot on the ice. But I was further amused that this sign states that permits are requred for wedding photos. I guess this must be a "happenin'" place to get pictures taken if you're getting married, eh?

There was a pond within the garden where a father and his daughter were feeding the duckies; some scenic bridges, and the like. Lots of pictures were taken, and I'm sure you'll eventually find them on Sherylen's web page, or even her myspace page (just search for her name). I don't have those here.

Once the photo-shoot was done, the whole family re-convened at said relative's house around the corner from the park for more sitting-around-and-talking (honestly, there was probably more to it than that, but from what I could tell -- and that's not much, since the tongue was foreign to me -- that's all it was) and lunch. After biting into what smelled like an ammonia-laced steamed bun, Sherylen and I headed off to the nearby mall with her sister, because, well, the gals wanted to do some shopping, and I was the only one legally allowed to drive the rented van.

At one point while wandering on my own, I noticed a long line that spanned at least six or seven stores. At the source of the line was...you guessed it...the Department of Motor Vehicles. Some things in Canada are the same as they are in California, it seems.

Inside Wal-Mart, I noticed that they sell...musical instruments. How come I've never noticed these things in the Wal-Marts in the States?

Perhaps more telling that I was in Canada was my stop into Zeller's, which reminded me a bit of Target in terms of its store layout and product mix. In the sporting goods area (where in a USA Target, you'd find racks of rollerblades and baseball mitts), there were $35 pairs of ice hockey skates, and racks full of CCM Vector V20's (wooden hockey sticks) at the price of $15 for a senior-sized stick. I couldn't believe it.

And that's not all: go into a real sporting goods store (SportCheck across the street from the mall shown here), and you'll find walls and walls of hockey skates at 15-20% below the cost of their counterparts in the USA.

Anyway, after only 90 minutes of wandering the mall, the gals had to head back to the hotel to ready themselves for the banquet, while I headed off to eliminate another hour of sleep-debt. Come banquet time, it was raining hard, I was driving too fast (darned speeed-limit signs are in km/h up there), but I got us there in one piece. The food was good (ever had a lobster & fruit salad?), though there were some things I could have done without (cuttlefish, anyone?), the music loud, and the dancing funny. I think I showed my age when I seemed to be the only one there who remembered when the Macarena was popular (wow, that was grade 11 and 12 for me).

Here's the only shot in existence of me wearing a suit. One of the fringe benefits of being around Asian people is that I'm taller than average. The bride & groom are the two people in the middle, in case you couldn't tell. :)

And at the end of the night, here's a shot of all the "cousins" (I use this term loosely to refer to everyone in the particular generation) with the bride up front & center. Look closely at my left hand...the Californiens would be proud, and I shouldn't mention any more, lest I corrupt those other young minds in the picture.

2006.10.01

A neighbourhood in Mississauga: I was surprised by the sheer number of brick buildings (houses) in an area that's not affected by earthquakes

The proverbial "day after" the wedding event featured the usual dose of family-time in the morning and afternoon (thwarting my first attempt to hit up the Hockey Hall of Fame), a brief stop into Chinatown Toronto (which didn't look much different to me than a Chinatown in, say, San Francisco, CA), and the touristy stop at the CN Tower. I quickly began to dislike driving a vehicle as big as a van. Seriously. Those things are damn near impossible to maneuver.

CN Tower. Kind of tall, eh?

And here's a shot of the ground through the CN Tower's glass floor feature. Kind of a long drop, eh?

And the fearless nieces walking all over the glass floor (but the question is: did they look down?)

Pictures from Niagra Falls can be found here.

2006.10.03

Two days later, it was off to Montreal. Waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to thunderstorms, the seven-hour drive seemed to take at least ten, thanks to rush-hour traffic through downtown Toronto. But once east of the city, it was smoother sailing.

Trees along the side of the freeway. This is what all those non-California-natives in grad school were talling me about the "changing of the seasons."

Downtown Montreal was more or less not unlike, say, downtown San Francisco: crazy drivers, one-way streets, and no parking to be found anywhere, which is why we walked. And walked. And walked everywhere we went.

2006.10.04

An early-morning walk through the fog to the Old Montreal area of the city was a fresh change: instead of waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to go somewhere, it was more like waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to go for a refreshing walk.

I walked by a store that was selling some amusing t-shirts....

Here's a shot of three flags in front of the Notre Dame Basilica. Now I know the one in the center is Canada's flag, and the one on the right is the flag of Quebec; what's the one on the left?

And following the tour of famous religious sites, this is St Joseph's Oratory. Sure, it's not quite what the postcard looks like, but then again, who out there can ever take a postcard-quality picture?

And later on when stopped off at Mont-Royal Park to enjoy the scenery of the changing of the seasons, I found this lake. Just imagine this lake in January of February, all frozen over, and full of people skating. That's something I'll have to return for someday.

Following all these touristy locations, we had some free time to wander around the shopping areas (read: five blocks of underground malls) in the afternoon. It took me about ten minutes to get lost, and another thirty to find a post office; in between, there were many clothing stores (ugh) as well as lots of polite French-speaking Canadians rushing to and from the Metro stations.

One of the shopping centers had this catwalk in between floors 3 and 4. I imagine they must hold fashion shows here or something.

And in a music store, there was this poster advert for Sarah McLachlan's new christmas album.

But perhaps the highlight of the trip to Montreal was catching some opening night hockey on TSN from the TV in the hotel. Sure beats having to catch only highlights of the games from the east.

2006.10.05

And on this day, we left French Canada and returned to Toronto....

Since it wasn't rainy or overcast -- figures it'd rain the two days we were there, and be nice once we were leaving -- I took an opportunity to take a walk in the morning and get a shot of some downtown buildings shortly after sunrise.

One thing I found at the pit-stops we made while driving the 400 or so miles between Montreal and Toronto was the foods sold in Canada that you just didn't see in the USA, such as ketchup-flavoured Lays potato chips, as well as dill-pickle. Here are a few others:

Peanut Butter Kit Kat. They also had Cinnamon flavoured Kit Kat in this vending machine.

Wasabi and Curry Flavoured Lays Potato Chips. Ewww.

2006.10.06

Finally, it was Friday the 6th of October -- the day before hopping on a plane to return to the USA -- when I got my chance to steal Sherylen away from her family, and head off with her to BCE Place in downtown Toronto, home of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

After a little less than two hours of wandering through those exhibits, we hit to the underground world of downtown Toronto, where I finally tried a poutine (so yummy that you can feel your arteries clogging), and found a good deal on a new hockey equipment bag, some pucks, and some tape at a sporting goods store's clearance sale. A net win for me, if I must say so myself, and definitely worth all the hassle of putting up with Toronto's rush-hour traffic.

2006.10.07

And on this Saturday, we returned to the good ol' USA. The end.