Toronto, ON – Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here’s a shot, taken in our hotel room mirror, of Val and me with our special “Ireland” t-shirts, which I picked up a couple of days ago to help us celebrate the day. I also wore the shamrock scarf I got as a souvenir in New Orleans. Enthusiasm is my middle name!
We were planning to meet Ben, Mark and his Katie at Ben’s apartment for brunch, so there was time this morning for me to get to church. As luck would have it, St. Andrew’s was just on the other side of the 401 cloverleaf from our hotel, a mere five-minute drive. It was lovely singing the hymn “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” in honour of the Irish saint.
Toronto’s multi-ethnic character was well reflected both in the congregation at church, and in the people at Tim Hortons where we went for breakfast this morning. It was great to see so much diversity everywhere.
Ben and his cat Sage greeted us – the former very warmly and the latter disdainfully – when we got to his apartment. It was great to see him again, and to sit down and catch up on all his doings. Mark and Katie arrived a little while later, looking a bit tired. The night before was their housewarming party for their new apartment and they had about 40 guests till who knows when, so we felt especially honoured that they came at all!
As we munched on slices of pizza, we showed them a few of our travel pictures on the laptop, but mostly we just listened to their latest news and enjoyed their company. It’s great to see all of them following their dreams and working to make them happen, even when the going gets tough from time to time.
The afternoon flew. On the way back to the 401 we found a car wash, and got rid of all the dried-on gunk that the car had collected when linked to the RV through yesterday’s slush bath! It was a considerable improvement, especially as we had smeared the muddy windows with Tim Hortons paper napkins after breakfast this morning in an attempt to gain some visibility, with mediocre results!
Now back in our hotel room, we are preparing for the last leg of our long journey. We are really looking forward to being home again! One more sleep!
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