We dropped my folks off at the airport and loaded the boys in the car for a weekend away. When we gave them their packing lists, we did not tell them where we were going. We headed northeast on roads that were familiar to the boys. Somewhere between Bloomington and Indianapolis, Walker started to figure out that we were headed out of the country. We led him on as long as we could.
Our first stop to break up a long day of driving was in Fort Wayne, about five hours from home, at a hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant called Banh Mi Barista.
From there we started driving into Ohio. Walker was playing a personal favorite game of his called, “Where is the nearest Apple store?” and to his surprise, we actually indulged him in a stop at one in Dayton. The camera on my iPhone was acting odd so it behooved us to see if we could have it fixed. About 90 minutes later, it was all better and for a very nominal fee. Score!
We continued making our way northeast and finally crossed the border into Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Having watched many episodes of Border Security as a family, we were all aware to take the crossing seriously. The customs agent sure did. He was all business and full of questions. He even insisted we roll down the windows to interrogate the boys. Only when he was convinced of our itinerary on the Canadian side did he grant us access.
We had dinner at Eastern Flavours, a restaurant with Indian, Pakistani and Mediterranean Cuisine. We still had another three hours to drive after dinner until we arrived at our hotel in Mississauga.
After breakfast, we stopped at the grocery store to grab some food for my breakfast and lunch. Walking through the grocery store, it was clear we were no longer in the Midwest. Not only were we aware of the change from imperial to metric measurements and French signage, we were flabbergasted by the varieties of cheeses in the dairy department. Feta by the gallon? Sign us up. We drove to the lakefront to see the shore and then made our way to Rogers Centre. That’s right, we were headed to a Blue Jay game.
Happy memories from the game…
…great seats
…after intense booing from the Canadian fans every time Texas Ranger Rougned Odor came up to bat, watching him trip on his way to first base to the elation and cheers of the Blue Jay fans. The booing was the result of a past brawl.
…a lively crowd, including one twenty something gal who got progressively more inebriated as the game went on. She raised her arms in the air and danced in place more and more enthusiastically but the greatest moment ever was the interaction she had with a middle aged man in the aisle near our seats. She giggled and laughed when she greeted him and then rubbed his beer belly. He did not know what hit him.
As soon as the game ended with a Blue Jay win (3-1), we briskly walked to St. Mary’s Church for Mass. The church was conveniently located near Poutini’s.
I heard about poutine from a Toronto knitter and I had been wanting to try it ever since. Poutini’s was a perfect choice. All they served was poutine and it was great! We sampled three variations. Bill and I had original poutine which was simply French fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. Walker had the same but with vegetarian gravy. According to Bill, Mason had the best of the three. His was the original poutine topped with a generous portion of bacon and drizzled with maple syrup.
We considered poutine to be the appetizer for our real dinner at an Italian restaurant just a few doors down called Masseria. It was upstairs and our seats next to the window allowed us to take in the bustle of a Saturday evening on the town. There was a lot of pedestrian traffic and it gave us an opportunity to talk about the diversity that Toronto embraces.
We wrapped up the day and headed back to our hotel to call it a day. We had another big day of adventures in store and we needed to get an early start.
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