Bicycling New England, the
Erie Canal, & around Lake Ontario 2005
Toronto Ontario

July 26, 2005
Rest Day

Hi there-this is Barb again. Apparently I was not aware of the voting process and was re-elected to summarizing the day's events. Well, for a rest day, we sure got a lot of exercise. The hotel had a continental breakfast a lot like the last hotel, except for the "only 1 …" signs and the tickets. After breakfast, we started walking and got caught under an awning in a big rain storm. We waited until the rain let up some and walked to the Canadian post office. We found a really cool shop next door to the post office that had really cute outfits in the window. We mailed some stuff home and the shop next door was still closed. So, we walked to the Ontario Parliamentary building. By the time we got there, we girls had to go to the loo (the Canadian washroom), so Mary Kay got directions and we went outside, to the right, down the ramp and into the basement. Scott and Dad were too slow, so the security guard didn't let them inside. Now, there was a guy who took his job very seriously. We went back upstairs and joined a tour with families from Mexico, Germany, France, other Canadian provinces and America. One very interesting fact is that in parliament, a guy will be escorted out by the sergeant at arms for calling another guy a "liar".

So, after our tour, we went to The Second Cup coffee house. We met a guy from Houston, Texas, who had just moved back to Toronto after a couple years of living elsewhere. After coffee, we started walking again and ended up ready for lunch at the Daybreak restaurant. This didn't go well. First of all, the waitress was pretty slow. Then, we didn't get exactly what we ordered. Then, Dad never got his bowl of soup. The waitress finally came over and told us that the soup went bad and they were making more. Well, just between us, I totally wasn't buying that line of brown, mushy stuff. So, when the rest of us were almost done eating, the waitress said the soup was almost ready. We let her know that we weren't interested. Scott says Dad and I have attitudes. I prefer to think of it as being assertive about the quality of services we receive.

We went to the Atrium after lunch and returned to the really cool shop that was closed earlier. Turns out, the lady in the shop was marking down a bunch of stuff 50-70%. So, I tried on a couple pair of pants and saved 95.00 buying a pair. We went to the pharmacy and mailed the new outfit home. We ended up doing the whole 4 story mall. We wore my Dad out and he and Mary Kay had to leave early. It was huge. We figure we walked for at least 5 hours this afternoon.

We did our laundry when we returned. Never did make it into the hot tub or pool, though. The restaurant in the hotel served all-you-can-eat fajitas…..can you guess what we had for dinner? The vegetarian in the group had spinach/artichoke dip, which was also pretty tasty. After dinner, we walked a couple blocks to the food store and bought food and spring water for tomorrow's bike ride. We have a 60+ mile day planned. We have thought this through and are planning on eating small amounts at every stop, instead of a big lunch in the middle. All that is left today is to pack and sleep.