Monday, June 16, 2008

What You May Know But I Didn't Know About Toronto

My Boyfriend and I just spent 4 days in Toronto. What a city! Almost 5 million people! Very multicultural. It's the entertainment, financial and banking capital of Canada.

It's full of sky scrapers. (I was a rubber necker.) The CN Tower is the tallest freestanding structure in the world.

And, like Chicago, it has a beach. Right downtown. It's on Lake Ontario, the coldest of the great lakes. We had lunch in one of the many outdoor restaurants facing the lake - and nearly froze. The next day we spent the afternoon with my Boyfriend's children in China Town. We sat in the park and ate lunch from a Chinese bakery.

We were all there to take part in my Boyfriend's mother-in-law's memorial service. She was 98 when she died. She outlived her husband and her children. Not something any of us would want to do.

My Boyfriend spoke at the service and told some funny, sweet stories. For instance when she was 95 and still living in her high rise apartment in downtown Toronto, there was a man riding up and down in the elevator with his iguana wrapped around his neck.

She was quoted in the paper as saying "I don't like it one bit. Iguanas belong in the Galapagos Islands, not in an elevator in Toronto."


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