I had a quick trip to go and see Erin for a bit. I left work a little early on Friday and got back late on Monday. I took Monday off instead of Friday for Remembrance day as Erin was off of school on Monday.
To get to the airport I decided to try jetset parking. It is right near the airport. Booking online the wepark was the same price as the youpark so I did that. I had a fairly smooth drive, dropped off my car, I could even check in my bag and caught a shuttle right away to the airport and could then go right to security. Security was quite busy but they had all the lanes open and it didn’t take too long. I had a hamburger at Montana’s for supper with some ok potato salad. The flight was full and it we got on and left basically on time.
I watched some curling and cfl that was on the flight and maybe drank too much club soda and water as I really had to pee after we landed and there was really no bathrooms until after you picked up your bags. Just one toilet and a big line. It seemed to take forever for my bag to come. Once I got it, I could go see Erin and try to find a bathroom! The close one was closed so we had a ways to go before I could relieve myself.
We found a taxi and made our way to Erin’s. The next day we had an easy morning, followed by some dress shopping for Erin. I got to talk to a guy that had two daughter’s and a wife and wasn’t so happy to be clothes shopping. I also bought a new cheap belt to replace mine that is falling apart. After Erin found a nice dress we did some grocery shopping and she had 4 hands instead of her normal 2 to bring food back. We made a nice supper of chicken mole, yellow rice and squash. It was very tasty. We watched an episode of Nikita that I brought for Erin as her Uncle’s house was in it. I will have to visit his place some time it seems very nice.
On Sunday we went to the zoo and had beautiful weather. We took the subway and 2 buses to get to the zoo. It all went very smoothly. We did not have to wait very long at the connections For some reason when we got to the zoo there was a long lineup to get in. I don’t think they were expecting as many people to come as did. They had a promotion with groupon that made the tickets quite cheap. The layout of the zoo was not how I remembered it. It was as big as I remembered it. We did not see the whole zoo. I took lots of pictures which you can see below. We had a nice lunch at the zoo and took more pictures in the afternoon. On the way back we took one bus and multiple subway trains. It took about the same time as in the morning. For some reason the heat was just blasting on the bus and we were glad to get off it. It made me remember some of my old school bus days when the heat was on! At night we watched Chicken Run. It was my first time seeing it and I quite enjoyed it.
For supper we went to a nice restaurant with in walking distance of Erin’s place called the Butler’s Pantry. I had a slice of vegetable curry pie with salad that had a good dressing made in house. The pie kind of reminded me of a giant samosa. I was quite happy with it. Erin had a zucchini cake. We shared a dessert of a chocolate cake. It wasn’t too sweet and also good but maybe a little bit too much.
Since we didn’t get enough walking in at the Zoo and the day before we decided to walk again. This time we walked to the University for Erin to drop off some papers. We then walked towards Yonge St. We stopped at a sandwich place for lunch. It had fried vegetables and mushrooms on a big bun and I got turkey on it. I enjoyed it but it was a little greasy for me. We walked down Yonge to Queen St. W. On Queen we stopped at a Starbucks for coffee and to sit for a bit. Erin saw a yarn store that looked interesting. It was called Romni and was giant. I have never seen so much yarn before!
We walked to Ossington where we caught a bus as we needed to get back to Erin’s and were tired. We had a nice salad for supper using the leftover chicken mole and also nuts and berries and goat cheese. Oh Erin also introduced dutch rusks to me. They were quite tasty and not too hard or crunchy. They are messy with crumbs though. We also had salsa and chips.
We took the subway and bus to get to the airport. We made quite good time and there was basically no line for security. My flight left and arrived a little early which was nice. It was basically full. There wasn’t really anything good on tv and TSN didn’t come in for most of the flight so I only watched a little of the Monday Night NFL game. Futurama was on that was good. I was quite hungry on the plane so I bought a macrobar. They are vegan bars. It was interesting. I was hoping it had more protein than it did. I doubled up on my snacks and didn’t drink as much water this time.
My bag came quite quickly, the shuttle was there right away for me and I barely had to leave the door. My car was running and waiting for me when I arrived. The drive back was smooth and quiet. I was glad there has been no snow yet. All in all it was a great trip!
See my photos of the zoo below[smugmug url=”http://gallery.pfink.ca/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=19991148_6CVgVX&format=rss200″ title=”Toronto%20Zoo” description=”Nov.%206%2C%202011″ imagecount=”115″ start=”1″ num=”115″ thumbsize=”Th” link=”smugmug” captions=”false” sort=”false” window=”false” smugmug=”false” size=”M”]
Well written, Paul. I quite enjoyed your account of your trip. It sounds like you and Erin made the most of your few days 🙂 You must be a Fink to have a good bathroom story in a trip blog 😉 What did Erin need the dress for? Or just for fun shopping? I am also wondering how Erin grew 2 extra hands to carry groceries 😉 The Nikita episode with Erin’s uncle’s house was really cool! Looks like an amazing house. Did you guys buy the groupon for the Zoo? Your pictures are amazing! But I can’t seem to leave comments on them. I can’t believe you have never seen Chicken Run!! It came out almost 12 years ago!! Wow… what service with your car! I can’t believe they had it ready and running fro you. Fantastic. Glad you had such a fun trip 🙂
Hi Jaclyn (and Paul)
My uncle (last I heard) was slightly disgruntled because one of the frying pans they use in the episode was his pan, and never has been returned. 😛 The dress was for a friend’s wedding, she is getting married this weekend in Winnipeg, and I didn’t own anything warm enough that’s also dressy enough for a wedding… and because I love shopping almost as much as Paul does, I put off dress-buying until the last possible moment. 😛
Sounds like a great holiday, Paul and Erin! 🙂 Some really great zoo shots. I see that you are getting quite good at taking pictures of the animals behind the bars. Also noticed some butt shots! No picture of Erin in her nice new dress 😉 I also can not believe you have not seen Chicken Run!!!
We did by the groupon for the zoo it was well worth it. I have now enabled comments for all my photos and I will get emails when people comment so I know. There was some comments on other photos I had not seen!