april twenty-four

Amy worked until noon today, and then shortly there after, I picked her up, and we loaded the car and started to make our way to Toronto. We had to stop for drive through (Harvey's! Yum!) and to get gas, and then finally got on the road to Toronto. (Not really sure where there is an inch of space in the car, it's unbelievable what you have to pack to go away for the weekend with a baby!)

Mackenzie was all set in his new car seat, as he has outgrown his baby bucket, and was all smiles.

Our first stop was in Mallorytown, in the 1000 Islands of Ontario. I wanted to make a hand delivery, and it was about 2 and a half hours from Montreal in this quiet little area. It was quite nice. Though, I have to admit, I'm a city girl through and through.

Our next stop was at Michaels in Kingston. Yep, a must needed stop. Kingston was another half hour or so from Mallorytown. Mack was super happy to get out of the car for a bit.

He even wanted to try on silly hats. How cute.

I didn't find the original item that I was looking for, but did walk out with other stuff on my list. Found some other stuff as well that was NOT on my list. Isnt' that always the case with a craft store? It's really too bad that there are no Michaels in Quebec. It's certainly on my wish list for there to be a Michaels closer. Oh well - when their new yarn department is open this summer, I'll have to either take a drive to one of the ones in Ottawa, or visit the one in Kingston again. We'll see which one. (Ottawa is 1 hour and 45 minutes or so away and Kingston's 3 hours... just depends on what else is going on and where I want to go and who is coming with me.)

We finally headed back on the road close to 5 pm. A tad later than we wanted. We didn't realize what time it was while in Michaels. Whoops. All good. Not as if we had a set time to be in Toronto or anything, but we did have dinner plans with my friend and her husband, whom we are staying with here.

Mack got restless about an hour out of Toronto and hungry for dinner. Since I was then in the passenger's seat (I drove until almost Kingston, and then Amy drove the rest of the way), I was able to take off the headrest of my seat, and half turn around and feed Mack peas while my sister drove. Wow, what a challenge that was. But the kid was crying for dinner (I don't blame him) and we weren't stopping just yet.

Finally we got into Toronto, and even had to exit on a street named Major Mackenzie Drive! I'm sure if Mackenzie were older he'd have gotten a kick out of the street name! I sure did. Doesn't take much to amuse me though!

We got in around 7:30pm to my friend Miriam and her husband Zvi's house, in a new area of Toronto that is being built up near Canada's Wonderland (she's literally around the corner from Canada's Wonderland). They just moved in 2 months ago, and offered us a place to stay, but in the 2 extra bedrooms they have upstairs, they do not have any furniture, so since my mother has these foldable fouton matresses, we brought them with us to sleep on. I brought the pack'n'play for Mack to sleep in and that's all we needed.

We then decided to go to the Pickel Barrel for dinner at Promenade Mall. I hadn't been there in maybe 8-10 years. I used to frequent that restaurant a lot when visiting friends in Toronto, but it had been a while since I'd been there. The restaurant was re-vamped, and looked really nice. The old restaurant was getting to be a little ghetto looking if it were still left the way it was the last time I'd been there.

Anyhow, then began our fabulous service. We were seated at our table and then our waiter came and took our drink orders. Then the hostess brought the drinks over, put down the tray of drinks on the table, and said “I'm just the hostess” and walked off. So we were supposed to serve ourselves the drinks? And tell the difference between diet and regular soda, etc?

Then my friend Dave joined us. I had seen him the last time he came into Montreal (he used to live in Montreal, and we've been friends for almost 15 years). He is now living in Toronto working in the financial industry and single (any single (Jewish) ladies in the Toronto area?) The waiter brought him a menu, and Miriam & myself our salads that came with our meals, and we asked for cutlery since none of us had. He must have misunderstood because he brought over 1 set, for Dave who had just arrived, I guess thinking that he was the only one who didn't have. It was just weird, because Miriam & I already had food sitting in front of us and the waiter was just staring at us blankly like he had no idea what was going on. Apparently, the "I'm just the hostess" hostess, was supposed to bring menus and cutlery as that is her job.

After a mediocre dinner (I didn't really enjoy the greasy salmon on pasta dish I ordered off the healthy menu...) we all headed back to Miriam's house to hang out. We watched Say Yes To The Dress and made fun of chicks trying to find their wedding dresses. Too funny. I'd never seen that show before.

And now it's time for bed. We have a big (and early) day tomorrow! See you at Frolic?