t.dot: Tannis

Some of you may have heard me talk about T.  Probably a lot.  T is best described as my oldest, dearest, and truest soul sister.  Separated by years and miles, sometimes both, we never seem to have the ability to shake the feeling of perpetual cohesion between our souls.  We've been through marriages, divorces, kids, countries, and to hell and back both together and alone, many times over, and it was such a treat to be able to bring my family to Toronto since she usually brings herself to us, once every 6 to 18 months. Considering the last time I was in Toronto Serejane wasn't born, it was definitely my turn to make the trip :)

We were originally supposed to catch the train from Montreal to Ottawa at the downtown station, but when we realized that the Dorval station was right beside the airport where we had to drop off the rental van, I called and asked if we could save ourselves the time, agony, and expense of hauling all our gear back downtown and just board at Dorval.  This was no problem, as the seats were always assigned on this particular commuter stretch, and after dropping off the van we were even luckier to learn that there was a free shuttle from the airport right to the train station - bonus!

After our fiasco feeling sick on the train after the first leg from Moncton to Montreal, Wil and I were smart to dope ourselves up on Gravol BEFORE boarding... let me just say, two big thumbs up for not feeling motion sick!  We had a nice train car that, while we were all facing forward instead of at nice tables facing each other, was a) air conditioned and b) had WiFi.  It was a short 5-hour trip which was surprisingly enjoyable, with lots of eye-candy in the way of rusty bridges, graffiti, and derelict buildings.  Yay!

We arrived at Union Station feeling sticky and sweaty, but I didn't actually care because standing there in all her sweetness and beauty was T and the adorable R, who I'll discuss later...

Now, for anyone who doesn't know, apartments in Toronto are ridiculously expensive.  Even ones in unrespectable neighbourhoods run you into the $1000s.  And for those who prefer to live in respectable neighbourhoods, even the funky apartments that haven't been renovated since the 70s or 80s are disgustingly expensive.  If you're OK with parquet flooring and fake marble tiling, it might not be an issue.  However, it's not for everyone, and by everyone, I mean T.  T & R's apartment is not horrible, but according to T, it's like a form of punishment to live there.  However, living there affords them the ability to save for more important things like buying a super sexy loft and traveling, and since traveling includes their every 6 to 18 months trip to see me, that's A-OK with me.

We spent the first night settling into the suite, which is I think about 500 square feet.  (Read: tiny.)  Wil and Kaelan fought over who got to sleep on the balcony/sleep on the NASA space chair and Bill and; I took an air mattress in the living room, which was invaded nightly by the girls who would vacate their spots on the couch in favour of our bed, not unlike what they do at home.

We slept late-ish the second day, then got dressed and ready to spend a day exploring t.dot the right way: by chance on the Metro.  We started out with a train ride to Eaton Centre to visit the mac store (apple, not make-up.)  This was prompted by two things: Bill getting wine spilled on his iPod, and Kaelan stashing his iPod under my purse in the drybag while we were kayaking.  My purse contains several things, including besides the usual lipgloss, wallet, and spare change... a 200mm lens, a fisheye lens, a pancake lens, and a Pentax K20 DLSR, which, even when set gently down on a seabed of gravel and silt, weigh roughly a billion pounds more than required to successfully crush the screen of an iPod.

After we stopped by Eaton Centre only to find out we had to make an appointment, we shook our heads at all the people standing in line for the iPhone 4 and it was off to Kensington Market via Chinatown.  While I went gaga over a bonsai tree (I swear I'm in love and if there were any reasonable way for me to take home the one I wanted, it would be here with me now...) the girls went gaga over the parasols and Wil got a veritable rainbow of t-shirts.  Unlike Chinatown here in Edmonton where it's more like buying stuff from a Chinese vendor, the prices there are a) flexible and b) super cheap. 5 100% cotton t-shirt, any colour you want, $10.  And the further you go into Chinatown, the cheaper the prices get, though I imagine seeing the fish heads on beds of ice, inhaling the strange scents, and checking out the odd-looking fruit is probably enough to stop lots of people from venturing in further than the first few vendors.

Kensington is best described as an eclectic mix of artisan shops, second-hand stores, designer funk, handmade one-of-a-kind goodies, and scary cool mannequins.  Apparently the rage in hipsterville these days is cowboy boots and fluffy ruffly pettiskirts.  I can't see me rockin' it, though I do recall Serejane wearing nothing but cowboy boots and a tutu for her 2nd birthday.  We grabbed a few gifts, then had a horrible experience getting street meat for Serejane who refused to eat even the plain rice if it came from a taco or burrito.  A brief stint in the park to run it off, and we were off to Honest Ed's to stock up on, oh, well - you know - everything and anything.  This trip we happened to grab some wooden spoons, $.77 underwear, and Ling Ling bubble blowers, amoung other things.  I also grabbed some fluorescent religious statuettes in the spirit of Cool Hand Luke - who doesn't need a glow-in-the-dark saint for the dashboard?  After Honest Ed's, we headed home for beergaritas, stir fry, and movies before bed.