The Rest of My Life: Happy Birthday Huey!

Today, is Hugh's 11th birthday!! In 2007 I wrote out his birth story on my (now) knitting blog, so I'm not going to repeat it here :) Last year the day before, or was it after, his birthday, was a PD day, so we took the train into Toronto, and walked all the way from Union Station up University Avenue, to the OPG building, just south of Queen's Park. There, we phoned Daddy at work in the building, and surprised him. We took the subway back down to Union Station and then went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Lucy was hungry, and wanted mini pizza, which they didn't have. Sigh.

This year, it wasn't a surprise, and the PD Day was actually today! Because of the truck situation, we started out the trip by taking Durham Region Transit to the Go Station. We're only two blocks from the route, but it comes only every 30 minutes during the day (we can walk to a different route that is more frequent, but it is a little further). On the bus, ($8.60 for me and the 3 kids!!!), Lucy went right to the back and perched in the middle of the back row, like a little throne at the back of the bus!

We got to the train station very early, since I was concerned that the bus after the one we took, got us to the station with only 12 minutes....if it ran on time...and you have to go down the stairs, and up the stairs....so I decided waiting 40 minutes trackside would be better. Oh, that was fun! LOL. The train ride in was nice and uneventful until we got to Union Station. We got off the train, and couldn't see where the stairs were, so we were following a lady with a stroller--I figured she was heading for the elevator...then she did a U-turn...I found a stairwell, but it was marked "York Teamway" and emergency route. Uh....we took it anyway and found a GoodLife Fitness and an elevator to Union Station/SkyWalk. Eventually we got to the TTC (Subway). Got the subway up to Rob's work....and we were a little late and I forgot his work phone number (cause I had taken it out of my purse to phone him before we left...). We walked around and in a minute or so, he came out of the building. Phew.

We walked up to Queen's Park, and went into the Lobby area. Beautiful. We couldn't go on a tour, or walk around, so we went back outside and walked through the park to the north, and up to Bloor St. One block more, and even though we were 30 minutes early, we headed to the restaurant...Duke of York pub. What a great place! Hugh had said he wanted chicken pot pie for his birthday. I googled around till I found a place in Toronto that would be easy and close to get to, and was well recommended, AND suitable for the younger kids. On their website, you can see the menu. I filled out the contact us form to find out if they had a children's menu as we wanted to bring the family the next day. Within an hour, I got a phone call from Mark, to answer any of my questions! The staff was friendly, knowledgeable, quick, and pleasant! The food was great! Hugh had a nice chicken pot pie, Meg had a kid size fish and chips that was fabulous, and came in this cute little pretend fryer basket. Lucy got chicken fingers and fries (the fries were great!). I had a southwestern chicken sandwich and beef barley soup. They were great! The kids also got some great French vanilla ice cream...and were "allowed" to get both caramel AND chocolate sauce. Even though Hugh's meal wasn't a kid's meal, he still got the ice cream! I would have gotten the fish and chips, but I'm trying to cut out potatoes and white foods :( The best part---for the 5 of us, it came to just under $60! Sure, Swiss Chalet might have been a bit cheaper, but probably not much, and this was definitely better! I highly recommend the Duke of York Pub!!

We walked along Bloor and saw what they did to the ROM. I'm still undecided on it. I love the old architecture, and the addition is just so wild. I have great memories of seeing laser shows at the Planetarium and I miss that, although the dome is still there. I wanted to show Lucy some of the high end shops on Bloor, but Rob wasn't interested. We had decided to go to the Eaton's Centre, and I had thought we'd walk down Yonge St to get there. The kids decided they'd rather take the subway, LOL. So, we headed underground at Museum Station:

All the pillars and stuff were "museum-y". It was cool!

Meg had a serious moment, LOL.

Lucy was fed, and not walking, so she was happy!

Meg entertained Rob and everyone!

Lucy tried to climb the poles.

We got off at Dundas and went above ground. There were some street performers that were really neat--a silver "robot" Elvis, a statue, drummer, etc. We went inside to the Eaton Centre. Mmm. Well. It's beautiful inside. However...we wanted to go to Adene's or Claire's as Lucy lost one of my earrings during the day, and she shouldn't go without earrings for long yet. We looked at the map and headed out. Checked the next map. Notice that as you look at the map, it's backwards to real life! Sears, on the map, was on the right end, but as you stood there, Sear's was off to your left. That is really silly! The shop we were supposed to be closest to, was no longer there. Other stores had stickers over their names, why not this one? We continued on, and I saw a Geox store. The kids see the ads, so I thought we'd just take a peek. $75-$80 for sneakers in Lucy's size range. I think the kids understood why they don't have any!

We started to walk down Yonge Street, and Lucy was upset she hadn't gotten anything in the "big mall". Sigh. Pout. We got down to Front Street, and Rob checked his train schedule card and we realized we could catch a train if we headed right there.

Lucy cheered up on the train ride, and they had a fun time playing balloon toss. It did get a little rowdy, but in a good way. Sure, they were noisy, but they were happy noisy!