See also: Photo Journal I, which largely concerns Toronto and has more pictures.

PS17 - Vanier Cup Trip 2003 (to Toronto)

The smaller 480x360 pictures on this page appear courtesy of Aimee Smith, who has her own photos page for this event. (To save her images, you'll need to disable the JavaScript in your browser, blah blah blah... =) Also thanks go to the SMU Husky for being such a pleasant next-seat companion - and a special no-thanks go to our first driver for picking the groadiest, ugliest, most piss-ant little Petro Canada near Grand Falls (northwestern New Brunswick) to stop and take a leak in =) this is where the parking brake would fail to disengage, leaving us stranded for hours until a mechanic arrived to make temporary repairs. However, it did provide an opportunity for me to get my schoolwork done.

Buildings near the corner of Bay and Front, near Union Station where we were dropped off. This is where my cousin Scott picked me up and took me to his apartment for a beer and a much-needed shower and an opportunity to phone an acquaintance in Hamilton who didn't manage to catch the GO Bus and get home to Markham for the weekend. =) The shower was desparately needed even though I had sweat very little, because after 24 hours in and near the bus, I smelled like bus. Bus is not a very nice smell.

Special willmatheson.com travel tip! Always bring plenty of quarters (like 10) to Union Station if you need to call for a drive or to meet up with someone. There is no place to get change without making a purchase. The Info Desk will not make change. The Harvey's people aren't allowed to open their tills. The Asian P.A.T.H. vendors will just try to sell you a phone card. =) In my case, I was able to ask a stranger if he could change my $5 bill, which he agreed to. So I got lucky. But you could be stuck at Union Station after midnight or something, and in that case you would probably be SOL because opening your wallet to strangers at that hour is just hazardous.

Alternatively, you could just buy a phone card before your trip, but this is a willmatheson.com travel tip, and the "willmatheson" in this dot-com is a cheap bastard. =)

Ooooh, shiny...

Meanwhile, the rest of the SMUdents head for Gretzky's restaurant...

Good shot, Aimee!

Aimee's friends Leanne and Ryan.

There are much better pictures of Aimee in this collection, but this one she captioned, "It's just pop, Mom." =)

The SMUdents invade Gretzky's.

This generous man purchased a round for every SMU person there. Good for you, sir!

Centre: Chris Richards, SMUSA VP External. On the bus he would be the one to keep us all informed; he rose to true greatness during the mechanical layover.

And, they journey to SkyDome...

Bottom left: Poor Jessica (SMUSA VP Finance). When will they leave you alone? =)

"Aieee! There's a girl in the boy's bathroom!" =) See, if I took my camera into the women's washroom to take a picture of a group of female acquaintances, I would be a pervert, right? Stupid double standards... However, I believe the sea of urinals (and this is just one of many washrooms) is something worth seeing by either sex.

The opening ceremonies at SkyDome, probably including "O Canada."

Antlers: Mouse (Erica) looks on anxiously.

"Aieee! They're bombing the Canadian flag!"

And now, we return to the fortunes of William Matheson... After enjoying the comforts of civilization, William, along with Scott and his friends, arrive at SkyDome by taxi in time to catch the end of the first quarter:

SkyDome, during a TV time-out. This was my second time in SkyDome, my first time being WrestleMania XVIII, when we were so far up in the nosebleeds (in polite language, this is called "Upper Bowl" or something kin) that SkyDome looked small in a sense. But being down here really drove home the fact that this is a big place.

From left to right: William Matheson, Chris Boyne, Evan Brown. I don't think we were in our assigned seats. We just found three empty seats together and that was that. =) Correct section, though.

At the half: Scott (left) and his roomate and other friends. Those drinks are the most expensive in Toronto. =) Actually, what I needed was something with caffeine in it, becuase the first half kept putting me to sleep (I didn't get much sleep on the trip in because I had my schoolwork to do, plus I was helping the driver find his way though Montréal.)... but when I saw that the price of a bottle of Coke was $3.75, I decided that I'd stick needles in my eyebrows before spending that kind of money! =)

Yes, Laval won. =( It was a hard-fought game in which the Saint Mary's defense scored more points than the Saint Mary's offense. I think Laval deserved to win. And I'm sure these two teams will meet again... it's the makings of a great rivalry, really.

After the game was over, I followed the crowd and went to Gretzky's for a few minutes, intending to perhaps eat there, but after a few minutes of mulling about in the back room I figured it wasn't my thing and I phoned up Brooke, whom I didn't think I'd get to see, who luckily was on break at the World's Biggest Bookstore and could answer her cell phone. We decided to go get something to eat after her shift.

So now I needed to get from Gretzky's to Dundas and Younge. (I should have just taken the King streetcar to St. Andrew Station and left it at that, but nooo, I had to go on an adventure... =) Plus, it was just nippy enough outside to be annoying.

The P.A.T.H., somewhere between the Metro Convention Centre and Union Station.

My intention was to take the P.A.T.H. from the Convention Centre South (close to SkyDome, which in turn is close-ish to Gretzky's, but I walked around SkyDome counterclockwise looking in vain for a P.A.T.H. entrance - there ought to be more signs - but I did make it inside through the Centre) to the Eaton Centre and come outside on Dundas Street, meeting Brooke at the end of her shift at World's Biggest Bookstore, and saving $2.25 and getting to walk past lots of closed specialty stores in the process. Now, according to the P.A.T.H. map I read along the SkyWalk here, I could go through Union Station, then hit BCE Place, Commerce Court, Scotia Plaza (GRRR! Toronto, you stole our bank!!!), the Bay Adelaide Centre, the Hudson's Bay Company, and then, finally the Eaton Centre.

So, at length (passing like six different McDonald's), I reached Scotia Plaza. But then I noticed something wrong; there was no signage pointing the way to the next building written on the back of my hand. What was going on? I looked at the identical P.A.T.H. map in Scotia Plaza. Oh, apparently the "Bay Adelaide Centre" is a building under construction! Nice of them to optimistically put it on the map in such a blend-in fashion. So, I was faced with two options: 1) Go west to First Canadian Place, north to The Shearaton Centre Hotel, then east to the Hudson's Bay Company and resume the planned path (pardon the pun). or 2) Wuss out and board the Younge subway at King Station and proceed two stops north to Dundas Station. Well, with callused hands and aching back (I had two heavy bags), I wussed out.

After a chat and me browsing through some random titles, Brooke and I left the bookstore... and ran into Issmat! (SMUSA VP Internal) Brooke gave Issmat some restaurant advice, and I told Issmat that if he ended up on the Sheppard subway, that meant he was too far from downtown. =) It was then time for us to trudge our way to food - longer than any Halagonian would even dream of walking for a...

Brooke and I, in one of the only Tim Hortons in downtown Toronto. There are over 100 Tim Hortons outlets in Halifax alone, but in Toronto it seems to be McDonald's that approaches that level of penetration. So in Toronto, if you want to buck the trend, you go eat at Tim Hortons. Isn't that great? =)

Meanwhile, back at Gretzky's, the SMUdents tear it up:

"Will's gone! Let's party!" =) j/k Okay, that's a kiss I have not yet received. Lucky "Steve."

And as the SMUdents end their wild night, William makes his way back to the main group:

We rode the Bloor subway and I saw Brooke off at Islington Station (!!) and reversed course. I took the following picture in St. George Station, while waiting for the Spadina-Univeristy train to take me back down to Union Station.

Anger not enter! The Yellow Line is a train of cheer and optimism! =)

One of my favourite moments of the trip was my nonchalant rejoining of the main group in Union Station. I came up out of the mall underneath the VIA area, extremely pleased with my time spent in Toronto and also my sense of direction. (lapses aside...) =) I materialized, yes, I materialized among my peers, and then Mouse (Erin) exclaimed: "Where were you, Will? I haven't seen you in two days!" =) Some people asked me if I even made it to the game. Yes, and I'm glad I did... I later heard from some people who were using the trip just to see people and who did not go to the game, and while that's pretty much all my motivation was, it would be a damn shame to waste SMUSA's subsidy by not even paying the game a visit, since it was the ostensible purpose for the trip.

Too much bus and not enough Toronto, but if $110 can buy 11 hours in Toronto plus an exciting football game and an opportunity to see Scott (I missed him in 2002) plus an outing with Brooke, it's well worth it.

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