Well hello there
I’m sitting in a condo (unit) in the 23rd floor overlooking Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada. It’s currently 11:41pm, but since I started the day in San Francisco, I’m still fairly awake. It’s been a very bizarre day, and one worth writing about. As you may know from the other previous days, I’ve been getting up to a fair bit of sightseeing on my whirlwind tour.
Today was supposed to be a basic “transit” day, and especially since while flying east, I lost most of the day courtesy of timezone changes and a 4.5 hour flight. Well, this turned out to be a fairly eventful day in its own right. Let’s start at the beginning.
Last night I checked into my Air Canada flight; only to find that all the aisle or window seats were already booked. Worst still, I’d been automatically relegated to a centre seat at the 3rd last row in the plane. Not happy. I rebooked my seat on the 16th row, somewhat closer to the front of the plane.
Down the 101 towards San Francisco International Airport / Art at the gate / Expansive wings
I got up just before 7am and made sure I was packed and ready to go. Will kindly dropped me into San Francisco airport around 8am and I made my way through to departures. I checked my luggage and proceeded through security with no dramas. The gate wasn’t open when I arrived there, so I decided to do a bit of walking to compensate for the hours I’d be sitting later. I dropped into a store and bought a present for Toni, and continued on my merry way. Around 9am I returned to the gate, and waited until the last zone was called before I could board. Then luck happened – no one arrived to occupy the aisle seat!
So I was able to easily switch to the outside seat, and the trip went by in quick fashion. I managed to get two full blog entries written, ready to be published once reaching Toronto. Food on the flight had to be purchased, so I was glad I had some snacks handy.
Crossing the continent
Arrival in Canada
We touched down at Pearson International in Toronto just before 5pm with no issues, and I was able to disembark reasonably quickly. I strode down to customs and was able to move through fairly quickly owing to very short queues. The wait for baggage was less quick, but eventually I had all bags and found myself outside in the arrivals. The WPC registration desk was present, but not open so I headed directly for the Airport Express (WPC attendees travel for free), so I had disabled data roaming.
Pearson International Airport
The best route to my place was 20 minutes by foot, but what I hadn’t anticipated was the foot traffic to the Rogers Centre for the Toronto Blue Jays game on at the time. So with much concerted effort, I tackled the 40,000 strong crowd and managed to find my way without roaming data to where I’ll be staying for the next 8 days.
One very tall tower/Union Station
By now it was 7pm, and I managed to obtain keys from the security guard, and ascend to the 23rd floor. It’s quite a spectacular view, and I have a spacious 2 bedroom fully furnished apartment at my disposal. So here I am, tired, sweaty and staring down the barrel of an early evening.
A well appointed downtown pad
Then it struck me – should I go to the baseball?
The lazy part of me said NO. It said I should have a quiet evening, eat some dinner and get ready for the WPC. The traveller in me said HELL YES, carpe diem!
The traveller won
I jumped onto my laptop once I learned the Wi-Fi password from the guest handbook, and located the Ticketmaster website. I located some a reasonable seat and bought a ticket (after much stuffing around), which I had sent to my mobile. I then jumped into a cold shower (and then back out), changed shirt and applied deodorant, and hauled ass off to the Rogers Centre. Luckily for me, the centre is literally 10 minutes by foot with no need to cross any streets.
View from the trek to the stadium
Disaster strikes
So I haul ass up to the stadium, and get there at about 7:10pm (the game has already started), so I join a queue to go through security and I pass into the stadium. A hitch – they don’t accept tickets from off mobile devices – quite different from the Giants game in San Francisco. A brusque lady instructs me to go around to gate 9 and speak to Customer Service as I had no Internet on my phone. I seek out the next box office and get directed to the same location. Except no one mentioned I should go anti-clockwise!
After almost doing a full loop of the stadium (game is into the 2nd innings now), I find Gate 9 and unload on one of the customer service reps. She handled it really well, ID me, and printed out a physical ticket for me. She opens the side door and I get screened and we proceed over. Problem. The ticket doesn’t scan. She goes off to check – and returns with bad news: I’d booked for Sunday. I went back around to the outside and she helpfully booked me a new ticket for the night’s game; only $20 more for the same seat type – with a catch, I’d have to sit all of 5 ROWS FROM HOME PLATE. Things turned around in a hurry, my eternal thanks to the awesome customer support rep, unfortunately I didn’t get her name though so I could thank her further.
Hurrying through the concourse
Sideline View
If I thought the seats Will and I had at the Giants game were great (and they were), this was almost as good as it gets. Apologising for my tardiness, I kept descending down the stairs until I was almost on the field, when I located my seat and couldn’t believe my luck.
The actual view from my seat
I’m sitting so close, I could have a conversation with the Blue Jays players, it was surreal. I wasn’t too sure of the protocol for taking videos or photos, so I did it anyway. Here’s some highlights from the game:
Panorama from the 5th row
Close to the action / Slight zoom improves the view
STRIKE! / The Blue Jays dugout was without shouting distance
The game was very close, only one run separated the two teams until late into the 7th innings when the home team shot back with an additional four runs to seal the game. It was a riveting finale, and a satisfying win.
MLB home teams are now 2-0 this week when I attend the game!
After the game, I hung around for a bit to absorb the ambience and the obligatory photos of myself and the field.
The stadium empties out
Obligatory photo of myself at the game / Outside the stadium – it’s rained!
Post Game
As I made my way back to my place, I passed a supermarket, so I dropped in and picked up some essential items for the morning. A 40 minute Skype to Canberra followed, and now it’s time for bed. I have most of the day off tomorrow, but the highlight will be the Niagara cruise which is tomorrow evening, courtesy of Microsoft Australia. Stay tuned for more!
View from the balcony at night