First time in T.O.

When we arrived at Pearson airport, we were met by Rob's best friend Rod who greeted me with a big hug and 2 dozen roses. : )

The Toronto welcome wagon brought us a half hour of shoveling snow out of Rob's parent's driveway before we could park our loaner sports car from Rod. Even though we were both exhausted from being up at 4 am to catch our flight, I was the only one who napped in the afternoon, after trying to convince Rob to postpone my surprise dinner for that evening until around 8:30 (which would have been dinner time in Calgary).

Rob maintained this was not an option, so around 7 we headed out the door for a laborious one hour drive to downtown Toronto, which found Rob somewhat stressed about the traffic and parking, and me agitated by the whole joyride. Rob had to keep me focussed by providing snippets of information regarding my surprise dinner without really giving anything away. "The surprise will be worth it," he said, his knuckles white against the steering wheel.

After walking several frigid blocks, we approached what I didn't know then was the Air Canada center. Clusters of women in cowboy boots surrounded us as we all headed indoors. By this time I knew I wasn't being treated to dinner, but still didn't know the full nature of what Rob had in store for me--until he placed the Rascal Flatts' concert tickets in my hand!

The stage was lit up from below, with a long panel screen running the length behind it, and huge picture cubes hung high over the floor seating area. A smaller circle stage was set up near the back of the floor seating, and a bridge was suspended up in the air which would later lower to temporarily join the two stages together while band members sang as they "crossed over".

Video played behind the band during the show, and the stage itself gyrated with color from song to song. Close to two hours of music rang out, with the pinnacle for me being, "He ain't the leaving kind", a song off their last album I kept wishing was performed during the previous album tour. As I stumbled through slush and snow, tired and grinning back to the car, I told Rob the rest of the trip could be absolute crap and it wouldn't matter because the concert was such a fabulous surprise.

Luckily the rest of the trip was not crap, although Rob did leave sick by the end with a cold bordering on bronchitis. The wedding itself was lovely (the reason for the trip to begin with), Rob's friends were wonderful, and our visit to the CN tower and the Hockey Hall of Fame proved entertaining--I was able to touch the original "lucky loonie" embedded at center ice during the 2002 Winter Olympic Ice Hockey games, and I also managed two goals out of five in the interactive shoot out, beating the young punks who cut in line ahead of us with a score of nil each who then complained about the "accuracy" of the game.

Did you know the CN tower gets struck by lightening an average of 75 times a year?


There were only a few stops we didn't make due to weather conditions and such, but I'm looking forward to covering more of T.O. when we head there for what will be part two of our wedding. :D