Hamilton to Toronto: Big Waterfalls, Amusement Parks, and the Korean Meat Coma

The last couple of weeks of my vacation fairly flew by in a blur. I spent the first few days after Kingston hanging out with my old roommate Shannon. She took me to Niagara Falls, where her folks live, and I finally got to put my digital camera to good use. Those falls are big, and require many megapixels, yo. We also went to stay with her brother, Scott, in the Beaches area of T.O. I spent roughly 20 minutes looking for parking there, too. Fuckin’ Toronto. I think Scott was glad to have me over, though, since he finally had someone to play Halo with. Someone who kicked his ass while being a total shotgun bitch, coincidentally.

After that, it was off to the wilds of Yonge & Sheppard to visit Polly (another old roommate) and Jen (an old friend). Fun times were had; Polly’s moving in with her boyfriend in Sept., and that makes me start to feel old. Or, rather, that my friends are maturing and I’m not. Score! On that Wednesday, after Geoff had rolled into town, I convinced him to take the day off work (who needs to do clinical research?) and go to Paramount™ Canada’s® Wonderland© , the land of many coasters. And it was fun. Even the white water ride, which got us thoroughly soaked, leaving underwear riding up my ass for hours.

Finally, I topped everything off by staying with Matty & Eric (two more old roommates) in downtown Toronto, at Queen and University. It’s wicked-awesome to see a city when you have friends who do cool shit for a living, like be DJs. At the very least, you meet cool people. Including those crazy 80s kids with the bad hair at that one club in Koreatown. Seriously, scenesters? You’re the ‘hip guy’ for maybe a dozen people in your little social group. Everyone else thinks you’re that knob with a bad haircut who plays Morrissey too loud. I’m just saying, is all.

My last night there (last Monday) Eric took me to the Korean Grill, down the street from his apartment. We had a lot of meat; several trays full, each. I think, due to the overdose on that quantity of animal flesh, we entered into some kind of meat-induced trance state, where everything was deep and meaningful and tasted char-broiled. It was like Zen meditation, but based on barbeque.

And then, after collecting two private parking tickets that apparently I don’t have to pay (thanks, City of Toronto councilors!) I left. And my trip was satisfying. Yeah.