unexpected toronto trip

we are currently sitting in pearson airport watching the snow fall and the planes getting de-iced.  we are on our way to havana, cuba!

unfortunately, we were supposed to be there yesterday, but our air canada flight from calgary was delayed and we missed our connection to havana.  actually we were standing in pearson airport when our flight to havana took off with 31 empty seats, but they didnt wait for us.  i guess it was cheaper for them to book us a night in a hotel with an outdoor pool and give us $15 dinner vouchers for a restaurant where the cheapest meal was $30.

i won't complain anymore here (or maybe just about the cold) as really our life is pretty sweet, and we are still going to cuba, but feel free to look up our complaint on the air canada facebook wall and like it.  ;-)  there was an article in today's globe and mail saying that the only way to get any action from air canada is to rage against them on social media

so what does one do when one is stuck at the airport in toronto instead of drinking rum at an outdoor music club in havana?  we decided to make the best of it and head downtown to walk down young street, go out for a nice meal and check out the CN tower.

this seems like a good time to admit that since moving to the fraser valley, kylie and i have really become cold wimps.  of course it didnt help that we had packed for a tropical climate, and that i shaved my head a few days ago.  we were wearing raincoats (kylie wasnt even going to bring that until i encouraged her to) and no toques.  it was only -10, but walking downtown we felt like we were about to die from exposure.  we evolved a strategy involving ducking into every open shop and pretending to look around.  really i was just looking for a toque to buy, but all the clothing stores were closed.

we had a fantastic meal at "la mexicana" on young.  me gusta la mexicana!  thanks shareen for suggesting the urbanspoon app.  it was fun to try out my spanish on the waiter and he responded very positively.  he seemed to really appreciate it.  so much for stuck up torontonians!

after that we descended into the murky depths of the TTC and navigated our way to union station and the CN tower.  unfortunately our nikon is currently in the bowels of pearson airport and our funky pics of nighttime toronto are inaccessible.  our only proof of our time at "the top of the world" is a picture kylie took through the floor with her phone.

the view from the CN tower is pretty amazing.  it is crazy to look waaaay down at 50 story high rises like they're made of lego.

the staff at the tower and the other tourists were all very friendly and we had some good laughs walking with strangers on the glass floor 400m in the air.  after descending we returned to the great outdoors (the fabled "skywalk" is closed for no obvious reason until 2013) and dodged through as many buildings as we could on our way back to the TTC.  it is amazing how many different ethnicities there are riding the toronto subway!  also, i was really happy about all the mixed race couples we saw.  in 100 years all of toronto will be a light shade of brown.

after using our dinner vouchers for midnight room service we retired for the night.  today we (hopefully) successfully got onto a flight to havana which should see us winging through the skies to feel the warm cobblestones beneath our sandalled feet by tonight.  yippeee!  (did i mention that ty is having a great time with the grandparents?  safely and solidly not in cuba!)

me gusta cuba!  no me gusta air canada!