Greasy Spoon In Canada

Pat and I in front of the John Street Diner

My usual breakfast is a bowl of Walmart (cheap) bran flakes with unsweetened almond milk and strawberries sweetened with Truvia.  However, when I go on my quarterly vacation jaunts with my Canadian Travel Buddy Pat, I try something different for breakfast.

I grew up eating greasy spoon breakfasts of fried eggs, home fries, sausage, and scrapple with buttered toast and jam.  On weekends my Mother would make bacon grease gravy to smother homemade southern biscuits. Thus, when I'm on "holiday", I indulge in a greasy spoon restaurants. 

When in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada last month, Pat took me to the John Street diner. Oh my!  For $4.99 (Canadian dollar yet) I got a breakfast of two fried eggs, sausage, home fries and toast.  

Pat has pancakes with fake maple syrup and I have my usual greasy mess

Yum!  Of course I couldn't eat like this every day but I am on holiday.  Not only was the breakfast good but it was cheap and brought back fond memories of growing up in the Fifties when the whole family sat down together for a breakfast. Those days are long gone aren't they folks?

Canadian Holiday 2017 Part One

Me at Pat take our seats early at the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra 

Okay folks, I'm going to share some of the events I participated in during my recent Canadian holiday.  One of my blog followers reminded me that I haven't said much about my Canadian holiday. Here goes!

This is the third year I've visited my friend Pat F. in Canada. The past two years I visited Pat at his home in Toronto. However, this year I visited Pat in his new home in Hamilton. 

Pat sold his home in Toronto and purchased a sparkling, brand new condo at the renovated Royal Connaught Hotel in downtown Hamilton, Ontario. A former steel town of 500,000 or so souls that fell on hard times but is now undergoing a rebirth as a millennial destination of Canadians fed up with the congestion and expense of Toronto. 

I've already mentioned in previous blog posts of my difficulty in going through customs at the Toronto airport.  I won't belabor that extreme frustration other than to say I'll never put my body at the Toronto airport again in my lifetime.

And I've already mentioned that Pat's condo was a hotbox, with air conditioning that wasn't working properly.  I couldn't stand the heat so I got a hotel room instead at the Sheraton hotel a few blocks away from Pat's residence. That's another whole store that I haven't delved into all the way either but I might in future blog posts when I feel like venting.

Usually on our trips we don't plan anything special other than to dine at new restaurants, visit furniture stores, see some movies and play some Scrabble. However, this trip Pat planned two special events. One was to take me to a professional football game. That he did and it was fabulous!  I will post about that experience in a future post. 

The other event was a listening to a symphony orchestra in person. Something which I have never done in my 75 years of occupying space on this planet.  Pat took care of that omission by getting two tickets for us to attend the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. 

I've always loved symphonies. Not opera but symphonies. I especially love Russian composers. And what luck that the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra was celebrating Russian composers the week I was visiting Pat. 

Rimsky-Korsakov
Stravinsky
Borodin
Tchaikovsky.  

Wow. Music just doesn't get any better than this.

So how did I like hearing this music in person?  I LOVE IT!  In fact I loved it so much I have brought two tickets for the Philadelphia Orchestra for me and Pat when he visits me next month in Philadelphia. I'm going to do it again!  

I've included a few videos of our attendance at the concert.  I didn't take any videos of the actual music playing because I wasn't sure of the protocol of videotaping the actual concert, even if it was a few seconds.  The only videos I took was of us taking out seats, the tune up and the end, when the encores took place.  I didn't want to be rude and actually take videos of the thrilling music itself. Now I wish I had.  Can't help myself.  

Thanks Pat for this new experience. 

Pat dressed for the concert - still got those sandals!

I'm so happy we found each other and can enjoy these experiences.  I've always said it's never to late to experience new joys.