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For the first time in quite a while I was taking off from Laguardia as opposed to having to schlep all the way out to J.F.K. Since there was a lull at work I managed to watch Liverpool dismantle Bayern Munich in the Super Cup with Meridyth before having to take the supercrowded M60 over to the airport. Unfortunately due to the events of 9/11 this was to be one of my last painless walks to the gate with a carryon. The journey was about as painfree as a flight could be, actually getting us to Toronto a few minutes ahead of schedule. I'd been advised to take the bus into town, and after a little trouble managed to locate the hotel Novotel. Adam had left word that they were in the bar opposite, so after quickly freshening up I went down and met the boys. We took a walk around town and were quite impressed with the variety of clubs and the number of people about. Brian Costello had talked to someone from Toronto as had I so we decided to settle on one of the better clubs (Easy & the Fifth). For some reason a couple of the guys were wearing jeans instead of dressing for typical city nightlife so we told them to change while 3 of us went in with two girls we met on the queue. Once agan, the club was as impressive as any in New York, and I found things to be surprisingly cheaper than they had been in Mexico City. we stayed for a couple of hours, then had to leave because almost all clubs in Toronto shut at 2 a.m. This was probably a good time for us to get back anyway since it had been a long day.
Adam and I had an unexpected dress rehearsal in the afternoon at the Mansion where the wedding was taking place, so after brunch we took our opportunity to sample the subways of Toronto. Getting to our destination proved to be fairly painless, once we figured out the token system. The day was beautiful as was the mansion, but unfortunately the weather forecast for the next day was not as friendly. Having done our walkthrough we went inside to see the alternate site in case of rain, which was pretty nice.
We got back to the city center in time to go up to the top of the CN Tower, apparently the highest tower in the world. The view was excellent because of the day, and the fact that we were on the lakeside. All this running around gave us a big appetite so we were looking forward to the dinner at a nice local restaurant. Unfortunately Alan's comment regarding single women proved prophetic as there were about 20 single men and not one single lady among the crowd. After dinner we were off as a group to once again sample the nightlife. We started first at a place called 'Crocodile Rock', which was a large 3 story bar reminiscent of 'Lulu's' in Buckhead (Atlanta), although not as cool. After a couple of drinks there we went over back to Easy and the Fifth but the line was prohibitive. I tried chatting with the bouncer we met the night before but with the size of crowd we had there was no chance of getting in. A block away was a new club, but at this point the group split up as several people didn't feel like hitting a club. Although we talked to a couple of locals about where to go we ended up staying in the local area and club hopping a little. Toronto certainly is an impressive city to go out in and I'm sure I'll be back in the near future.
Wedding Day. We managed to get up early enough to have breakfast and go and see the Hockey Hall of Fame. Although I'm not a hockey fan they did have some interesting exhibits, although I don't know if Wayne Gretsky and his family have any household possessions left since they all seem to be spread around the Gretsky shrine. The part I enjoyed was viewing all the different cups as well as reading about some of the hall of fame players. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the third thing that I wanted to see in Toronto which was the Sky Dome, but I guess I'll leave that to next time. I had time for a quick swim before wrestling with the Tux. This time we all managed to get rides out to the wedding. This was my first wedding actually in the party (In Corey's wedding I happened to be a Chuppa holder which also had high visibility). I got to see the inner workings of the signing ceremony as well as lead the wedding party out. The Rabbi was just as good at Corey's wedding, explaining everything for the uninitiated among us and also moving things along at a brisk pace. Within 20 minutes we were done, so I had to start fortifying myself in preparation for my role as Master of Ceremonies.
Brian Costel's pictures of the event
In the end, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought,
and by the end of the night I was actually relishing my role with the microphone.
Several choice off-the-cuff remarks came off very well and certainly the
boys relished my role. Despite the lack of any women we made the best of
it and had a really good time. All the speeches were good and everything
went very smoothly, down to throwing the bouquet to all the single men
since there weren't any single women.