Back in Washington DC
Jun. 29th, 2007 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisFlights in & out of Buffalo and 600 driving miles later, my return to Canada is now complete and I am back in Washington DC once again.
All things considered, it was a pleasant trip, despite being initiated by a family funeral. As fun as it is to travel with friends and/or![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kent4str & cuyahogarvr, I do like traveling on my own periodically, just for the fun of it.
Toronto has changed a great deal since I lived there –condo construction has spread like a bad cold-- but is still quite recognizable. Traffic congests in the same places, the tourists congregate in the same streets, restaurants are still over-priced. Still, I greatly enjoyed walking through the busy streets day and night, observing the ebb & flow of pedestrians and shoppers and generally just taking in the sights.
I had very pleasant time sharing drinks and a late night snack with John andbrunorepublic last night. Alas, it completely slipped my mind that I was holding a camera most of the night: while I got a photo of John, I neglected to get one of brunorepublic… I’ll have to remedy that next visit.
The EconoLodge in which I was housed the past three days was, well, memorable, to put it mildly. In a prior life, the building was a flophouse. The less generous would say it’s gone upscale only barely. Parking was non-existant, there was gum and stains in the carpeting of my room, the toilet seat and the vanity bore the burn scars of past cigarettes. Worst of all, they charged $10/day for wireless Internet access. Well, I couldn’t really expect much better for $80/night and arriving in town without reservations. And I’d like to thank the neighbouring hotel for the bleed of their free wireless signal into my room, at least affording me the opportunity to drain some of the spam from my mailboxes when time allowed.
The Ford Focus I had rented from Buffalo was an adequate car but hardly memorable. I’m content that it didn’t die in the three days it was in my possession.
Returning to the US was tiring but not problematic. Being a long weekend in Canada, there was much tourist travel and, as expected, all border crossing points were very busy. Having not used the Queenston/Lewiston crossing point in 15+ years and suspecting anything would be better than the Fort Erie/Buffalo bridge, I gave it a try. I can’t say it was better or worse since I don’t know what today’s wait was like in Buffalo but I spent 90 minutes creeping about 1.5km from the Canadian side, across the bridge to the US border checkpoints. My border interview was 15 seconds tops and I was on my way to the Buffalo Airport, pausing briefly to refill the rental’s tank.
Note to fellow air travelers: you should consider taking a bath or shower before being cooped up in a plane in close proximity to other people. And certain others should consider cutting back dramatically on the amount of perfume worn. Seriously.
I regret not having more time to be a tourist around town and taking more photos. I regret not going shopping. I regret not being able to visit a vast number of people, sometimes because of my own schedule constraints and sometimes because said people were out of town on their own vacations. I particularly regret not being independently wealthy and thus being able to indulge myself with travel more often.
All things considered, it was a pleasant trip, despite being initiated by a family funeral. As fun as it is to travel with friends and/or
kent4str & cuyahogarvr, I do like traveling on my own periodically, just for the fun of it.Toronto has changed a great deal since I lived there –condo construction has spread like a bad cold-- but is still quite recognizable. Traffic congests in the same places, the tourists congregate in the same streets, restaurants are still over-priced. Still, I greatly enjoyed walking through the busy streets day and night, observing the ebb & flow of pedestrians and shoppers and generally just taking in the sights.
I had very pleasant time sharing drinks and a late night snack with John and
brunorepublic last night. Alas, it completely slipped my mind that I was holding a camera most of the night: while I got a photo of John, I neglected to get one of brunorepublic… I’ll have to remedy that next visit.The EconoLodge in which I was housed the past three days was, well, memorable, to put it mildly. In a prior life, the building was a flophouse. The less generous would say it’s gone upscale only barely. Parking was non-existant, there was gum and stains in the carpeting of my room, the toilet seat and the vanity bore the burn scars of past cigarettes. Worst of all, they charged $10/day for wireless Internet access. Well, I couldn’t really expect much better for $80/night and arriving in town without reservations. And I’d like to thank the neighbouring hotel for the bleed of their free wireless signal into my room, at least affording me the opportunity to drain some of the spam from my mailboxes when time allowed.
The Ford Focus I had rented from Buffalo was an adequate car but hardly memorable. I’m content that it didn’t die in the three days it was in my possession.
Returning to the US was tiring but not problematic. Being a long weekend in Canada, there was much tourist travel and, as expected, all border crossing points were very busy. Having not used the Queenston/Lewiston crossing point in 15+ years and suspecting anything would be better than the Fort Erie/Buffalo bridge, I gave it a try. I can’t say it was better or worse since I don’t know what today’s wait was like in Buffalo but I spent 90 minutes creeping about 1.5km from the Canadian side, across the bridge to the US border checkpoints. My border interview was 15 seconds tops and I was on my way to the Buffalo Airport, pausing briefly to refill the rental’s tank.
Note to fellow air travelers: you should consider taking a bath or shower before being cooped up in a plane in close proximity to other people. And certain others should consider cutting back dramatically on the amount of perfume worn. Seriously.
I regret not having more time to be a tourist around town and taking more photos. I regret not going shopping. I regret not being able to visit a vast number of people, sometimes because of my own schedule constraints and sometimes because said people were out of town on their own vacations. I particularly regret not being independently wealthy and thus being able to indulge myself with travel more often.
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 10:40 pm (UTC)This wasn't the place right on the QEW just west of downtown, was it? I stayed there almost 25 years ago, and it was
a complete shitholesomewhat substandard and quite memorable even then... as is evidenced by the fact that I recall it vividly so many years later. I shudder to think how awful it's become since then....I spent 90 minutes creeping about 1.5km from the Canadian side, across the bridge to the US border checkpoints.
I spent a solid four hours in a similar situation at a Quebec/Vermont border crossing a few years ago. Fortunately I had some entertainment; a bearish couple in the adjacent lane felt it necessary to blatantly cruise me as we inched forward.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 11:29 pm (UTC)And I wish my border-crossing neighbouring vehicles were half as entertaining... *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 02:21 pm (UTC)well I regret not getting a visit from you. I'm back from Winnipeg after ten days in the central time zone, but No Brian.
(did I mention I made my New York Times debut while in winnipeg? while being a General Media Slut? [cbc (radio and teevee), ctv, global, various one-off radio stations, AP, wpg free press...). I realise that some will want to comment "just remove 'general media' from that sentence", but actually none of that happened in Wpg.
(I have been seeing other visitors from the US - Bob and Michael are from Denver, there was a biiiig water engineers convention which took up a lot of the hotel room. Next time, try either the comfort inn / charles E at yonge, or teh town innn / church and charles, or [as I found out from bob&michael] hotel victoria, 56 yonge. or even chez panda)
happy Canada Eve, by the way
no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 06:12 pm (UTC)BTW, I did notice your name on Yahoo! News, being quoted for your tentative optimism about the selection of the new leader of the Anglican Church of Canada. Oooo, celebrity! :-)
today it's news, tomorrow they wrap fish in it
Date: 2007-06-30 07:43 pm (UTC)The Provencher Bridge across the Red River, just downstream from the Forks (where the Assiniboine River joins) is kinda nifty - traffic and pedestrians have different spans. The traffic one is slightly curved, and yr standard masonry multiple-arch bridge. The pedestrian bridge (aka "promenade Louis Riel") is a cable-stayed bridge, with a single pier, on which is a restaurant (owned by Burton Cummings, though he was nowhere in evidence when we were there). We went there one morning where the breakfast special (2 eggs, meat of some sort, hash browns+toast OR pancakes) was $2.99. on the Winnipeg (west, as opposed to St Boniface on the east) end of the bridge is The Forks, historic park. We were there on the Solstice, which is also National Aboriginal Day, so there were programmes we wandered by and saw en passant.
Oooo, celebrity! :-)
thank you thank you. I'm not going to follow in the footsteps of various pneumocraniac celebrities, and I'm not giving up my day job; but I did find this item in NOW Magazine amusing. They were the ONLY ones to realise how deeply, deeply traumatic having to miss Trawna Pride was. Last time I wasn't at Toronto Gay Pride (as it then was) was 1984.