The weekend of Mar 16th Gui and I flew to Toronto for dad's 75th birthday. We had a great time that went by all too quickly.
We arrived Thursday evening around 7pm Toronto time and were picked up by Sharon and headed to Sharon's home near North York city center. After a few cell phones calls to Steve we arranged to go for dinner downtown to meet Steve and Liana. When we arrived in Kensington market (Reza had joined us by now) we chose a nearby Vietnamese noodles restaurant and enjoyed ourselves. This was the first time we got to meet Liana.
Next day we ran a few errands in the city with Sharon and did a little shopping. We stopped by Hamish (correct spelling?) bagels by Lawrence and Bathurst, grabbed some great Sichuan food for lunch (Toronto definitely has far better restaurants at our price point than the bay area). Arriving in Ashburn with Sharon and Reza on Friday evening around 8pm we quickly settled down for some birthday dinner with mom and the birthday boy. As usual, mom's home cooking was delicious and we could barely move after such a rich meal.
Over the next two days we caught up on the latest news about the family, the nearby towns, and goings on about the house. I was impressed with what I call the "5 star hotel bathroom", mom and dad's newly renovated bathroom(s), and tried out the whirlpool bathtub.
We hit a cold snap that reminded us it was still winter. Fortunately, there was still snow on the ground so the cold weather was appropriate (I don't like cold weather with no snow - but love it when there's lots of snow and it feels truly wintery).
I was expecting it to be darker since Toronto is a little further north in latitude and it was still winter. I was very surprised when we got to Ashburn because the snow on the ground combined with the clear skies made everything very bright. I'd forgotten how brilliant winter can be!
The contrast between the city and the countryside was also something that I noticed. The city in the winter is just not that pretty. Grey and and all the trees without leaves. Toronto really needs to add some deciduous trees. The one criticism of this idea for greening the winter months is that evergreens are constantly shedding needles making for a cleaning and maintenance problem. By contrast, the countryside was as quaint as ever.
Hopefully it will be a while before the wave of subdivisions and Walmarts reaches Ashburn. Having cable access in Ashburn would be good but not at the cost of paving it over.
