Had another great weekend. Mike and I both had Friday off and we spent it in Toronto. We headed north just after lunch:
We checked in at the Hyatt in downtown Toronto. Really nice hotel and a great view:
We decided when we booked the hotel that we would hit the Wayne Gretzky restaurant, which was just a block away:
Mike was trusting enough to let me order for him. I figured I would play it safe and order him his favourite meal, a big honkin burger:
I got a steak – really great food there and I would certainly recommend them.
After dinner, we headed over to the CBC studio to see The Rick Mercer Report. Very nice, small studio so every seat was great. We were there for about an hour and a half. As usual, Rick was great – so funny. Between a couple segments, he was talking to the crowd. I yelled out to him and said that I offered him a flight over the Falls (on Facebook). I mentioned that I offered it to Jann Arden too but she wussed out. He said he may take me up on my offer. I would love to see if he would do a segment on MS and go for a flight with me.
After the awesome show, we headed back to the room:
Everything was great about the stay except for the 3:30 am wake up call. The fire alarm went off. We got ready to head out when someone came over the loud speaker saying to stay put and they were investigating the alarm on the 14th floor. We were on the 15th:
We never had to leave, so that was a bit of a relief. I had a hard time getting back to sleep though. We were planning on going to the Ripley’s Aquarium the next day, but I was feeling so nauseous. That seems to happen a lot when I get a really bad sinus headache plus not a good night’s sleep. Oh well, we’ll go back in the Spring.
A couple months ago, we watched an episode of Marketplace and learned about a type of tourist tax. I had never heard of it before but apparently many touristy-type cities put it on your bill (around 3%). The interesting thing is that it’s a voluntary fee – you can simply say you want it removed from your bill and they have to take it off. I checked the hotel bill and there it was. I asked to have it removed and was told it’s mandatory. I argued that it wasn’t and even brought up articles through CBC and the Toronto Star. Eventually, it was removed. I kinda did it out of principle, as it seems like a rather sneaky charge. No fault of the hotel, as it’s brought down through the Ministry of Tourism on restaurants, museums, hotels, etc. Check your bills for DMF (Destination Marketing Fee) or TIFF (Tourism Infrastructure Funding Fee) and if you don’t want to pay it, ask for it to be removed. Don’t let them try to convince you that it’s mandatory because it’s not.
Back home, I was met by a pile of kittahs (minus a Pinky, who was in the bedroom):
Did you miss me, Abby?
Ok, not really.
Today’s symptoms: Felt much better today than yesterday, as I was experiencing quite a bit of pain and constant spasms/clenching in my calves. Ouch! It seems to have subsided a bit today. Tomorrow it will be even better – right? Right!
Lizzy McFly 