And find yourself in Toronto. Happens all the time right?

The first weekend in August is a long weekend for those who work in Ontario. The Monday is a Civic Holiday. Most provinces shares this but my home province, Quebec, has its provincial holiday on June 24th – St. Jean Baptiste. When I was younger and dumber (and underage – sorry Mom!) we would head out and party at the Aylmer Marina – getting drunk in the bushes near the grounds and get caught by police. How we never caught on that they always knew that our coke bottles did not actually hold coke is something I can only shake my head at now. Young and dumb, I tell ya. Young and dumb.

As per usual, I am ready and the boys are not. Perfect time to point this out in a bathroom selfie.

So, August long weekend. We had grand schemes of throwing a party and spending the weekend doing errands. Or at least I did. Having not had a single free weekend all summer to just lounge around, I was looking forward to it. Until we got drunk on Friday and told R we would totally come visit him. Saturday morning he messaged us. Are you coming to Toronto?

Well, of course we said yes.

So, Matt and I piled into Jasper, my little red car, and headed to the North.

A quick five-hour-rain-soaked drive later, we were in Toronto. Luckily, R had one hook-up and we parked on a teeny-tiny street that barely had room for my teeny-tiny car. R’s apartment is sick. So amazing. They have an empty room (I won’t get into the story of why just in case his roommate’s parents reads my blog – insert laugh here) which boded well for us. Well, for me. I ceremoniously kicked R out of his room and slept there while he took the couch and Matt slept on an air mattress. What? While I may be known to fall asleep on couches and bathtubs, that does not mean I can’t be a princess every once in awhile.

R lives in the distillery district so we headed out that way that night. But first, beers on the roof. Isn’t that what everyone does in Toronto?

The view from the roof

In the distillery district, there is a fantastic antique store that is open until midnight. All of the pieces and little knick knacks were incredible. I wanted to buy so much! Matt’s fear was that R and I would break everything and he would have to pay for it. Luckily, we did not. As we were starving, we hit up a few bars before finding one whose kitchen was still open. We ate, we drank, I made them take pictures of me standing next to the Love sign and we headed back to the apartment.

Beautiful bar. No food. So we didn’t stay

Since Matt is an avid Toronto Blue Jays fan, we checked out the Jay’s game after stopping for brunch near the market. R headed to the gym and we made plans to meet up later.

Game time

This was not the same team we saw in April! Wow. They improved dramatically. And we came right before their star pitcher, David Price would take the field. We settled with R.A Dickey, who I am just obsessed with after seeing the baseball documentary on Netflix. He’s a knuckleballer, which is very rare and huge deal! This game is still being talked about. Here’s what happened:

Rumble at the baseball game?

The Kansas City Royal’s pitcher kept either hitting the Jays batter or throwing it so close they had to duck or swing their bodies out of the way. The manager of the Jays complained. Got kicked out. The Blue Jays pitcher threw a pitch that hit the Royals batter after several innings of the Royal’s doing the same and not getting a warning. The Blue Jays pitcher was kicked out of the game without warning. The two teams stormed the fields and we almost saw a fight! Then of course, Gibby returned to the field to yell at the umpire. The game settled, the Jays won and we went back to the apartment.

Ok guys. We’re a baseball team. We don’t fight. Let’s return calmly to our spots

We decided to go out that night to the Drake Hotel. I think we had pizza and gin at the apartment and R decided that Midnight in Paris was appropriate background noise. Nope. We made him change it.

As per usual, the boys made fun of me and urged me to hurry up and get ready. I immediately replied that as per usual, I was far more low-maintenance than both of them and was ready to go, taking the time to take bathroom photos so R would get the point.

We Ubered it to the Drake (or close to the Drake because honestly, R is ridiculous sometimes and asked the driver to drop us off TWO WHOLE BLOCKS from the bar. In the rain. In the pouring rain. While I was wearing a white dress. In the rain), something R has been telling us he wanted to take us for months now.

The Patio at the Drake

We finally made it to the Drake, had a few cocktails, pranced around the patio upstairs and danced and had a good time. We finished off our night with pho before returning home. We left quite early on Monday to return home. My car was still safe and sound and home was just a quick five-hour-cloudy drive.

Toronto. It’s an interesting place for sure. It’s probably the most time I’ve spent in Toronto. I use to visit Montreal almost every month and that felt more like my kind of place. Toronto is quite lovely but not exactly for me. But hey. When your friend has an apartment in a great ward, why not spend an enormous amount of time visiting?

More #exposedbrick. Finally hitting up the Drake. Please excuse the wet air. It was raining.

And yes, for those asking, we did bring R his France painting.