Have been since Sunday. I’m none too thrilled about that fact, either.

A good trip home to Canada all in all and I’ll talk more about it (and kick in with the pictures) soon.

It was a very soggy Tuesday in Toronto and I was extra damp after walking four blocks to a breakfast place I’d noticed last night only to find that it didn’t open until 11:00. Apparently it’s more of a bar and only serves hangover breakfasts.

Monday:

• Breakfast in Kensington Market.
• Lots of walking and subwaying (is that a verb?) mostly downtown, Danforth Village, and the University of Toronto area.
• Lunch at the Coach House on Yonge Street, a quite wonderful old diner in a stretch of old low-rise commercial buildings that’s probably doomed.
• More books, and I accidentally just happened upon he final day of the University of Toronto’s annual Friends of the Library book sale. Just walked on campus, saw a sign, and there it was. Love when that happens.
• Dinner at Falafel Queen, followed by a nighttime drive around the city.

Today:

• Soggy trek to an uneventful breakfast.
• Back to the hotel to do some work that couldn’t wait till after vacation.
• Lurked around The Beach and had lunch at a diner on Queen Street East that provided a great salad and a very terse (OK…rude) waitress.
• Revisited that bookstore on Spadina and scored some amazing stuff, including a 1959 annual report from Loblaws.
• Dinner with a friend and former coworker from SF who’s back in his native Toronto now.

Off to Montreal tomorrow.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Toronto? It just sort of feels like home when I get here. Of course, it’s a home I get to live in without having to commute to work or dealing with the fact that the heat doesn’t work very well outside for a good chunk of the year.

But still.

So far:

• A really quick visit to Pittsburgh Friday night. I really need to start spending more time there.
• Lunch with Sarah outside Buffalo and a visit to her amazing new house.
• An uneventful border crossing.
• Book binging and neighborhood roaming.
• Much shawarma.

Coming:

• Lunch today with an old friend from SF.
• More book binging.
• More Toronto exploration.
• Montreal on Wednesday.

Pictures when I return.

After a nutritious lunch, of course.

Pittsburgh tonight. Toronto tomorrow.

Watching This Is Cinerama on TCM and regretting not having seen it in the actual Cinerama Dome in LA a few weeks ago. Alas.