Having spent four lovely days in the warm and fuzzy embrace of Toronto, I’m now exploring Kitchener-Waterloo. I spent a few hours here several years ago, and I decided I would come back for a couple of days at some point. That point has arrived.

A few initial impressions that I may or may not expand on later:

• It seems a lot more like American cities here. It’s very sprawling, and there’s not the grid that you see in Toronto, Ottawa, or Montréal. Development patterns just look a lot more like a small- or mid-sized American city. (EDIT: Speech recognition added a “good” to that last sentence that didn’t belong there.)
• It also seems a lot more white and Anglo (and Germanic) here. A quick glance at the areas demographics on Wikipedia confirms this suspicion.
• I wonder how people here react to the fact that most of their broadcast media (TV at least) is based in Toronto, and that there’s nothing really local. I guess there never has been, so they probably don’t notice the difference. That said, this would be a pretty decent sized market in the US. (EDIT: There are apparently local stations here but they were not on my hotel cable.)
• They do have their own newspaper, though, and like most Canadian papers, it seems a trifle healthier than most American papers.
• I really love the converted shopping center on University Avenue that’s become sort of a big international food court. I ate there last time I was here and returns tonight as well.
• I also love my room, and I’m reconsidering whether I want to leave.
• Canadian public libraries rock the universe.

It was 64F when I arrived. The next morning it snowed and the temperature never again climbed above freezing.

Thanks tto the cold, this was very much a trip of specific destinations rather than my usual random wandering. I’d already planned to hit several museums, and I ended up doing most of my traveling on the subway rather than on foot. But it was lots of fun, and I did get some significant strolling in.

Highlights:

• Seeing my friend Margo and exploring Brooklyn a bit.
• The Transit Museum. Loved it. Seriously.
• Riding the ten-week-old Second Avenue Subway.
• A snow-covered Union Square.
• Having, maybe for the first time, a hotel room with a view of something other than the airshaft or the back of the next building.
• Food. Books. Etc.
• My new favorite parking spot on Staten Island.

Random thoughts about New York, danger, middle age, and other things coming in another post. For now, here are pretty pictures:

Continue reading “New York 2017” →

I really find Lynchburg kind of intriguing. It’s a shame it carries all that Jerry Falwell/Liberty University baggage that makes me (and I imagine much of America) reluctant to visit. It has very much a small-scale Pittsburgh vibe, from the topography to the impossibly large Victorian mansions in Rivermont. It’s apparent there was a lot of money there a hundred years or so back. There’s some great architecture, and the view from the park on the other side of the river is really nice.

I think a lot of people expect Virginia to be very southern and pastoral and bucolic, and there is certainly that aspect of it, but most of urban Virginia — not just the western cities of Roanoke and Lynchburg but also places like Richmond, Hampton, and Newport News — feels considerably more Rust Belt than Sun Belt.

Maybe a full weekend soon. Given two days in Lynchburg, I should finally be able to find at least one decent place to eat there, right?

Afternoon on the Trans-Canada Highway, evening in Ottawa. I have a feeling I’ll end up spending an extra day here just like I did last time. I think I’m always a little surprised by how much I like Ottawa.