Toronto, ON 2020
This was my second ever trip to Toronto, just shy over 3 years ago I have come back and spent a little more time in the city as I had time off from work. This trip was from Aug.27-30.
Thursday, I got up at 4am as my father knocked on the door as I don’t think the alarm went off. I did final packing, took some baked taquitos for breakfast, and said goodbye to mom. I had some of the taquitos while my father drove me to Abbotsford Airport (YXX). After donning my mask and saying goodbye, I dropped my luggage off with WestJet. The airport wasn’t busy and while I wore my mask from Rough Trade Gear, I found it was too tight and restricting my breathing. Security was easy, but while waiting a bit for my flight, I switched to another mask and wore that one for the rest of the trip. The flight to Calgary departed on time at 6am. On the way, I read a little bit of “Miracles” and landed in Calgary about 8am, MST. I had a 2 hour lay over at gate C31. I didn’t do much than text on my phone. The flight to Toronto wasn’t bad either. I dozed off at first and then watched most of the classic spaghetti western The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I landed after 3:30pm EST, half an hour earlier than projected. At Pearson, I grabbed my bags and went to Terminal 1 to take the UP train to the city. It cost just under $13 for a one-way ticket but had to wait nearly half an hour for the train to depart. Was an over 20-minute ride to Union station. When I arrived, I noticed that the renovations to Union station were pretty much done compared to 2017 but I didn’t care for it. It has lost a lot of that classic aesthetic from before. Once I emerged outside, I took a taxi to the Holiday Inn Toronto Downtown Centre on Carlton St. It cost $15 with tip for the ride. Check-in was easy and I stayed in room 2015. I spent over an hour settling in and relaxing. I knew I need drinks for the room and looked for the nearest 7-Eleven, but once I went outside the entrance, I noticed a Hasty Market right across the street. I decided to check It out and found it was what I needed (the nearest 7-Eleven was about a block from me, but this was much more convenient). I picked up a couple bottles of water plus a Grape-Lime sugary drink. When I got back to my room, I called my father to let him know things were okay. I was getting hungry as I ate nothing more than the taquitos back home, so I checked for any Japanese all-u-can-eat restaurants nearby. I found one called Kyoto House, so I walked south on Yonge and west on Dundas Street West for my first real meal of the day.
The meal was good - my first order was to try some stuff out, and then I ordered a lot more on my second. The gyoza was deep fried though I prefer the pan-fried type, the chicken udon was nice though ordering more than 1 was recommended as portions are small, chicken teriyaki was nice and tender, and the chicken udon dish was a nice surprise too. There wasn’t much variety for my liking but it was still yummy. I did like the scoop of red bean ice cream as my dessert. It was about $37 with tip. I walked back to the hotel, enjoying the city night sights, and got to my room before 10pm. I felt tired and weakened for a bit. I think the jet lag caught up to me. I finished watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly on my phone then went to bed after 1am after a shower.
It took over an hour to sleep, but I managed to get just over 8 hours combined sleep. I then slept in and answered messages on my phone. After a shower, I took a Lyft to Doc’s Leathers on Queen Street after noon. It was a pretty big place, full of great motorcycle biker leather and lots of vintage and antique things around. I did a video call with Daddy Jeff from Alton, IL and we walked around the store. We couldn’t find anything in his size. After spending over an hour in the shop, I left after 1pm and walked around town, mostly north and east. I even stopped to take a picture of St. Volodymyr's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral on Bathurst Street. I then went to A & C Games on Spadina Avenue. It was a nice shop with a lot of retro stuff, but I had limited time and didn’t find anything for myself. I then went to the nearby Burger King on the corner of Spadina and College Street. I had a spicy chicken sandwich meal with chicken fries and cherry coke to drink. It was not easy to keep sanitation given there was only one washroom to use and trying not to touch surfaces around. The meal hit the spot and then I took a Lyft back to the hotel. While relaxing, I made dinner plans with a friend, Peter, for the Churchmouse: A Firkin Pub. I wore my leather pants, boots, and rebel cap and walked over on Church Street in the gay district.
The Churchmouse was on the corner of Church and Maitland and a short walk from the hotel. I just noticed on the way that my hotel was next door to the original location of Maple Leaf Gardens! Sadly, it is nothing more than a big Loblaws grocery store. When I arrived, I got us a table outside and waited over 15 minutes for Peter to arrive. We spent over an hour talking until we finally ate. I had a poutine and a curry chicken dish. The poutine was not too salty and great, and the curry chicken was okay. We talked for over another hour and after paying both our bills (my choice), I got us a Lyft to go to his place. We chatted for a few hours, mainly about our coming out years. Before leaving, Peter was nice to give me some distilled water for my CPAP machine (I bought a bottle of Glaceau Smartwater the previous day as a substitute) that would last for the rest of my trip. I left his place via Lyft before 3am and when I got back to the hotel, I picked up some more drinks at Hasty Market across the street. Thankfully, I think they are open 24 hours! I got some more water and a peach-lime sugary drink. After a shower, I went to bed around 4am.
I slept relatively quickly and got out of bed after 11am, getting around a 6-hour sleep. After a shower, I quickly walked to Northbound Leather nearby for an appointment (I set it up back home before my trip) and arrived after noon. I ended up spending a couple hours deciding on a new uniform shirt and pants for the most part. I also added in a Sam Browne belt, muir cap, etc. I got measured as most of my purchases needed to be custom made or was not available in my size and/or colour of choice. After everything it was $4418.30! I get to take home two leather ties: one blue, and one white. Plus, a black leather armband with buckle. My debit card was declined when I tried to pay for it all. I called Vancity and waited 10 minutes for someone and found out there was a limit on what I could purchase at one time. The limit was temporarily lifted to make the purchase but then restored after payment was accepted. I’m not sure when my uniform and other items would be done but they will be mailed to me. I returned to the hotel with the other, smaller purchases. I did not stay long as I then headed out to go to Kinton Ramen on Church Street for a late lunch around 2:30pm. I never had a true ramen dish before. I sat outside and first ordered a chicken shoyu and loved it! I wanted to be a little more experimental and then tried the pork original and it was okay. I preferred the chicken. I ate the seaweed things that are included in each dish. In the pork original, the hard-boiled egg was included. Not my thing, but I did eat it to see if there was something I was missing about ramen dishes. My card was declined again and since I couldn’t pay cash, I used my Visa card to pay for the meal. I relaxed a bit back at the hotel. Peter called and wanted to meet up at Hair of the Dog Neighbourhood Pub & Restaurant for 6:30pm. Since a couple of other locals couldn’t meet up this time and I was free, I leathered up the same as the previous night and took my laptop and DSLR camera with me. We planned to take some new leather pictures of him and work on some of his email and profile accounts. I arrived first again and got a seat outside in the patio. Peter was over 20 minutes late but no big deal. We sat outside for over a couple of hours. I wasn’t hungry because of the previous meal but he had some kind of breaded chicken dish. Later, we both had a crème brulee which was genuinely nice. Peter paid for my drink and dessert while I was in the washroom, so I thanked him for that. We took a Lyft back to his place and spent over a few hours working on his old emails, getting him on Recon after nearly a decade of absence, and switching to his new email on Gay Royal. There were a lot of snags and testing my patience. It was nothing Peter did, but the processes of what I needed to do being more complicated than it should be, and my laptop acting up. With my DSLR, I took new pictures of Peter in his leathers as he hasn’t done any new pics in years. Lately, I've been having left over diarrhea so he gave me medication to stop it, making the rest of my trip with little worry about it. After we were done, he thanked me for the photo shoot and help on his accounts, and I said goodbye. I left with a Lyft before 1am. Once I got back to my hotel room, I packed my bags, then showered, and went to bed around 2:30am.
Sunday has arrived and my final day in the city. I got out of bed around 10am then had a shower and packed my final things. I went downstairs to the lobby to check-out near 11am but I kept my bags with the clerk. I walked a block west over to Fran’s on College Street to meet up with Paul Colliard. He was a friend of my late-Leatherdaddy David, and I haven’t seen him in almost 17 years! We had a nice brunch, but I rambled the most, talking about my life with David and about his and Kevin’s passing since I was the closest to them. Paul said he had retired not long ago from being an architect after many years, that he does miss Vancouver, but doesn’t have much reason to go back - despite its beauty. He still has a boy in his life and still leads a leather lifestyle, but not as much these days as Toronto doesn’t offer much for the leather community. What surprised me was an inference that he wasn’t much religious anymore, but more spiritual. From the sounds of it, he sounded like he had pretty much given up on his Christian faith. I wished I could have talked more about it and find out why he no longer had the vibrant faith I remember him having. I was hoping we could have great religious conversations with each other - like how David and I did for years. But it was not meant to be as our talking lasted for just over an hour as he had an appointment. Sigh… But I thanked him for the meal and that we will someday continue to update ourselves on things. I got no new information on David’s past and he didn’t know anything about David’s late-lover, Michael Eliot Hurst, since he died before Paul and David became friends. Honestly, I’m crushed as I was hoping he would help in this part of David’s life. There wasn’t anything more to do at Fran’s, so I picked up my bags back at the hotel and took a Lyft to Union station. It was only a 5-minute wait for the train to depart back to Pearson Airport. I then took the tram to Terminal 3 and dropped off my bags with WestJet. Security was pretty easy, and I walked to gate B37 to wait for my flight for the next 3 hours. We departed back to Calgary at 6pm EST. I watched Ghostbusters II on the way and even started on Hell Boy II: The Golden Army. I reached about halfway through the movie by the time we landed in YYC. I was having a slight headache and soreness around my neck during the flight. I arrived in Calgary after 8pm MST. On my way to gate C55, I bought a blueberry protein smoothie from Jugo Juice and called my father to let him know I would be arriving on time. The plane departed on time despite waiting over 10 minutes for some extra passengers who probably came in from a late flight. I finished Hell Boy II and I didn’t have to wait long to touch down in YXX earlier than scheduled, about 9:30pm. I waited for my bag and my father to pick me up within a few minutes after I got it. I arrived home around 10:30pm.
I feel like I accomplished about half of what I wanted to do in Toronto this trip. Visiting Northbound Leather was a highlight and so was getting to visit a couple of friends too. But due to the current pandemic, I couldn’t see a few others. I think they didn’t want to risk infection. I do not blame them, but it did sour the trip a bit. I’m not sure if I’ll be back next year or 2022, but we’ll see.