A Raptor-rific Weekend, Part 2

When I left off, we were leaving the restaurant since Carter was spent and the game wasn't going well.  We paid the bill, checked out a couple things outside the cool Hockey Hall of Fame-themed Tim Hortons in the same atrium area, and took the elevator down to our van.  By the time we came up to ground level from the underground ramp and got our satellite radio reception back, we heard the broadcaster say that the game was TIED!  It could have only been 15 minutes at the most.  We were stunned!  Of course then we just had to keep driving to keep the run going!  I briefly suggested we just drive around the city for a while, just in case, but since it was so late we just headed out of the city back toward the hotel.  It took the entire quarter to get there, and then Jacob wouldn't let us get out of the van until the game was over.  It was tight at the end, but the Raptors pulled away, and sure enough, they won!  The Raptors are going to the NBA Finals for the first time ever!

We headed right to our room to watch the postgame celebration, and figured we should take a picture of all of us in our Raptors' gear.  This was about as good as it got...

It was so nice to see Jacob so thrilled with the win and grateful to have been so close by for it.

It was a bummer that we didn't stay downtown to get in on the party in the streets, but clearly one of our party of four was ready for bed!

It was a late night, but a happy one!  We slept in pretty well the next morning and filled up on breakfast (oh, cinnamon rolls...) before heading out and back downtown.  Signs of the previous night were still around, including this giant balloon on the ceiling outside the Sportchek store across from the arena.

Most of Jurassic Park was still set up, too.

Craig grabbed this great shot of the boys outside.

We walked back and forth a couple times, and eventually set off in search of a bathroom.  I couldn't help but snap this shot of a cool LED light installation in a nearby building.  There were countless strings of LED lights, and they were changing color in patterns.  Hopefully someday I'll get around to posting the video, but still a cool shot, no?

We stopped into Sportchek (again) to look at what that location had compared to the Mississauga one, then headed into the arena to visit the team store.  It was hopping!  Most of the Eastern Conference Championship shirts were already sold out, and the place was full of excited fans!  We picked up a few things, from a small ball for Carter to a keychain for Jacob's new house key (he's going home after school for the next month, God help us).  Since we have a few smaller versions at home, we did not spend $100 on this cool stuffed Raptor who was half of Carter's height, but how cool is he?

They also had this lovely Swarovski crystal basketball...fancy!

Craig tried to take some shots of the boys on the cool wall near the arena doors...

This one reminded me of a weird album cover for some reason.  Maybe Carter's pose?

...and then it was back outside.  As we were strolling through, we were intercepted by a news crew from Global News.  They were interviewing fans about the previous night's game, and they seemed to enjoy our story about coming from Rochester and not making it into Jurassic Park.  I knew Carter would never make it through an interview, so we left Craig and Jacob to do it and just stood to the side taking pictures...

And believe it or not, Craig made the segment!  You can watch the show below.  The segment begins at 8:30, and Craig is right around 11:00.


Don't feel bad for Jacob for not getting any airtime.  He did say a couple funny things that we explained probably weren't ideal (the word "choke" was used, for example), and he spent most of the day worrying about destroying his NBA future if that aired.  But the guy shown before Craig had an absurdly cute family, and they didn't make it either, so we can't feel too bad.  But it was cool nonetheless!

We had promised Jacob we'd try to make it to Wahlburger's, which has a very good gluten-free burger, and since we didn't make it there the previous day (or our last trip), we took a long but pleasant walk from the arena, past the CN Tower and Rogers Centre (aka Skydome), and down the road to the restaurant.  The Blue Jays were home and fans were streaming in, so it was a fun walk.  I'm not sure I ever noticed this art installation with a woodpecker outside the convention center, but I had taken enough other weird, artsy shots on this trip, so why not this one?

Wahlburger's wasn't very busy and we were seated right away.  Even though we knew we were still pretty full from breakfast and we knew we'd be eating a relatively early dinner at my family's Memorial Day picnic, we knew how much Jacob wanted to go.  Craig and I just opted to split a sandwich.  Carter got a hot dog and fries, and Jacob got his burger.  Well, we sat there...and sat there...and sat there.  It seemed to be taking a while considering it wasn't that busy, so when the people behind us who came in after us got their food, we flagged the waiter down.  He sheepishly came back to our table after checking and admitted he forgot to punch in our order.  We were already running later than would be ideal, and now we had to wait longer!  Then when the food came out about 15 minutes later, we asked if Jacob's bun was gluten-free, and without a word he took it off the table and walked away.  So his took even longer, but I guess at least they didn't just try to replate it on a different bun!  He never even refilled our drinks either, so yeah, the waiter was awful.  He told us to not even tip him, it was that bad.  Basically, that killed any good mood I had.  We hurried back to our van as we were now running very late to get back to NT for the picnic, and I was in such a crappy mood I didn't even go look at the Chihuly-like glass sculpture at the entrance of the Soho Hotel we walked past.  I saw it on our way and thought that it looked like a fun photo op, if nothing else.  I figured I'd check it out on the way back, but my mood was so foul by then that I didn't.  And come to find out, it was a Chihuly!  Darn it.  Next time. 

We headed back to NT through some slow-but-not-stopped traffic and a terrible line choice at customs, but had a very nice evening at my family's picnic before heading back to Rochester.  I'll admit it felt great to get home, and I was thankful for another day off to recover from a busy weekend!  Of course, Monday ended up being another busy, physically exhausting day.  I finally picked up vegetables for my garden and got them (and a couple experiments) planted, trimmed a tree, repotted my little pine tree, did some weed-whacking, cleaned up my bike and went for a nearly-seven-mile ride.  Oh, and I think I did some laundry, too.  Craig mowed the lawn and worked on the pool, which will never be warm, judging by the extended forecast.  During one of my few breaks, Carter climbed up behind me at one point and gave me a massage, at which point I snapped this picture.  Silly boy!

Thank goodness for a four day week, because we needed it to go quickly.  Well, all except Jacob who is off to lacrosse training camp for a few days and has been very emphatic about how much he doesn't want to go.  Between being completely over lacrosse and a less-than-ideal gluten-free situation, it's going to be a challenge.  At least the Raptors won game one last night, so at least he has one less thing to be annoyed about!  The bright side for us is a weekend with Carter, which is such a rarity.  One of these days it will actually feel like summer outside, and we can get in full summer mode.  Hopefully lots of fun adventures are ahead!