Danny ChaiRoad Trip Day III.
This was actually a really boring day. And yet the best day. Kinda Dickens-esque.
Most of the day was dominated by visiting the CN Tower, which as you know is the World’s Tallest Building and Free Standing Structure, and the “centre” of tourism in Toronto. That was another theme of our trip. Making fun of the wacky Canadian spellings of things. So we always pronounced, for example, “centre” like “sentry”. There were some places we saw with names like “Labour Defence Centre”. I dunno, just wacky to us.
Anyway, I had read in the Lonely Planet Toronto guide that the wait for the CN Tower is 2 hours, both for going up and for coming down. That makes it like a 5 hour experience. That’s insane. So I was really pushing for us going there as soon as it opened, so the wait wouldn’t be as bad.
Problem was, we got in really late from the night before. These Asian places in Canada never close. Like in Richmond, there was a bubble tea place we went to that was like open until 3 AM – 4 AM on weekends. Huh? You need that extra hour on weekends from 3 to 4? Apparently. But yeah, the Markhamish area was similar. I think we ate Korean BBQ at 10? Pretty late, and it was open pretty late, I want to say at least midnight. The bubble tea places were open even later, and the arcade and Internet cafe had no discernible closing time. So we were there pretty late.
Anyway, on our road trips, we’ve never sacrificed sleep for for anything. Maybe just once in Salt Lake City. But otherwise, we’ve gotten plenty of sleep. I’m going to say this is my fault. I just sleep a lot. I think everyone else would get up earlier if it weren’t for me. So, my fault. But again, just to me, what’s the point of doing everything tired? But anyway.
So we left late and headed out to the tower. First making a trip to some pizza place. Shockingly, I can’t remember the name, but it kept advertising itself as Canada’s Best Pizza or something like that. Maybe that was the name, I dunno. But it was everywhere, even on the island we went to the day previous. So we had to try it. I mean, it’s the best in the country. But whatever, it was fair, nothing special.
Then we went to the Tower. I kind of hate these things, and yet, love them. I just hate the fact that we have to go. We’re almost slaves to it. It’s like, you tell someone, “I went to Toronto”, I’d say 3 out of 5 times, they’ll ask if you saw the Tower. It’s just one of those things you have to do, who knows why. But I’m a sucker for these things anyway.
There was this Pepsi booth outside that was doing some demonstration. They gave you a blind taste test between Pepsi and Coke, asked what you liked better, and gave you some prize or whatnot. So I did it. And I lied. I dunno, I don’t think it’s that hard to tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi, and I happen to like Coke better. Less sugary. But yeah, I lied and said I liked what I knew was Pepsi to ensure I got a prize. Some would sell their soul to gain the world. I’ll do it for gum and a coupon. Sad.
There were tons of people there, it being Saturday. There’s actually more there than just a tower you go up, like there’s an arcade, some short educational movies, a restaurant, some virtual rides, stuff like that. So there’s quite a bit to do. We decided on a package that included a movie and a trip up. The highest observation area (SkyPod) was apparently closed so we just did those two things.
The educational movie we saw was on the building of the Tower and it was far and away the worst educational movie on tall structures I’ve seen. I’m pretty sure when I went to the ones in Seattle and Chicago and whatnot there were films there also. Maybe St. Louis also? This one had absolutely no educational value. There was barely any dialogue in it. It was bad. So yeah, if you go, skip this movie.
Especially because there’s another movie that everyone going up sees! Why didn’t they tell us this? And it was much better. I dunno why men feel they need to build tall structures. Maybe Freud was right. But I dunno. It’s pretty impressive though, how they build stuff like this. I still don’t understand how they build bridges and dams. But anyway.
The wait was absurdly long. Everyone was making fun of me for my 2 hour wait estimate so I was actually hoping the wait would be long. And you know what? It was just about a 2 hour wait to go up. So I was both angry and glad at the same time.
It was actually really nice up there. One cool thing is, there’s a section with a glass floor so you can look straight down. Incredibly frightening. I don’t do well with heights in general, and when it’s that high and you’re looking straight down, it’s seriously unnerving.
I like towers, not sure why. I just like looking out and thinking about everything out there. One cool thing about the CN Tower is that it’s right next to the Skydome, and there was a game that day so you could see the players on the field, tiny little dots scurrying around. But yeah, it’s nice up there.
Anyway, during the time we waited the SkyPod (the highest observation level) opened up, and since everyone had waited so long or something, they let people go up for free. So we did. And it was really really high. Dunno what else to say about that.
Then we left (the wait going down wasn’t bad at all) and set off for home. We were way behind schedule so we were going to get in pretty late. So that was pretty much the day.
Like I said, pretty boring. But, it was also really good. We spent some time sharing in the car, and Dave said this, but yeah, it was really good. At least, I thought so. I think what Dave said was that it encouraged him by being glad he wasn’t us. I dunno, you can go back and read what he said.
I dunno, I was encouraged by the fact that we’re all in different places. It just makes me feel like God’s leading us somewhere. In a way it would be cool if we were all still at James Rd. because you, know, we get along pretty well and have a good time together. But it would also be kind of depressing, you know? It’s like, are we heading anywhere? We’d be doing the exact same thing for years. And that’s not a good feeling. Just by virtue of geography, it feels like God’s leading all of us somewhere. We’re all over the country. And He’s leading us all to different things.
Which is the other main thing I was encouraged by. Perspective. I dunno, maybe this is what contributed to my grace rant a few days ago. But yeah, it’s good to know that God’s plan for people includes different things. Sometimes you get so caught up in what you’re doing that you become convinced that it’s what everyone needs to be doing. Perspective is always good.
Like one of us was just saying how at his church the members tend to be older. And how that’s encouraging in a lot of ways. Just how they’re a living testimony that one can live a faithful Christian life. And how it’s a reminder that in the grand scheme of things, we’re all young Christians. And that’s a perspective I lack a lot. The way Asian churches are set up, so much depends on us that we start to feel more mature than we really are. But there are Christians out there who have been Christians for like 30, 40, 50 years. Objectively, we are young Christians. And when in my life do I think like that.
I dunno, other perspectives also. I dunno, I’d say we were all encouraged by this, just how God is leading us to different things, to different lives, and the perspective that gives each of us. Good conversations. So yeah, we did the least “stuff” that day but in a lot of ways, it was the “best” day.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’ve got the best friends. Just, incredibly faithful and capable and serving. And we’ve got this delicate balance down. We don’t need to “share” all the time; we’re comfortable doing just whatever. And yet, we are able to share I think deeply, and we do. When I think about it, that’s kind of an amazing thing.
So yeah, that was Day 3. The last day we were all together, sniff sniff. Actually, I’d kind of like to hear what they did in Philly before I got there. But whatever, like that will happen. Next time: what we did in New York before I left. If anyone still cares.