Thursday 6/16/2011 - After getting in late the previous night and going to check out the town, I decided that I'd sleep in on Thursday. I got up a little before 10 so I could enjoy the last of the breakfast bar. I ended up only having coffee and a bowl of Raisin Bran. I then packed up my room and walked to the falls again. I wanted to get some photos from the Canadian side of the falls and to see L'il Vegas during the day. A very kind French speaking lady offered to take my picture as I was struggling to snap a photo of myself with the falls in the background. I kind of felt like an asshole because I wasn't able to thank her in her language. Stupid gringo.
I also stopped at a currency exchange center and exchanged $40 US for the Canadian equivalent. The gentleman was super friendly but I couuldn't help but feel ripped off by my handful of monopoly money. No paper dollar bills either, only dollar coins. It makes sense but was kind of odd to me. Back at the hotel, I packed up my bike and got ready to set off to Toronto. The desk clerks were extremely nice the night before and let me park my motorcycle under the hotel awning by the registration desk. It was my V-Strom and a Honda Goldwing parked there. At least I didn't have to worry about anyone backing into it and knocking it over.
I finally got on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way or Highway 420) toward Toronto. It was REALLY busy and there were some mammoth bridges to cross over. It was also the first time I had to get used to using the metric system to determine my speed. (This would come back to bite me in the ass Saturday) Once I got into the vicinity of Toronto traffic slowed to a crawl. I finally hopped off of the highway to see if I could navigate downtown with my GPS. Much to my dismay I found that my GPS wasn't working. I played with my phone for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was probably only 15 minutes. It turns out that I needed to data roam while in Canada for my GPS to operate, so I turned it on and boo'yah, it's ready to directify me. It turns out that I was only a couple of miles by way of about four turns from the Hilton Garden Inn which is where my reservations were made. I rolled up at 3:00 and my room wasn't ready yet. The valet also showed me to my garaged parking space in the basement of the building. I was relieved that I wasn't going to have to park my bike on the street. I went back to the lobby after parking my bike waited while the housekeeping staff prepared my room.
The lobby television was tuned in to the Canadian equivalent of CNN. I learned about the following: Anthony Weiner's resignation, a horrible traffic accident on the QEW which I must have just missed, and the riots in Vancouver that erupted after the Canuck's lost the Stanley Cup. I struck up a conversation with a guy that was watching the TV with me. It turns out that his name was Simon and he was the Canadian tour manager for the Descendents. What a coincidence. It turns out that everyone's flights were running late. We parted ways and then my room was ready. For my wait, they upgraded me to the king suite. It was more hotel room than I've ever needed. There was a living room with a couch, an easy chair, a computer desk/work area, a Jacuzzi tub, and then the king sized master bedroom. It actually felt kind of decadent for me to have so much room to myself. I got settled in and walked down the street to a gas station to get a couple of beverages and a snack and then went back to my room. I snacked, soaked in the tub and got a quick cat nap, then went out to walk around Toronto and check out the venue where the show would be held.
The hotel was only about 10 blocks from the venue which was a stage on a square in the middle of downtown Toronto. It resembled a miniature version of Times Square in New York. After walking around for a bit I started to head back to my room to rest again for a bit and bumped into my friends Bill and Stacie. They had just been dropped off near the venue where Bill had to do an interview and then they needed to get settled into their room. We were staying at the same place so we walked back there and dropped off the bags. After dropping off the bags, we headed down to the lobby where we bumped in to Stephen getting off of the elevator. We ended up walking back down to Yonge & Dundas Square and hanging out for a bit.
The music was had started at 6:00 and was in full swing when we got down there. The first band that I was cognizant of was Toronto's own Fucked Up. They were really well received by the crowd and put on a good show. The only other band that I went to Toronto looking to see was Keith Morris' new band OFF!. They put on a high energy no nonsense punk rock show that did not disappoint. Finally the Descendents played at about 10:00. The crowd had been steadily growing since the earlier acts and was at a fever pitch when Karl, Stephen, Milo, and Bill took the stage. They put on a great show as always. One of the highlights of the show was when Milo brought his son and daughter onto the stage to help out with the "All-O-Gistics."
It was the first time his children had gotten to see him perform live and it was fantastic that he got them into the act. It was just a really cute moment that the kids seemed to enjoy. Another highlight of the show was the Descendents playing the song "Lucky" live for the first time.
After the show was over, I went back to the hotel and hung out for a bit. I ended up shooting the breeze with some friends in the lobby until about 2:00am. I went up to my room, laid out my clothes for the next day and packed my bags. I was in bed by 2:45am. I wanted to be able to be up at 6:00, have my bike packed up and ready for the 7:00am lobby call. I figured it would be easier to follow a vehicle or two to the venue the following day than it would be to try and find it myself. This concludes day 2.
