a free day in Toronto

Our first day out as a family in Toronto and straight off the bat, we find a hockey store selling jerseys and things and are able to get the Bean the cutest little Blackhawks pajama set for next year’s Stanley

Oscar practices his yoga by eating his toes

Cup playoffs.  I told John that we couldn’t get too big a size because he’ll get to an age when all he cares about is supporting a team we hate, “like the goddamn Bruins” and the guys at the counter laughed and said, “that’s right, like the goddamn Bruins”.  I think we 

Dundas square

  scored some points there, but I’m still irritated by the fact that even with chips in our credit cards, we can’t use our debit cards anywhere but in the United States.  Is it the same for everyone else?  Do Canadians have to use their debit cards as credit cards when they cross the border?  I’d like to know if 

Monet painted this panel to pay for his hotel room

we’re just falling behind the rest of the world or not.  We decide that the art museum is the order of the day and get there just as Oscar falls asleep for his morning nap.  We make it through European art, photography, and the absolutely pathetic Mondrian exhibit that they have on the website that we were excited about before he wakes up and wants food.  We 

 were excited about the Mondrian thing since we liked his work so much in the Hague, but when the docents didn’t know where it was, that should have been a clue.  Two small, early not much beyond sketches and they have titled this “before abstraction”.  Art lovers of Toronto, you have been swindled.  We paid the same amount for lunch as we did for admission to the museum, which was ridiculous.  I forget about

Rubens Massacre of the Innocents made the Bean cry

 prices in big cities, just like I willfully forget about traffic.  This amnesia services me well, because I continue to associate with people who piss me off and travel to places, but am then shocked again that I am friends with that asshole or can’t believe that I can’t get an olive burger and fries for $5 because I’m not at KJs diner in rural Michigan anymore.   Most people get sticker shock with cars, I get it with food and groceries

 in foreign countries and big cities.  The museum was not as great as we had hoped, but they had some nice pieces from the Canadian School of Seven which included a lot of landscapes with snow in them, shocking I know.  We saw these at a fast clip because the 7 month old had decided that after 5 hours of being good, he wanted out of his stroller and would only quit yelling or“squealing” as his Nana puts it and encourages 

told you, snowy landscapes, looks familiar though and is coming

  him to do if one of us carried him.  John seemed very put out about this, while I was mad at my mother for encouraging this behavior which is a high pitched yell that signals nothing but boredom, John seemed resentful that our 7 month old was not perfect.  This kid has always fought going to sleep and while a few squeals at home are easy to ignore and let him work through until he falls asleep, in a museum they are “unacceptable” as John put it.  So, we left in a hurry and Oscar fell asleep in the stroller as soon as we exited the building of course.