Travel: May 2007 Archives
I can hardly believe that I'm settling in for my last night in Toronto. Where did the week go? I got to spend my night in an exceptionally fun way, though.
With almost perfect weather, I got to enjoy a final fabulous evening in the company of a very friendly group of knitters at a beautiful little yarn store, Lettuce Knit. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming and it's hard to imagine a better way to spend an evening in a new city. I enjoyed seeing Rachel H and Stephanie again (Rachel made sure I got a nice walking tour down to Lettuce Knit and I got to hold Stephanie's current sock) and I got to meet Amy for the first time as well as Michelle and more lovely Toronto knitters than you can shake a stick at. As always, I have to apologize for my terrible memory for names -- but it really was a pleasure to spend a few hours knitting with such a nice group of folks, and I do hope that I get the chance to come back someday and do it again.
Of course, a little bit of shopping was done... but discussion of that will have to wait until I have good light to take pictures in.
You have to love a conference package that comes with free high speed wireless internet access -- and the claim is actually true. I've been in Toronto now for about 4 hours and from where we are staying the views are lovely.
And the hotel room isn't all that bad, either. Now I just need to figure out where some good restaurants are (as opposed to the touristy near by to the hotels restaurants) that really give some flavor to Toronto. Clearly a city that's this lovely must have some good places to eat.
Given that the troops are still gathering for our meeting (it is just a hoot to me to see signs saying "Toronto Welcomes the American Society of Microbiologists" -- who would have thought that any place would be excited about having a bunch of people who study viruses, bacteria and fungi running around?), this night is likely to be a good one to relax in my hotel room. So I think I'm going to dig into this:
There are so many cute patterns in Zoe Mellor's book and too many lovely baby girl friendly colors to choose from in cotton and cotton blends. I've always wanted to try out Rowan's cotton-based yarns without making a commitment to a big project in case I didn't enjoy the experience of knitting with them. Babies need lots of booties, right?
And one last picture before I sign off. I just could resist getting a snap of this sign just past the security check point in Terminal One at O'hare.
I don't know which is funnier... the concern that people might choose the wrong Starbucks and not have the option of getting their tall skim mocha lattes or that the "drip only" Starbucks and the restrooms seem to be in the same place...
The annual meeting of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM) is going to be in Toronto the week of May 21st. My company is going to be there to market our wares on the trade show floor and (assuming my doctor clears me for travel) I'm going to be there from Sunday evening (May 20th )until Thursday morning (May 24th).
This will be my very first vist to Toronto. We're staying downtown at the InterContinental Toronto Centre and I'd love to have some recommendations for "must sees" in down town Toronto. I'm hoping that the famous Lettuce Knit isn't too far away -- I'd really like to see it and find out what makes it so special to Toronto knitters. But I'm interested in finding out about other places that make Toronto special. And if you have a favorite restaurant, please share it! I always love to know about good places to eat.
I understand that May 21st is Victoria Day in Canada. Are there good things to see? Events to take in? We'll be setting up our booth that day, but, otherwise, I'm expecting to have some free time. I'd love to know more about the holiday and how Canadians usually celebrate it.
Finally, while I hope I don't need it, can anyone recommend good hospitals downtown in Toronto? As I mentioned earlier, I'm not going to leave Chicago unless my doctor tells me everything looks good, but I figure better to be safe than sorry and be prepared with a phone number or address or two.
I don't know yet how much scheduled free time I'm going to have (that's the hard part about being there on business... the whole point is to schmooze potential customers, meet with strategic partners and find out about new technology) but I'm hoping I have time for a couple of coffee breaks and that I might have a chance to meet some of the folks in the Toronto fiber community.
