Tuesday July 23rd. EJ and I have known each other since the third day of Grade 5, when we noticed on the school-bus that we were both carrying the same (uncool) lunchbox. We remained best friends throughout our school years, always engaged in a fierce but friendly contest to see who could maintain the best marks (on one memorable occasion calculating our averages to 2 decimal places!). We were each other’s maid/matron of honour, and are godparents to each other’s eldest children. While the decades have taken us in different directions, our shared history is incredibly precious to me.

We’re both talkers, and both our hubbies are the strong silent type, so our visits inevitably involve lots and lots of stories shared, and travel updates since they are also avid travellers.

They took pity on our carless existence and picked us up at our Airbnb, about a 20 minute drive from their lovely shady backyard (versus 50 minutes by transit).

Once there, we were treated to a delicious homemade dinner based on the best of Ontario’s bumper crop of lush red tomatoes: creamy tomato soup with a hint of cumin, tender yeasty home-baked tomato bread, salad featuring bright crimson cherry tomatoes, and a baked chicken dish topped with Mexican style esquites (street corn), black beans, chopped tomatoes, and cilantro… another absolute feast from a kitchen famous over the years for producing great meals.

Dessert? LIMONCELLO tiramisu ! Words can hardly express the joy of taking a spoonful of the mouth-watering combination of silky mascarpone, liqueur-soaked biscuits, tart citrus, and cloud-soft whipped cream. Heavenly.

Of course, our visit also involved many long overdue hugs, and the expected hours of catching up on events in each other’s lives.

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Wed/Thurs July 24/25. Speaking of old friends, Ted and Joe became friends in high school at Danforth Tech. Joe and I briefly dated when we were at the University of Toronto, and he gets credit for introducing me to Ted! Joe was in our wedding party, and already engaged to his wife of 43 years, Elaine, back then. As sometimes happens with old friends, especially in the busy child-rearing years and when you don’t live close together, there was a stretch of being apart, but good friendships survive – and this one certainly has.

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We were invited to their beautiful home in Ajax for drinks and a wonderful home-made Greek-themed dinner: grilled chicken kebabs, lemony roasted potatoes, and salad with crisp cucumber and delicate crumbly feta, followed by angel food cake served with berries and whipped cream. How lucky we are to have friends who are such good cooks.

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To get to Ajax, we took the subway from Sheppard West to Union Station and boarded the GO train headed east. Coming home was simply the reverse route, but reminiscing over many glasses of wine meant that while Joe had picked us up at the GO station coming in, it was an Uber that took us back.

As we left, Elaine asked us each to reach into a bag of Lovenotes, described by their creators as “loving affirmations rolled in colourful little scrolls that have an uncanny way of landing in the right person’s hands.” After choosing a random tiny, tightly rolled scroll, you open it to find a positive message. Elaine explained that it’s really only when you share the notes that you may find out what others think of how well the notes do or don’t apply to you. In that vein, here are our notes (the blue is Ted’s, the green mine):

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Thursday July 25th. We’d run out of the minimal breakfast supplies we picked up on our arrival here, so mid-morning we decided to treat ourselves to brunch at the Sunset Grill in the nearby plaza. Sunset Grill is an Ontario breakfast and lunch chain that began right here in The Beach area of Toronto in 1985. Three more locations had opened by 2002, all in Toronto, and then in 2004 they began franchising, reaching 100 locations by 2014. Not all of those survived, but more than 75 remain – all in Ontario and Alberta – and all upholding the high standards of that first location. Over the years we’ve enjoyed many meals at Sunset Grills, which for me also included some really fun lunches with my school staffs.

No brunch photos – I was obviously hungrier than I thought, and my Western omelette (“Denver” to our U.S. friends), home-fries, and rye toast were half gone before I even thought about taking a picture.

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Today we got the bonus of another dinner with son #1 and his family, this time at their home, and with their friends Button & Ty, who we’ve had the pleasure to get to know over the past few years.

Dinner came from the grill (burgers, sausage, ribs, corn) with the exception of the delicious green bean, bacon and feta side dish. We were too full even to go for ice cream!

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Friday July 26th. Although I haven’t known her for as long as I have EJ, it’s close! Angela and I became friends in grade 9, way back in 1969, bonding initially over our German heritage, and very quickly becoming a trio, with EJ, of high-achieving mark-obsessed “brainy girls”. Angela was definitely the most socially adept of the three of us though, throwing memorable parties and confidently navigating boy/girl dynamics years before I did. We were bridesmaids in each other’s wedding parties, but not too many years later simply stopped getting together. There was no particular reason – just a drifting apart as we focussed on raising our families while living in different cities.

Thankfully, we found each other again during the pandemic, when there was nothing but time to reach out to people and rekindle friendships.

This was to be the first time we’ve actually seen each other (with the exception of a Covid Zoom) in more than 30 years, but sadly it didn’t happen. Life is unpredictable, and not always in fun ways. Angela’s mom fell just a couple of days ago, breaking her pelvis, and at 99 years old is, of necessity, Angela’s first priority right now. Our reunion will simply have to wait.

In a serendipitous turn of events, missing Angela meant being able to have a reunion with our nomadic friends Lynne and John, whom we haven’t seen since pre-Covid when we were still in Collingwood. Time really does fly!

Lynne worked at Penguin Random House concurrently with Ted (he in I.T, she selling books to independent bookstores), although Lynne retired first. We didn’t find out until after we’d both retired and sold everything to travel that they’d done the same thing two years before we did! They were a wonderful source of information when we were just getting started on our travel plans, and continue to be an inspiration.

Our intended “short visit” lasted for almost 5 hours of laughter and getting caught up!

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Saturday July 27th. I really wanted to be sure that during our Ontario sojourn Ted got to reconnect with friends that he made during his work years. Mike worked with Ted at the very first computer programming company that Ted joined after college, and we met his wife Heather, a teacher, at one of that company’s Christmas parties. Years later, Mike came to work at Random House with Ted, and Heather became a school principal, which gave us a common interest in education since I ended up working for the Halton District School Board.

Mike has an incredible green thumb – maybe the best I’ve seen since my Dad – and we always marvel at the pictures they share of their garden. It was a real treat to get to experience it first hand. What an absolute oasis in the city!

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After a lunch of yummy homemade pizza, fresh fruit salad, and a Niagara rosé wine, we walked to and around Colonel Sam Smith Park, which surrounds the Humber College Lakeshore campus. It’s yet another beautiful waterfront green space that’s perfect for walking, cycling, and bird-watching, right in the heart of the city.

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From the spit in the park we had a gorgeous view of the Toronto skyline. I have to admit that I completely missed it because Heather and I were immersed in conversation, but Ted got this terrific photo:

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Between family, friends, food, and scenery, it’s no wonder we – and so many others – love Toronto.