My Dad's Visit

You'd think that given the fact that I've no job to speak of, I'd be blogging more, but the opposite appears to be true. Interestingly enough, I've been keeping quite busy, and my father's visit is a good example of this.

I'd been waiting YEARS for my family to come visit. It's one thing to strike out on your own and set up your own life on the other side of the country, it's a whole other thing to have your family come nearly 4000km to see what you've made of yourself. I wanted to take my dad to see my favourite haunts, meet some of my friends and show him around my new home.

The centre of this trip (like all of my own vacations) was food. I took my dad to Pantheon for Greek food, Barberian's for steak (omigod it was fabulous) and the Korean Grill House for all-you-can-eat buffet. I must admit, all this was partially an effort to remind him and my family back home that I am not as narrow-minded about food as they might think.

My Dad came here with his long time friend Geoff, and it was good to see him again as well. The two of them only stop talking about how young and stupid they used to be when they want to change the subject to food. They talk like professional chefs I tell you, going on about their favourite recipes and why theirs should be the next one I try on Melanie... It was great.

It's interesting to note that we didn't hit any of the traditional tourist hotspots while they were in town. I have still yet to go up to the top of the CN tower and we didn't visit the Hockey Hall of Fame or the ROM. Instead, we walked through Chinatown, Kensington, The Annex and Queen West -- this was, after all a memory trip for my father in that he lived here himself something like 35 years ago. He wanted to see the streets that reminded him of that time and I was more than happy to see it all through his eyes.

It was a great visit, and I really appreciate him for coming all this way.