You might think I would unpack my Savannah bags first, but I find myself at work today, looking at the calendar and doodling about our next trip.

As I have mentioned before, David and I are going to be in Toronto the weekend of May 15-17 to attend a UofT med school reunion. So we have a good chunk of the weekend committed to reunion activities. We do have Friday during the day free, and if anyone in the area is available, maybe we could meet somewhere for lunch?

We are staying with friends midtown, and could get anywhere I would think. One of the things we are thinking about doing that day is visiting ROM, so somewhere around there?

Edited title to update time.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doru,

Hi, Marcia! I will definitely be available and look forward to meeting you and David. Let's see who else can make it for lunch on a Friday. The ROM, where you plan to go anyway, has a new dining room open for lunch, so does the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics across the street. There are many other options between the downtown and the midtown.

Josette will not be able to join; she has volunteer work each Friday, at the Toronto Public Library, North York Central Branch, where she is depended upon.

As far as I know, I will be available, and I'll do my best to keep it that way. I'm looking forward to meeting you both.

Yes, we can definitely make a more exact plan closer to the date. We are looking forward to meeting you as well. We met MarionP in Savannah last week, and I think she is still down in that area for a few more days.

Doru, as a librarian and former library docent myself, I totally understand how the Toronto PL relies on Josette on her Fridays with them. There will be another time, as I told Jerry & Paul, who will leave for Italy a few days earlier that week in May.

quote:

Originally posted by MarciaB: Doru, as a librarian and former library docent myself...

Well, Marcia, I'll have to remember to tell you how I almost was sent nolens-volens to the the Moscow Lomonosov University to study to become a Librarian. But then, I would have not met Josette, and maybe would have married some Russian girl from Moscow, and would have never become a Slow Traveller...

As in, if David and I had not met at UCSanta Cruz and later married, I would not have lived in Toronto, possibly never become a Slow Traveler myself, and we would not be having lunch together in May ?

Love it.

MarciaB, I am terribly sorry, but I am not available on the 16th. I will be in Quebec City celebrating its 400th birthday, my high school reunion, and visiting my family. Lunch at the Gardiner or the ROM will be lovely. Sorry to miss this opportunity to reconnect. It was great meeting you and your husband in Savannah.

Marion, sorry we will miss you, so I am really glad we had a chance to meet in Savannah. Altho I know we never really had a chance to talk and I kept thinking, well, there's always Toronto . Another time, then; your weekend away sounds fun.

Hi all,

Sorry, but we can't make it - only makes sense if we can make a weekend of it.

Tough week. I started teaching in September 1969. One of the other guys in the "New Teachers" photo in the local paper died on Monday in Nova Scotia. We worked down the hall from each other for 29 years and lived less than a mile apart on the same rural road for about 25. There is a memorial service for him in Ottawa on the 17th.

Doug, sorry to hear about your friend. Perhaps we will manage to get you here for the next one.

Doug, Marion, sorry we won't have a chance to meet with you on our short visit.

And as for where to go, maybe we should pick a lunch spot and we can work our ROM plans around that, ROM just being one of our ideas for that day. I'm open to all ideas, since we have not had a Toronto dining experience in many years. And you know, we love all things Italian .

I believe we are still talking lunch?

Well, we can always introduce you and David to our "Slow Travel Headquarters" at Tutti Matti, or try something else. Vaticano Trattoria is well regarded and smack downtown, in the Yorkville area. Tutti Matti is more on the West side, at Adelaide and Spadina.

As it happens we have an event at Vaticano at the beginning of May and I can make a reservation. So far I think it is for: Marcia, David, Marg and myself.

Other suggestions welcome.

Ah, Yorkville, haven't been there in quite awhile. We lived in the university housing for married students in the med school days, not far from there. It does sound lovely.

Ideal location and I recall having a very nice lunch there a year ago.

What time would be OK for all? 12 noon? 12:30 p.m.? Earlier? I'm flexible.

We are also flexible and can meet you at any of those times. I will say the menu looks pretty darn good, especially when I was looking at it yesterday at my desk, before lunch.

I'm flexible too, although since I am taking the afternoon off, I should probably stay at the office till 12:00. It's just a 15 minute walk though, so I can be there by 12:15.

OK, 12:15 it is. I will make a reservation for four this Sunday, when I will be at the Vaticano anyway.

New adherents welcome! I can always amend the reservation.

New adherent here ...

I will be in Rochester NY next week and had planned to drive to Toronto on Friday night to spend the weekend with my dad. Turns out that I will be heading to Toronto on Thursday night instead, so I'd love to join you all for lunch on Friday if that's ok.

Sharon

Sharon, we will be happy to have you join us. I am thinking that we will have a GTG with two California Girls in Toronto of all places! This is great!

As a tidbit, the Vaticano is where we had recently our Golden Wedding Anniversary. All guests complimented the cuisine.

Of course, the company is what really matters!

So, we're 5, so far!

Sharon!

So happy that you will be in Toronto and joining us for lunch. Did I know that your father lived there? Maybe, maybe not. It will be lovely to see you.

We are also getting to Toronto Thursday night, just not via Rochester.

Great! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone.

This will be fun! I'm really looking forward to meeting you Doru and Marg, and seeing Marcia and David again. And the restaurant sounds great -- belated best Golden Anniversary wishes to you and your wife, Doru! I'd hazard a guess that it probably doesn't seem like 50 years at all -- more like 20 (if that)?

I, too, am amused that the Californians will now outnumber the Canadians. But, maybe not. Considering that my entire family is Canadian, I think I should qualify as an honorary Canadian at least!

Marcia, I'm sure you're quite thankful that you're not travelling to Toronto via Rochester!

See you all next week,

Sharon

And David's mother was Canadian, so I guess there really is a Canada-California bridge here.

No, Sharon, we are travelling through Dallas! But our return home is non-stop, something to look forward to. The weather, however, looks like I should be packing my California winter clothes, just like the Toronto springs I remember.

It seems I am the first to hit a computer, so I will say that we had a great lunch. It was such a pleasure to finally meet Marcia and her David, and Sharon as well, and to meet again Marg!

We enjoyed a wonderful conversation, exchanging travel tips and plans, and ended up talking mostly about other GTGs and their venues and participants (only good stuff:
scat was not on the agenda , of course!). After lunch we visited a local art gallery where present participants to the Toronto "Contact" event (an annual month-long exhibition of photography spread over about 200 locales, mostly art galleries around town).

Photos will come, but not from me: after the recent fiascos with my photos from GTGs I left the camera home, but everyone else, including a helpful waiter, took photos. Kindly post them in the 2008 Miscellaneous GTGs, for the time being.

It was wonderful to meet you, Sharon, Marg, Marcia and David!

Ditto to what Doru has said, but pictures will have to wait until we are home, I think. Great lunch (and we think we may have spotted a hockey star from another era a few tables away, but alas, no name came to mind), and then Doru took us over to a gallery a few blocks away to see some fab photographs of rock stars from Toronoto 60's concert days. It was such a pleasure to meet Doru and Marg, and as always to spend time with Sharon - apparently Sharon and David have some Canadian roots.

Thanks, again, Doru for arranging lunch.

It sounded like you had a wonderful gathering.I look forward to the photos. Continued safe travels to all. See you in California Marcia and David! Barb Cabot

My 2 (!) pictures are posted here .

I will echo Doru and Marcia. We had a terrific lunch and visit. It was great to meet Doru and Marg and to see Marcia and David again. Thanks, Doru for making the arrangements. I really enjoyed Trattoria Vaticano - yummy!

Cheers,
Sharon

Thank you, Sharon! A nice souvenir!

And my photos have been added here.
I too enjoyed meeting some new faces. I hope someday to see you all again, perhaps in Italy next time?

Doru, thanks for making the reservation and for the gallery tour afterwards.

Thanks, Marg! I think we now have enough photos in the gallery to ask Marta to create a separate album for Toronto GTGs 2008!