Here are my notes from the trip we made to Canada in celebration of my 50th birthday! Links are to our photo albums of each city. (Historical note: This trip took place during a US government shutdown, so the federal security & air-traffic-control staff in the US airports had not been paid for almost a month.)

Saturday, Oct 25

• Up at 5 to catch 7:30 flight from OMA to ORD; 4 hour layover turned to 4.5 due to air traffic control malfunction but otherwise uneventful.
• Learned that Jessie's colleagues, on whose behalf we had arranged an extra day in Toronto, would not be able to meet up with us after all due to family emergencies.
• Arrived at YYZ around 5:30, took train to Union Station, my phone had no service.
• On train, guy hollered "LET'S GO, BLUEJAYS!" and we remembered there was a World Series game that night, turned out to be about a block from our Airbnb starting about an hour after we arrived!
• Heavy crowds outside Union Station, had to walk because traffic was so thick.
• Hosts upgraded us to a room with private bath in an apt on a higher floor, for undisclosed reasons.
• Dinner at Japanese place.

Oct 26 - Toronto

• Slept til 8, got breakfast at Tim Horton's before Jessie's presentation at AATA virtual conference (via video call).
• I went walking along harbourfront as far east as Union Station and back, found prepaid SIM card and ibuprofen.
• Returned to the room to find that our neighbor in the apartment was singing loudly in the shower, but thankfully it didn't disturb Jessie's presentation!
• Lunch at St. Lawrence Market - Kyiv cake!
• Arcadia Earth: immersive augmented-reality installation about environmental issues. Turned out to be in the building where Huma lives, just across the tracks from our Airbnb.
• Dinner at Pizza Karachi.
• Watched Trainwreck: Poop Cruise for the schadenfreude.

Oct 27

• Slept in, went to brunch at The Morning After, then direct to Casa Loma.
• Historic mansion "North America's only full size castle," owners only lived in it 10 years before going bankrupt.
• Was a hotel briefly, then a tourist attraction & movie set. Lots of photo ops!
• Dinner at the Elephant and Castle (British style pub).
• Watched X-Men (one of the films shot at Casa Loma).

Oct 28

• 4:45am fire alarm necessitated walking down 12 floors, then back to bed!
• Leftover pizza after packing up at Airbnb.
• Took a Lyft to Union Station to save wrangling the suitcase on transit.
• VIA Rail to Québec: wifi on board, max speed 155km/h. I attended Employee Appreciation meeting (via video call) for Encore.
• VIA Rail trains are well maintained and single-level, feel more spacious than double-decker Amtrak.
• No dining car, attendant walks through with a cart of food & drinks for sale.
• As soon as we crossed the border, announcements switched to French first, English second.
• Arrived in Montréal around 5:30pm, bus did not take debit card as in Toronto.
• Hotel turned out to be in "Quartier des Spectacles" (red light district), upstairs from strip club & sex shop!
• Second floor of several attached buildings, lots of stairs up & down like on Fawlty Towers.
• Dinner in Chinatown at a dumpling house. Madeleines for dessert.

Oct 29 - Montréal

• Continental breakfast at hotel. Bed was too soft for me - very sore back all day.
• Tim Hortons in Québec is exclusively in French, while in Ontario it was all English.
• Maison du Dévelopment Durable (LEED platinum building) self-guided tour.
• Basilica de Notre Dame de Montréal. Crêpes for lunch.
• Museum of Fine Arts - special exhibit of Kent Monkman paintings.
• Dinner at Le Central (food court). I slept on cot mattress on floor.

Oct 30

• Slept in and checked out just at 11am. Very rainy morning.
• Coffee at Gare Central; I went to Cathedral of Mary Queen of the World while Jessie held down luggage.
• Train trip uneventful. Arrived in Québec City and bought bus passes.
• Auberge Saint Louis (named for gate in historic city wall) very near Château Frontenac.
• Rainy - bought tacky disposable ponchos and walked around Frontenac and to city hall (called Parliament or Hôtel de Ville).
• Dinner and dessert at Italian restaurant.

Oct 31 - Québec City

• Breakfast - poutine and crêpes - at restaurant across the street. Still very rainy, and windy!
• Guided tour of Frontenac was supposed to meet outside; moved inside due to weather.
• Tour guide was in character as first governor of Québec.
• Château is not as old as it looks - first built 1890s by Canada Rail, central tower not built until 1920s.
• Owned by the citizens of Québec but operated by Fairmont as a very expensive hotel.
• Museum of Civilization: nice exhibits on native cultures, story of a Rohingya refugee narrated by himself over headsets triggered by proximity to sculptures illustrating his anecdotes.
• Jessie stayed to see the special exhibit on the Titanic and then took a bus to the Chocolate Museum, getting quite wet on the way, and took a Lyft back to the hotel.
• I had better luck with the rain and walked all through lower town and up to the Citadelle, circumnavigating the old city.
• Dinner courtesy of Jessie's Lyft driver who felt bad for stopping for pizza and so gave her one!
• Watched Halloween: Resurrection and Ghostbusters (S.O.S. Fantômes) en français.

Nov 1

• Brunch at restaurant specializing in first nations cuisine. My meal featured venison, duck, bannock, and some of the best bacon I have ever had in my life!
• Jessie toured the basilica while I packed up.
• Took a Lyft to the airport (YQC) since bus would be an hour longer, but then arrived too early and had to wait almost an hour for United staff to arrive before we could check in!
• Trip home to OMA via ORD was uneventful: customs & security staff were if anything friendlier than usual. Home around 10pm.