Dinner Cruise Bait And Switch On The Aurora Borealis Dinner Cruise - June 26th, 2013

 Last night Neal and I went on our long awaited anniversary dinner cruise aboard what we thought, was suppose to be the Auroria Boralis, but instead it turned out to be the on the Stella Boralis.  What I suspect happened was that they didn't have enough passengers to fill one boat so they switched to the smaller, older boat and said that they were doing renovations.  We had purchased our dinner cruise using Groupon and thank goodness we didn't have to pay full price for it.  We were suppose to leave at 6 p.m. but due to one couple who had a time management issues we left late.  As we were about to pull away this taxi roars up to the pier and a couple jumps out.  They got yelled at by the owner but were eventually allowed aboard.  They really should have been left behind for being late.

This older boat was slightly run down and we sat at folding tables covered with a black table cloth and plastic lawn chairs.  The music was good and thankfully not too loud.  But they could have played more music that you could have actually danced to.  I don't think too many people were actually dancing.

Once we got under way, they set up the dinner buffet and they served Caesar salad, various kinds of dinner rolls, a pasta primevara and/or chicken breast.  I had asked for a glass of water but much to our surprise you can't have a glass of water with your meal you have to go and buy all of your drinks at the bar.  Neal had to spend an extra $5.00 for a bottle of water and this tiny cup of Coke.  If you are going to charge so much for a cup of Coke at least give him the whole can.  For dessert they had coffee and tea and different kinds of cookies (chocolate chip, Linzer and merangue) and chocolate squares.  The food was just ok.

 The views of the harbour were beautiful and we had a spectacular night for it.  I know it doesn't look like nighttime but it stayed light out right up until 9:00 p.m.  It was really hot and not even being by the water did anything to cool us down.  We floated past the CN Tower and Rogers Centre and then past The Toronto Islands.

We saw lots of ducks and geese and one little beaver paddling his heart out.  It was so cute.

Here you can see one of Neal's favourite places to go when we are visiting the islands.  The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse.  It's a 150 year old lighthouse that may or may not be haunted.  I guess it all depends if you believe that kind of thing or not.  Either way it's beautiful.


All in all we had a really nice night together on our anniversary dinner cruise.

Evergreen Brickworks

 So for our outing today we went to the Evergreen Brick Works.  It is an awesome place for exploring and taking photos.  On Saturdays and Sundays they have a farmer's market and sell all kinds of fruits and vegetable and baked goods and other things.  There is a wonderful children's play area where kids can discover how vegetables grow, how to build stuff out of wood and just a good place to run and play.

Here was a great pond with fish swimming around and lily pads.  It was very nice.  Just beyond here is a hiking trail but be careful of the angry bird.  We were told he was on the attack.

 Neal just goofing around.

Some beautiful metal artwork.

Adventures In Port Hope

 This morning Neal and I were looking for something to do or somewhere to go.  We looked in the Ontario travel booklet and found Port Hope.  It was about an hour and a half away from Toronto (if there are no problems on the highway).  It was smooth sailing all the way there.

 On the way to the beach we found a firefighter's museum.  The fellow who volunteered there was very nice.  We walked around and saw all of the old firefighting gear and some of  the more recent stuff.  They had really old trucks, uniforms and gear.  It was really interesting.

The beach was a little messed up because they are dredging the water but I'm sure once they are done it will look very nice.  The water was as calm as glass. 



Then we strolled into town.  It seems that most of the boutique shops were closed since it was Sunday.  One would think they would be open for the tourists.  We sat at Queen's Bakery and had some carrot cake and then drove home.

The Last Stitch

Warning:  Graphic content....read only if you don't get queezy by medical stuff.

On Sunday, Neal got 9 of his 10 stitches out by my Dad.  He's a family physician.  One of the stitches couldn't come out because it was covered by too much dried blood.  Later that night Neal soaked the area with some warm water to loosen up the dried blood and then he came to me to take out the last stitch.  I use to be a medical assistant in my former career.  I didn't exactly have the proper tools for the job but a sterilized pair of nurses scissors did the job.  He is now stitch-free.  The concussion is still causing him problems but that too shall pass in time.  He has gone back to work and we shall see how he feels.  All I can say is NO MORE BASEBALL....EVER!!!!

He went back to work this morning and everyone is freaking out when they see his black eye.  If they only saw what his head looked like under the bandage.  I just hope he will be able to be ok for the day.

In Sickness And Health

In our 6 year marriage we've certainly been through the whole sickness part.  Well on Monday I got a call that I hope to never get ever again.  My husband calling to say he's on his way to the hospital.  He was playing baseball at Moss Park and got hit by the ball in the head.  He's bleeding everywhere but for some reason the cops who were watching the game couldn't call for an ambulance.  The team called for a taxi.  Well, the first taxi wouldn't let a bleeding guy go in his cab so a second one had to be called.  He was finally on his way to St. Michael's Hospital.  Let me just say the free Canadian healthcare system is not all it's cracked up to be.  He arrived at the hospital around 11:00 p.m. and wasn't out of there until nearly 7:30 a.m. the next day.  He didn't see the ER doctor until he had been there about 6 hours.  What the hell kind of hospital leaves a head injury patient sitting in a chair, not laying down on a stretcher for 6 hours.  They never once came back to re-check his vitals.  He could have died due to the lack of professional care that one is suppose to get in a hospital.  Finally he was taken into the suture room and 10 stitches were put in to close up the star shape wound and then he was sent off for a CT scan.  I was upset to find out that a plastic surgeon was not called to put in the stitches.  He was finally sent home the next day with no written instructions of any kind.

For the next few days his head swelled, his eye swelled and turned all kinds of red and purple as the bruise settled in for the long haul.  I've been doing dressing changes every day to make sure the stitches stay clean and dry.  Then I'm making dinner on Wednesday and he comes to me and says that he's not feeling well.  His head is hurting worse than it did the day before and he's feeling pressure.  We called Telehealth Ontario.  After taking down all of the information the nurse instructs us to go back to the nearest hospital.  She said that she would fax the report to alert the hospital that we were coming.  She didn't bother to do this.  So we head off to Mackenzie Health.  This is where we'd sit for the next 6 hours and waited.  He had another CT scan and they had to fax over his previous reports from St. Mike's hospital.  That simple faxing took 4 hours.  This hospital was only marginally better than St. Mike's.  He first saw a resident who was worried about the excessive swelling.  Then we sat and waited until almost 1:00 a.m. the next day to see the doctor.  I can't even tell you the name of the doctor as his English was so bad.  He looked at the CT scan and pressed on Neal's swollen head and somehow we got that this was expected and that the swelling would go down in a few days.

The state of our healthcare system is extremely poor.  As a matter of fact it's a total disgrace.  Not only are our hospitals over crowded, under funded but they are filthy dirty.  The kicker.....so while waiting for 6 hours I thought I'd bring my tablet to keep family members informed so that nobody would worry.  I tried to get online.  The hospital actually had the nerve to charge $20 to access Wi-Fi.  It's not bad enough that you have to pay for parking in the ER but to have to pay for Wi-Fi.  Really?  I can go to Starbucks and use their free internet but I have to pay at the hospital.  That is shameful!  Shame on our hospitals.  As Canadians we need to speak out about the state of our hospitals.  Our tax dollars are being mismanaged and healthcare is suffering.